Cricket As a Diasporic Resource for Caribbean-Canadians by Janelle Beatrice Joseph a Thesis Submitted in Conformity with the Re
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Cricket as a Diasporic Resource for Caribbean-Canadians by Janelle Beatrice Joseph A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences University of Toronto © Janelle Beatrice Joseph 2010 Cricket as a Diasporic Resource for Caribbean-Canadians Janelle Beatrice Joseph Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences University of Toronto 2010 Abstract The diasporic resources and transnational flows of the Black diaspora have increasingly been of concern to scholars. However, the making of the Black diaspora in Canada has often been overlooked, and the use of sport to connect migrants to the homeland has been virtually ignored. This study uses African, Black and Caribbean diaspora lenses to examine the ways that first generation Caribbean-Canadians use cricket to maintain their association with people, places, spaces, and memories of home. In this multi-sited ethnography I examine a group I call the Mavericks Cricket and Social Club (MCSC), an assembly of first generation migrants from the Anglo-Caribbean. My objective to “follow the people” took me to parties, fundraising dances, banquets, and cricket games throughout the Greater Toronto Area on weekends from early May to late September in 2008 and 2009. I also traveled with approximately 30 MCSC members to observe and participate in tours and tournaments in Barbados, England, and St. Lucia and conducted 29 in- depth, semi-structured interviews with male players and male and female supporters. I found that the Caribbean diaspora is maintained through liming (hanging out) at cricket matches and social events. Speaking in their native Patois language, eating traditional Caribbean foods, and consuming alcohol are significant means of creating spaces in which Caribbean- Canadians can network with other members of the diaspora. Furthermore, diasporas are ii preserved through return visits, not only to their nations of origin, but to a more broadly defined homeland, found in other Caribbean countries, England, the United States and elsewhere in Canada. This study shows that while diasporas may form a unified communitas they also reinforce class, gender, nation and ethnicity hierarchies and exclusions in diasporic spaces. For example, women and Indo-Caribbeans are mainly absent from or marginalized at the cricket grounds, which celebrates a masculine, Afro-Caribbean culture. Corporeal practices such as sports, and their related social activities, can be deployed as diasporic resources that create a sense of deterritorialized community for first generation Caribbean migrants. iii Acknowledgements I deeply appreciate your unwavering support, shrewd judgments, and cogent advice when I needed them most: Dr. Peter Donnelly, Dr. Caroline Fusco, Dr. Margaret MacNeill, Dr. Cameron McCarthy, Dr. Melanie Newton, and Dr. Ato Quayson. Without your cricket expertise, wise ideas, open sharing, and nostalgic stories, there would be no dissertation. Thank you: E. Bertram Joseph, Eugene Soanes, Henry Yearwood, John Verneuil, Keith Greene, Nigel Griffith, and Roy Pollard. Your support of my academic achievements gave me the confidence to pursue this path. For that I will always be indebted: Chris Hallinan, Lockie MacPherson, Patricia Landolt, and Russell Field. I am truly grateful for your critical insights, careful editing, creative input, and patient reading: Chris Nock, Dian Bridge, Kyoung-Yim Kim, Eileen Joseph, Parissa Safai, and Yuka Nakamura. Your energy sustained me every day, and the tenacity with which you tackle your own professional, intellectual, social and emotional projects gave me the resolve to continue my own: Alex Karolyi, Claudia DeSimone, Crystal (Garra) Burke, Jane (Gafanhoto) Lee, Josephine Mullally, Jamaal Joseph, and Laura (Alegria) Molinari. Thank you. Sincerely. iv Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------1 The Caribbean-Canadian Diaspora 07 Project Details 10 Chapter overview 13 Chapter Two: Review of Literature----------------------------------------------------------- 17 Diaspora Studies 18 Diaspora 19 African diaspora: heritage, syncretism, and yearning 24 Black diaspora: global racial flows 28 Caribbean diaspora: transnational cultural networks 34 Summary 42 Tracking the ‘Routes’ of Caribbean-Canadians in Canada’s Racial Discourse 44 Black migration to Canada 44 Caribbean-Canadian cultural representations 46 Caribbean-Canadian athletes 49 Summary 52 Sociology of Sport 52 Sport and imperialism 53 Imperial cricket 55 Recreational master's cricket 58 Sport and diaspora 62 Summary 65 Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework----------------------------------------------------- 67 Cultural Studies 67 Spatial Theory 70 Gender Theory 73 Nostalgia Theory 77 Summary 79 Research questions 80 Chapter Four: Methodology and Methods -------------------------------------------------- 82 Interpretive Qualitative Methodology 82 Validity: reflexivity, positionality, and crystallization 84 Interpretive representation strategies 89 v Methods and Procedures 90 Multi-sited fieldwork 90 Research sites 92 Research population 94 Participant observation 95 Interviews 97 Data analysis, interpretation, and representation 99 Human research ethics 101 Summary 101 Chapter Five: Celebration and Charity as Caribbean Community-Making Practices--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------103 Getting a Little R and R (Rice and Rum): Regenerating Community through Liming 106 GTA cricket: a Black social space 107 Pre-game liming 115 Liming during games 123 Post-game liming 138 Summary 153 Beyond the Boundary: Regenerating Community through Economic Activities 155 Local and Caribbean charities 157 Cricket remittances 159 Fundraising 164 Summary 166 Chapter Six: Nostalgia and the Disjunctures of Diaspora-------------------------------168 Men’s Nostalgia: (Be)Longing at/for Home 169 Stories of childhood cricket 172 Memories of Windies supremacy 180 Narratives of travel 191 Summary 201 Liberation Cricket(?): Women and the Disjunctures of Diaspora 202 Cricket Widows 203 Gossipers 211 Supporters 224 Summary 228 Chapter Seven: Nations Unbound: (Trans)Nationalisms and Cricket ---------------231 Transnational Networks and Return Visits 233 International return visits 235 Caribbean return visits 243 Hosting return visits in Canada 253 Summary 256 vi Post-Colonial Politics and Inter-Diasporic Group Relations 257 From English to Caribbean to South Asian leagues 260 Language and food barriers 268 'Spirited' conflicts 273 Summary 282 Performances of Nationalism 285 Representing the Canadian nation-state 287 Performing Caribbean ‘nationalisms’ 296 Summary 302 Chapter Eight: Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------------304 Homeland Maintenance 306 Multiply-located Participants 308 Communitas and Disjunctures 309 Future Research 311 Contributions 313 References -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------318 Appendices-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------355 Appendix A- Caribbean map 355 Appendix B- A model of the Caribbean Diaspora and Mavericks’ cricket flows 356 Appendix C- Interview themes 357 Appendix D- Mavericks demographics 358 Appendix E- Research Information Letter and Consent forms 360 vii Chapter One: Introduction My dad is one of the most passionate former athletes I know. When I was a child, growing up in Markham, Ontario, he woke up and went for an early morning run every day. Rain or snow, limping or sore – he ran. I’m sure he enjoyed his daily morning ritual, but to me it seemed it was associated with a sense of duty or obligation, if only to his ascetic ideals. He also used to join a friend for regular rounds of tennis, but cricket, on summer weekends, was clearly the highlight of his week. He got immense pleasure from bowling, batting and being recognized by his peers for his achievements. His laughter, vibrant disagreements, and excited story telling at the cricket grounds told me that, in addition to playing, he also thoroughly enjoyed socializing with his Caribbean friends. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of summer weekends in Toronto, when my family would sometimes attend Dad’s regular Saturday and Sunday games. My brother and I would play tag, soccer or cards with other children and there was always a barbeque or picnic prepared by my mother to enjoy. We never watched the cricket match. I hadn’t the faintest idea of the rules of the sport. But I was always excited for the games against visiting teams. Especially on Caribana weekends, typically the last weekend of July. For Caribana, Toronto’s annual celebration of Caribbean culture, my father’s friends from his youthful days in Antigua would come to visit us. Kanhai and Sobers would take a bus from their homes in New York City with their teams and sometimes their wives. They would play a game of cricket or two, attend a dance or picnic – hosted by the Antigua and Barbuda Association of Toronto – and, of course, go to the Caribana parade and the associated festivities. As a child, I helped my mom make dinner for the group and begged to be allowed to stay up late with our guests. However, as the night progressed and the men became rowdier, 1 2 riled up by alcohol and the excitement of playing dominoes, I was sent to bed. Instead of going to sleep, I often sat at the top of the stairs, or lay awake