West Indian Chronicles: Mamie

by Tricia Trotman-Maraj

The struggle of a teenage girl to find her own identity, in a post-colonial society that has remained socially unchanged since its independence in the early 1960's, takes the reader deep into the cultural practices of her ancestors and an education system that does not cater to the needs of traditional or indigenous peoples. Deslyn tries to fix the damage done to generations of her people by adopting a modern approach, but is forced to choose between practices that are considered new and right and traditions that are considered old and wrong. Her mind balks and she finds herself impotent to act against the practices of her ancestors. Her mother Rita recalls: She remembered the large brown hog that her mother had bought and given to Papa Saunders. The animal had fought violently as they stuffed its mouth with dirt and tied it up with twine and buried it alive. She remembered Papa telling her mother, "Just how we bury that dey is so he go suffer and rotten and dead! He playing he like to interfere and spoil people gyul chi'ren. Watch it and see." Read how Deslyn is forced to rely on necromancy to fight battles forged against her in an education system that discriminates against her skin colour, cultural background, and social position. See how she succeeds in an environment that reeks scorn upon the children of single parent households and how she gets her revenge on Pamela, the Principal who thought that Deslyn would achieve nothing in life.

164 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2010

Reviews

[Denice · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you really want to get into the mind of the post-colonial Caribbean woman, read this. You want to understand why we walk inside backwards after hours? Why the Convents have the prestige that it has? Then read this book.
This version has several spelling errors, but I do believe there's an updated reprint.

[Tricia Trotman-Maraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good......a good read for real Caribbean people.