Relaciones internacionales.indb - HOMINES

WOMEN OF COLOUR: RECONTEXTUALISING ‘OTHERNESS’
Long continues to condemn them, focusing on their ‘noxious odour’, and
the fact that they never change colour from their black hue, in spite of
years spent in colder climates, not exposed to the sun. All of these factors
conflate to ensure that the ‘Negroes’ are viewed as non-human, of
another race and therefore contemptible and so, only fit for the category
of slave. 3 In her 1833 publication Mrs. Carmichael, another proponent of
slavery, observes:
Many negro men, of good character otherwise have two or more wives;
and strange to tell, these wives live on good terms with each other; they
often make friendly visits to each other; but there is always one favourite
for the time being, and it often happens that this same wife has been the
favourite for fifteen or twenty years. There is no jealousy on her part, so
long as matters are openly conducted; but all intrigues are disliked, and
are a frequent cause of quarrels. 4
While Mrs. Carmichael’s perspective does not appear as hostile toward
the ‘Negro’ as others have been, it is nonetheless reinforcing an already
existent dichotomy between European and ‘Negro’. No mention is made
of masters who might have been participating in a similar set of activities
as those ‘Negro’ men. Worse yet, the ‘Negro’ women accept this situation
and are friends. One can infer that European women would never do
this. Her observations on the intrigues permit one to assume that they are
many and often. These descriptions are a part of the reductive discourse
of colonialism and paternalism as regards the Caribbean during and immediately
post slavery.
Barbara Bush illustrates the Caribbean woman’s relegation to the realm
of stereotype elucidating the ‘use’ of the gaze to accomplish the goal of
‘Othering’ them. Colonial historians and anthropologists ‘utilised their
scanty and inaccurate knowledge in order to pronounce with confidence
upon aspects of the life of the woman slave, including her private domestic
life’. 5 Similarly, David Spurr argues that it is the very gaze that further
imbricates the West Indian woman as ‘Other’. 6
3
‘Negro’ is employed here in the historic context as used by Long and others.
It has become an extremely offensive term in present usage and is, therefore,
not used as such.
4
Mrs. Carmichael, Domestic Manners and Social Condition of the White, Coloured
and Negro Population of the West Indies 2 Vols. (New York, Negro
University Press, 1833), Vol. 1, p. 298.
5
Bush (1990), op. cit., p. 12.
6
See: David Spurr, The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism,
Travel Writing and Imperial Administration (Durham, Duke UP, 1993).
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Vol. XX, Núm. x - xxxxx de 2005 • HOMINES •