MHRD-UGC ePG Pathshala - English Principal Investigator & Affiliation: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Paper No & Title: Canadian, Australian and South Pacific Literatures in English (Paper 07) Paper Coordinator & Affiliation: Prof. Suchorita Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University, Kolkata Module Number & Title: Diasporic Poetry (18) Content Writer's Name & Affiliation: Dr. Swagata Bhattacharya, Jadavpur University Name & Affiliation of Content Reviewer: Prof. Suchorita Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University Name & Affiliation of Language Editor: Prof. Suchorita Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University In this module we shall discuss: The meaning and origin of the term ‘diaspora’. The background of various diasporas such as the Indo-Caribbean, the South Asian and the Chinese-Japanese diasporas Short biographies of Ramabai Espinet, Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta, Roy Miki, Frederic Wah, Dionne Brand and George Elliott Clarke Critical appreciation of twelve poems- ‘Hosay Night’, ‘A Nowhere Place’, ‘Winter ‘84’, ‘In the Valley of the Towers’, ‘Make It New’, ‘Kiyooka’, ‘Race, To Go’, ‘How to Hunt’, ‘Stateless’, ‘Epigrams to Ernesto Cardenal in Defense of Claudia’, ‘Everything is Free’ and ‘Exile’. Diaspora: Meaning and Origin The first mention of the word diaspora can be traced to the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Old Testament into Koine Greek (3 – 2 century BC) The Septuagint contained a phrase – “ese diaspora en pasais basileias tes ges”, which translates into English as “thou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth”. The use of the word began to develop from this original sense. The word diaspora is derived from joining the Greek word ‘dia’ and the infinitive ‘speirein’ to mean “to spread, to scatter or to disperse”. The etymological meaning of the word makes it a term to describe scattered and/ or dispersed people across the globe. Until the early 1960s, diaspora as a term remained confined to the Judeo-Christian traditions. In 1966, for the first time, the concept of African diaspora was introduced to the world by George Shepperson in his classic article ‘The African Abroad or the African Diaspora’. The popularization of the term within African Studies led to its boosted usage in various disciplines of the Humanities. Since the 1980s, scholars in disciplines such as anthropology, linguistics and of course literature, used the term to relate to expatriate ethnic or cultural or religious groups and communities. Canada, commonly known as a land of immigrants, is home to a large number of diasporas spread across the nation. By a diaspora what is now generally referred to is a group of people having a common point of origin and sharing a common dream of returning to that original homeland. The Indo-Caribbean, the South Asian diaspora, the Chinese and Japanese diaspora, the Caribbean diaspora and the African diaspora are among the major diasporas prevalent in the socio-political-cultural scenario of Canada. Background of Indo-Caribbean Diaspora: When slavery was abolished in 1833, the British plantations in Guyana and Trinidad urgently needed labour to meet the severe shortage of workers. India offered itself as an obvious major alternative source of labour. In areas where land was scarce, such as the Caribbean islands, newly freed slaves were forced back to work on the plantations. In areas where land was plentiful such as Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad, former slaves took up independent subsistence farming. The need for plantation workers was supplied in part by the system of indented labour. Natives of India agreed to work for a fixed number of years in one of the former colonies in exchange for a meager wage and lodging. Indian labour immigration to Guyana took place in 1838 and to Trinidad in 1845. Most labourers came from the northern and eastern parts of India, though a sizable minority came from the Tamil and Telugu speaking regions of the south. They were mostly Hindus but there were very few Muslims also. In the 1840s, labourers from India started coming to Guyana in South America, and to Mauritius off the coast of Africa; in the 1860s to the British colony of Natal in South Africa; in the 1870s to the Dutch colony of Surinam, and in the 1880s to Fiji. The indenture system was finally abolished in 1917, though immigration to colonial areas continued even after that. Even today, the people of India constitute more than forty percent of the population in Guyana and Trinidad. Initially, missionary activities were met with resistance from the East Indians who desired to retain their culture and ethnic identity. Presbyterian Mission began working among the Guyanese East Indians in 1885 and in Trinidad in 1867. A Canadian missionary, John Morton, headed the Presbyterian Mission in Trinidad. He succeeded in converting most East Indians into Presbyterians. Much of the Indo-Caribbean exodus from Guyana and Trinidad, chiefly to the United Kingdom and Canada, began in the 1960s. It was the result of ethnic tension between ‘blacks’ and East Indians in the two newly independent Caribbean nations of Guyana and Trinidad. This was the period when Pierre Trudeau’s policy of Multiculturalism seemed to welcome third world immigrants into Canada. One of the most prominent poets of the Indo-Caribbean diaspora in Canada is Ramabai Espinet. Ramabai Espinet The Indo-Caribbean-Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and critic Ramabai Espinet (1948-) was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. She came to Canada to study at York University and got her doctoral degree from the University Of West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago. At present, she teaches English at Seneca College. Her first book of poems Nuclear Seasons (1991) established her as a poet of eminence. Princess of Spadina (1992), Ninja’s Carnival (1993) are among her other books of poetry. Her debut novel The Swinging Bridge (2003) is a landmark in her literary career. ‘Hosay Night’ Ramabai Espinet’s poems may be analyzed best under the heading of ‘cultural memory’(since in her works no memory is individual, she speaks of a vast collective memory related to and rooted in cultures, both Indian and Creole). The history of migration of indentured labour, and a subsequent double migration led to a sense of double displacement and confusion among poets like Espinet. The political need to invent and identity forms the basis of her poem ‘Hosay Night’. Physically present in Canada, the protagonist of the poem unlocks the “rusty iron lock of memory” to witness Muharram in the streets of Port of Spain. ‘Hosay’, coming from Hossain, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, was a night festival in Trinidad. It was an occasion for celebration by a mixed population. But the memories of celebration are interwoven with other kinds of memory, the ones which are like “the cutting edge of bitter cane” . Those memories are the ones related to the reality of poverty, suffering and exploitation of the ancestors. The poet sometimes becomes a small girl, sometimes a small boy wandering along the streets of Trinidad, watching the ‘tadjah’s, the lights, the sounds and the drums. This is the poet’s journey of memory. Once it’s over, she returns from her psychic space to the physical one. Her sense of homelessness and the painful process of adapting to her new homeland is manifested in every line – “we lived alone”, “this land is home to me/ now homeless, a true refugee”. ‘A Nowhere Place’ Ramabai Espinet’s ‘A Nowhere Place’ echoes the same deep-rooted feeling of non- belongingness. She deliberately uses the word ‘refugee’ to drive home the enormity of the cultural dispossession of the Indo-Caribbeans. They are “strangers everywhere”, victims of “misplacement/ of displacement”. They are neither Caribbean nor Indian. The displaced people suffered due to their stubborn inclination to retain their ethnic cultural identity. Thus, what could have been their advantage, worked against them and they could never become Caribbean. They lived apart, remained politically inactive and uninvolved in the mainstream of the Afro- Caribbean struggle. Thus, generally whenever Caribbean culture is discussed or imaged, the Indo-Caribbean community finds a “nowhere place”. They are akin to thieves, they are declared shameless, they are the usurpers of land. They have always been charged with these allegations without anyone realizing that they actually have no land of their own, that they actually belong nowhere. South Asian Diaspora: The earliest South Asian immigrants to Canada were railway workers and lumber men who were packed off in large numbers from India and China in the 1800s because white labourers refused to be employed in those perilous and meagerly paid jobs such as railway construction. Since then, South Asian immigrants have always been in demand in the Canadian labour market. Most South Asians in Canada trace their lineage back to India. Approximately around the period between 1905 and 1908, some five thousand South Asians arrived in British Columbia. They were obviously lured by economic prospects. Throughout the early 1900s, a set of deliberate restrictive laws prohibited much South Asian immigration. However, by the 1960s and 1970s restrictions were gradually loosened and immigration legislation in 1962 and 1967 substantially liberalized South Asian migration in Canada. Before 1962, most immigrants from South Asia were men from Punjab. After 1962, the influx was more balanced between men and women. Besides Sikhs from Punjab, educated Hindus from Gujarat, Bombay and Delhi came to Canada, as well as Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh and Buddhists from Sri Lanka. Krishantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta He is a Canadian poet of Sri Lankan origin who lives in Toronto. His publications include Domestic Bliss (1982), The Only Minority is the Bourgeoisie (1985) and The 52nd State of Amnesia (1992). He writes for The Toronto South Asian Review. ‘Winter ‘84’ Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta’s ‘Winter ’84’ is an ironical poem which paints a picture of stark reality faced by immigrants in multicultural Canada.