Background
He was born on a sugar estate to James Kempadoo, aka Lauchmonen, and Priscilla Alemeloo Tambran, both Tamils.
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Peter Kempadoo
Edit ProfileEducation
Peter Kempadoo was educated first Saint Joseph Anglican School, then went on at the age of 10, to attend Portuguese Mourant Roman Catholic School.
Career
He has also worked as a development worker in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, but has mainly been based in the United Kingdom, where he first moved in 1953. There he passed the Junior and Senior Cambridge examinations, before becoming a pupil-teacher at Portuguese Mourant, and at 17, a certified teacher. Moving in 1947 to Georgetown, he trained as a nurse at Georgetown Public Hospital, and reported on hospital matters for the Daily Argosy until he was invited to join the staff
Having married in 1952, Kempadoo migrated the following year with his family to England, where he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation. During this time he wrote his first novel, Guiana Boy, which was published in 1960 (re-issued as Guyana Boy by Peepal Tree Press in 2002), and was the first novel by a Guyanese of Indian descent.
lieutenant draws on his own life as the son of sugar workers to portray a world lacking in freedom, but where the workers struggle to maintain their identity as Madrassis in their rice plots, their fishing expeditions and in the feasts and festivities their ancestors brought from India. In addition to Guyana Boy, he is the author of another novel, Old Thom"s Harvest (1965).
His work has been anthologised in The Sun"s Eye and My Lovely Native Land. In 1970, Kempadoo returned with his family to Guyana, where he produced local radio programmes such as Rural Life Guyana, We the People, Our Kind of Folk and Jarai (with Marc Matthews).
Kempadoo also lived for some years in Barbados, but has mainly been based in the United Kingdom.
