Postcolonial era writers made several crucial attempts to deterritorialize their land, which colonists had taken. For instance, Kincaid sets this process in Antigua by narrating how negatively tourism has impacted Antigua. A Small Place by Kincaid primarily concentrates on how Antigua has been exploited and colonized through tourism. Significantly, the writer tries to look at the former colonial country through Western tourists’ eyes. Kincaid reflects on what might get tourists’ attention, as well as what remains out of their sight.
The non-fiction, A Small Place, forwards the readers and emphasizes how the people of Antigua relate to their environment for harmonious coexistence. The book begins with, “if you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see” (Kincaid 3). This sentence disconnects any notion or preconceived idea a reader might have about Antigua. Instead, it directs them to the environment to read about and understand the damages deterritorialization has inflicted upon Antigua.
Reterritorialization within Kincaid’s critique is the restructuring of Antigua that has experienced deterritorialization. Essentially, deterritorialization is always accompanied by reterritorialization, which refers to the significant changes introduced by the new power. Kincaid states that tourism is a neo-colonial structure that destroys Antiguan identity under the clutches of the corrupt government. Thus, A Small place is a Kincaid attempt to reterritorialize Antigua and its culture by influencing people’s perception through information about the hazards of tourism distributed on a large scale.
In addition, in her creative non-fiction work, Kincaid compares the oppressive colonial past of Antigua, which involved natural and human resources exploitation, to the present, which is impacted in the same way by a new form of colonization, namely tourism. Notably, Kincaid considers that the tourism industry harms Antigua because it is a new land occupation, resulting in citizens’ enslavement and environmental racism. Thus, reterritorialization involves sincere desires for recovering the country that has been violated with a form of neo-colonization.
Stephanie Black expresses the same idea in her documentary Life and Debt, which focuses on the catastrophic influence on the local economy of the combined strength of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international business. The new power irreparably destroys Jamaica’s industry, in this case, milk and chicken production. Cheap products from abroad are pushing local industries out of business (Black). Despite the land fertility, agriculture is being destroyed, and Jamaica incurs a considerable debt. As a result, the country and its culture are transformed into space, the main and often the only industry, namely tourism. The director gradually shows how globalization and deterritorialization affect national sovereignty. The coming of ‘tourists’ has influenced the culture and way of life. Therefore, the forgoing culture in this context refers to the country that loses the productive power and national identity and turns into a tourism space.
In addition, Kincaid looks at reterritorialization from three dimensions, mythic, psychic, and environmental. Mythic reterritorialization applies to how home, community, and a sense of identity are recovered and healed from the adverse effects, such as exploitation of natural and human resources imposed on them by neo-colonization. Kincaid, therefore, tells the readers about her past, culture, and sense of identity, which is preceding in nature. The records are those of slavery that European colonization, those who come as tourists subjected their ancestors. She recalls,
In Antigua, people speak of slavery as if it had been a pageant full of large ships sailing on blue water, and the large ships filled up with human cargo—their ancestors; they got off, they were forced to work under inhuman conditions, they were beaten, they were murdered, they were sold. (Kincaid 35).
These statements bring the atrocities that have destroyed her identity, culture, and home to light. Kincaid is adamant that the lack of rainfall in the Caribbean islands is because of the atrocities of the colonizers despite the land being surrounded by enormous oceans. The horrors did not accommodate local circumstances; hence, the land was rendered useless; reterritorialization had to be carried out.
On the other hand, psychic reterritorialization involves getting into deep thought with the readers and appealing to them with the hope of getting the love they once had for their motherland. Kincaid does this by talking about her childhood and her love for her mother, who was a headmistress. The voice she uses brings to life the nation’s loss, including slavery, which impacts everybody (Kincaid 14). Therefore, the love for the motherland is deemed to be vital in the reterritorialization of what has been lost. The final form of reterritorialization is environmental reterritorialization; it involves the writer naturally putting her setting to capture a landscape and emphasize the local agricultural economy. Kincaid demonstrates the love for the value the environment offers; the value has been lost and needs to be reclaimed.
To conclude, Kincaid calls for the need to recuperate through the environmental, psychic and mythic reterritorialization, to return to the Antiguan culture and identity. The foregone features of the homeland were taken away by European colonizers who now come as tourists. Kincaid stresses that tourism affects Antigua’s occupation, eroding their culture, environment and re-enslaving their people. Therefore, the local authorities should develop strategies to deterritorialize.
Works Cited
Black, Stephanie. “Life and Debt.” FMovies | Watch Movies Online Free on FMovies.to, 2001.
Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. Macmillan, 2000.