Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place
The colonial way of thought comes since the beginning of colonization when the Europeans established superiority in the colonies. Throughout the ages the small colonies suffered the consequences of the Europeans and their obsession to being better than everyone else. This lead that in the future of the natives of the colonies or former colonies to create a new wave of thought, it is called eurocentrism. Thanks to eurocentrism we have created a culture and society where we aspire to be European and by living with this ideal in mind we have created a need to please and serve tourist and outsiders. We do this to show them that we are equal to them or that we are just like them when we are not. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid highlights the relationship the colony has we the colonizer throughout her native island of Antigua.
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To understand why, we must first understand the root of a colonized way of thought and of eurocentrism.
The colonizers of the islands in the Caribbean were all Europeans who later brought in African slaves to work the land. Like any good European you must assert superiority especially to the black slaves you brought. As a European colonizer would only hire workers whose skin was lightest. This prejudice came with the idea that the white you are the more trustworthy or better you were than the black workers. This thought came from seeing the whites as rational and the blacks as wild as seen in “West Indians and Créoles in the Smaller Islands” in The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology by Peter Roberts page 64.
He states that in the early days of colonial society the blacker you were the more savage and wild you were seen in society. However, the whiter you were the better, because you could get better jobs and you weren’t so judge by society. The people started seeing that as the more you acted European the better chances of having a good life
were.
Sadly, for the islanders this always isn’t the case, especially when the Europeans portray the islanders from their colonies. “The problem with perpetuating images of island isolation is that they relegate islanders to a remote and primitive past, denying them entrance into modernity of their colonial motherlands.” (DeLoughreys, 15). The way we are portrayed in European country’s affect us deeply, especially when it comes to any help they may offer us. The bubble that we create to the outsider is that of an isolated paradise to get away from your troubles. By being portray in this manner we don’t only affect the tourist experience about how we really live, but it also affects us and the way people perceive us. For example, if you go to the Bahamas and stay and Atlantis you might think that the Bahamas are living in beds made from money. However, that isn’t the case for many islanders, poverty rates in the Caribbean are horrifying. That is why it is important to show the truth of how people live and the economic state the real Caribbean is, because big international hotels do not represent the reality of the islands.
Development is often associated with the economic status of the place. So, if the island can pull of looking like it has a lot of money than it will be a very developed island according to Walter Rodney in how Europe underdeveloped Africa.
Having said all that we can now understand better Jamaica Kincaid anger not only for the ignorant tourist that visit the island but also the natives that allow everything.
To understand why, we must first understand the root of a colonized way of thought and of eurocentrism.
The colonizers of the islands in the Caribbean were all Europeans who later brought in African slaves to work the land. Like any good European you must assert superiority especially to the black slaves you brought. As a European colonizer would only hire workers whose skin was lightest. This prejudice came with the idea that the white you are the more trustworthy or better you were than the black workers. This thought came from seeing the whites as rational and the blacks as wild as seen in “West Indians and Créoles in the Smaller Islands” in The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology by Peter Roberts page 64.
He states that in the early days of colonial society the blacker you were the more savage and wild you were seen in society. However, the whiter you were the better, because you could get better jobs and you weren’t so judge by society. The people started seeing that as the more you acted European the better chances of having a good life
were.
Sadly, for the islanders this always isn’t the case, especially when the Europeans portray the islanders from their colonies. “The problem with perpetuating images of island isolation is that they relegate islanders to a remote and primitive past, denying them entrance into modernity of their colonial motherlands.” (DeLoughreys, 15). The way we are portrayed in European country’s affect us deeply, especially when it comes to any help they may offer us. The bubble that we create to the outsider is that of an isolated paradise to get away from your troubles. By being portray in this manner we don’t only affect the tourist experience about how we really live, but it also affects us and the way people perceive us. For example, if you go to the Bahamas and stay and Atlantis you might think that the Bahamas are living in beds made from money. However, that isn’t the case for many islanders, poverty rates in the Caribbean are horrifying. That is why it is important to show the truth of how people live and the economic state the real Caribbean is, because big international hotels do not represent the reality of the islands.
Development is often associated with the economic status of the place. So, if the island can pull of looking like it has a lot of money than it will be a very developed island according to Walter Rodney in how Europe underdeveloped Africa.
Having said all that we can now understand better Jamaica Kincaid anger not only for the ignorant tourist that visit the island but also the natives that allow everything.