FORT LAUDERDALE – The Africana Arts & Humanities Festival at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale unites scholars, artists, authors, and families. They gather to explore and honor the rich, 250-year tapestry of Black life and creativity throughout the African diaspora.
Jamaican cultural historian, archivist, and children’s author Djamiladeen K. Ninsoo will bring the rhythms, stories, and flavors of Caribbean heritage to life during a special children’s storytime at the Africana Arts & Humanities Festival.
Ninsoo’s work centers on family memory, heritage, and everyday cultural experiences. Through books like Eva, My Nani Ji, and ABC’s for the Jamerican Child, he introduces young readers to the traditions, language, and stories that shape Caribbean identity.
Ahead of his appearance at the festival’s Family Day on March 28, Ninsoo spoke with South Florida Caribbean News about the importance of children’s literature, the role of archives in preserving culture, and the enduring power of storytelling.
Interview with Djamiladeen K. Ninsoo
Jamaican Author Djamiladeen K. Ninsoo
Q: You’ll be participating in the Africana Arts & Humanities Festival with a special children’s storytime. What does it mean to share Jamaican family stories and cultural traditions in a space celebrating African and Caribbean heritage?
A:
“In a few words, it truly feels like a homecoming. I have a distinct memory from when I was a kid of sitting upstairs at AARLCC, reading books with my mom. One was an old version of Winnie the Pooh, and the other was a story about how the guinea hen got its spots. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that moment planted something in me. I was seeing stories that reflected culture, rhythm, and ancestry.”
Returning now, not just as a listener but as an author sharing stories, is deeply meaningful. It feels like coming full circle.
It is an honour not only for me, but for my family. The traditions I share—from Jamaican storytelling and language to family memory—are inheritances from both my African and Indian ancestors. There was a time when aspects of Caribbean culture, especially language and folk traditions, were dismissed or denigrated. Now, to stand in a space that celebrates African and Caribbean heritage and be invited to centre Jamaican stories is powerful.
It reminds me that our culture continues. Our stories continue. Now, we can celebrate them proudly with the next generation.
Q: Your books, including Eva, My Nani Ji, and ABC’s for the Jamerican Child, center on family history and everyday cultural experiences. Why is children’s literature such a powerful tool for preserving Jamaican and Afro-Indo Caribbean heritage?
A:
Literature for young readers is crucial for preserving Jamaican and Afro-Indo Caribbean heritage, especially in the diaspora.
“I’ll testify firsthand that in South Florida, many of us grew up between worlds where home sounded one way, and school sounded another. Books become a bridge. When a child sees a grandmother who resembles theirs, hears Jamaican rhythms, or recognizes the foods they eat on Friday, it affirms that their heritage is not something separate but that it belongs.”
While our history includes difficult chapters like slavery and indenture, I believe young readers first need grounding. They need to meet their culture through love, warmth, and familiarity. In ABC’s for the Jamerican Child, Jahmal reflects the blending that shaped Jamaican families: African and Indian histories intertwined. His grandparents represent different inheritances. Even the food pairings are intentional, telling a story about migration, resilience, and continuity.
For me, these books are cultural mirrors. They let Caribbean children in South Florida see themselves, their family dynamics, language, and everyday lives reflected in literature as worthy of literature.
And in a place like Broward County, where the Caribbean presence is so strong, preserving those stories through books is a way of ensuring our cultural voice remains visible, confident, and celebrated
Q: Much of your work explores intergenerational memory, indenture legacies, and the transmission of culture through language, food, and storytelling. How do you translate these complex histories into stories that resonate with young readers?
A:
For young readers, I build a ‘sensory bridge.’
Young readers may not fully understand the geopolitical forces shaping events like Junkanoo or Hoosay or the deep histories of slavery and indenture. But they understand sitting on a veranda with elders sharing stories. Children know what it’s like to play with dough in the kitchen or smell spices while food is prepared. They hear laughter and the rhythms of language spoken at home.
I start with ancestral senses like love, ritual, and daily experience before history.
“When children connect to those feelings, they are already connecting to history. The larger themes of migration, resilience, and intergenerational memory become embodied rather than abstract. History becomes something they feel before they analyze it.”
For me, translating complex legacies into children’s stories means grounding them in family life. Centering food, language, and storytelling traditions shows young readers that culture isn’t distant or academic. It’s alive in their kitchens, living rooms, and grandparents’ voices. That’s the bridge.
Q: As a Jamaican cultural historian and archivist who has worked with institutions like the Island SPACE Caribbean Museum, how does your archival and research background influence the way you write for children and families?
A:
Working with Island SPACE Caribbean Museum showed me that history lives in small things.
“From the ink in a newspaper obituary, the looping script of a handwritten recipe, to the spelling of a name on an old document. As an archivist, I’ve learned that these everyday records often tell us more about a community than grand monuments do. They preserve how people loved, cooked, prayed, and remembered one another.”
“That archival mindset shapes the way I write for children. I don’t approach my books as simple stories. I approach them as cultural documents grounded in lived experience. When I describe a food, a phrase, or a family interaction, it’s intentional. Those details reflect real traditions and real lineages.”
I see my books as future artifacts—a family keepsake, revisited over generations and becoming part of their home archive, a source of joy and memory. If my archival work preserves the past, my writing keeps that preservation moving forward.
Q: For families attending your storytime on March 28 at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, what do you hope children take away about love, memory, and the traditions that shape who we become?
A:
I hope young readers know they are living extensions of past stories.
When I use the term ‘literate legacy,’ I mean we are descendants of those once denied literacy. Young readers are the next chapter in their family’s story. Every tradition they practice, recipe they help make, and story they hear from an elder becomes part of that legacy.
I want them to know love is often expressed through tradition. It’s in a grandparent calling your name, food prepared for you, and stories repeated at family gatherings. Those small rituals say, ‘You belong.’ I hope they know that family history is more than the past; it is a source of strength and a foundation for growth, especially as they discover who they are.
“If children leave feeling proud of where they come from and curious to ask more questions at home, then the storytime has done its work.”
Rapid Fire with Djamiladeen K. Ninsoo
One Jamaican word or phrase that instantly feels like home to you—and what does it mean?
Nyam/Nyammings: Nyam means to eat, and nyammings is food. One thing about me — “Mi luv nyam.”
If you had to introduce someone to Jamaican culture through one food dish, what would it be?
Curry goat and dhal puri roti.
What’s one Caribbean tradition you grew up with that you think every child should experience?
A nine-night event, filled with such celebration and joy, precedes a day of final goodbyes. It’s an African tradition, but the way each ethnic group has infused its own flavour and style speaks to our unique way of life.
Which part of Jamaican family life most shaped who you are today?
It sounds cliché, but family. More specifically, the extended family. In some places, the focus is on the nuclear family, but knowing I have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cousins who are just a stone’s throw away. It’s that network that, even though we’re no longer in Jamaica, we can still recreate.
Finish this sentence: “Being Jamaican means…”
To embody a tenacious spirit of foreparents who looked death in the eye and told him no.
Attend the Festival
Families are encouraged to attend Djamil Ninsoo’s special children’s storytime on Saturday, March 28, at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale. Children and parents alike will be immersed in the rhythms, stories, and flavors of Jamaican and Afro-Indo Caribbean heritage, experiencing firsthand how storytelling connects generations and preserves cultural memory.
The Africana Arts & Humanities Festival is the library’s annual flagship event, a nationally recognized cultural institution dedicated to preserving and celebrating the global Black experience. The two-day gathering features lectures, literary conversations, performances, youth activities, and cultural exhibits highlighting the diversity of the African diaspora. This year’s theme, “We, Too, Sing America: 250 Years of Black Life and Culture,” celebrates the enduring impact of Black creativity, scholarship, and resistance on the American story.
Event Information
Africana Arts & Humanities Festival
Location: African American Research Library and Cultural Center – 2650 Sistrunk Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311
The festival is generously funded by Wayne and Lucretia Weiner, The Friends of AARLCC, and the Broward Cultural Division.
Who is Djamiladeen K. Ninsoo?
Djamiladeen is a Jamaican cultural historian, archivist, and educator whose work is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Jamaican social history, with particular attention to Indo-Jamaican heritage and intergenerational memory.
His research and archival work focus on family microhistory. Djamiladeen studies the legacies of emancipation and indenture. He also looks at how culture passes through home life, language, and objects.
He serves in the capacity of archivist with the Island SPACE Caribbean Museum. In addition, he has held research and archival leadership roles with cultural heritage initiatives committed to documenting underrepresented Caribbean histories.
His work includes object accessioning, oral history collection, interpretive writing, and building archival systems for long-term public access.
Mr. Ninsoo is the author of Eva, My Nani Ji and ABC’s for the Jamerican Child, educational works that employ family history and children’s literature as tools of cultural preservation. He is currently completing a biographical study of William Samuel Bowler, situating one Jamaican life within the broader social and historical currents of early twentieth-century Jamaica.
Through research, archive work, and public education, his work aims to strengthen Jamaica’s national memory. It also supports historical links across generations. It promotes careful care of cultural heritage in Jamaica and its diaspora.
