LITR 5831 Colonial-Postcolonial Literature                                                        Research Posts 2011

Mallory Rogers

 Caribbean Authors: Reclaiming Migrant’s Stories through Post-Colonial Literature

Initially for the research posts, I wanted to look more into the effects colonization had on women from the Caribbean. I did some searches on influential female post-colonial authors from the Caribbean, and found that Erna Bodber was listed numerous times alongside Jamaica Kinkaid.  Once I started digging into the information, I found that I was more interested in Brodber's influences related to her efforts in changing social discourse for natives, than on the work she had done on native gender roles. Because of this, I choose to research Erna Brodber in regard to her influence on how we read about and interpret Caribbean identities in post-colonial literature.

To begin the research, I explored Edna Brodber’s life through a website titled, “A Brief Biography of Erna Brodber,” which features a synopsis of the author’s background and an explanation of her writing style. The website, regularly updated by contemporary authors, found at http://www.postcolonialweb.org/caribbean/brodber/bio.html, says Erna Brodber was born April 20, 1940 to a family active in the community-wide interactions of their small town of Woodside, St. Mary, Jamaica. With an introduction to the importance of community very early in her upbringing through her family’s dealings, Erna was interested in social concerns at an early age. Her rearing played a large role in shaping her future studies in social research at University College of the West Indies, now known as University of the West Indies. Brodber went on to earn a bachelor’s degree, and to attain a Master’s in Science, as well as a Ph.D. Before becoming a writer, Erna was a civil servant, teacher and a sociology lecturer. Her last stint, as a fellow/staff member of the Institute for Social and Economic Research allowed her the opportunity to collect oral stories of elders in rural Jamaica. It was here Erna developed a passion and ultimately a need to share the elders’ stories. Using the stories as a basis, Erna began her most significant role to-date, she became an author.

The extensive collection of results on the UHCL library database JSTOR shows Erna Brodber is considered highly influential in the field of post-colonial literature for a number of reasons—many of those attributed to her socially conscious upbringing. In Alison Donnell’s 2005 peer-reviewed article, “What It Means to Stay: Reterritorialising the Black Atlantic in Erna Brodber's Writing of the Local,” Donnell explores the significance of Brodber using writing as a means to draw attention to the postcolonial tradition of giving Caribbean persons the representative status as the city migrant. Donnell’s article “focuses on [ideas such as Brodber’s that] contest the seemingly naturalized version of Caribbean identity as always elsewhere…and emphasizes the [works concerned with] cultural crossings and oceanic journeys” (481). Meaning more simply put, Brodber’s writings “aim to demonstrate a kind of reterritorialisation…by foregrounding… the constant interplay of ‘rooted characters' and their 'routed' journeys at sea, [and]… land” (Donnell 485). Donnell’s article points out that “by drawing on both roots and routes, the African self and the European 'other', Brodber is not… flattening out the field of history … [rather she] recovers…  the  black  experience,  through [her works, and their] connections  across  the  African  diaspora and untold  stories of  that experience (485).

With an extensive background in the larger social world – from youth to adulthood – it is not surprising Erna uses her writing to deal with the healing power of the community. The Caribbean Review of Books website -  http://www.meppublishers.com/online/crb/past_issues/index.php?pid=3000&id=cb6-1-27 – highlights Brodber’s work, Woodside, Pear Tree Grove P.O., as it does great justice to the Caribbean peoples by presenting the underclass’ history — the enslaved and indentured workers — in interaction with their social and physical environment in such a way that the man on the street may see a portrait of himself and his forefathers” (Lakhan). The article further asserts Brodber is popular among Caribbean readers especially because, “people want to know more about themselves and that they have a right to believe other people will share this interest” (Lakhan). Lakhan says Brodber uses her writings of “Jane and Louisa in Woodside to peddle their message of community, and though the text… asks a bit much of the reader by asking you to share in the author’s delight at every baptism certificate and school record.” Lakhan then asserts Brodber “connects to the reader while still managing to raise awareness to the big issues as she … shows the reader that they are the ones who get to write and make history.”

After reading so much about what others had to say about Erna Brodber’s influence because of her writings, it’s no doubt she influences post-colonial literature, However, I still wanted to find out what Brodber had to say about her own writing, and what she hopes it accomplishes for the future of post-colonial literature. BOMB magazine is a popular online magazine known for delivering artists’ voice through in-depth interviews. In winter 2004, Keshia Abraham shared Erna Brodber’s candid thoughts (http://bombsite.com/issues/86/articles/2622) about her work through a transcript interview. To begin the interview, Keshia asks Erna, “While you were growing up, what were some of the ways in which people reinforced that sense of history and the need to preserve it?” Brodber responded:

“That need to preserve might have come from my knowledge of how people’s history gets distorted and stolen. I was brought up in a household that was very aware. One of the first times I ever saw my father angry, he was angry about colonialism.

I remember him coming in from the farm, sitting down on the steps and taking off his work boots and quarreling about cocoa: how the farmers had to listen to England tell them how much to grow and how much it’s worth.

He was very clear that one of his children must go to the university and study history. He had a good knowledge of family history. So had my mother, but whereas his was just normal family history, she had history like her father having fought in the Ashanti wars.

He was very angry as well. Her father died when she was nine, so how she remembers all these things I do not know. That is in Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home. The golden stools that are stolen? I got that from her, which she got from her father. And even though he died when she was so young, his anger was something of such power that it stayed with her, and she passed it on.”

Through this personal response, I have found that keeping the conversation of cultural discourse alive in terms of Caribbean natives is the most important reason Caribbean authors like Erna Brodber write about their pasts. Brodber explains the importance of passing on history, and that for her, she tried to influence culture through writing because she knows it will last forever. The ideas of history, such as her mother’s father’s stories of the stools, are passed down; therefore, she reiterates the importance of changing colonial discourse and the way people of the Caribbean are viewed so that they can remember the truth of their past. She writes her stories of the new islanders to create change, and she writes with the ultimate hope to change history, one reader at a time.

For my next research post, I will continue to look at ways Caribbean authors are changing the way we read and interpret Caribbean natives by researching an influential male Caribbean author to see if there are differences in their approaches to preserving culture through their stories.