Mr Ian A. Marshall’s annoyance was almost palpable in his response to an article I wrote a few Sundays ago entitled A Valid Racism? While the gentleman had no difficulty with most of the ideas I expressed, he objected strenuously to what he read as my proposition that we forget the past and move on. He cited the importance of knowing where we came from so that we could move ahead. He was expansive in his references to the past that I purportedly wanted us to forget: the “building blocks”, etc.
Let me say, first of all, that I doubt such a feat of forgetfulness on the part of any individual is even possible.
I should also clarify the statement I was making with reference to the “blood-mixing” on this island. I had made it clear in the same article, and others previously, that I was very much aware of the existing racial divide (see A Present Past, December 12, 2010 and Snails And Worms, November 18, 2012). In the article under discussion, I was merely pointing out that those of the pale skin should be careful abou the stance they insisted on adopting since black blood is flowing in the veins of many of them. The strict division of Black and White is therefore not as clear-cut as it appears to be from the outside.
But all that apart, I must make it clear to Mr Marshall et al that I was not advocating that we forget the past in its broader contexts as he so forcefully argued. What I was saying, unapologetically, is that we have to find a way to get past the rancour, the anger. Granted it may have appeared that I was glossing over this matter of “forgetting” and I would therefore like to refer him to an article I had previously written in my column entitled, Unburied Ghosts:
“While slavery has been the experience of many cultures, it may be argued that the transatlantic slaves suffered the greatest of inhuman atrocities . . . . The blood that was shed for over 400 years on sea and land cannot be purged by simply ignoring its reality. It is entirely possible that the bad energies released during those brutal years are still with us and manifest themselves in the anger passing from one generation to another . . . . To continue to build a society that rests on such deep-rooted insecurities, mistrust, unforgiven violence and anger is an incalculable risk.” (Word View, December 12, 2010)
Someone who is advocating an erasure of the past does not express the thoughts above. I wrote the article out of my awareness of the anger I could feel pulsing through the Barbadian society. This “subterranean” force (so I felt) must surely have its genesis in the unresolved trauma and violence of the past. Surely the question of expiation should be placed on the shoulders of those responsible for inflicting the wounds of enslavement and engendering this anger. If the guilty accepted this responsibility, the scourge of anger in the society could be lessened significantly or removed.
I am no longer of this view. In fact, God help us if in our contemporary Caribbean societies we are waiting for some redemption that we are not prepared to bring about ourselves. By all means let us look back to the past, if we will, but with a desire to accept certain hard truths and, where possible, with the emotional intelligence necessary to redirect the anger into some productive kind of energy.
I understand well enough that it is in the interest of certain sections of the society to keep certain fires burning; the embers may burn low but the fire must not be allowed to go out. I get that. But the reality is that we now live in an anger-filled society. And the anger is likely to increase with the loss of jobs and the disaffection of the youth, especially the males. What are we to do? Heap anger upon anger? Who do we imagine will feel the brunt of this anger other than ourselves, particularly our women and children?
Even if we could trace the origins of our present anger and violence back to the plantation, the question still remains as to how we will solve the problem right now. What are the benefits of our education? What reservoirs of resourcefulness and resilience have we stored up over time? What lessons have we learnt that will help us in the hard times ahead?
• Esther Phillips is an educator, poet and editor of BIM: Arts For The 21st Century.
