Savitri ‘Savi’ Naipaul Akal dies at 86

MEMOIRIST and teacher Savitri “Savi” Naipaul Akal died on December 29, 2024, but her legacy and that of her family will live on in her memoir The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, published by Peepal Tree Press in 2018. She was 86 when she died.

Naipaul Akal was born in the Lion House in Chaguanas in Trinidad in April 1938, the fifth child and fourth daughter of Seepersad and Droapatie Naipaul.

According to her author bio on the Peepal Tree Press website, she received her early education at Tranquillity Intermediate School and then went to St Joseph's Convent in Port of Spain. She obtained a partial BA degree from Edinburgh University in Scotland (1961-1963), completed at UWI St Augustine (1968), followed by a Diploma in Education in 1973.

Naipaul Akal was a part-time tutor in sociology at UWI, St Augustine from 1968-1972, and taught geography at the Convent schools and at Tranquillity. She retired from the latter as vice-principal in 1980. Until the 2010s, she ran an up-scale boutique, Smaks, in Valsayn, which her son Kiran developed into the Smaks Luxury Group.

The memoir, The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, was credited with exploring the lives of the women in the Naipaul household, who had previously largely been overlooked when the lives of the men of the household – Sir Vidia, Shiva and Seepersad – were chronicled.

Naipaul Akal donated photographs to Naipaul House for its restoration as a museum. Her son Ashvin donated much of the museum's memorabilia and is the treasurer of the organisation charged with managing the museum, the Friends of Mr Biswas.

Peepal Tree Press’ Jeremy Poynter, in a blog post on January 10, said the publishing house was sad to hear of Naipaul Akal’s death.

“Peepal Tree was privileged to publish her memoir and to meet her in Trinidad at the Bocas Litfest in 2018 when we launched her book. Then, we hugely enjoyed the pleasure of meeting her and her family at the after-launch party where we discovered how well champagne and roti go together.

“It was rewarding to meet all the kindly warmth, sharp insights and humour evident in the book, and find them in the person. Savi Naipaul Akal was one of those rare people who seemed completely secure in herself, without any kind of ‘front’, who had accumulated the wisdom from living a long life very fully and had remained youthful in spirit.”

Literary practitioner Prof Kenneth Ramchand said he had fond memories of Naipaul Akal.
“We became friends a long time ago on one of my trips home from Edinburgh when she got me to take part in a programme called Time to Talk. We met again when she was doing some studies in Edinburgh while her husband Mel was there enhancing his medical career.

“In Trinidad she was enthusiastic and really helpful in our promotion of the Naipaul House. She was an articulate and intelligent person, and a lavish hostess. We drifted apart and I did not see much of her over the last few years. I am sorry about her passing and I will continue to miss her and husband Mel.”

The Bocas Lit Fest, in a Facebook post, said it joined the international community in mourning her loss. It send condolences to her friends, readers and family members.

“It was a privilege for the Bocas Lit Fest to host the launch of Savi Naipaul Akal's memoir, The Naipauls of Nepal Street, at our 2018 festival, and we well remember the packed crowd that afternoon in the Old Fire Station.

“Savi came to writing late in life, but her memoir of one of the Caribbean's most prodigiously talented literary families deserves a place of prominence for its recollections and insights, and the ‘elegant and lucid’ style which Peepal Tree Press rightly identifies.

“Above all, it gently balances and even corrects the version of the family story told in the fiction and non-fiction of her father Seepersad and brothers Vidia and Shiva, and firmly establishes the essential backstage role of her mother Droapatie in the triumphs of the Naipaul literary dynasty.”