Jamaica Kincaid's Dominica Exile

Oasis in Dominica: Meetings and Mothers

I have read most of the Caribbean author, Jamaica Kincaid's writing. In the course of my research, I have learned about her biography. Recently (Sunday), I came back from her mother’s home island of Dominica. While there, I looked at everything with concentrated attention-this is where Jamaica Kincaid arrived when her mother sent her away for dropping her newborn baby brother on the floor. Her mother said she intended to kill him. (This autobiographically based scene is described in Kincaid's second novel, Annie John, but is referred to in various interviews.)

While at the conference, I met a young girl who was the Prefect of her class. I remembered the scene where Kincaid loses this same position of honor because she ornately writes in a textbook under a color plate of Christopher Columbus, "The Old Man Can No Longer Just Get Up and Go." Annie had just left her mother's house, where a letter from Dominica had arrived with what normally is bad news. It stated that Anne's grandfather's health was declining, and her mother's cold reaction was the above statement. This scene is narrated in the chapter, "Columbus in Chains" and overlaps with the author's life. (Don't be confused with the names because in real life, Anne is Jamaica Kincaid's mother's name-and also Kincaid's daughter's name. In the the book, Annie John, is the character that most closely resembles Jamaica Kincaid. Oh and that is not her birth name either! She was born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson)

I was astounded by the coincidence of meeting a girl in Dominica at the conference who was also a Prefect of a local school, since only adult scholarly types usually attend. (I confess I teased her about being a perfect Prefect!) I asked her if she knew who Jamaica Kincaid was or if she had read any of her work. After hearing her negative reply, I located her teacher and asked why they don't read Jamaica Kincaid's books. She said that her work was too difficult. I'm pretty sure she was not talking about writing but more about Kincaid's controversial character portrayal and subject matter.

While walking around, I keep thinking, "Kincaid saw these people (Okay-maybe their relatives!) and rode on these roads."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dominica is a beautiful tropical island-with very little catering to the tourists. The streets are roughly repaired, the sidewalks are cut off by a cement drainage system and people crowd every space with merchandise-unless it’s Sunday. On Sunday, all is quiet. A few of us Caribbean Cultures Conference attendees went for a bright Sunday walk through the streets of Roseau.

An Extremely Hot Walk

The sun blazes through the atmosphere turning the wet earth into a steaming bath. I was uncomfortable in the delicious way that Kincaid describes in her travel book A Walk in the Himalayas, and aware that I could be one of the tourist she cuts down in A Small Place. I’m so please that I was able to be in this tropical atmosphere for a while.

I imagine the sketchy character in the short story, Girl (At the Bottom of the River) and question, why do I appreciate her work? What does it tell me about life? I don't actually relate to the challenging proud girl-except that I also had an independent mother. I don’t think I was vocally rebellious but I often had independent thoughts. Like Kincaid, I struck out on my own at seventeen and tried to cutout my own life path (which came with many mistakes!)

I appreciate Kincaid's writing style but also her character's conflict and confusion. I honor the effort she made to become a writer who is now internationally known and respected.

While at the Eastern Caribbean Cultures conference, I was introduced to the social activist and novelist, Marie-Elena John. She wrote her first novel, Unburnable in 2006, and was describing the writing and how it connected to her personal biography. (interview)Her talk was fascinating. I learned that she grew up in Antigua but her mother was from Dominica. She spent time in Dominica as a child but especially absorbed its culture through contact with her mother. She has this in common with Jamaica Kincaid. I asked her what was the double-edged sword of being compared to Jamaica Kincaid, which she had mentioned in her talk. She said that it is an honor to be compared to such a well known author, but that as a child her mother and other older Antiguan women were shocked by her tell all writing style. She heard them say, "How could she do that to her mother? She is still alive and walking around here!" John said that recently while conducting a writer's workshop at the University of Puerto Rico, she told the aspiring writers that they had to be committed to the writing and where it wants to go. You have to be willing to write about what might be considered private-even when it's difficult. (I will read John's novel soon.) John said that she was going back to New York (on a six month contract) to work on another women's grant writing project. Though I know her work is important, I hope she writes her second novel soon-while the trail is still hot!

Speaking of hot-let's get back to the Sunday walk tale and how I met Marie-Elena's mother and aunt. But maybe I should wait a bit on that one! I don't want to overload you with detail. So friends-Let's look at more photographs a bit later? Until the next time...