When Antigua-born prizewinning author Jamaica Kincaid reads Christopher Columbus' accounts of his first voyage to the New World, she sees "with terror, his present and our future ... it makes our presence now seem inevitable."
Kincaid read from and commented on the journals, which she called a "founding text" of her own work and life, in Salomon 101 last night to kick off Caribbean Heritage Week. Kincaid spoke about how Columbus' initial impressions of the Caribbean set the template for how foreigners - specifically, white Europeans - continue to see the region today and what it has meant for people of Caribbean heritage.
Born in Antigua in 1949, Kincaid came to New York when she was 16. After working and attending college for several years, she began publishing her short stories in the New Yorker magazine and launched her literary career. Kincaid's major works include "At the Bottom of the River," "Annie John," "A Small Place," "Lucy," "Autobiography of My Mother," "Mr. Potter" and, most recently, 2005's "Among Flowers."
After an introduction from President Ruth Simmons, Kincaid read from Samuel Eliot Morison's translation of Columbus' journals. She then discussed the text's implications for the modern Caribbean and answered questions from the audience.
Kincaid called Columbus an "Adam-like figure" and a "patriarch" in Caribbean history. But, she added, "Unlike most patriarchs, we don't really like him," provoking laughter from the crowd.
Columbus' accounts, though written in the 15th century, "echo ... all Caribbean centuries," Kincaid said. The Caribbean "doesn't yield for us the pleasure, wealth and imaginative richness," it does for outsiders like Columbus, she said.
"We go to places like the West Indies to forget who we are, to take a respite from who we are," she said. "Tourism is supposed to be an equal exchange. I am equal to Florentines or Parisians. In Jamaica or Antigua, it is not an equal exchange, and that was evident from the beginning. Why?'
Kincaid encouraged the audience to consider this question over the course of Caribbean Heritage Week.
"There is the idea that (the Caribbean) is a source of something for somewhere else - wealth, but not for the people there," she said, describing a theme found in both the journals and her own work.
Kincaid read one passage in which Columbus decides to capture and bring home some of the "Indians" he encountered to show them to the king and queen and educate them in Spanish and Catholicism.
This passage sparked debate among members of the audience. One audience member, who said she is working on a book about Columbus, said Columbus never used the word "slave" and restrained his crew from "raping and mobbing." She added that the people he brought back to Spain lived in the royal court and "were subjects of the queen, so they could not be slaves." The audience member also questioned the accuracy of the translation Kincaid read.
Kincaid responded that Columbus was "rather self-righteous" in his journals and that his behavior laid the foundation for Western exploitation of the Caribbean. Other audience members expressed indignation that forcibly removing people from their native countries could even be defended.
The theme of this year's Caribbean Heritage Week is "Flip a Caribbean coin, the good and the bad," said organizer Fedna Jacquet '10. The week features events that "show both the Caribbean's beauty, such as Jamaica Kincaid, who is a wonderful author, as well as some of the problems," Jacquet said.
Jacquet said of Kincaid, "Anything she says, it's a blessing to hear it."
