Thoughts on writing and working within the third world

Before I begin my analysis of this week I want to take a moment to thank Shange for her impact on me. When I found out the woman who wrote For Colored Girls went to Barnard, my heart grew and when I met her for the first time I was so shocked. She brought an aura to the room. Her writings empowered me and she will be someone I look to empower and take care of myself. I have thought of her passing every day since and each day I think something new out of it. But today the quote that sticks with me the most is from my favorite playwright Suzan Lori Parks; “I saw Ntozake enter the room,” Ms. Parks said, “and I stood up, and the younger playwrights said, ‘What’s the matter? Why are you standing?’ And I said, ‘The queen has just entered the room.’ ” She is the closest thing the diaspora has to royalty, and I hope people let her know that. And I don’t think its simply because of what she gave us but I believe it is because she saw so much in herself as a black woman. Although there is so much her work has given this world, I feel blessed to be alive in a time where I can study and be close to it. And I hope to give her labor justice.

That being said, it has been very interesting to hear academic critique of various multi-ethnic, multi-racial and transnational feminist movements. Specifically in “Inter-and Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice in Triple Jeopardy and Conditions” where I initially had questions about how international and transnational movements worked in action. At a time where a woman could not get a credit card without being married in this country, were we allowed be traveling alone? Weird questions and although the article does not answer specifically it showed that even without iPhones and wifi these women used whatever they could to stay connected. It also raised questions for me of what we regard as “major” publishing as many of these groups had a large reach on people.  As much as this version of feminism adds to the nuance of history, it is still complicated and multi-faceted. For example, in one issue there is a woman working in a factory in inhumane conditions for the country that the other women in the issue live in. Does anyone have any examples of publishing where this might be seen today?

Mohanty, in Zed Press, points out that the concept of the “Third World Woman” is a further perpetuates colonialism. This is an interesting point, I mean take Puerto Rico, or Haiti or The Virgin Islands where the United States has had an imperialist presence whether or not it persists today. While much of the colonizing was happening was this important coalition building. Yet when I think about purely in an academic sense, the “third world woman” being seen as an additive is essential to the continuance of the American state. Further helping to perpetuate the elitist standard American academia holds over others. We have the 1st version of feminism white women, 2nd rate queer white women, 3rd rate women of color in America, 4th rate “3rd world women”. And many people buy into this narrative while Shange challenged it as an academic, artist and activist. Traveling the United States and building a coalition with many.

I have hope for the writing of women in the third world through literature, not academia. Take Edwidge Danticat for example, who was actually taught by Ntozake and Ntozake adored her. Being born and living in Haiti for quite some time she is put in an interesting experience but in her novel Krik, Krak. The women are shown as multi-faceted and not simply at the hands of their colonizers and oppressors.

“When you write, it’s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others are short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women of your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes and soliloquies, whose diction and je ne sais quoi daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak!

Through Krik Krak the culture, humanity, and strength of women flourish in the midst of the trauma and pain. I really don’t think it has to be one or another.

Very often in Shange’s work, she connects the diaspora and speaks of many countries as a whole. But in the same way that this text critiques Audre Lorde, I worry that we do not critique Shange for the way she generalizes Latin American experiences as an African American woman. For example, there is almost an exotification of Haiti’s legacy as the first black nation and a dehumanizing link between the immense poverty and colonial history. Both are difficult but leave Haiti very little room to create a current legacy for itself. In Shange’s “A Black Night in Haiti, Palais National, Port-au-Prince, French is used to describe the experience she is having towards the end. In the poem she encounters rich whites, she becomes sickened by the level of poverty and sad.

“L’haiti a besoin (Haiti needs)

L’haiti a besoin/de la liberte/ l’egalite/ fraternite. (Hati needs liberty, equality, fraternity)

L’haiti/le premier pays au monde/ sans esclaves (Haiti the first country of people, were slaves)

L’haiti/ la nation de l’independance noire (Haiti a black independent country)

What is going on/ here?

Ou est dessalines/ maintenant (Where is Dessaline right now)

Ou est petition/ l’ouverture? ( And the petition!/ Toussaint Louverture)

Ou sont-ils qui peuvent nous aider a la liberte, l’egalite/ la fraternite (Who is going to be here to help us gain liberty, equality, and fraternity)

I use Haiti because it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. In this poem, Ntozake uses French, not Haitian Kreyol to describe the country. While most Haitians do not speak French, on the island it is used as a tool to oppress others. Toussaint Louverture is not spelled in Kreyol, it is spelled in French. There is a gap between the Carribean and African American literature in America. I truly believe that America and the rest of the world only want to see blackness through an American lens which is why the hyphenated Carribean-Americans, latin-Americans receive more press than people who immigrate later in life and cannot blend in. It’s sad but this poem does further perpetuate a single view of the third world. Despite being well intended. This is Shange’s experience in Haiti, and it is valid but like anything else should be critiqued.

I don’t know the answers to the questions I feel these articles ask. Where is the line? Who defines the “third world”? Who works within the “third world”?

I will close with this poem. Staceyann Chinn is a Jamaican Lesbian who moved to Brooklyn later in life. I believe if she immigrated as a child her work would be better received but perhaps it wouldn’t be as radical.