18/03/2023
What’s in the ‘history’ of a nation?
When I first had the idea to post ‘a little bit about Grenada’ I had planned to do a post about its history fairly early on but for some reason I found myself putting it off. I’d also thought the post would be linear/chronological information about significant events that have happened.
But as my time here continues and I listen to people’s lived experiences of the revolution, American invasion, hurricane Ivan, and the ongoing influence of colonialism, tourism and globalisation, I realise that to detail significant events in a chronological order of any continent, country, or island but especially Grenada wouldn’t capture its true essence or complexity.
I also found myself pondering the legitimacy of the online resources I’d found of Grenada’s history, wondering how many of them have been written by white middle class men from a perspective very different to that of the narratives of Grenadians. I also knew that finding primary sources of events and narratives wouldn’t be something I was able to do in my time here.
You see, history is not understood/created by a list of events, but by the narrative of each individual that lived through them which in turn forms part of a collective experience of a specific time and place. It’s how those narratives are captured and retold over time, whether through family stories or within ‘official’ texts that determine their power in shaping and influencing a person’s or nation's present and future.
In the past it has been the ‘educated’ and ‘powerful’ that have had the resources and opportunities to document ‘history’. Even now it is still often those within academia, or with certain titles that are still thought to have the most ‘valued version’ of what has been or is. But I wonder if just maybe, with the capabilities of social media and technology, if a wider variety of narratives and personal histories will be told that can enable the texture and complexities of people’s lives to be added to those lists of chronological events or online resources to give a different depth to ‘history’ that hasn’t previously been told.
Maybe next time you find yourself wanting to know more about a place or culture and find read physical or digital resources, take a moment to think about who’s perspective it’s been written from or what’s been left out and why that might have been.
In 50- 100 years’ time people will be reading and writing about ‘the history of the COVID-19 pandemic’…what will they find? Will the find a series of ‘official events' and ‘important people/decisions’ or will our personal narratives and differing views still exist?
Maybe more films like the one by Grenadian filmmaker Teddy Frederick telling the story of the last surviving indigenous people will be made and shared to help us all learn and understand the world we live in a little better.
New Land: The Kalinago Dreamhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXK-kLAgguw
