The sun was setting fast as I gazed out over Sum Sum Hill. As night descended the treeline on the horizon increasingly came into focus, and the lights picking out the small dwellings scattered across the rolling landscape began to glow orange.
It was the end of a long hot day driving round Trinidad, the Caribbean island situated hard off the coast of Venezuela, in my latest effort to fill in the vast blank that signifies my father’s family tree. This time around my niece Nadie had kindly volunteered to help me seek out various members of one branch of my Trinidad family to which she belongs – the Mohammeds.
Muslims are a small minority in Trinidad and Tobago – around five percent. The majority are of Indian descent, although there is a growing number of Muslims hailing from the African population. When I am in Trinidad I always stay by my cousin Darling’s house in a suburb of the capital, Port of Spain. Now Darling’s name is not really Darling – that is the name she goes by. Her actual name is Mayroon – but everyone calls her Darling. It suits her. Just about everyone in my Trinidad family has at least one other name that they go by. This confuses me. Nadie’s dad (the son of one of my father’s sisters) is known to everyone as ‘Popsie’, but his actual name is Nazir. One of Nadie’s brothers is known as Dave – but his actual name is Shezad. And then there is Damien, Annie, Jenny, Sledge, Baby, Nylon, Shirley, Barbie, Sailor, Lina, Nelle, Tasha, Kimmy, Kevin, Diamond, Boysie, and Race (more of whom later). I have even met one relative named after Stalin, but I believe that is his actual given name.
At the break of dawn Nadie arrived to pick me up from Darling’s house. I squeezed into the front seat of her small family car, with her three young but miraculously uncomplaining daughters jammed in the back. As we drove south Nadie explained to me that there are four branches to our common bloodline – the Mohammeds (hers), the Khans, the Alis, and the Mahamdallies (mine). The Mahamdallies are the scarcest and most difficult to track down. On this particular trip we would concentrate on the Mohammeds.
The rest of this article is only available to subscribers.
Access our entire archive of 350+ articles from the world's leading writers on Islam.
Only £3.30/month, cancel anytime.
Already subscribed? Log in here.
Not convinced? Read this: why should I subscribe to Critical Muslim?