ASSIGNMENT

Read about Jamaica Kincaid at http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Kincaid.html. Based on what you read here and in her book, A Small Place, comment briefly on the question: How does Kincaid’s experience as a post-colonial subject from Antigua relate to the history of this nation? Add any thoughts you may have about what that history might continue to mean for us as teachers and citizens.

Response

In A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincade her experience as a post-colonial subject from Antigua can be compared to those experiences of the Native American Indians. "Antigua is a small place, a small island...It was settled by Christopher Columbus in 1493. Not too long after, it was settled by human rubbish from Europe, who used enslaved by noble and exalted human beings from Africa...to satisfy their desire for wealth and power, to feel better about their own miserable existence, so that they could be less lonely and empty- a European disease" (80-81). While this nation is not a small island, it was in fact “settled” (which I would prefer to use the word “disturbed” as explained later in this essay) by Europeans who treated the Indians poorly. The cultures and lifestyles were not blended but rather they clashed and the victims lost their land, their identities and their lives.

I find it interesting though that she choose to use the word “Settled”. By the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word “settled” is defined: To establish a residence or colony. This definition (by my interpretation) indicates a blending and cohesiveness. When thinking of whether a word is a positive or negative word this word signifies positive. This was obviously not reflective of her angry feelings of the human rubbish that “settled” in her country. “Disturbed” by human rubbish from Europe would be a more appropriate word to use, as the Europeans came to Antigua and disturbed the people who were settled there. Likewise, Native American Indians were “disturbed” as well, by Europeans who arrived and disturbed land that rightfully wasn’t theirs to begin with.