Issues of Difference in Contemporary Caribbean Feminism

Author(s): Rawwida Baksh-Soodeen

Source: Feminist Review , Summer, 1998, No. 59, Rethinking Caribbean Difference
(Summer, 1998), pp. 74-85
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1395724

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 Issues of Difference in
Contemporary Caribbean
Feminism*
Rawwida Baksh-Soodeen

4 Abstract
rv

^: This paper interrogates Caribbean feminist theory and activism in relation to the
m Euro-American experience and to challenges emerging from the Third World dis-
= course. The author argues from the standpoint position that second wave
-
2 Caribbean feminism has been largely Afro-centric and simultaneously interlocked
with processes of independence
there is a need for the movement
groups in the region. In this r
voice has been emerging and b
aIso the divisions between fem
strengthening the ultimate capa

Keywords
Caribbean feminism; race; class standpoint; identity; networking

This paper carries out two main tasks. First, where applicable, it links the
issues of difference in Caribbean feminist pOlitics to the Euro-American
experience, and in particular those related to race and class. Second, it
argues that in the discussion of race and class differences within Caribbean
feminism, there is the need to distinguish: ti) the different (objective) reality
from the Euro-American experience; (ii) the 1lnk between feminism,
nationalism, and anti-imperialist struggles in the Caribbean. The latter is
similar to the struggles of Third World women internationally tincluding
those located in the First World); and tiii) the ultimately embracing rather
than divisive nature of Caribbean feminism. I begin by examining the
concept and experience of international feminism in the contemporary
period. Then I turn to the Caribbean experience of feminist organizing
from the late 1970s to the present, and discuss the movement, its attempts
to transform, change and transcend internal differences.

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The universal and the particular s
The 'second wave' of the feminist movement which began in the USA and o
Britain in the late 1960s took for granted that 'there was a potentially uni- 3
ficatory point of view on women's issues which would accommodate diver- w
gences and not be submerged by them' (Delmar, 1986: 10). Underlying this n
was the assumption of the universality of women's subordination and its
corollary, the possibility of a global sisterhood which could challenge patri-
archal power and dominance. The buzz-word 'sisterhood' and its related
slogan 'sisterhood is global', actively felt and used in this early period of
euphoria, characterized the prevailing consciousness.

In addition Delmar noted that:

in spite of the success of womenss liberation in bringing to the fore and rein-
forcing feelings of sympathy and identity between women, political unity
(another of the meanings of 'sisterhood') cannot be said to have been achieved.
Unity based on identity has turned out to be a very fragile thing.
(Delmar? 1986: 11)

Differences within the Euro-American movement in the 1970s were based |

on different explanations of women's subordination, and hence different l
proposed strategies for change. The f(r)actions resulting from this split were
liberal feminism, marxist feminism, radical feminism, and socialist femin-
ism (Jagger and Rothenberg, 1984, cited in Ollenburger and Moore, 1992:
17). These schools of feminist thought and action emerged at different his-
torical points, but, by the 1970s-80s, they co-occurred as different strands
of the movement. They also provided the ideological frameworks for
analysing the causes of women's oppression within the Euro-American
feminist movement. Apart from these four frameworks, race/ethnicity
became the key platform for exposing differences in women's lived experi-
ences of subordination, resulting in feminists defining themselves as 'black',
'native American', 'Asian', 'women of colour' and so on. It is, however,
important to establish that the latter groups were themselves not monolithic
in their ideological position on the causes of gender inequality. In her paper,
'Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of Femin-
ism', Chandra Mohanty states that in a collection of writings by black and
Third World women in Britain entitled Charting theJourney (Grewal et al., |
1988), the editors 'are careful to focus on the contradictions, conflicts, and
differences among black women, while simultaneously emphasizing that
the starting point for all contributors has been "the historical link between
us of colonialism and imperialism"' (Mohanty, 1991a: 8).

In Charting the Journey, the editors' state:

This book is about an idea. An idea of 'Blackness' in contemporary Britain. An

idea as yet unmatured and inadequately defined, but proceeding along its path 75

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 > in both 'real' sc)cial life and in the collective awareness of many of its subjects.
= Both as an idea and a process it is, inevitably, contradictory. Contradictory in
a its conceptuali7atic)n because its linguistic expression is defined in terms of color,
> yet it is an idea transcendent of color. Contradictory in its material movements
O because the unity of action, conscious or otherwise, of Asians, Latin Americans
¢ and Aratxs, Caribbean and AfricansS gives political expression to a common
> 'color', even as the State-created fissures of ethnicity threaten to engulf and over-
whelm us in islands of cultural exclusivity.
Ze (Grewal et al., 1988: 1 )
.

Mohanty links the feminism in

on race/ethnicity to the emerge
graphically re-orients the discus
immigrants and subjected people
the construction of Third World
four main commonalities:

1 The idea of the simultaneity o

ence of social and political marginality and the grounding of feminist
pOlitics in the histories of racism and imperialism;
2 The crucial role of a hegemonic state in circumscribing Third World
women's daily lives and struggle;
3 The significance of memory and writlng in the creation of oppositional
agency; and,
4 The differences, contlicts, and contradictlons internal to Third World
women's organizations and communities (1991: 10).

In 'Concepts in Feminist Theory: Consensus and Controversy', a paper

presented initlally in Trinidad and Tobago at the inaugural seminar in
Women's Studies of the University of the West Indies, Amrita Chhachhi
(1988: 76-9) attempts to answer the question of whether feminlst theory
is 'white' or 'black'. She argues that feminist theories, like all other social
theories, are expressions of two factors: the social, economic, and politi-
cal context in which they emerged; and a synthesis of past intellectual tra-
ditions. From Chhachhi's point of view, the rejection of all feminist theory
as 'westerns, 'Eurocentric', or 'ethnocentric', results from a fallure tO diS-
tinguish between the application of feminist theories to the historical,
political, and socio-cultural specifities of black{Third World womenS and
the notion of all theory as 'white'. Chhachhi argues that at the level of
basic conceptual analytical tools, there is 1ittle disagreement among black
and white feminlsts She suggests:

most often the limitations of Euro-American feminist studies lie at the second
and third levels of analysis in that abstract concepts are imposed mechanically
and ahistorically and hence become a substitute for an historically specific
6 analysis which takes into account the complexities of social reality.
7f
(Chhachhi, 1988 79)

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The current postmodernism stream within philosophy has had a profound
impact on the social sciences, humanities, and feminist theory. Two key
concepts developed by the Frankfurt School are 'critical theory' and 'stand-
point epistemology', both of which have influenced feminist politics Criti-
cal theory challenged the use of the scientific method for social enquiry,
rejecting the idea that there can be 'objective' knowledge altogether. Stand-
point epistemology is the concept that less powerful members (individuals
and groups) are potentially capable of a more complete view of social
reality than the privileged, precisely because of their disadvantaged posi-
tion(s). In order to survive, they have a 'double vision', a knowledge or
awareness of and sensitivity to both the dominant world view and their
own minority perspective (e.g., female, black, and poor) (Nielsen, 1990:
10). Feminist standpoint epistemology(ies) focus on the specificity of
women's oppression, linking this to women being able to see the view-
points of both women, and men (the dominant group), and hence having
an understanding that is potentially more complete, deeper, and sensitive
than men's (Nielsen, 1990: 24-5).

Critical theory and standpoint epistemologies speak to the notion that

there is no single trath, that the location of individuals and groups in the
social structure determines their construction/interpretation of truth or
reality, and that the oppressed have a more powerful claim to a complete
understanding than dominant groups. These concepts have contributed to
providing the theoretical space for the challenge to white feminists posed
by Third World feminists (whether geographically located in the North or
South). And further, they help to explain the present movement of Third
World feminism's standpoints of race, class, and nation from the periph-
ery to the centre, the so-called cutting edge of the discourse.

Considerations on race and class

The Caribbean has arguably been the site of the greatest colonial pen-
etration internationally since Europe began its mercantilist expansion in
the fifteenth century. In no other region were entire peoples wiped out and
artificially replaced by hundreds of thousands of people from other conti-
nents for the sole purpose of serving European economic interests. In the
contemporary period, European colonialism has been replaced by US
imperialism, most starkly seen in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
which are American colonies. But the rest of the Caribbean territories are
perceived by the US as its satellites, and are hence the target of aid and
trade arrangements. The Caribbean has also been the focus of US military
aggression through a protracted war against Cuba, and against Grenada
during its period of revolutionary government in 1979-83. It further con-
77
trols, puppeteers, and destabilizes Caribbean governments to serve its

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 I>" capitalist and geo-political interests. In the most recent perlod, the
= Caribbean has also been a willing market for US goods and services,
, including satellite TV, and television evangelism.

O The history of the Caribbean territories as colonies of European imperial

¢ powers has been one overshadowed by African slavery. Resulting from this
= is the present-day demographic landscape in which Africans predominate,
except in the Spanish Caribbean and in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and
X Suriname. The post-colonial discourse, which has emerged since the Inde-
E pendence movement of the late 1960s and 1970s,1 has attempted to
I grapple with the experience of colonialism from an anti-imperialist frame-
work, which included the perspectives of race and class. If, in the pre-
Independence period, the major impetus was the struggle for nationalism,
I in the post-Independence period, the key issues have been structured race
and class inequalities, their alleviation by state intervention, and the con-
tinuing existence of colonial economic and political forces which perpetu-
ate these social structures. In the Caribbean, the post-Independence
I discourse has been one of reclaiming identity. The reclaimed identity has
| been predominantly African. Images of 'shipwreck' and 'exile' are
common to the literary work of post-Independence writers such as Dere
Walcott, Vidia Naipaul, George Lamming, Wilson Harris, and Samuel
Selvon. Naipaul has been the only well-known literary voice speaking to
the Indo-Caribbean experience of indentureship and exile.

The issue of race

The 'second wave' of the feminist movement in the Caribbean in the 1970s
intersected with this post-Independence discourse in interesting svays.
Issues of race and class were almost exclusively about the experiences of
the 'creole'2 or black/white/coloured populations of the societies. There
was no multicultural framework (despite a sociological theory of 'cultural
pluralism' developed by M.G. Smith in the 1960s) within which the specific
experiences and interests of non-African women could be viewed or con-
textualized. In fact, this has only begun happening (specifically in Trinidad
and Tobago) since the mid-1980s, and interestingly, it has its roots in the
I assertion by the Indian population of their distinct racial and cultural iden-
tity. I would hence define the dominant discourse within Caribbean femin-
ist politics (theory and practice) as Afro-centric, as opposed to either a
Euro-centric or multicultural paradigm.

Caribbean feminist historiography mherited from the post-colonial studies

on African slavery such sociological concepts in relation to the African
slave woman as 'matrlfocality', 'male marginality', 'female-headed house-
74 8 hold' and so on. In the Caribbean, there is a well-established view of the

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African woman as a slave, as a symbol of strength and power holding the =
family together under slavery. Edith Clarke wrote My Mother Who -
Fathered Me; Lucille Mathurin wrote Rebel Woman in the British West 3
Indies During Slavery; Sistren Theatre Collective of Jamaica wrote about X
Nanny, the Maroon slave who led her people to rebellion against the white 2
planter class. Rhoda Reddock's PhD thesis, 'Women, Labour and Struggle
in 20th Century Trinidad and Tobago', presents the African slave woman
as worker compared to the European bourgeois ideal of the woman as
housewife. The notion of the woman as worker was also true for the Indian
woman under the system of indentureship. Hence, the bourgeois house-
wife ideal was only practised among the white planter/merchant class
during the colonial period, and was adopted by the African and Indian
middle classes (although not entirely) in the post-colonial period. Since the
dominant discourse within Caribbean feminism is Afro-centric, what this
means is that feminist analyses of Caribbean society have tended to focus
on the black and coloured populations and 'creole' culture. Hence the
lower-class family is always discussed in terms of the female-headed house-
hold despite the fact that among Indians (in societies with significant
Indian populations), the lower-class family shows forms ranging from the
joint Indian family, the three-generation extended family, the nuclear
family, to the female-headed household.

Further, feminist organizing has also been largely viewed as the domain of
African women, rather than as a space in which women of different
racial/cultural identities and experiences interact. Women who have been
'lefi out' in this process include the remaining indigenous inhabitants,
Indian, Chinese, and other groups such as the Indonesians. The experience
of the white woman has also been left out, deliberately I think, because the
discourse has emerged from the standpoint of people who have been bru-
tally enslaved by Europeans. The white woman is hence perceived as
belonging to the oppressor race, class, and culture, despite the fact that a
few white women have also been part of the feminist movement in
Caribbean. Indian women, like myself, who are actively involved in the
movement have ourselves come to an analysis of colonialism largely
through the Afro-centred discourse developed at the University of the West
Indies. It is only during the 1990s that I have personally begun to grapple
with the specificity of Indo-Caribbean women's experience. Evidence of
this is, however, beginning to emerge, both in the discourse3 and organi-
zationally. In the latter, the Hindu Women's Organization (HWO) was
formed in Trinidad and Tobago in the mid-1980s.

The issue of racial difference within the Caribbean feminist movement is,
however, distinct from that experienced in the USA and Europe. In the first
place, it may be said that the post-colonial Caribbean has a majority 79

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 African population who are politically, if not economically, in control.
Thus the bitterness of the Afro-AmericanlEuropean feminist struggle is not
evident in the Caribbean. Since colonialism both past and present is a
major force at work in the Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean women have (in
reaction to the sexism of the left political groupings to which they
belonged) asserted an autonomous space for struggle, but continue to col-
laborate with Caribbean men in left political parties, and the labour and
NGO movements, particularly on political and economic issues. I think
that the possibility of a multi-cultural feminist platform exists because,
while African and Indian women, on the one hand, have distinct cultural
identities and experiences of oppression, on the other, they share a common
experience of plantation slavery and indentureship. In Trinidad and
Tobago, for instance, ie would be difficule for an Afro-Caribbean feminist
to argue ehae her oppression has been greater ehan mine, when slavery was
abolished in 1838, but indeneureship almose a ceneury later in 1917. My
father was among ehe lase chlldren eo have been brought from India as an
indeIleured labourer in 1912.

The issue of class

There are three main aspects of the 'class issue' within Caribbean femin-
ism, which may be broadly related eo ies emergence and subsequene
developmene in ehe 1970s eo ehe presene.

The firse few women eo define themselves as feminises in the 1970s came
eo eheir analysis largely ehrough eheir involvement in nationalist seruggles,
left political groupings, erade unionss ehe black power movemexle, and so
on. Alehough their self-definition as femlnist was in reaceion to the sexism
of ehe men in ehese movemenes, eheir feminism did not assume ehe radlcal
form of whiee feminists ln ehe US and Britain in a similar sieuatiOn. This
can only be explaitled by ehe face ehae ehey saw ehemselves firse and fore-
mose as black women llving in socieeies whlch were ln early eransition from
colonial rule, where race and class were still inextricably linked tO the
polltical/economic/social hierarchies, and where black men obviously also
belonged to the oppressed group. Ie needs to be poineed oue, however, thae
ehese women ofeen belonged to an emerging black (including Indian) edu-
cated middle class. They could be defined as 'black socialise feminists', who
would have empathized with the writings of Angela Davis, for example,
and with the general struggle by black women of the Euro-American
feminist movement.

The second aspect of class is apparent in the subsequent development of the

movement. Feminist debates in the media, public fora, demonstrations,
84 coincided with the UN Decade for Women and a raised consciousness

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internationally on 'the issue of women',which led to a new group of women l ec
joining the movement. Differences, related to the class status of individual ItO
women, became apparent. In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, differing "
class interests led to the split in 1984 of The Group, a small consciousness- w
raising group which had included women from the 1970s. On the issue °f m
violence against women, there was general agreement. However, whenever
national issues relating to class inequalities arose, there was a decided with-
drawal on the part of the new 'middle-class' feminists, who could perhaps
be characterized as having a radical feminist approach.

Thirdly, the Caribbean feminist movement is argued (by its detractors) to

be comprised mainly of articulate, well-educated, middle-class, urban
women. This suggests, among other things, a static European concept of
class as a status ascribed at birth, and hence which governs and makes
possible (or not possible) certain opportunities and experiences. This
notion of class does not speak to the often very rapid social mobility
which was typical of some Caribbean societies in the post-Independence
period. In a single generation, it has been possible for many women to
move out of their class of birth through education. Marriage has not been
as important an agent of social mobility for women in a post-colonial
context where the majority of the population belonged to the working
classes, or where, among the African working-class population, the
female-headed household model predominates. If I may use my own
experience as a concrete example, I have moved from the indentureship
of my father to post-doctoral education in a single generation. So while
it may be argued that my current status is middle class, this says nothing
of my personal history of poverty, of being defined and defining myself as
a lower-class woman and, further, it says nothing of the contradictions I
faced both in the (objective) opposing polarities of the different classes
which I encountered (in the education system for example), but also of
my own contradictions and ambivalence. Finally, in relation to my experi-
ences, it says nothing of the political, social, and cultural choices I have
made and continue to make.

There are varying dynamics regarding class within the Caribbean feminist
movement. Cecilia Babb, a Rastafari woman from Dominica who lives in
Barbados, whose class position would be very hard to define and who also
defines herself as a lower-class woman, said at a CAFRA meeting in 1990
that for 'grass roots' women, the issue is survival, that of putting food on
the table for their children, often in situations where they are the sole
breadwinners. And that, 'until this survival is managed it is very difficult
for grass roots women to engage in theoretical debate, mobilization, lobby-
ing and group demonstrations, on issues which impact on the very survival
we are trying so hard to ensure' (1991: 9). 81

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 zrs I conclude this section by pointing out two more factors which account for
= the specificity of Caribbean feminist politics.

' The first is the issue of scale. Caribbean countries are usually small island
O states (except for Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana), with
¢ relatively small populations ranging from a couple of hundred thousand
- to a few million. At its peak, the Caribbean feminist movement has never
-F included more than a few hundred self-defined feminists. The impact of
X small groups of women in these societies has to be understood in the
- context of the size of the societies; the groups' outreach through the media
and public fora; their coincidence with the international feminist move-
l ment and the UN Decade for Women; and the presence of organizations
| and institutions with regional outreach such as the Women and Develop-
ment Unit (WAND) in Barbados, and the Caribbean Association for
Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA).

The second factor is related to the transition which is observable within

Caribbean feminist organizations from the early period of the 1970s and
mid-1980s to the late 1980s-1990s. In the 1970s to mid-1980s, the self-
defined feminists tended to see themselves as distinct from institutionalized
women's organizations, which they perceived as traditional, as serving to
maintain the status quo regarding women's place in the society through
welfare-oriented outreach. These organizations included the Business and
Professional Women's Clubs, the Soroptomists, the Lionesses and the
Mothers' Unions of churches. The current period of the 1980s-1990s has,
however, seen the active building of bridges across this divide and also
linking with the Gender and Development Studies Centres at the university
l campuses, and women's machineries in the various governments of the
region, and inter-governmental institutions such as the Caribbean Com-
munity (CARICOM), UNIFEM and UN/ECLAC. This networking is
related, on the one hand, to the increased awareness of feminist concer
the traditional women's organizations and, on the other hand, to a gene
shift away from ideological dogmatism on the part of self-avowed femin

Conclusion

It is possible to identify a number of unique features based on the

Caribbean's experience of feminist organizing. First, Caribbean feminist
I politics may be located at the intersection between two separate discourses.
I The one is the post-Independence discourse which has been grappling with
the past and present experiences of colonialism and neo-colonialism, from
an anti-imperialist framework which includes the perspectives of race and
class; and the other is the feminist discourseXs) which originate(d) inter-
8i 2 nationally. The dominant stream within Caribbean feminism may be said

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to make the connection between race, class, and nation in its theorizing, <
its vision for change, and its practice. Second, however, is the fact that the mO
Caribbean post-Independence and feminist discourses gave pre-eminence c
to the historical experiences and present-day situation of African- ;ma
Caribbean people, leading to an Afro-centric rather than a multicultural z
paradigm. I contend that this is an area requiring discussion and action in
the future. Third is the tendency towards networking and coalition-
building, between (i) feminist, 'traditional' women's organizations,
utomen's machinerzes in the various governments of the region, women's
studies groupslprogrammes in the universities, and inter-governmental
organisations; and (ii) the feminist movement and the lefi political parties,
the labour movement, and the NGO movement.

This latter aspect of Caribbean feminism is ultimately embracing rather

than divisive. It is, in my view, a product of factors such as Caribbean
peoples' collective resistance to colonial forces past and present, the cre-
ation of a culture of sharing/caring in the face of scarce resources and
deprivation evident in Caribbean familylhousehold forms; economic insti-
tutions such as the 'su-su', the 'gayap';4 strategies for childcare and care
of the sick and elderly in societies when most women have always been
workers inside and outside of the home.

Notes
I -- - - -- ............ . -

* T
not necessarily those of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the organization in
which I am now employed.

1 I include here the academic disciplines of history, sociology, politics, government,

literature, and linguistics; artistic expression such as novels, poetry, plays, paint-
ing, theatre, music (including the steelband and calypso which are indiginous
forms), dance, and Carnival; and journalism through the media of radio, print,
and television.

2 'Creole' society and culture was first defined by M.G. Smith as follows:

The creole complex has its historical base in slavery, plantation systems and
colonialism. Its cultural composition mirrors its racial mixture. European and
African elenlents predominate in fairly standard combinations and relation- Z
ships. The ideal fortns of institutional life such as government, religion, family
and kinship, law, property, education, economy and language are of European
derivation; in consequence, differing metropolitan affiliations produce differ-
ing versions of creole culture. But in their creole contexts, these institutional
forms diverge from their metropolitan models in greater or lesser degree to Xt
local conditions.
(Smith, 1965: 5) 83

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 I^ 3 The history and different struggles of Indo-Caribbean women of Trinidad have
= been substantively researched by Rhoda Reddock in Women, Labour and
X Politics in Trinidad and Tobago (Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica, 1994) and by
>. Patricia Mohammed in Gender Negotiations Among Indians in Trinidad
0 l 1 917-1 947 (forthcoming 1 999).

,¢ 4 The 'su-su' is a group practice of pooling money over a specified period, the sum
= of which is given to each donor in turn; it is a mutual saving system. The word
= and the concept are thought to originate from the Yoruba 'susu' (Hancock, 1980:
- 82; Warner-Lewis, 1991: 31; cited in Baksh-Soodeen, 199S: 155). The 'gayap' is
defined as 'co-operative group labour given by neighbours and friends in some
private undertaking such as farming or house-building, in return for food and
drink'. The word has a possible multiple etymology, originating either from the
form 'gayap' from the Amerindian language, Cumanagotan (Winer and Aguilar,
1991: 182), or from the Wolof form 'gaa nyep' meaning 'all the people; a e:ol-
lective' (Warner-Lewis, 1991: 169, cited in Baksh-Soodeen, 199S: t67). While
these two words are specific to Trinidadian usage, other words signifying the
same activities and concepts are to be found throughout the Caribbean.

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