Submitted by Taurence Chisholm on the 2018 winter session program in Martinique sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
This week was very hard because the inability to use WiFi is getting a little difficult. I realized that I’m not on my phone as much and I didn’t have the connections to do what I needed, like send emails. Classes are still alright, but this week the conferences we sat in on were very interesting. I think is is always good to learn perspective anywhere you go in every subject and this week was a highlight. We sat in on a forum of people working on the reform of education in the city of Schoelcher. Although I didn’t catch everything, they wanted to focus on cultural programs, that promoted the arts, as well as historical programs that brought students closer to their heritage.
Along with tha,t we talked about and visited sugar plantations. I learned that many of the methods of control and oppression employed in the States were also employed in the Carribean. I also learned that in many ways the journeys were very similar. I got a chance to talk to my host mom’s daughter, Yuna, mother of Daiya. Yuna spoke on the exploitative nature of the system we live in even now, and the necessity for education and bridging the gap between the generation. Which, as a musical woman, she believed could be done through dance and singing. Later, I sat in on a talk about literature in Martinique and the ties it has to ideas such as Negritude, and true post colonial freedom. Speaking with people here about oppression opened up some very good conversations about identity and acceptance for all of us.
