Welcome back to #Y4SJBookClub

Today we are going through Chapter 1 of "Sexing the Caribbean" by Kerala Kempadoo

Please share widely and contribute your own thoughts about the chapter.

The convention is:

No brackets are paraphrases from the book (brackets is tweeter opinion)

Global media often portrays the Caribbean as exotic and "backward"

A sex crazed and not advanced society.

This book aims at undoing this Colonial view of the Caribbean.

(some Caribbean people share that colonial view 😒)

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As Frantz Fanon (we should be reading his work soon as well) said:

"Colonial Discourses are deeply embedded in the psyche and behaviour of the colonised"

(we see this frequently in how we police women like its the early 20th century still)

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Caribbean sexuality is of significance to understanding the past, present and future of the Caribbean

(one YSJ member highlighted how 🇹🇹 has not done a proper post colonial introspection. Hopefully works like this help)

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The book uses the broadest definition of the Caribbean as possible, but indicates that some sections would only apply to sub definitions of the Caribbean.

For this book
Caribbean = all the islands plus Belize, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana

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There are two core concepts which are core to discussing Caribbean sexuality

- Hypersexuality

-Hetero-patriarchy

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Hypersexuality refers to the idea that Caribbean people possess hyperactive libidos and overly rely on sexuality as part of their identity

(not an endorsement of this idea but an indication that it is a core aspect when discussing sex in the Caribbean)

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Hetero-patriarchy refers to the privileging of HETEROSEXUAL, PROMISCOUS, MASCULINITY
and
Subordinating FEMININE sexuality

(lock and key bullshit which conservative Caribbean people like to propagate)

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In turn, this ends up normalising a power dynamic which is intolerant and oppressive of any practice outside of the traditional sexuality/gender regime

(you know... Our horrid treatment of lgbt people. Especially trans and gender non conforming people)

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(There is no post colonial solution which does not have women {including trans women} and other gender minorities. There is no post colonial solution which does not have lgb and other sexual minorites)

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Because of the Hetero-patriarchy structure within the Caribbean, lgbt folk and sex workers are often cast as outlaws within their own homes.

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(no book is without biases, and here are the authors. Which have a lot of overlap with our influences)

Influences include:
Walter Rodney
CLR James
Frantz Fanon

(shout out the first round of #Y4SJBookClub)
Also, scholars in "third world" feminism such as

Chandra Talpade Mohanty
Himani Bannerji

Were influential to the author.

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This book was not a solo endeavour and the author gives credit to all who were involved which includes 🇹🇹's own Prof Rhoda Reddock

(if you are trying to lead a movement without being aware of Prof Reddock's research you are not doing the due diligence)

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The aim of this book is to produce knowledge about post colonial Caribbean lives.

Thinking further about Caribbean sexualised struggles, identity and potentialities in the 21st century

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(that brings us to a close to the 1st chapter of Sexing the Caribbean. A nice introduction as to what to expect in the book as we move on.

It is crucial to read and understand what exists in order to overcome it.

See you next Thursday for #Y4SJBookClub)
@threadreaderapp unroll

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The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed