Guinea Woman

It seems her fate was anchored
in the unfathomable sea
for her great grandmother caught the eye of a sailor
whose ship sailed without him from Lucea harbour.
Great grandmother's royal scent of
cinnamon and escallions
drew the sailor up the straits of Africa,
the evidence my blue-eyed grandmother
the first Mulatta
taken into backra's household
and covered with his name.
They forbade great grandmother's 
guinea woman presence
they washed away her scent of
cinnamon and escallions
controlled the child's antelope walk
and called her uprisings rebellions.

This poem brings to light conflicts with being mixed that arose in this family. The children of "Great Grandmother" and the sailor from Lucea were controlled as they were growing up and in the process, their quirks and actions were controlled by the family not to be that of their mother and father's. But as time went on, their grandmother's traits were still there and no matter what they did they came back. Unhomeliness suggested by great grandmother's interaction outside her own race.

Blues by Derek Walcott

Those five or six young guys
lunched on the stoop
that oven-hot summer night
whistled me over. Nice
and friendly. So, I stop.
MacDougal or Christopher
Street in chains of light.

A summer festival. Or some
saint's. I wasn't too far from
home, but not too bright
for a nigger, and not too dark.
I figured we were all
one, wop, nigger, jew,
besides, this wasn't Central Park.
I'm coming on too strong? You figure
right! They beat this yellow nigger
black and blue.

     This poem by Derek Walcott is a bit difficult to analyze given that it is rather difficult to figure out when it was written. However, a line does appear that strikes dischord with me.

"I figured we were all one, wop, nigger, jew, besides, this wasn't Central Park." 

I felt that this meant that in his eyes, (probably Derek Walcott's Eyes), he viewed himself as the same as the same as these other groups. He even used the terms that were used to refer to certain groups of people that had undergone their hardships in the past. But, even though all 3 groups had been discriminated against, he was beaten up and on top of that for nothing. His group was still considered lower even after considerable attempts in history to correct that. 

I did nothing. They fought

each other, really. Life

gives them a few kcks,

that's all. The spades, the spicks.

I felt this line was a symbol of the war within the world on how to deal with these many racial groups and how it caused problems within their own groups as individual opinions waged war on each other.

You know they wouldn't kill
you. Just playing rough,
like young Americans will.
Still it taught me somthing
about love. If it's so tough,
forget it.

     I think this last piece is about how opinions of America formed. Played rough and like to try to fix things but, if it was gonna cause so much trouble, then maybe their help is not worth it.

A Far Cry From Africa

"Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again

A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,

The gorilla wrestles with the superman.

I who am poisoned with the blood of both,

Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?

I who have cursed

The drunken officer of British rule, how choose

Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?

Betray them both, or give back what they give?

How can I face such slaughter and be cool?

How can I turn from Africa and live?"

     This is an excerpt from Derek Walcott's A Far Cry From Africa. Unlike much of what we have read before, it is fairly short and written in a poetic form. In it, you can see the conflicts he has being forced to choose "Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?" It seems to be a political poem on the state of affairs in Africa.

Much like Codicil, A Far Cry From Africa, seems to be wrecked with this conflict of 2 things.

To change your language you must change your life.

"I cannot right old wrongs.

Waves tire of horizon and return.

Gulls screech with rusty tongues

Above the beached, rotting pirogues,

they were a venomous beaked cloud at Charlotteville.

One I thought love of country was enough,

now, even if I chose, there is no room at the trough.

I watch the best minds rot like dogs

for scraps of flavour.

I am nearing middle

age, burnt skin

peels from my hand like paper, onion-thin,

like Peer Gynt's riddle."

'"From David Walcott's Codicil"'

Having to choose between the country and the what was once the governing power, the colonizer. This conflict seems to be the basis for the emotions expressed within both poems. Conflict between the past and the future.

Passport to Paradise

     "Her man was going to burn in hell, not because of his sins, but because he was poor and black. The rich békés of the land openly kept several concubines; their skins and their eyes had the greenish tint of the absinthe which they drank like coconut water and which aged them as rapidly as the cartman's white rum. Yet, when one of them died, he was given the grandest of funerals. The whole clergy, in their robes, walked in procession before the hearse with crosses and banners. Masses sung in Latin were celebrated for months on end for the repose of their soul."

This quote gives reason as to why someone would choose to go against their own religion which was an important thing in postcolonial societies. To go against the dominant religion, in this case, for Eloise to find an alternate way of salvation in the afterlife for her husband Eugenio, is to go against the hegemony. Eloise went against the hegemony because of the hegemony. The way the elites of the society lived were in contradiction to the ideals that had been established by the hegemony and because Eugenio was both poor and black, that effectively made the family sub-altern at least in alignment with the elites.

When Women Love Men

I have two quotes. The first quote is on a broader scale about a recurring theme with postcolonial texts.

     "It happened when you died, Ambrosio, and left each of with half of your inheritance, that all this confusion began, this scandal spinning around all over like an iron hoop, smashing your good name against the walls of the town, this slapped and stunned confusion that you swung around for the sake of pleasure, pushing us both downhill at the same time."

This quote is basically a demonstration of the power money has on people. If you have the money, you have the power to alter people to your liken because with money comes power and influence. The problem with money and power in postcolonial societies seems to be a recurring them that appears in many of the texts we have read so far and it should be no surprise that it is found here. In postcolonial type societies depicted by many of the previous authors, money brings too much power and when it suddenly vanishes, or appears, it creates a great disturbance in that so called society. But, because people in postcolonial type societies as depicted by previous authors show that their is huge importance to power and class, it creates a raging war within the likes of which could not be stopped without a restructuring of the entire society which in itself is unacceptable.

"...hidden in my brothel, where no one will know that they have let themselves be made, that they have been putty in my hands, so that then they can, pompous like roosters, delight the little white girls, those blobs of custard that rich girls probably look like in bed, because it is not proper for a good girl to thrust her pelvis, because good girls have vaginas of polished silver and bodies of carved alabaster..."

The key phrase, it is not proper. This is the problem that is recurring throughout this text that seems to be the main idea. This problem reveals issues not with just women being proper, but with men being proper as well and for a postcolonial text, it is a big deal because it challenge a common type of society depicted by these kinds of texts that looks down on taboo acts...

Dream Haiti (Draft)

"///I write Shante Chackmul & ask WHAT NAME BAHAMAS GIVE TO HAITIANS WHO COME TO YR OUSE TO BEG WURK///

And it was not that we was going anywhere if you see what i mean -
i mean we was not going anywhere although the ship was movin
i suppose & the sea was also movin impeccable & so were the waves
& yet in my dream it was juss like on board anyship anytime & tide"

Dream Haiti brings to light many emotions that refugees from Haiti felt during that time. They were forced out to find a new and better life but in the process were not making any progress. The ship was moving but there status was not and because of which, they were subject to whim of the rest of the world. This text being written in an modern font, (not modern anymore), yet being combined with broken English captures many eyes to the importance of his story, example of New Discourse. We are all human, yet we treat each other so differently. Help is needed and they shouldn't be ignored like they were substandard. This also points to unhomeliness in a new interconnected world.



(Sorry! I accidentally saved it as a draft!)

The Old Men Used to Dance

"Now that he's taken the time time to travel through his homeland, from Cumuto, Tacariguam, Tunapuna, to Curepe, he sees the same hand mingy with space for passing, the same atmosphere armed with an aggressive narrowness. It offends him. The press of open drains and abutted concrete curbs, the unexpected ditch that must be skirted with great care between with great care close, menacing walls offend him. Overseas the drains are all placed underground: why couldn't such care be taken here? The press of other drivers impatiently cutting and squeezing in their knowledge of the local terrain offends hims. Why couldn't things be more orderly here? Why couldn't street signs be posted at a level where drivers may easily read them?"

As we get into more modern post colonial texts a new theme seems to be emerging. The effect of time on places like Trinidad seems to be somewhat stagnated and the author makes sure to point that out in great detail. Alongside this, the author seems to compare his homeland with the rest of the world showing that his homeland is behind in technology and growth yet people have been moving forward. For example, although technology wise his homeland's growth has been stifled, the people of the island seem to have lost track with their own history. The author longs for a return to the past. Now it seems that his world is moving about abruptly and impatiently with no sense of direction somewhat dangerously without remembrance of past.

(Respond to this one~)