Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 122-147 Always a Domesc?: The Queson of Canadian Redemp,on and Belonging in Selected Literature by Black Canadian Writers Sharon Morgan Beckford Rochester Ins,tute of Technology Dr. Sharon Morgan Beckford, Department of English, Rochester Instute of Technology [email protected] Abstract: The narraves of black writers of Caribbean descent living in Canada provide a useful perspec,ve on blacks and belonging in Canada. Their stories elevate the history and legacy of the Domes,c Worker Program, which from the 1950s brought young black women from the Bri,sh Caribbean to Canada.1 This program began in an era when Canada’s immigraon policies severely restricted Caribbean people from migrang to and seOling in Canada. These early immigrants were the forerunners of later streams of black immigrants from around the world. In my reading of a selec,on of fic,on by Aus,n Clarke, Dionne Brand, Cecil Foster, and David Chariandy, I argue that their narraves show that while immigraon policies may have changed, the social posi,oning and inequali,es imposed on the domes,cs s,ll explain the social roles and posi,oning of blacks in Canada. These writers speculate whether, historically, the narrave of the black female in Canada is always to be imagined as a domes,c. public library, a short distance from In November 2007 I attended an parliament, the Supreme Court, and the event of little national note in residence of then Governor-General Ottawa, the Canadian capital. It was Michaëlle Jean, the first black in Canada to celebrate the 41st anniversary of to hold this regal position and herself a Barbados independence and to mark Caribbean immigrant.3 the 50th anniversary of the official arrival of the first women from the In comments to the gathering, British Caribbean under the Senator Ann Cools—like Jean another Domestic Worker Scheme.2 The black and Caribbean woman to reach celebrated women were not the first national prominence—reminded the West Indians to arrive in Canada as three generations of women4 in the domestics, but one of the traits audience that although much has been remarkable about them as a achieved for blacks in Canada, the pioneering group was their efforts to pioneering work of the early domestic escape the ascribed status of recruits was still incomplete.5 She said domestics and to transform Canadian blacks were still fighting for themselves into Canadians capable greater social inclusion, a sense of of living out their life dreams—just belonging, a challenge the keynote like ordinary Canadians. The speaker at the event, Cecil Foster, celebration was held at the Ottawa dubbed as a struggle for recognition and 122 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 122-147 human dignity. This paper is about —appear unable to escape the social the story of that unfinished business, positioning and stigma reserved as constructed through the fiction historically for domestic workers. This written by Caribbean-born analysis is about women as social agents Canadians: Austin Clarke’s novels and whether those with black skin in The Meeting Point (1967) and More Canada can ever liberate themselves (2008); Dionne Brand’s novel In from the dominant perception that the Another Place, Not Here (1996) and color of their skin makes them good only short stories “Blossom” (1989) and for the social position of domestic “No rinsed blue sky, no red flower workers. fences” (1989); Cecil Foster’s novel Sleep On, Beloved (1995); and David For the black female in general, Chariandy’s novel Soucouyant the ideal redemption painted by these (2007). I contend that these black writers is based on the hope of attaining writers use fiction to tell the stories subjectivity in and belonging to the of immigrants and the later Canadian nation-state. It is what the generations of Canadians they leading characters in these works produced. They articulate the perceive as a promise of a better life that experiences of the black female would lead to social integration into the subject, as an outsider, sacrificing Canadian mainstream and to full herself in the hope of a better life in attainment of all the rights and a new land. Her desire, something I responsibilities of a citizen. This ideal call a hope for C a n a d i a n goes beyond merely the economic. In an redemption, is for ultimate ideal world, these fictional characters transformation from marginal status experience desired redemption when into full citizenship. their dreams are realized. As with the real life women on whom the fictional Highly intuitive, the notion counterparts are modeled, obstacles are of Canadian redemption is always in their path to this redemption. simultaneously personal and In both the fictional and the practical impersonal: it is deeply personal for worlds, the obstacles to social the individual who hopes to achieve actualization are best exemplified by the that redemption in society, a state and its seeming unwillingness to profoundly impersonal space. In this allow the women to realize their dreams. context, I am suggesting that the This is where so-called fact and fiction notion of redemption as it traveled combine for a single narrative, one that across time and, as made current in is picked up in the realistic novels and this fiction, now speaks of the short stories of the writers under review. dreams and experiences of all black The conflict, as depicted in these stories, females in general, both those whose is usually a result of differences in status in life is still the domestic and perspective on belonging, as those who work in other fields but demonstrated by the state or the female who—merely because they are black characters themselves. 123 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 122-147 For example, the Canadian redemption is imaginary, something that government’s ideal of redemption is starts out as a hope in the transcendent, one of benevolence—a form of because, in a sense, only the women objectification of the agentless black themselves can feel they have been body. Historically, the Canadian redeemed. Feelings cannot be proven nation’s aim to ease the economic objectively, but, nonetheless, they can problems of the less fortunate still be measured—such as how socially members of the British Empire was entrenched these women feel they have to provide rotating, temporary become and, perhaps even more opportunities of employment to important, whether future generations of selected female migrants when black women enjoy social mobility, that Canada needed a cheap supply of is they are not restricted only to menial labor. This goal was the genesis of and marginal roles in the society. Thus, I the Domestic Worker Program, turn to fiction to examine how they feel which itself was the precursor to about themselves and their status. more open immigration by blacks from the 1960s onwards, thereby Theorist Hilde Lindemann producing a black presence in major Nelson (2001) states in Damaged Canadian cities. The primary aim of Identities, Narrative Repair that the the domestic program was not to construction of stories—in this case help individuals per se but rather a those of the fiction genre—are how part of the British Empire with an some groups damaged historically can oversupply of labor. These make themselves whole. Indeed, individuals would be prescribed narratives such as fiction help to locate universal duties agreed to by the such people in time and space. I argue governments. They had to meet the that through these narratives of needs of Canadians as domestic immigrant women, Canadian blacks give workers, even if it meant sacrificing themselves a sense of rootedness and personal dreams. They would be belonging—a sense of citizenship even positioned in the Canadian society as when they might be living on the itinerant economic beings with no margins. This is why fiction is an real social attachment to the wider appropriate genre for this undertaking, society. for the narrative of Canadian redemption is one of intangibles. Studying the However, for black women, selected fictional works allow us to redemption was something analyze this desired redemption completely different. It had very subjectively—as what the women little to do with their work status but themselves define and require. These more with the type of social stories place the struggle for redemption personalities they could become after in time, for they speak of the past, the they had transitioned from their present, and the speculative hopes and entry-level status as domestic dreams of their black female characters. workers. Indeed, for the women this 124 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 122-147 Fiction privileges the imaginary, employment visa foreclosed belonging, merging the real and the idealized. full acceptance, recognition, and integration. These programs were never These authors place their intended to make the women feel they characters in situations similar to belonged.6 I mean to use the term those women on the scheme or belonging as described by scholar Cecil holding temporary employment visas Foster in his award-winning book to effectively demonstrate their Blackness and Modernity: The Colour of realization that Canadian redemption Humanity and the Quest for Freedom is a myth: the widely held belief that (2008): migrating to Canada would allow individuals to attain a strong sense of Mythologically, Western financial independence and to societies have been achieve upward social mobility, all imagined as gardens of the things they imagined would purity and enlightenment come with the attainment of full that have been carved out citizenship.