White Man in St Lucia

Preface 

This essay is in the form a fictional journal and will follow the adventures of a white male cultural theorist living in a post-modern era. This white male has a quest to deconstruct the identities of those living the in the post-colonial West Indies.  He has very little first hand knowledge on their culture, so chooses to broaden his horizons by travelling abroad and has been given an opportunity to holiday for four days aboard the Golden Emerald yacht moored of the coast of St Lucia.   To create a strong theme in this experimental essay, I have used other various fictional characters from St Lucia to defend their own beliefs on the subject of colonialism and bring to light the hardship black communities have suffered.  Coming from a middle class background in a western society, the white mail draws various conclusions on his perspective of the black people’s endured hardship.   Theories on Colonialism, Racism and Identity will be the main thesis for this journal essay.  Other Cultural Perspective lecture and tutorial learning’s will be included in various sections to demonstrate my use of the course content.       

Dear Journal, 

I’m a predominant, middle-class, white male from a substantially well developed country town of South West England.  I’m 31 years of age, with a financially stable background and a good education.  I haven’t a care in the world!  My understandings of other countries cultures are purely academic and so I’d like to learn more.   Here I am on a plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean to stay on my friend’s unmanned yacht moored of the coast of St Lucia in the West Indies, and I’ve never even left England before.  I’m about to experience an adventure of a lifetime and an opportunity to study other cultures. 

Day one; 

Now aboard the magnificent wooden vessel, 51ft in length and in perfect condition considering she was built 20 years ago, I’m feeling slightly nervous and excited at the same time.   I gave some thought to this space that I now currently inhabit, as I consider my life to be ordinary and normal in the small town in which I’ve come from.  Now in this spatial arrangement, where particular power relations may have occurred, from the demographic space in the mid-section where all crew members onboard this vessel would have been considered equal, maybe talking about the salubrious weather.  Until a squall comes along, then this space would have transformed to that of democratized platform having to follow the captains every order.  Only that in these two scenarios, the physical arrangement of the yacht still remains the same. While looking over to the headland of Rodney Bay, I couldn’t help thinking about the ordeal that the native Carib Indians must have gone through when this island was first discovered in the sixteenth century.  St Lucia was under constant warfare between the French and English for over one hundred years, because of its strategic location.   No one is really sure who colonised it first but, what happened then must have been barbaric with their ‘cultural intentions’ (HREF1).  But, the word culture wouldn’t have existed then, or if it did, surely it wouldn’t have been deconstructed in the same way as it has been today.  Without the beginning of colonialism, we wouldn’t have had the same recognition with another kind of race or history to compare ourselves against.  Through the history of conquering other natives, colonialism encouraged culture and in turn culture encouraged colonialism (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 58). I once read that: “Colonialism is based on military force and political occupation, imperialism on economic dominance” (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 19).  There must have been more to colonialism than just ruling, beyond the military force and political occupation lies an even less overriding raison d’être.  The hegemonic factors back in Europe would certainly be another motivation, I mean by bringing back exotic garments and tapestries would certainly have achieved a respectful commendation from the citizens.  Then too was the scientific purpose of drawing maps of unknown territories, the study of plants and wildlife, and even the study of the people themselves (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 59-60).  But, surely the public citizens didn’t know the full barbaric extent that the colonial rulers undertook to pursue their goal, as demonstrating any barbarous method could have tarnished reputations, appearing cruel and ‘uncultured’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 59).  I wonder what other people’s perspectives are from a post-colonised nation.   I will have to make contact with the locals to discover other ways of seeing things.  

Day two; 

It’s amazing how early one can awake when in another space like a yacht.  The coffee tastes so good in the open sea air.   I packed my Ortlieb sailing holdall with a packed lunch consisting of the finest pre-packed salmon sandwiches with a bottle of Evian mineral water and sped off to the headland in the fender provided. As I approached the pontoon, I couldn’t help but gaze at the native’s dark skin and their muscular physiques from a hard days graft.  It made me think of the time when I worked on a building site in my gap year from university.  All the physically unwanted duties were given to the black people and I wondered if that was a racist issue.  Indigenous people have been left in a disposition of being restricted of their occupational opportunities (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 63).  So it seams in this context, the western ideology of post-colonialism has disadvantaged the African migrants within the society of a today’s western civilisation.   A man helped me up from the fender and gave me a big smile.  The people are really friendly here.  Several locals in the background were gazing at me in the way we used to gaze at the indigenous person on the first day at school.  This ‘colonial gaze’ is not only a western connotation, but the natives too monitor the looks and attitudes of others.  I know that looking at people for long periods can signify various different meanings depending on the countries social code.  There are many of which can be considered disrespectful.  In our western society it is considered impolite to look at someone for too long and it is classed as a ‘stare’.  But, who am I to comment with my ‘touristy gaze’ in their country, again making these analogies because I’m a descendant of a nation that colonised people (HREF2).  Well, at least they don’t appear to be staring with hate.  I made my way through the small town; culture was all around me, I could see little entrepreneurial marketeers trading from their front door steps and the local fishermen bringing in their daily catch.  I sat down outside a stone building, assuming it was a bar because of the small Guinness logo on the opened door.  A Rastafarian guy came out to ask what I wanted in this deep throaty accent and then offered me his only choice of beverage available, Guinness.  He then said with enthusiasm “it’s from a beautiful place… Iree-land”!  I just smiled, unsure of his meaning of the word ‘Iree Land’.  A short while later I invited him to join me so I could probe into his way of seeing things. He began to talk about his own brother-land, Ethiopia and how they are all united through the past hardship of the slavery trade.  He then went on to say that they are also haunted by the echoes of the ‘Atlantic Triangle’, a time when slavery was ripe and the English were raping their right as free people.  He described in his own words that the English had economically benefited from the black people’s free labour and that they are very proud people sharing the same consciousness, a journey through repression (Boom, Plastow 1989: 101).     This reminded me of the time when I once met an African lady in our home town. She talked of a French movement called ‘Negritude’, and how the influential black people would set examples on ways to act and how to overcome the fact that they were once dominated by the white man.  This encouraged the black people to hold their heads up high and reframe from thinking that they were inferior (HREF3). In order to continue the conversation with the Rasta, I went into some detail about racism in England and the white people calling the black people in England ‘Binglish’, a nuance used to describe their race (Boom, Plastow 1989: 126).  So after this discussion the Rastafarian and I agreed about the simplicity of equal rights, that black and white are simply just colours.  I then went on to mention that our morphological differences of skin colour and physique are a result of moving around the world for a very long time and because of a variety of factors, our looks have changed.  I then discussed that although we tend to categorise people because of a genetic difference, we probably wouldn’t have the same opinion if we had a morphological similarity (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 224).  He agreed with a completely puzzled look on his face and went back inside to fetch me another stout. Back onboard the Golden Emerald, I had given some serious thought to my recent conversation with the bar-tender on the impact caused by western dominance.  Two thirds of the worlds countries have controlled and geopolitical relationships have been shaped for the benefit of the predominant race.  This has resulted in the world being described as postcolonial.   

Day three; 

I had the most amazing sleep last night, blanket rapped in the small aft section, lightly rocking with the incoming current swishing past the wooden hull.  I decided to name this section my ‘mother’s womb’, realising in this now everyday space, that my examples of signification have became metaphoric.  While sitting on the foredeck with a cup of coffee looking to the horizon, my thoughts were about the man at the bar saying ‘Iree-Land’, then it suddenly twigged.  He was referring to the label on the bottle, ‘Guinness: Made in Ireland’.  I had heard earlier that day people saying ‘Iree’ when in agreement or complimenting on something.  He probably hadn’t even been to the country of Ireland; he was just speaking in a semiotic context, using a mental impression of the text ‘Made in Ireland’ and had signified this metaphoric utopian place.   This contented feeling of understanding other cultures was intrinsically rewarding and it gave me lots to think about.  Coming from an ethnocentric race, we tend to see things very black and white or good and bad.  However, we tend not to deconstruct the true identities of ‘other’ people.  I wanted to find out more about this inner spirit that these people appeared to be in touch with.  The best way is to meet someone around this area who knows even more about their culture.  Later that day I visited the local library to ask the librarian a few questions conducive to their culture.  Upon mentioning the conversation held in the makeshift bar, the librarian revealed that he is well versed on this particular subject.  He told me that he travelled extensively with the merchant navy and seen his own race in different cultural surroundings. He told me that black people have this inner strength that derived from the days of slavery.  Although the colonial rule completely stripped them from their freedom, they developed this unique spiritual sense and their souls remained free.  This was achieved through singing together in harmony, usually to the rhythm of Blues music (Haymes 1995: 60).  Also the rap music of today incorporates the same meaning, fighting against the notion of being associated as a slave, it “focuses on the struggle process” (Haymes 1995: 63).  It also enables “black people to form a culture of resistance in their urban surroundings” (Haymes 1995: 66).  This music was originally formed from Rhythm and Blues and is also used as a means of expression to help the black people maintain their identity (HREF4).     These were the positive points he had to make about the spiritual side and the musical makings of the black people.  However, he then mentioned that as a minority group in western countries, black people are left with an identity crises and they are seen as a ‘white person’s consumption’.  Their everyday life has been reduced to a simple commodity and this has lost their lack of pride in many ways, resulting in the black community becoming more negligent towards their self-worth.  Inturn, children become underachievers neglecting school work, young girls become pregnant, teenagers become addicted to drugs and result to crime (Taylor 2002:52).  Back aboard the golden Emerald later that evening, I gave some thought to the librarian’s opinion on black people’s identity crisis.  We need to interact and build relationships with people in order to create our own identity (Taylor 2002:50).  But, black people tend to socialise with people outside the privileged central position and are wrongly influenced, believing that their current space of everyday life is the order of things.   

Day four; 

Today is my final day aboard the Golden Emerald and I will miss this magnificent Island.  Rather than going ashore one last time, I have chosen to reflect on the past few days, as they have given me a different perspective on the meaning of culture.  I once considered it an advantage being part of the predominant race in this postcolonial world, but the recent experiences have given me another way of seeing things. I have now come to a sad realisation, aboard this extravagant yacht, sporting my Helly Hansen rain coat and top of the range Sebago deck shoes; I do possess the luxury to make these geopolitical analogies.        

Bibliography Book References; 

Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. Tiffin, H (1995) The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London, New York: Routledge.  Boom, R Plastow, J (1998): Theatre Matters: Performance and Culture on the World Stage. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, D (2002) The Quest for Identity: From Minority Groups to Generation Xers. Westport Connecticut: Praeger Publishers Internet References; HREF1: “About St Lucia” http://www.visitslu.com/about_slu/history/history.html 

HREF2: Chandler, D: “Notes on ‘The Gaze’ Daniel Chandler”

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze07.html 

HREF3: Carlberg, H (1993): “Theories of colonialism and post-colonialism”

http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/poldiscourse/negritude.html HREF4: Clay, A (2003): “Keepin’ it Real: Black Youth, Hip-Hop Culture, and Black Identity” http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=350239881&sid=6&Fmt=3&clie        ntId=13713&RQT=309&VName=PQD