Groundings: Earth-Based knowledge and Practice toward Caribbean Decoloniality
Author:
Ayanna Mbi Parris
Degree Date:
May, 2015
Committee Chairperson:
Carole Elizabeth, Boyce Davies
Call Number:
Thesis DT 3.5 2015 P377
Description:
viii, 119 leaves ; 29 cm
Abstract:
This thesis looks closely at representations of the Caribbean relationship between human and nature. Through Caribbean poetics, I read alienation from the land as a critical element of Caribbean coloniality. The land, and by extension the natural world, is central to ontological formation. I argue that our relationship to the earth fundamentally informs our metaphysical being and becoming. In the process of unseating the colonizer within and creating versions of ourselves that are decolonized, liberated and whole, we must pay attention to the ways that our histories with the land have helped shape coloniality and exploitation and how we might undo the relations circumscribed within colonial limits. Looking to the Caribbean imaginary, I excavate knowledge and practices that can be useful for those working through the unfinished project of Caribbean freedom.