A beautifully written story of life on a CARIBBEAN ISLAND

27th June 2023

Azúcar by Nii Ayikwei Parkes, a beautifully written story of life on a Caribbean island.

Azúcar (sugar in Spanish) is the story of life on Fumaz, a fictional Caribbean island. The island had a socialist revolution on 1959, immediately suffered a US trade boycott, fell into the orbit of the USSR, and was then left in severe economic difficulty when the USSR imploded in 1991. We immediately think of Cuba. But Fumaz is not Cuba, as is soon made very clear. It is an imagined country. While Cuba’s main export impacted by the trade boycott was cigars, Fumaz’s was a speciality rice from one particular estate grown in fields impregnated with sugar.

The main character is Oswald Kole Osabutey (known as Yunior). Originally from Ghana, Yunior arrived to Fumaz as a young teenager sent by his parents to further his education. He settles well and soon heads for agricultural university. He has two passions in life – developing sustainable and easy to grow crops to ease the import of food from other countries, and music. He earns money playing in an ever more successful salsa band. He falls in love with a female police officer, and life is pretty near perfect. Until fate intervenes.

The other key character is Emilina. She is from Fumaz, but lives with her mother in Florida. She returns to Fumaz for her grandfather’s funeral, and then on a more permanent basis to take ownership of an estate which he left her – the very estate where the speciality rice was grown. The intense concentration of sugar in the paddy fields had made them infertile, and the rice will no longer sprout. The estate is in considerable disrepair. The Minister of Agriculture believes it important to resurrect the rice growing tradition that has become somehow culturally important to the island. He brings in Yunior to work on the project with Emilina. They get on well together.

Azúcar is a quite simple tale, but it is beautifully written. It is a story of friendships (Yunior and his band members) and of the integration of immigrants. Some descendants of slaves brought from Africa and some, such as Yunior, more recent. All this set against the vibrant background of the salsa loving island. It is a story of finding acceptance and love. Some may find it a little too ‘sugary’, but it worked really well for me.

Tony for the TripFiction team

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