Connecting with My African Roots

As a child, Carmen Barclay Subryan lived in Retrieve, Mackenzie, where the roots of her mother’s ancestors, the Allicocks, run deep into the history of the region. She attended Christianburg Scots School, where she later taught, Mackenzie High School, and Guyana Teachers College. In 1968, she immigrated to the USA to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C. There she received a B.A magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, an M.A., and in 1983, a Ph.D. degree, all in English. In 1974, she began teaching at Howard University, retiring in 2015 after 41 years there. She is the mother of two daughters, two grandsons and one granddaughter. Always interested in her roots, Carmen has penned three novels, Black-Water Women, Black-Water People, and Black-Water Children, based loosely on the Allicock family history. She has also authored three books of poetry, Reprise, Rachel’s Tears, and Sketches: People-Watching in the U S of A. In 2016, she published a book of short stories entitled Realities: Stories from our Times. In addition, she has written three booklets about the Linden area: “The Story of Christianburg”, “The Story of Wismar” and “The Story of Mackenzie”. In May 2017, on her return from a six and a half month stay in Guyana, she began Stepping on Cracks: Reflections on my Homeland which she completed in 2018. After having her DNA analyzed in 2018, Dr. Subryan immediately started her book Finding my Roots and other Stories. Although she was aware of her European roots, she was so stunned by the numerous African countries that her ancestors called home that she bemoaned the fact that these roots would never be unearthed and explored. This led to an in depth examination of her connection to her “Africanness” in her latest book Connecting with my African Roots as well as the surprises and disappointment revealed. An avid reader, Carmen is focusing on developing a love of reading in children and to this end she distributed copies of her book Black-Water People to high school students in the Linden area.