Haiti

Laurin Lavan and Berta Gonzalez

 

 

           In the novel, Espinet focused the connection between France and Saint-Domingue in.  She illustrates this connection by using the island of St. Helena as a crossroads for those of French, Haitian, African and Indian descent. This section brings attention to the forced marriage of the French, original Haitians, and the slaves from Africa. 

            In the 1660s, the French settled in the western part of the island of Haiti and uprooted the colony.  After decades of wars, the Spanish gave the western part of the island to the French, who then named their colony Saint-Domingue, which is what is modern-day Haiti.

             Sugar was introduced as a crop and numerous plantations were established during 1700 and 1704. Because sugar is a labor-intensive crop to grow, it required thousands of slaves to be imported from Africa to toil on the growing plantations.  The French were particularly cruel to their slaves and treated them as easily-replaceable property; they had no qualms about working them to death, severe inhumane treatment, or murdering them horrifically. By 1789, there were 40,000 whites and 500,000 slaves in St. Domingue. In August 1791, the slaves organized and held a voodoo ceremony for protection before setting out and burning down the plantations, assassinating white plantation owners en masse.

             The Haitian Revolution, which took place during 1791-1804, was the only successful slave revolt that led to Independence, a true feat considering they triumphed over one of the greatest European armies. Ironically, the Haitians were inspired not only by the American Revolution, but by the success of the French Revolution. This revolution set in motion the chain of events that would later lead to Indian migration to the Caribbean to work on the plantations. 

 

Works Cited: 

Geggus, David Patrick. Haitian Revolutionary Studies. Bloomington, [Ind.]: Indiana University Press Bloomington, [Ind.], 2002.

 

Rose. Christopher. “Episode 11: The Haitian Revolution.” The University of Texas at Austin. Blogs.utexas.edu, 6 Feb. 2013.Web.19 Apr. 2014.

 

Silvia, Adam, ed. . Island Luminous. Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2010. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.  <http://dloc.com/exhibits/islandluminous>

 

 

Jerningham Junction

Berta Gonzalez

 

 

      

            In Chapter 17, Mona elaborates on Jerningham Junction, “an extended bazaar with a train station” (Espinet 226). Jerningham Junction was an area of mixed heritages and dense, overlapping history. The location and its bringing together of Afro-and Indo-Trinidadian populations, is ssential to Mona’s history.

 Initially, the memory of this place was triggered by Horatio, Uncle Baddall’s son, who came to pay his respects to Mona and her family after Kello’s death. Mona attaches two memories to this place, which she refers to as, “the intersection of North and the South” (233). The first memory that she relates to Jerningham Junction includes the story that Muddie invented about their family taking the last train trip before the railway closed. While Muddie swore on their family’s privilege of taking this trip, Mona challenges this story and assures the reader that this trip did not actually happen, that her mother simply invented this story. The second memory Mona associates with Jerningham Junction is of how Uncle Baddall molested her in his car during the August holidays. 

             In order to understand Jerningham Junction’s importance to Mona and her family, it is important to acknowledge that it was originally named after the governor of Trinidad, Hubert Edward Henry Jerningham, who ruled during the years of 1897-1900 and that the railroad itself was built to support the colonial plantation economy by transporting cocoa from the northwest and sugar from the south to Port of Spain; it was designed to support the plantation system. The fact that such a significant location to Mona carries the name of the colonial governor is indicative of how the traces of colonial history still thrive in Trinidad today and, moreover, are intrinsic to Mona’s family history. During Edward Jerningham’s time as a governor, the Trinidad Government Railway system was lengthened from Cunupia to Tabaquite; the railway junction formed because of this extension was Jerningham Junction. Additional significant train junctions included the ones at Port of Spain, Couva, Sangre Grande, San Fernando, and Tabaquite. According to Nicola’s article, “the junction [Jerningham Junction] played a major role as one of the main pick up points of the island’s railway system.” Many prominent residents moved to the Jerningham Junction area as a result of its booming development, which sparked significant interest in this region.

             Although in 1965 the railway system closed down because of the rising popularity of other modes of transportation, such as cars and buses, Jerningham Junction was also significant for another reason; since it was in Cunupia, the central region of Trinidad, it signified the merging of the North—primarily populated by Afro-Trinidadians—and South—associated with Indo-Trinidadians because during and after indenture they settled in southern Trinidad. Therefore, it is relevant to know the specific history of the colonial expansion of the railroad because it was this operation that was able to better connect the country, and, consequently, the dichotomy of cultures that were prevalent. Jerningham Junction was a place where the racial divisions that existed in Trinidad, although nowhere near being eliminated, were at least less prevalent than in other areas. Instead, the Africans and Indians blended and flaunted their unique cultures freely in this area (Hookumchand, “Conflict Between East-Indian and Blacks in Trinidad and Guyana Socially, Economically, and Politically.”) For Mona, the complexities and confusion behind this region mirror her own. According to Mona, Muddie invented the story about their family taking the last train ride that passed through Jerningham Junction. If Mona’s accusation that Muddie’s tale was false is valid, then Muddie’s tale should not be seen as a lie, but as a creation of her own version of reality. Muddie’s words, her own account of what she thought occurred, are able to construct a fictitious memory that is viewed by Mona’s family as a true account of their family history. Just as Muddie is able to create this story through her spoken word, Muddie likewise suppresses family history by silencing the past sexual assaults that have been inflicted upon her. Through the suppression of these assaults, it is almost as if this part of the family history is deleted. Mona, however, relives this stifled portion of her past by recounting how Baddall assaulted her when passing Jerningham Junction. Mona recounts that, “his hand found its way past the thin cotton of my panties, pushing my legs apart in a practiced movement” (Espinet 234). Although Muddie chooses to suppress memories of sexual violence, Mona revives them and, by doing so, brands them as a part of their family history. In this way, Mona makes visible a more accurate history of the family and the sexual abuse women in her family experienced. Because of this, the location of Jerningham Junction connects two of the main themes in the novel—Indo-Trinidadian women’s sexual abuse and its suppression and Indo-Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean division. The fact that this one site is so closely linked to these two apparently separate but defining aspects of Mona’s life forces the reader to try to understand the logic of their connection. Ultimately, the region of Jerningham Junction, which features a rich history that combines distinct cultures, parallels the convoluted blend of memories Mona associates with this region.

 

Works Cited:  

Hookumchand, Gabrielle. “Conflict Between East-Indian and Blacks in Trinidad and Guyana                    Socially, Economically, and Politically.” Guyana News and Information. Sept. 2000.                Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.guyana.org/features/conflicts_indiansandblacks.html>

Nicola, Joseph. “Jerningham Junction to Get New Community Centre.” Breaking News Trinidad             and Tobago. 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.<http://news.co.tt/public_html/article.php?story=20130108033613862>

 

 

 

St. Helena Island

Laurin Lavan and Berta Gonzalez

 

 

     In Part II of The Swinging Bridge, the reader is introduced to Mona’s great-grandmother, Gainder and the island of St. Helena. Gainder is a young girl of thirteen from an Indian subcontinent who is traveling to British Trinidad.  During this voyage she is assaulted by a white sailor, and rescued by a Jeevan, a man from Uttar Pradesh, who like her is emigrating to Trinidad as an indentured laborer. Before arriving in Trinidad, the ship stops at St. Helena where Jeevan is taken off the Artist . Jeevan is then led off, charged with the murder of Gainder’s white attacker, and jailed. His fate is never revealed in the novel. However, it is implied that he never left the island because of his crime. The author mentions that St. Helena is, “a narrow, rocky little island on which Napoleon Bonaparte died, exiled from his native land” (Espinet 117).   

            It is important for readers to know the history of St. Helena because it connects two of the novel's main themes: the Haitian revolution and Indian indenture in the Caribbean. St. Helena is a British dependent territory, in the South Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa. Named after Helena of Constantinople, it was discovered in 1502 by Joao da Nova who sailed for Portugal. England pushed out Portugal for control of the island, burning their ships, churches, and plantations before officially taking control in 1657.  The British used this island as a place of exile for thousands of prisoners; most famously, the British government exiled Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena in 1815, where he lived until his death at the age of 51 on May 5th, 1821.

Napoleon connects these two important themes because, following the French Revolution, he claimed the title of First Consul of France and sent the French army to Haiti (then named Saint-Domingue). He did this in order to reimpose slavery and French colonial authority in Haiti after it had been abolished by the French Revolutionary government. However, Bonaparte’s attempt backfired, and Haiti was ultimately able to claim its independence on January 1st, 1804.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Charles Forsdick. “The Leclerc Expedition.” Luminous Isle. ed. Adam Silver, Digital Library of     the Caribbean. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.  <.http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/part02-slide09.html >

Markham, J. David. Napoleon and Dr Verling on St Helena. England; United Kingdom:, 2005.

Morgan, Thomas D. "The Road to St. Helena: Napoleon After Waterloo (Review)." The Journal of Military History 73.2 (2009): 641-2.

“St. Helena History.” St.Helena. St. Helena Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.<http://www.sthelena.se/history/island.txt

 

 

 

Usine Ste. Madeleine

Hannah Neville and Berta Gonzalez

    

            Usine Ste. Madeleine is the estate near the house Aunt Vannie lived in when Uncle Baddall left her unexpectedly (Espinet 166). This estate was a sugar factory built in 1872 and was claimed to be “the most modern factory in the sugar-producing countries”  (Homer). At its height, the factory produced 3,800 tons of sugar for export. The factory employed about 12,638 workers. Additionally, 40% of the cane that the factory processed came from local farmers (Homer). In The Swinging Bridge, Mona recounts how, “Vannie lived in a tall rented house near the Usine, Ste. Madeleine estate, the same one that had fired Pappy once upon a time” (Espinet 166). According to Homer’s article, the farmers that supplied the factory with cane were “not represented as a body” and were “operating at the mercy of the company.”

            Mona’s grandfather, hence, serves as an example of the lack of respect that the factory’s workers and farmers that supplied the factory’s cane were given. Moreover, Mona also refers to burning of the canes near the factory. She describes how, “the canes would be burning at this time of year; sharp and sweet” (166). These fires were set for two reasons. The “legitimate” fires were set before harvesting the cane (166). The burning helps clear the cane fields of unwanted microorganisms and dry leaves, which allow for the soil to be richer (“Pre-harvesting Burning”). However, Mona describes how some fires were set in acts of “sabotage to settle matters with errant estate managers” (166). This is yet another way in which the estate workers rebelled because of the lack of respect they received. Although many years passed since the days when Mona’s grandfather was an employed worker at the sugar factory, the conditions and general dissatisfaction of the workers remained stagnant. Burning the cane fields was one of the ways they were able to raise their voices against the vicious cycle of injustice, hierarchies, poverty, and cruelty they faced because of the conditions at the sugar factories. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Homer, Louis.  "Ste. Madeleine Makes its Mark." Trinidad Express Newspaper. 31 Dec. 2012. n.p. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.<http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Ste_Madeleine__makes_its_mark-185246582.html>

“Pre-harvesting Burning.” Sugarcane. n.d. n.p. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. < https://sites.google.com/site/sugarcanepm/pre-harvest-burning>

 

 

 

 

Whiteland and Piparo

Berta Gonzalez

 

 

     In Chapter 16, Horatio, Uncle Baddall’s son, visited Mona and her family when he heard the news about Kello’s death. His visit caused Mona several flashbacks to the past, as she recalled many of the names he referenced. One of the most significant conversations with Horatio was when he mentioned Uncle Baddall’s “fabulous wealth” which he thought was “buried in the hills of Whiteland” (Espinet 227). Whiteland, however, is hardly given importance by Mona’s family. Mona narrates that, “You could hardly say the name Whiteland before you had already passed it” (228). She further informs us that it is “a lovely shadowed piece of road bordered by cocoa trees” whose “real treasure was that cocoa: jewels of golden and ruby pods handing suspended along the roadside as you sped by” (228). The location of Whiteland to The Swinging Bridge is significant on two fronts; not only does it foreshadow the racially “white” land that Mona and her family emigrate to, but it also indicates the interest another member of Mona’s family had in discovering a piece of their family history.

     On one hand, the name Whiteland is a play on words, which parallels the “white” country of Canada that Mona and her family move to. Not only is Canada veiled in white snow during the winter (unlike typical winters in Trinidad), but Canada’s Caucasian population in the 2001 census was a staggering 86.6% (“Census 2001 Highlights: Factsheet 6: Visible Minorities and Ethnicity in Ontario”). When viewing these statistics, one can see how the majority of Canada is also ethnically “white.” In the novel, this is also apparent when Mona’s father was walking in Toronto one day and saw “graffiti that read Keep Canada White” (Espinet 104). This graffiti was an explicit sign of the hostility that many Canadians had towards the incoming immigrants from other ethnicities. The name Whiteland is, hence, an ironic parallel to the overpowering “whiteness” of Canada.

     As a second point, when researching Whiteland, we found that Mona’s family was right. Information on Whiteland is hardly available, confirming that Whiteland is an almost forgotten stretch of land. The single piece of information we found that confirmed Whiteland’s existence is an image on google maps that depicts an aerial view of the paved road cutting across Whiteland with surrounding trees; according to Mona, these are cocoa trees. However, Mona mentioned that, “Piparo and Whiteland were neighboring villages” (228). Mona also mentions that Horatio’s uncle was “a simple market gardener living in the heart of Piparo” (227). Because of Piparo’s proximity to Whiteland, we decided information on Piparo might be significant when referencing Whiteland. Piparo’s most distinct attribute is that of a mud volcano that exploded in February 22, 1997 (Felmine, “Piparo Mud Volcano Wakes After 14 Years”). According to Felmine’s article, the 1997 volcano traumatized the people living in Piparo because the waves of mud trampled houses, livestock, cars and anything standing in its path. In 1997, this volcano left a total of 108 people homeless. This mud volcano, along with the other mud volcanoes on the island, is said to attract the attention of oilmen since geologists believe they are a sign of oil and natural gas deposits (“They Watched Mud from Volcano Creep Closer and Closer”). 

     Since novel takes place in 1995, the 1997 Piparo volcano explosion had not yet occurred when Mona had this conversation with Horatio. When this explosion took place, it covered everything in its path with a cement-like consistency. Although it is unlikely for Horatio to find a buried treasure in Whiteland or its vicinity, he may find another treasure: that of an oil deposit. Horatio’s desire to discover the family treasure in Whiteland is similar to Mona’s desire for uncovering the family history. This treasure, which interests Horatio so deeply, is a direct connection to his ancestors and the clouded history that surrounds them. His quest is similar to Mona’s in that he is performing his own form of research to derive at a specific discovery about the family’s past. While his motivation is rooted in monetary gains, it is nonetheless another manifestation of concern with the family’s past that could yield to a valuable gain in the present. However, Horatio’s search also contrasts Mona’s search for history in that his search is based on false information and a colonial fantasy that the country holds wealth. Mona’s search, on the other hand, is based on significant knowledge of Trinidad and careful research of the history of her family and the Trinidadian community. In the end, however, the pending 1997 explosion serves as a reason as to why uncovering the family’s past should be done as soon as possible. As time passes, invaluable history is destroyed and veiled by the more relevant events of the present, making the search for truth an even more distant and arduous effort.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

 

“Census 2001 Highlights: Factsheet 6:Visible Minorities and Ethnicity in Ontario.” Ontario Ministry of Finance. Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2009. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. <http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/demographics/census/cenhi6.html>

Espinet, Ramabai. The Swinging Bridge. Toronto and Ontario: Harper Collins, 2003. Print

Felmine, Kevon. “Piparo Mud Volcano Awakens After 14 Years.” Guardian Media. 4 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. < http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/12/04/piparo-mud-volcano-awakens-after-14-years>

“They Watched Mud from Volcano Creep Closer and Closer.” The Guelph Mercury. 18 Sept.                  1999: A5. Newsbank. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.