Table Of Content* V»l »» llll 11111«.
hiin around eight a.m. They would then go down to the valley
long slender bamboo pole with a gullea (a special knife used I
pods from die tree). The cocoa trees are not very tall and
from the sun by tall, towering trees called Inunon
grown specially to shade the cocoa trees. My mo
gave tin* British for what they did to the coco
hated them for destroying the
never came back to wliat it '
hat die prices were deliberate!
I the British to help Germany
I their gain—the British, I in
were prepared to help Gi
some of her losses in
We have never reco
time up to this day. Ai
during that period and it
for us to make ends meet. \X
gardening and growing vege
as which we sold to brin
wc could to buy odier diings
very very hard times. Fortun;
Monitor in the school. Picki
hen about three days to cut op
br
gully
r hous«
and le
rd be cover
is and bags foi
vs. There was a
o f after the bean
diey w o iH put on this ta
first brother, who wras mu
R E S S T A N to the seinina
church. The V
and in some
lauds in the West Indies. For some reason ininn
was sent off, they began to charge fees for liis educ?
not the usual procedure. My parents had to fin
. - small amount \i e had fib ns
and o t h e r e s s a y s
id we who were left behi
inensely from that. The beans would
thinly on the rack and the hot sun would
would take about three days. C>f course one 1
for rain. If it rained the beans had to be taken up c
ered. When the beans were dry they be
colour. The boys would return
the beans were ready t
Original frorr^tm.r *v>^|jy know what the i
UNIVERSJTY OF.MTCHI
w as a bbiigg ssttrraain on my'parents, and they we
A GENEALOGY OF RESISTANCE
and Other Essays
OTHER BOOKS BY M. NOURBESE PHIUP
Salmon Courage (Williams Wallace)
She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks (Women's Press, England)
Harriet's Daughter IWomen's Press, Toronto; Heinemann, England)
Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence (The Mercury Press)
Showing Grit (Poui Publications)
Frontiers: Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture (The Mercury Press)
A GENEALOGY OF RESISTANCE
and Other Essays
BY M. NOURBESE PHILIP
THE MERCURY PRESS
HT
\ 5 l \ Copyright © 1997 by M. NourbeSe Philip
M l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the prior
written permission of the publisher, with the exception of brief passages in reviews. Any request for
photocopying or other reprographic copying of any part of this book must be directed in writing to
the Canadian Reprography Collective (CANCOPY).
m
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and
the Ontario Arts Council. The publisher further acknowledges the assistance of the Multiculturalism
Directorate of the Secretary of State in the publication of this book.
Cover design by Gordon Robertson
Edited by Beverley Daurio
Composition and page design by Task
Printed and bound in Canada by Metropole Litho
Printed on acid-free paper
First Edition
1 2 34 5 01 00 9998 97
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication
Philip, M. NourbeSe
A Genealogy of resistance : essays
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN I -55128-047-7
1. Race. 2. Culture. I. Title
HT1521.N68 1997 305.8 C97-932040-2
Represented in Canada by the Literary Press Group
Distributed in Canada by General Distribution Services
The Mercury Press
2569 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M6P 1X7
5-f
PfVE
//-03-^g
For the island
Tobago
Ti Miss Maam
the ancestors
named and unnamed
Parkinson Philip-Yeates and Undine Philip
Ase
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author acknowledges the financial assistance of the Multicultu-
ralism Directorate of the Secretary of State.
With the exception of “A Genealogy of Resistance” all these essays
have been published in the following journals, magazines and anthologies:
Journals: Orion, American Book Review, A Journal of Feminist Theory:
Women and Performance, Brick, Trivia, Tessera: Toward Feminist Narratology,
Anales Del Caribe, Open Letter, and the Trinidad and Tobago Review;
Anthologies: Writing It Down for James, Chain 2, Feminist Measures:
A Poetics of Criticism, Out of Kumbla: Caribbean Women and Literature
CONTENTS
A Genealogy of Resistance 9
Whose Idea Was It Anyway? 31
The Absence of Writing or How I Almost Became a Spy
Earth and Sound: The Place of Poetry 57
Dis Place— The Space Between 74
The Habit of: Poetry, Rats and Cats 113
Ignoring Poetry 120
Notes on the Completion of Potentiality 126
Father Tongue 128
South of the Border 133
Cuban Journal 149
A Piece of Land Surrounded 161
Dragon Come Down, Dove Gorn Up:
The Poetics of Silence and the Unvoiced 174
African Roots and Continuities:
Race, Space and the Poetics of Moving 201
A GENEALOGY OF RESISTANCE
Et c’est l’heure, O Poète de décliner ton nom, ta naissance et ta race.
And the time is come, O Poet to declare your name, your birth
and your race.
— St.-John Perse, Exil
The writer has a place in his age. Each word has an echo, as does
each silence.
—Jean Paul Sartre
The white fathers told us, “I think, therefore, I am” and the black
mother within each of us— the poet— whispers in our dreams, I
feel, therefore I can be free. Poetry coins the language to express
and chart this revolutionary demand.
— Audre Lorde
I will begin with him. Not with the word. Which was. In the beginning.
I shall speak of him who every evening with slow and careful hands
brought light to displace the darkness. Mesmerized, I watch the delicate
bag of white gauze fill, glow bright white under the slow and steady
pumping. The light grows stronger and brighter until its harsh glare has
chased away the encroaching blackness. Where was it kept during the day?
The kerosene lantern. What colour was it? The only memory is of that
daily ritual: my father bringing light to the home. A house perched on the
sea shore. On the coast of a tiny island. Tobago. In an even tinier village.
A fishing village. With an impressive name: Plymouth. Named no doubt
for that much larger, busier Plymouth. So many thousands of miles away.
A genealogy of names— Plymouth. Scarborough. Les Couteaux.
L’Anse Fourmi. Having everthing to do with those who in their brutal
naming obliterated others. Names and people.
9
