The Caribbean School System
When the Caribbean was "discovered" by Columbus in 1492 the Europeans quickly invaded the area. With the invasion came their way of life. The Europeans eventually killed off the natives of the Caribbean and thus needed to import new labor. With that came the African American and the African American culture. The Europeans would have nothing to do with the Africans way of life and language. "Europeans insisted that the language should be only that of European" (Brathwaite 627). Even though the blacks were forbidden to speak and express their ways of life, the two cultures (African American and European) slowly began to merge. "The African's language was influencing the way in which the Europeans spoke their own language" (Brathwaite 628). Edward Brathwaite addresses how the educational system in the Caribbean did not notice these various languages existed. Instead the educational system enforced the European language ..."and the contours of an English heritage" (Brathwaite 628). Novelist Merle Hodge writes in her novel Crick Crack Monkey about a child in the Caribbean who enrolls into school. Hodge illustrates just what Brathwaite's description of a typical Caribbean sch
"The nun swayed on and smiled regretfully, as if she had been wound up and placed at the gate to do so" (Hodge 631). This ritual continues for some time until it is recess time. The children are once again being forced into this. Tantie wants her niece to learn but not about all the "bull" the white man will try and feed her. Hinds would try and make them feel guilty. While the children are in the mitts of their chaos, Mrs. This is exactly what Brathwaite talking about when he talks about the enforcing of the European language and heritage. These children need to have a school that they can go to and learn about their own heritage, their own culture and their own language; not the white mans. The narrator of the story explains, "I gathered from my puzzlement I was being 'dragged up' and - how desirable a fate - that our Daddy was 'Up- there and was surely going to send for me" (Hodge 634). After recess the children are left with Mr.
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