Welcome to The Bookcase.

I'm your host, Shawna Richards, a sometime writer and a longtime reader.

I invite you to join me as we explore The Bookcase and celebrate Virgin Islands authors and talent.

Each week on The Bookcase, we'll introduce you to a local author and learn more about them and their work.

A storyteller lives in each of us, and I am so excited to give our homegrown storytellers a chance to tell their story.

Tonight's selection from The Bookcase is A Matured Seed, and I'm honored to welcome its author.

Abdul Ali.

Abdul, welcome to The Bookcase.

Thank you so much.

It's really nice to be here with you, Shawna, to talk about the book and how it affected my life as we go along and where I am today.

So it's it's a good story.

So it's it's a good story.

So usually when I talk to you, Abdul, I'm on the other side.

I'm the person being interviewed, usually on Community Digest.

So, So I am really honored to have you today where I get to interview you and hear your stories.

So your book is titled A Matured So your book is titled A Matured Seed: Tended to with Helping Hands.

What is this about?

Well, I really do believe, in all honesty, that we all need other people and I think that it's really very important, from my point of view, to reflect on some of those people who helped me.

My mother died when I was ten days old, so my father had to find somebody to bring me up and he found a lady called Geraldine Parris in Nevis, and she said, No problem, bring him on down.

So I went.

And of course, I lived with her until I was about 18 or so.

And one of the most important things that she taught me, because they sent me to every church in Nevis I had to go to to learn about the church, the spirituality connected to that.

And all the church hymns and so forth.

And I Surrender All.

and all of those things gave me the impression or left with me the fact that there is another world out there.

And we ought to strive to be a part of that as we go along.

So it was a new experience for me.

I did get some licks sometimes because I wasn't home to help her with the pates that she made.

So let me jump in really quickly.

So you got licks.

Yes.

And and you come back to this theme a couple times in your book, A Matured Seed Tended to with Helping Hands.

Who were who were some of the people you know.

So apart from the the person who gave you the licks and however that shaped you, who were some of the other people that were helping hands that help you to grow?

I could well remember a lady called Teacher Mod.

She showed me how to write.

And the school that I went to, there was a head principal called Mr. Kelly.

He was also very interested in my welfare and wanted me to do well.

So I really did fairly well at school In general, the licks was because I wasn't there to do other things, but I also started to play cricket and at the age of 16 started to represent Nevis for a good four years.

So I got help from all of those people.

So we were able to move along and try to get to the just a better life and a way of understanding what's going on and so forth.

So many of us in the Virgin Islands community know you as Abdul Ali.

yeah that's right, but in your book you speak about your birth name, Wendell MontClair Chapman, which was news to me.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, yes, I went to England and everybody else was going up there.

So I took the opportunity to go and then I joined the Navy, spent seven years in the Navy and on leaving the Navy, I got a job in a place called Huddersfield, that's in West Yorkshire, England.

And one of the job, the things that I was supposed to do was to work with West Indian youth to encourage them to be the best that they could.

There's always a gap in terms of the white community and the West Indian youth in general.

So whilst I was doing that and I thought doing that fairly well with a lot of interest because I like people really, then some members of the Muslim community came to me and said, Listen, we have the same sort of problems that our children have that the West Indian youth, we feel out of the loop as well.

And I said, My goodness, I got to do something here.

So I said, Well, what can I change?

well I can't change the fact that I'm a West Indian man.

That's that's definitely there.

But I could try to work more closely with the whole range of the community because I have to work with the white community, the black youngsters and with the Muslim group.

So then I started to go to the mosque and gradually I decided to change over, changed my name to be Abdul Ali.

Abdul Raheem Ali.

I chose Abdul for myself because you have to look around and decide what you what name you're going to take, but you go in and go from there.

So primarily the whole business of the change of name really had to do with my commitment to service.

And I put all that back to my early life in Nevis and the things that I was taught at that particular time about providing a service.

So.

Your book is titled Maturity Seed.

Yes.

And it takes the reader really from ten days after your birth to present.

Absolutely.

What made you want to write this memoir and tell your story now?

Well, I think it's very important to tell our stories because I think all of us have a story to tell.

I had been even in England because after I left the Navy, one of the things that I did was to get a program together for the West Indian community to give them a voice.

So we call it Calypso, and we played Calypso and things of that particular nature.

So I had always been interested in writing.

As a matter of fact, I have written for the Avis I have written for the Daily News, a social column.

And so my interest in writing really led me to the point to say, Well, tell your story, too, because that's something that you want to leave behind When did you first start writing When you were in the Navy?

no, not not as a matter of fact, no, I don't think I did any.

I came here around 1983.

I think all my writing really began after that particular date.

I would write, put the book down, and then it's just that it got to a point where I felt that it was really necessary to actually get it published.

So I spoke to a gentleman called Rhudel James.

He has written six books himself, and we talked about it and we met quite a few times and decided on what we're going to put in each chapter and so forth, and then took it from from there.

So I got a little bit of help and support to put it together.

Is this your first book?

Yes, this is my first book.

I might write another book that maybe about.

I got a couple of boys.

I might find something to write on them as young, young people.

But this is my first book.

But I like reading and.

Well, let me ask you about that.

When you when you sat down, when you sit down to write, obviously this book is about your life.

That's right.

But what inspired you to tell your story?

What do you think the person reading this book is going to get from your story?

Well, I think the one of the things that's really very important was my growth as a person.

How I started off in Nevis, my stay in England and the things that I had learned.

I mean, I learned about race relations there.

I worked with people to get committees together so we could build a community.

So generally it was really I felt that there was enough growth and development in terms of my mind as a person based on my spirituality and the things I had done in Nevis that made it important for me to tell the story.

I really do believe that all of us are here to pass something on, and that's our function in life.

At least from my point of view.

So.

So when you left when you left me this.

Yes.

And you went to England in search of some more opportunity opportunities.

Yes.

So how old were you?

Well, at that particular time, I want to say around 20, 21 or 22 that kind of early ages.

And so the the people who had nurtured you and helped you mature in as a child and as a young man.

Were they supportive of your move to England?

I don't think so.

I left well, I left Nevis and I went to St Kitts, which is just next door, you just take a flight or a boat half an hour you are there.

So I had left and decided it was time to do something different.

And I did have a regret in that sense because I I realized that in doing that and leaving, I wasn't paying as much attention as I should to the lady who brought me up when I went to England.

You know, the gap was closed, as it were.

So therefore, one of the the reasons, again behind the book is to tell the story that those people who brought me, especially Mrs. Parris, did a wonderful job in terms of my life by getting me involved in the church and getting me to school and all of those things.

And I wanted to say thank you to her for her contribution and my father.

Would you say that there were helping hands along every step of your journey?

Well, there were helping hands along every step of the journey, not necessarily to say in the area that I felt that I was being helped.

Because you see sometimes when you are a youngster and people are asking you to do one thing or another, you may not quite make out what that is about.

And so I felt that in terms of development, over a period of time, I got a clearer idea of what she was telling me.

I found out afterwards why I had to go to church.

Every church in Nevis, why I was able to go and as a youngster, 13, 14 years old, go and read a sermon.

And so but she was really strict.

And in reading your book, you were very honest about how strict she was.

You referenced that she was a believer.

Yes.

And and that you later came to understand why she was doing what she did.

Were you.

Were you able to tell her those things while she was alive?

No, no, no.

And that is part of the story behind the book, because I didn't understand what was going on and what's really important as well.

I realize now that as parents, we need to be talking to our young people early on in life about why things like there's always rules in life and you have to consider them and decisions are being made and so forth.

So it was a beautiful work that she did.

I didn't always agree with it, but as I look over it now, I could see the importance of the things that she was telling me and the path where she was leading me on.

And the business of getting licks now and againI really had to do with the fact that I wasn't there to help her when she used to make pates to sell for her life.

And I would go on to play cricket.

That was my number one love.

No, she wasn't.

to do what I want you to do.

So sometimes it's good to grow through those kinds of experiences, especially if you begin to understand what it's all about and why it's important really, to help.

I wish that we were able to sit down and talk to each other in a kind of way, and we made a deal.

She said, Look, I don't mind.

You go play cricket all the time you want, but this is what I want you to do at this particular time.

We were not able to work that out.

And so as you matured because you were the maturing seed right, how old were you when the light bulb went off and you understood what she'd been trying to do in raising you?

I Think maybe I want to think maybe about five no more than ten years ago, because you start to reflect on, you know, what you've been doing, why you went to England, the being in the Navy, the travels I met a lot of people, Muslim people, all sorts of people.

I went to Australia as well for a period of time.

I didn't spend long there, but we went there.

So then you begin to reflect on the people that you're meeting and their needs and your own needs as an individual and start to figure it out as to what it's really like to be on the earth for and why are here.

And that to me is the most significant thing for me in terms of establishing clearly what I am here to do.

So I'm here trying to pass on to the youngsters that I have in life early what the purpose is that we are just here for a period of time.

There is a job to be done and we need to get it done as soon as possible in a meaningful way.

You had a very interesting passage in your book when you were talking about your father and your relationship with your father and to give some context to our audience.

Yes.

You spoke about your your mother dying when you were a baby and being given to and your father asking this other family to raise you.

And you said that your father died of congestive heart failure and sensibility.

Yes.

And I want you to explain that to me because I don't know if anybody ever died from being sensible so explain that to me.

Well, this section here just read this book is dedicated to all the persons who have helped me during my travels on the path.

And I find myself today.

And it says the list includes my mother, Melvina Lucinda Pemberton Chapman, who I lost when I was a mere ten days old, and my father.

And of course, he took care of me And then there is a particular section here where I am saying basically, and I'm looking for it now, where he talked, where I found out afterwards the reason that he had died and so forth, because I wasn't down here at that particular time.

When I sat down here, I mean, I was in England, I was in England at that particular time when he died.

So I found out things afterwards in general.

And so that's good to be able to look back at the history and see what these people meant to you and the contribution, you know, to your life.

So that was just unfortunate.

And then my mother, ten days after I born, she didn't stay around very long either.

in talking about helping hands.

You were in the Navy?

Yes.

And then transitioned from the Navy into working in social service.

yes.

Social services?

Yes.

So is that what planted the seed?

Is that something that you had always wanted to do?

Not necessarily, no.

I when I decided to join the Navy, I decided to join because it was something I had to do that was meaningful in my life.

I had two brothers up there in England, so I went, stayed with them.

And then I said, Well, as a young man, I need to do something.

And that's where the Navy came into it.

And then after the Navy, you know, I had to find something, some work.

And that's when I got a job because they used to give priority to people who had been in the service.

So.

a question, Did you find your purpose through the job?

Is that where you found your purpose?

Well, what came first, the purpose or the job?

It's a difficult question to answer in the sense that you go and you do the job, you change your name, become Muslim name you develop with people as you go along, get the program together, and a number of things, the radio program and the whole essence in my life is that you are learning as you go along what you are supposed to be doing and why you're here on the face of the earth and what legacy you should leave and what you should pass on.

So it's a learning process, really, and sometimes it's difficult to pinpoint where it started.

But I know that being in Nevis and growing up with Miss Parris and the church and all that was a big part of the development and growth.

So would you say for the reader of maturing seed, A Matured Seed, will that reader come to understand your purpose?

Have you found your purpose?

I am looking for it still, but I am on on track because I was listening to something.

I'm in Toastmasters by the way, and we had a gentleman who had given a speech sometime back, and his speech was, you know, I'm here and I'm looking for something, but I don't know what it is.

That's what he said at that particular stage.

So sometimes if you are looking for something and you don't know exactly what it is, you can come across things which seem to fit in very nicely What inspired you to say, Now is a time I'm going to write this book.

What inspired you to write a book?

Well, I think, first of all, I like writing.

Okay.

So that's the thing.

I like writing.

I like reading too as well.

And I like telling stories.

Sometimes I might meet someone on the road and I might say, thank you for brightening up my day.

I get that kind of natural flow in terms of being able to see people come to an opinion and say something meaningful to them.

So it is just a natural thing that comes along in that you feel as though it's time to tell the story.

Time to pass on what you have lived for and at the same time to encourage other people to do the same thing.

Because I think all of us are on a stage really, we are all actors and sometimes we don't really write about it, we talk about it.

So it's really an opportunity just to express myself in a meaningful kind way and tell the story as it really is.

And that's really what I'm doing and I think I have a story to tell.

Was it hard to pick out exactly what you wanted to include in your book?

Not really.

After I spoke to our good friend Rhudel James because we sat down and went through the chapters and so forth, and then he said, Well, I'll go home, think about it, and then finalize things, which I did.

But for example, I wrote poetry about some individuals.

I think there's a poem of one Winston Eugene.

A poem and the late Doc Petersen You have a section in your book that's.

That's your poetry.

That's right.

Is that something that you plan to do more of?

Yeah.

I like poetry.

It's a way of expressing one's self in terms of the words you use and the characters that you bring into it.

So I'm just using what talents I think that I have at the moment in time.

So, Abdul, tell me about the publishing process.

You had this book in mind.

How did you how were you able to navigate publishing?

You certainly had a good mentor, but how was it navigating, bringing all of your work together to a product that people can now read and enjoy?

Well, that was not too difficult, largely because of Rhudel James because he had written six books.

So he then told me about a publishing company Empowerment Publishing company on the mainland, and I made the contact with the company and they told me, All right, well, send us your materials, which we sent them.

And then they gave me a price for it.

And that's how it really got going.

They do a lot of work on books.

They had done books for Rhudel.

So it was fairly simple after that.

And some other good news because I since my book came out, I've spoken to a number of other individuals who have written books as well and I have told them about the publishing company and they have got some help there Excellent.

So when you saw the finished product and reading your own work, is there anything that you said?

I wish I had said more about that.

I wish that I'd covered that in more detail.

I wish I had spoken about how instrumental this event or person was to helping me grow.

Not really, no, because I knew what I had sent up in the first place to the publisher.

So I was really very pleased what I did originally when they sent back the stuff, you do a little checking to make sure it's okay.

Make sure the commas Did you work with an editor or you edited your own work?

no, I edited my own work, yes.

Because then I had to read through and see where we are and make sure that the pictures are in the right place, etc..

So after I did that, just sent it back to the company.

We do a lot of stuff on email and then got it published from that particular point.

So no, there was nothing that I felt there was a need to change in that particular setting because I knew what I had sent.

And that's one of the reasons why you check the book before you actually give them the authorization to go ahead and print.

So tell me about your writing process.

Are you pen and paper, Abdul or are you type everything on the computer?

Abdul What?

How do you bring the ideas out of your head onto the page?

Well, a number of ways like this morning, I got up a little bit early after five and I had been thinking that I'm going to have to come here today and make sure that I have a line up.

So then I went and I started to make some notes about things that I wanted to talk about, and then I got it printed.

So it just depends because sometimes you see people on the road, people who you know, and you could tell a story about them, what you're seeing, what you're feeling, your emotions, how did you address them, how did they address you?

And all these things are happening all the time.

What would you say?

You said that there are so many people out there and they have a story to tell.

What would you tell to that person who has a story?

What are your tips for the aspiring writers and storytellers out there?

I think the most important thing is to start to sit down and make some notes about what you have to talk about.

I would like to talk about.

Then we could find people who have written books around here Rhudel James and those sort of people, and they'll come with you and help you to lengthen the story, make it clearer, perhaps determine what should be in each chapter and so forth, a beginning and an end and the forward and so forth.

So that's usually what needs to be done.

But the first thing is to start to make some notes about what So just to start writing.

Yes.

And where do you find your inspiration because you've written Abdul about so many topics in our community?

What inspires you?

Well, I really think it's my early upbringing, you know, my feeling.

And one thing which was really very important, the lady who brought me up and at one stage there were some earthquakes taking place, so she took some we're not going to give it away because that's in your book.

That's right.

So we're not going to give away any spoilers because we want people to go out and pick up your copy of A Matured Seed, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yes.

So it's just been very interesting as you look at life and as you try to expand your thinking and what's really important to you and also to recognize what you're going to be leaving behind and that is what the person who is going to read A Matured Seed will see.

what you are leaving behind and the story that you told which is so important, it's been a pleasure to learn more about our local talent, Abdul Ali and his book, A Matured Seed.

For more information on A Matured Seed or any books featured on this program, visit our website at WWW.WTJX.ORG We appreciate your support of our local authors and we'll see you next week when we take another book from The Bookcase.