Neil SookDeo has a twin passion for communicating and the Past. SookDeo left apartheid South Africa via a Fulbright Scholarship to Ohio University (1983). It was his chance to learn about hope. He ...ver maisNeil SookDeo has a twin passion for communicating and the Past. SookDeo left apartheid South Africa via a Fulbright Scholarship to Ohio University (1983). It was his chance to learn about hope. He believes that History matters and shapes our thinking in ways we do not always understand. Sookdeo's book is about slavery, free labor and racism; it is also about democracy. Chapter One looks at Trinidad at the beginning of the nineteenth century and contrasts Spanish rule there with British rule. Aspects of slavery, immigration and the demands of plantation economy are compared. Chapter Two examines the immigrant waves that landed after Emancipation and assesses why each came. Chapter Three sees "coolies" boarding steam ships in India for places unknown, where courts and jails replaced the whip as an incentive to assume labors that slaves rejected. Chapter Four examines education in a colonial context. Chapter 5 is about Carnival and the therapeutic role of street festivals. The response of the colonial elites in Trinidad was far from supportive. In 1884 hundreds of East Indians were shot at Muhurram. Neil has kept ties with developments in the Caribbean, Fiji and Africa. He worked briefly for Nelson Mandela's government.ver menos