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The Historical Context :
Jamaica Kincaid:
Kincaid, who is Black and Jewish, lived with her stepfather, a carpenter, and her mother until 1965. In Antigua, she completed her secondary education under the British system, due to Antigua's status as a British colony until 1967.
She came to New York at the age of 17 to work for a family as an au pair. She went on to study photography at the New School for Social Research after leaving the family for which she worked, and also attended Franconia College in New Hampshire for a year.
this text was originally on reference.com under the article "Jamaica kincaid"
Her writing career:
In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing. Her first writing experience involved a series of articles for Ingenue magazine. She worked for The New Yorker as a staff writer until 1995.Her novel Lucy (1990) is an imaginative account of her experience of coming into adulthood in a foreign country, and continues the narrative of her personal history begun in the novel Annie John (1985).She has also published a collection of short stories, At the Bottom
of the River (1983), a collection of essays, A Small Place and more. She is a visiting professor and teaches creative writing at Harvard University.
"I'm someone who writes to save her life," Kincaid says, "I mean, I can't imagine what I would do if I didn't write. I would be dead or I would be in jail because --what else could I do? I can't really do anything but write. All the things that were available to someone in my position involved being a subject person. And I'm very bad at being a subject person."
History and Background of Antigua
The oldest known inhabitants of Antigua were the Ciboney ("Stone People"), who left behind almost no traces. About 2000 years ago came the Arawaks, a bunch of rather peaceful people originating from South America. They left some traces of settlements, but were driven off the island in ca. 1200 AD by another bunch of rather less peaceful South Americans - the Caribs. They preferred raiding over settling and supposedly gave the island the name of "Wadadli", still in use today. (And also retained for the local beer brand.)
But only about 300 years after the Caribs claimed the island for themselves, they in turn were visited by an even more barbaric tribe we call the Europeans. Their boss, a guy named Columbus, christened the island "Santa Maria la Antigua" after some statue in a cathedral in Seville.
- It took the Spanish, the Portuguese and the English about 150 years to
finally put down a settlement that was not destroyed by the Caribs. The English settlement was founded in 1632 in the south of the island, in an area now called "Old Road".
Except for a few months in 1666 and 1667, the island stayed in English hands from that time until its independence in 1981.
After an initial and not really successful attempt at producing tobacco, the island was geared towards the growing of sugar cane. Huge numbers of slaves were imported from Africa to make this work. The slaves were formally freed on 1 August 1834, but many returned, as "free workers", to the same estates they were working before. A few did found their own communities, and place names such as "Liberta", "Freetown",or "Freemans Village" remind us of that time. During the 19th century, the value of West Indian sugar declined sharply, as other, cheaper sources were available to the main buyers. Business concentration was such that by the mid-1940 most of the arable land belonged to one single company.
During the second world war, Antigua was heavily influenced by the large
number of American troops stationed on the island. Many locals had the
opportunity of working for the Americans, for much higher wages than they ever could receive for agricultural work, and many also learned skills that changed their lives even after the Americans had gone. Sugar production declined further, and by 1972 was entirely replaced by other agricultural activities like growing fruit and cotton or rearing livestock. Today, the percentage of the total workforce engaged in agriculture is probably less than 5%. (The largest employer on the island is now the state-owned public utility company, APUA.)
From 1943 on (when he was elected president of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union) one man dominated the political scene: Vere Cornwall Bird. He led Antigua and its people through the various stages of independence, until full independent nationhood was gained on 1st November 1981. Bird retired as prime minister in 1994, to be succeeded by his son Lester. (Rumour has it that "Papa Bird" would have preferred his other son to succeed him, but that would have been politically infeasible as he was engulfed in a major corruption scandal at the time.) - V.C. Bird died in 1998, probably the only national hero that Antigua ever had. (Apart
maybe from Sir Vivian Richards, the former West Indies Cricket Captain.) You will encounter the Bird name in many places - if you arrive by plane, your airport of entry will of course be "VC Bird International".
As is the case with any prominent political figure, "Papa Bird" and his son are the object of criticism, too. Some say that about a quarter of the foreign debt amassed by Antigua since its independence has somehow found its way into the family's pockets. The prime minister's daughter, Rika, has a law firm whose services are often employed by foreign companies with dealings on Antigua.
Recent history has brought about a tighter integration of the Eastern Caribbean island nations (still too little, some say), and the odd diplomatic trouble over money laundering. Desperate for cash, the government tried to position Antigua as a sort of "Silicon Island" and attract
Internet-based businesses (as the revenues from tourism are obviously not matching the expectations - revenues generated in one of the many resorts are channelled off the island faster than you can say 'Papa Bird'). At one time they even tried to levy an income tax, but to my understanding this idea has been tucked under the carpet after meeting strong public resistance. (More information on http://www.remote.org/frederik/culture/antigua/history.html)
Christopher Columbus:
In Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, the protagonist wrote these words when she saw the picture of Columbus “The great man can no longer just get up and go». She mocked a man who was considered as one of the greatest men in history, but according to Annie he was just one of those who made her ancestors slaves.
Slavery:
We should dig deep inside the novel so we discover that Ruth that white English girl in Annie’s class symbolised the colonizer. She was the one who had such a lot to be ashamed of.
“Her ancestors had been the masters, while ours (Annie’s ancestors) had been the slaves”.
Religion:
Annie was a black Methodist girl, and by looking to the dictionary we discover that a Methodist is a member of the christiant protestant church that broke away from the Church of England in the 18th century.
Conclusion:
Annie was everything which is against the colonizer, the way she talks about British people “they smell like fish” and mocking Christopher Columbus and even her intence relations with her teachers. Jamaica Kincaid showed through Annie’s character the way she thinks about colonisation.
Jamaica Kincaid:
Kincaid, who is Black and Jewish, lived with her stepfather, a carpenter, and her mother until 1965. In Antigua, she completed her secondary education under the British system, due to Antigua's status as a British colony until 1967.
She came to New York at the age of 17 to work for a family as an au pair. She went on to study photography at the New School for Social Research after leaving the family for which she worked, and also attended Franconia College in New Hampshire for a year.
this text was originally on reference.com under the article "Jamaica kincaid"
Her writing career:
In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing. Her first writing experience involved a series of articles for Ingenue magazine. She worked for The New Yorker as a staff writer until 1995.Her novel Lucy (1990) is an imaginative account of her experience of coming into adulthood in a foreign country, and continues the narrative of her personal history begun in the novel Annie John (1985).She has also published a collection of short stories, At the Bottom
of the River (1983), a collection of essays, A Small Place and more. She is a visiting professor and teaches creative writing at Harvard University.
"I'm someone who writes to save her life," Kincaid says, "I mean, I can't imagine what I would do if I didn't write. I would be dead or I would be in jail because --what else could I do? I can't really do anything but write. All the things that were available to someone in my position involved being a subject person. And I'm very bad at being a subject person."
History and Background of Antigua
The oldest known inhabitants of Antigua were the Ciboney ("Stone People"), who left behind almost no traces. About 2000 years ago came the Arawaks, a bunch of rather peaceful people originating from South America. They left some traces of settlements, but were driven off the island in ca. 1200 AD by another bunch of rather less peaceful South Americans - the Caribs. They preferred raiding over settling and supposedly gave the island the name of "Wadadli", still in use today. (And also retained for the local beer brand.)
But only about 300 years after the Caribs claimed the island for themselves, they in turn were visited by an even more barbaric tribe we call the Europeans. Their boss, a guy named Columbus, christened the island "Santa Maria la Antigua" after some statue in a cathedral in Seville.
- It took the Spanish, the Portuguese and the English about 150 years to
finally put down a settlement that was not destroyed by the Caribs. The English settlement was founded in 1632 in the south of the island, in an area now called "Old Road".
Except for a few months in 1666 and 1667, the island stayed in English hands from that time until its independence in 1981.
After an initial and not really successful attempt at producing tobacco, the island was geared towards the growing of sugar cane. Huge numbers of slaves were imported from Africa to make this work. The slaves were formally freed on 1 August 1834, but many returned, as "free workers", to the same estates they were working before. A few did found their own communities, and place names such as "Liberta", "Freetown",or "Freemans Village" remind us of that time. During the 19th century, the value of West Indian sugar declined sharply, as other, cheaper sources were available to the main buyers. Business concentration was such that by the mid-1940 most of the arable land belonged to one single company.
During the second world war, Antigua was heavily influenced by the large
number of American troops stationed on the island. Many locals had the
opportunity of working for the Americans, for much higher wages than they ever could receive for agricultural work, and many also learned skills that changed their lives even after the Americans had gone. Sugar production declined further, and by 1972 was entirely replaced by other agricultural activities like growing fruit and cotton or rearing livestock. Today, the percentage of the total workforce engaged in agriculture is probably less than 5%. (The largest employer on the island is now the state-owned public utility company, APUA.)
From 1943 on (when he was elected president of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union) one man dominated the political scene: Vere Cornwall Bird. He led Antigua and its people through the various stages of independence, until full independent nationhood was gained on 1st November 1981. Bird retired as prime minister in 1994, to be succeeded by his son Lester. (Rumour has it that "Papa Bird" would have preferred his other son to succeed him, but that would have been politically infeasible as he was engulfed in a major corruption scandal at the time.) - V.C. Bird died in 1998, probably the only national hero that Antigua ever had. (Apart
maybe from Sir Vivian Richards, the former West Indies Cricket Captain.) You will encounter the Bird name in many places - if you arrive by plane, your airport of entry will of course be "VC Bird International".
As is the case with any prominent political figure, "Papa Bird" and his son are the object of criticism, too. Some say that about a quarter of the foreign debt amassed by Antigua since its independence has somehow found its way into the family's pockets. The prime minister's daughter, Rika, has a law firm whose services are often employed by foreign companies with dealings on Antigua.
Recent history has brought about a tighter integration of the Eastern Caribbean island nations (still too little, some say), and the odd diplomatic trouble over money laundering. Desperate for cash, the government tried to position Antigua as a sort of "Silicon Island" and attract
Internet-based businesses (as the revenues from tourism are obviously not matching the expectations - revenues generated in one of the many resorts are channelled off the island faster than you can say 'Papa Bird'). At one time they even tried to levy an income tax, but to my understanding this idea has been tucked under the carpet after meeting strong public resistance. (More information on http://www.remote.org/frederik/culture/antigua/history.html)
Christopher Columbus:
In Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, the protagonist wrote these words when she saw the picture of Columbus “The great man can no longer just get up and go». She mocked a man who was considered as one of the greatest men in history, but according to Annie he was just one of those who made her ancestors slaves.
Slavery:
We should dig deep inside the novel so we discover that Ruth that white English girl in Annie’s class symbolised the colonizer. She was the one who had such a lot to be ashamed of.
“Her ancestors had been the masters, while ours (Annie’s ancestors) had been the slaves”.
Religion:
Annie was a black Methodist girl, and by looking to the dictionary we discover that a Methodist is a member of the christiant protestant church that broke away from the Church of England in the 18th century.
Conclusion:
Annie was everything which is against the colonizer, the way she talks about British people “they smell like fish” and mocking Christopher Columbus and even her intence relations with her teachers. Jamaica Kincaid showed through Annie’s character the way she thinks about colonisation.