The underlying commonalities that many Caribbean cultures share are in fact clear as the teal, almost fluorescent, warm water that surrounds the archipelago that is the West Indies.
Walcott claims that “the way that the Caribbean is still looked at, [as] illegitimate, rootless, mongrelized. ‘No people there’, to quote Froude, ‘in the true sense of the word’. No people. Fragments and echoes of real people, unoriginal and broken.” It is as if the culture itself does not matter what matters instead is that the hotel resort provides an all-inclusive open bar.
The lovely islands of the Caribbean extend past what is publicized to the general public in America, Europe, and Asia. Unfortunately, twenty-two years after Derek Walcott’s lecture on the Antilles, the problems he refers to still persists. This begs the question: if a Nobel Laureate cannot influence the change he wishes to see, what can we, just ordinary people, do?
-Javier Robles 15’
Caribbean people feel compelled to “sell” the island and encourage exploitation. They promote the obsession with tourism that impedes outsiders’ abilities to truly understand the richness the islands have to offer; Walcott condemns the islanders who advertise the appeal of mindless living, of turning one’s gaze only to the most obvious aesthetic pleasures rather than the pain and beauty embedded within the culture. His point echoes many of Soyinka’s examples in Of, Africa, especially his point about centuries of African exploitation and the populations that were abused for economic purposes. The Diasporas within both cultures experience a beauty that others ignore; Walcott’s “winter” mirrors Soyinka’s example of the babalowo-magical, yet perpetually misunderstood. As Soyinka argues that a Westerner will never understand the grace and sophistication that comprise the Orisa religion, Walcott warns against perceiving the Caribbean solely through the “tourist” lens. It is impossible to avoid the “vacuity” of living only joy without experiencing the profoundness of pain.
-Taylor Pisel 14’
“...Walcott equates the Antilles with poetry. Walcott writes, “in the Antilles poverty is poetry with a V” (72). As he explains “un Vie”, means a life. I believe “vie,” meaning to compete eagerly for something suggests the resiliency and survival of the Antilles. The Antilles is a space that contains life: the people, the landscape, and the vegetation. The cities, spaces, and locations of the Antilles are themselves poets. The landscape and the people live; they fashion and refashion themselves, with each day commemorating a new beginning. Just as a poet must recreate stories of the day, the Antilles, a conglomerate of islands and histories shape, define, and redefine the stories of the day..For Walcott, the Antilles contains an epic memory or history brimming with lived tales of restoration, continuity, and growth (69). It’s not a vacationing resort or a void canvas waiting to be given meaning. The Antilles has forged its identity through its history and in history....”
-Aminata Dumbuya 14’
In describing the people of Felicity as actors in a performance, regardless of whether or not they are really acting, Walcott ignites the remainder of his Nobel lecture with an aura of authenticity and honesty. While I struggled with portions of Walcott’s speech throughout my first reading, I have since picked up on themes he uses as a through-arc for the entire text. Walcott vibrantly paints a future portrait of the Antilles. Despite their fragmentation on both a geographical and cultural scale, the island chain that makes up the Antilles is a unique and diversely filled set of cities and smaller towns. Walcott calls upon the “deprivation” of certain lives in the Antilles due to the lack of books, theatres and museums (5). But he successful flips this deficit on its own head, identifying the silver lining: more time to think, and record what one is thinking (5). I particularly enjoyed this portion of Walcott’s lecture because I believe there is some truth to what he emphasizes. Growing up in a large metropolitan city, my peace and quiet was rare and I grew to treasure my moments of solitude to sit and think, develop and explore the raging thoughts going on in my head.
-Catherine O’Donnell ‘15
Davidson College Library Research Guides are licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0.
Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035