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Towards a Cultural Rhetorics Approach to Caribbean Rhetoric: African Guyanese Women from the Village of Buxton Transforming Oral History

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Towards a Cultural Rhetorics Approach to Caribbean Rhetoric: African Guyanese Women from the Village of Buxton Transforming Oral History TOWARDS A CULTURAL RHETORICS APPROACH TO CARIBBEAN RHETORIC: AFRICAN GUYANESE WOMEN FROM THE VILLAGE OF BUXTON TRANSFORMING ORAL HISTORY Pauline Felicia Baird A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2016 Committee: Andrea Riley-Mukavetz, Advisor Alberto Gonzalez, Graduate Faculty Representative Sue Carter Wood Lee Nickoson © 2016 Pauline Felicia Baird All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Andrea Riley-Mukavetz, Advisor In my project, “Towards a Cultural Rhetorics Approach to Caribbean Rhetoric: African Guyanese Women from the Village of Buxton Transforming Oral History,” I build a Cultural Rhetorics approach by listening to the stories of a group of African Guyanese women from the village of Buxton (Buxtonians). I obtained these stories from engaging in a long-term oral history research project where I understand my participants to be invested in telling their stories to teach the current and future generations of Buxtonians. I build this approach by using a collaborative and communal methodology of “asking”—Wah De Story Seh? This methodology provides a framework for understanding the women’s strategies in history-making as distinctively Caribbean rhetoric. It is crucial for my project to mark these women’s strategies as Caribbean rhetoric because they negotiate their oral histories and identities by consciously and unconsciously connecting to an African ancestral heritage of formerly enslaved Africans in Guyana. In my project, I enact story as methodology to understand the rhetorical strategies that the Buxtonian women use to make oral histories and by so doing, I examine the relationship among rhetoric, knowledge, and power. iv To Buxton “To add to our illustrious line of sons and daughters, who all time gave of their best that they may shine for Buxton my own native land” (The Buxton Battle Song). v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To the ancestors who made a way for me, I offer my deepest thanks. To my family: The Bairds, the Griffiths, the Jacksons, and the Watsons, I owe a debt of gratitude. My immediate family: Lenny Oberg, Gem Murray, Gavin Baird, Dain Baird-Rogers, Morton Baird, Dara Baird, Junior Baird, Denise Martin, Marva Fortune, Wendy Zephyr, Audrey Zephyr-Willabus, Dorothy Oberg, thank you. I also thank my friends who provided material and moral support: Paulette Coulter, Joy Forde, Cloyd Nelson, Sherranne Doorgasingh, John Newton, Basil London, Sarah Tekle, Shirley Faulkner-Springfield, Colleen Holder, Egon Reid, Ron Hogue, Penelope Montfort, Wayne Gordon, Andre Baveghems, Michael Ward, Roger Jeffrey, Thora Mark, Bernadette Boatswain, Ulric Mark, the late Mark Austin, the late Skip Zeitler, Dr. Vibert Cambridge, Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen, Dr. Kimani Nehusi, and Dr. Dianne Strong for listening to my stories, sharing your knowledge, reading my manuscript, proofreading, feeding me, driving me places, picking up from airports, giving me a table in your homes to write, and much more. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Andrea Riley- Mukavetz for her unfailing support and mentorship throughout this project. To Dr. Gillian Richards-Greaves for inspiration, long late-night chats, and support. I would also like extend thanks to those who offered guidance: Dr. Sue Carter Wood, Dr. Lee Nickoson, Dr. Alberto Gonzales, Dr. Christopher Schreiner, and Eusi Kwayana. My sincerest gratitude is extended to the Buxtonian women: Jennifer Lee, Lorna Campbell, Cheryl Glen, Shevan Forde, and Tamika Boatswain, who shared their life stories with me so that I could do this work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. SITUATING THE STUDY—MAPPING OUR JOURNEYS WITH STORIES .................................................................................................................... 1 A Letter to the Young Buxtonians ............................................................................. 1 Buxton People Stop Train .............................................................................. 1 A Letter to the Dissertation Committee ..................................................................... 10 Making Relationships: Five Buxtonian Women ........................................................ 14 Shevan Forde ................................................................................................. 14 Cheryl Glen .................................................................................................... 17 Tamika Boatswain ......................................................................................... 20 Jennifer Lee .................................................................................................... 23 Lorna Campbell ............................................................................................. 27 Making Connections: Situating Land and People in Story ........................................ 30 Making Relationships: Situating Story with (in) Cultural Rhetorics ......................... 35 Making Relationships: Situating Story in Buxtonian History and Caribbean Rhetoric 43 Conclusion………….. ............................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER II. AN “ASKING” METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ORAL HISTORY ......................................................................................................... 47 A Letter to the Young Buxtonians ............................................................................. 47 I Sell My Village ............................................................................................ 47 I Heard It First from My Grandmother .......................................................... 49 You Go to Your Grandmother to Collect Bam-bye ........................................ 50 vi A Lot of Traditions Are Not Being Passed Down ........................................... 52 Women Are the Agents of Change ................................................................ 53 A Letter to the Dissertation Committee ..................................................................... 54 An “Asking Methodology”—I Began with a Poem: ..................................... 57 “Asking” to Do Cultural Rhetorics .................................................... 60 “Asking” to do Caribbean Rhetoric ................................................... 61 We Do: Using Blood and Marking Heritage ..................................... 64 #“Old People” vs “Archivist” ............................................................ 67 “What if I Talk About People and Their Family Get Vexed with Me?” 69 Writing, Trust, and Colonial Impact .................................................. 70 Leaving a Buxtonian, Returning an Academic .................................. 74 Conclusion………….. ............................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER III. RELATING LAND, BODIES, AND PRACTICE ...................................... 77 A Letter to the Young Buxtonians ............................................................................. 77 They Used to Throw Box ............................................................................... 77 They Had to Go and Break the Bricks ........................................................... 78 Some Never Came Back ................................................................................ 79 It Always Seemed to be Struggling ............................................................... 81 You Blaze a Trail ........................................................................................... 82 A Letter to the Dissertation Committee ..................................................................... 83 Weaving Our Stories as a Decolonial and Land-based Practice .................... 85 Towards a Decolonial and Land-based Inquiry: Mapping Land and Making a Village ............................................................................................................ 87 vii Valuing Land: Cultivating a Relationship for Growth .................................. 91 Land, Bodies, and Practice: The Women Who Planted ..................... 93 Conclusion………….. ............................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER IV. TOWARDS A RELATIONAL THEORY OF SURVIVAL....................... 100 A Letter to the Young Buxtonians ............................................................................. 100 My Grandparents Talked About That Story .................................................. 101 Buxtonian Women are Very Strong ............................................................... 103 That is the One that [‘s] Gonna do Something for You ................................. 103 I Have Never Told That Story ....................................................................... 104 Success is Supposed to Breed Success .......................................................... 105 A Letter to the Dissertation Committee ..................................................................... 106 Girl-Child Training ........................................................................................ 109 Girl-Child Training: A Land-based Methodology and Pedagogy ................. 114 Village Perspectives and Dominant Academic Perspectives ............. 117 Location of knowledge ............................................................ 117 Entrances to knowledge making .............................................. 117 Knowledge authorities
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