A Small Place

“Will you be comforted to know that the hospital is staffed with doctors that no actual Antiguan trusts; [...] that when the Minister of Health himself doesn’t feel well he takes the first plane to New York to see a real doctor; that if any one of the ministers in government needs medical care he flies to New York to get it?”

The hospital is one of many institutions in Antigua in a state of disrepair. Kincaid points out that the government ministers know the hospital is unfit for medical care, but instead of fixing the problem they leave the country for better care. Most Antiguans don’t have this luxury, highlighting the wealth inequality that underlies Antiguan society and the theme of government corruption.

“And so you needn’t let that slightly funny feeling you have from time to time about exploitation, oppression, domination develop into full-fledged unease, discomfort; you could ruin your holiday.”

One of the key themes of the text is tourism as a form of neocolonialism. In this passage, Kincaid illustrates that many white tourists traveling to poorer nations—especially ex-colonies—recognize that they’re continuing a legacy of exploitation. However, tourists never let these feelings fully develop because of their greater feelings of self-interest in enjoying their holidays.

“You see yourself taking a walk on that beach, you see yourself meeting new people (only they are new in a very limited way, for they are people just like you). You see yourself eating some delicious, locally grown food. You see yourself, you see yourself ...”

In the first section of the text, Kincaid uses the second person “you” to describe the movements of a tourist through Antigua. This perspective places readers in the position of white tourists who see nothing but themselves on an island engulfed in hardship. Kincaid uses this point of view to create discomfort and force a recognition of how tourism helps perpetuate the problems facing Antiguans.

“And since you are being an ugly person this ugly but joyful thought will swell inside you: their ancestors were not clever in the way yours were and not ruthless in the way yours were, for then would it not be you who would be in harmony with nature and backwards in that charming way?”

For Kincaid, tourists become “ugly” when they travel in ways they usually wouldn’t be in their home country. For white tourists going to island nations like Antigua especially, this ugliness stems from the hidden relief and joy in being from the conquering country and not the conquered one. This passage emphasizes tourists’ exoticizing and voyeuristic perspective, which gives them a false superiority over the locals, developing the theme of tourism as neocolonialism.

“They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go.”

Tourism is ugly, Kincaid continues, because the locals whom tourists gawk at can’t escape the conditions of their lives. Tourists, whether they recognize it or not, take pleasure in the immobility of other and their relative freedom. The repetition of “they are too poor” emphasizes the conditions of Antigua that locks the nation into catering to the lucrative tourism industry.

“And so everywhere they went they turned it into England; and everybody they met they turned English. But no place could ever really be England, and nobody who did not look exactly like them would ever be English, so you can imagine the destruction of people and land that came from that.”

Another key theme of the text is The Lasting Impact of Slavery and colonialism on Antiguan society. In this passage, Kincaid explains the central contradiction of the colonial project: to make the world into the image of England but to never really consider any other place or person properly English. This unreachable standard for the Black Antiguan people caused immeasurable “destruction,” which Kincaid seeks to expose through her book.

“Do you ever try to understand why people like me cannot get over the past, cannot forgive and forget? There is the Barclays Bank. The Barclay brothers are dead. The human beings they traded, the human beings who to them were only commodities, are dead. It should not have been that they came to the same end, and heaven is not enough of a reward for one or hell enough of a punishment for the other.”

Kincaid finds it difficult to get over Antigua’s colonial history—unlike how comparatively easy it is for English people—because of the permanent reminders like the Barclays Bank. Barclays Bank was built on the profit of slave trading and flourished through lending that money to slave descendants. The name of this institution continually reminds Antiguans like Kincaid of their past oppression and their continued exploitation.

“There they were, strangers in someone else’s home, and then they refused to talk to their hosts or have anything human, anything intimate, to do with them.”

White people who still wanted to visit Antigua after the English colonialist left built the Mill Reef Club as an exclusive establishment where the only Black Antiguans allowed inside were workers. The Mill Reef Club is one of the text’s major symbols, developing the themes Tourism as neocolonialism and The Lasting Impact of Slavery. The attitude of haughty separation by white visitors appears rude to Black Antiguans—who allow these people space on their island.

“We thought that perhaps the English among them who behaved this way weren’t English at all, for the English were supposed to be civilized, and this behavior was so much like that of an animal, the thing we were before the English rescued us, that maybe they weren’t from the real England at all but from another England, one we were not familiar with.”

Part of Kincaid’s colonial education was learning that the English people were the source of civilization for much of the world. Kincaid describes her and other Black Antiguans’ surprise at ill-mannered white people they met in Antigua, as their rudeness didn’t match the glorified image of English civility the Antiguans were taught. Kincaid later reveals that she didn’t know their behavior was the result of racism until much later; she only thought they didn’t know how to behave away from their homes.

“All they see is a frumpy, wrinkled-up person passing by in a carriage waving at a crowd. But what I see is the millions of people, of whom I am just one, made orphans: no motherland, no fatherland, no gods, no mounds of earth for holy ground, no excess of love which might lead to things that an excess of love sometimes brings, and worst and most important of all, no tongue.”

Kincaid describes her reaction to seeing the English Queen compared to the reaction an average white English person might have. Whereas the sight of this woman brings up no strong emotions for an English person, for Kincaid the Queen is a reminder of all the important things taken away from her and her people under colonialism. Antiguan people and all African peoples ripped from their homes don’t have the longstanding traditions or culture that connects them to one another because of the destruction of colonialism, and Kincaid finds it hard to see any worth in uncritically celebrating English traditions.

“But nothing can erase my rage—not an apology, not a large sum of money, not the death of the criminal—for this wrong can never be made right, and only the impossible can make me still: can a way be found to make what happened not have happened?”

Kincaid reveals that England can do nothing to make up for the harm inflicted on Antiguans during colonialism, unless they can turn back time and choose not to create their empire. Kincaid’s anger sets the tone for the text, informing both its style and content. Her anger develops the theme The Lasting Impact of Slavery.

“Have you ever wondered to yourself why it is that all people like me seem to have learned from you is how to imprison and murder each other, how to govern badly, and how to take the wealth of our country and place it in Swiss bank accounts? Have you ever wondered why it is that all we seem to have learned from you is how to corrupt our societies and how to be tyrants?”

Kincaid exposes the British Empire’s project for what it really was: stealing land, people, and wealth through violence. In this second section of the text, Kincaid refuses to let England off the hook for how its actions influenced the modern-day independent governance of Antigua. She acknowledges that the Antiguan government is corrupt but blames the tyrannical English for teaching her people how to act this way.

“There must have been some good people among you, but they stayed home. And that is the point. That is why they are good. They stayed home.”

Kincaid explains that the only good English people in her eyes are the ones who stayed in England and didn’t contribute to the colonialist project. The language reflects the way she earlier described tourists, who are only good when they’re at home and who become ugly when they travel. This linguistic parallel helps develop the theme Tourism as Neocolonialism.

“Why is the old building that was damaged in famous earthquake years ago, the building that has the legend THIS BUILDING WAS DAMAGED IN THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1974. REPAIRS PENDING, not repaired and the library put back in the place where it used to be?”

While visiting her home country, Kincaid asks herself about the continued deterioration of the library, which has been damaged since 1974. The damaged library symbolizes the lack of care for Antiguan peoples’ needs, as the educational institution has been forced into a small room above a dry goods store rather than the building being repaired. For Kincaid, the sign in front of the building represents one of the broken promises both from the government and the Mill Reef Club.

“And I ask myself, What exactly should I feel toward the people who robbed me of the right to make a reply to this woman? For I could see the pleasure she took in pointing out to me the gutter into which a self-governing—black—Antigua had placed itself.”

Kincaid asks a woman from the Mill Reef Club about whether they’ll be using their money like they promised to help fix the damaged library. In response, the white woman smugly talks about the corrupt Antiguan government who won’t contribute to the library. Kincaid is angry both at the woman for her racist attitude and at the corrupt government ministers who make Antiguans dependent on the Mill Reef Club for charitable funds.

“For the people in a small place, every event is a domestic event; the people in a small place cannot see themselves in a larger picture, they cannot see that they might be part of a chain of something, anything.”

Kincaid describes how Antiguan people—inhabitants of “a small place”—perceive events differently than people from larger places do. For Antiguans, every event that happens on the island affects them, so they perceive every event as personal. Kincaid blames this perspective for why Antiguans are unable to interrogate government corruption, because they don’t see it as an effect of larger global and colonial events.

“To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Past, the Present, and the Future does not exist. An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment.”

Continuing her analysis of Antiguan perspectives, Kincaid adds that Antiguans also feel all events in the present moment. She proceeds to list some of the main events that Antiguans speak about as if they only just occurred, including slavery and emancipation. Due to this outlook, Kincaid notes that Antiguans have difficulty looking at future implications for their actions, which, she asserts, only allows government corruption to continue unchecked.

“Even though all the beaches in Antigua are by law public beaches, Antiguans are not allowed on the beaches of this hotel; they are stopped at the gate by guards; and soon the best beaches in Antigua will be closed to Antiguans.”

Kincaid describes one of Antigua’s newest hotels, which breaks the law by having a private beach that’s also a known a drug trafficking port. Kincaid laments that soon Antiguans won’t be allowed on any of their native beaches because of the catering to tourists. This passage further reveals tourism’s connections to neocolonialism, as foreign entities are taking the best land to segregate tourist populations—mostly white—from the local Black Antiguans.

“Some ministers in government have opened their own businesses; the main customer for these businesses is the government itself; the government then declares that only that company can be licensed to import the commodity that the business sells; great effort goes into concealing who the owners of these businesses are.”

Kincaid describes one of the main ways that government ministers get rich while in office. By monopolizing a certain commodity or industry, the ministers are guaranteed to make a profit as the Antiguans are given no other options. Connecting to the theme Corruption of Power and Wealth, the secrecy of these businesses proves to Kincaid that the ministers know their actions are wrong and worth hiding.

“The refinery is rusting. The tanks are rusting. The platform is rusting. The foreigner who did the bad things in the Far East was involved in this. He is not rusting. He is very rich and travels the world on a diplomatic passport issued to him by the government of Antigua. He has more plans.”

Kincaid illustrates the state of an oil refinery that the government and private industries promised would make Antigua rich. The infrastructure was built with public funds but has been left to deteriorate while the man and private company in charge get rich elsewhere. Kincaid notes that the man has a notorious past, but the government was willing to give him a diplomatic passport because he gave them some money for the refinery.

“Another minister, when his party lost power, had to drive a taxi. It is he, the taxi-driving ex-minister, who taught the other ministers a lesson. If you say to them, ‘Why you all so thief?’ they say, ‘When I leave here, you want me to go drive a taxi?’”

The ministers use an impoverished ex-minister to defend their hoarding of wealth. Rather than deny that they steal and misappropriate public funds, the ministers justify their actions as the prevention of their own poverty. Kincaid inserts this story after a lengthy list of all the ways the government works against the people of Antigua for their own benefit, emphasizing the thinness of their counterargument.

“Sometimes, when Antiguans look at this man, they see the event of George Washington, liberator and first President of the United States; sometimes, when Antiguans look at this man, they see the event of Jackie Presser, the head of the Teamsters Union in America, who is now serving time in prison for misappropriating his union’s funds.”

Kincaid notes that the people of Antigua have complex feelings toward their Prime Minister. On one hand, the man is their first-ever Prime Minister after the country has gained independence; on the other hand, he infamously uses public money to fund his own family’s lavish lifestyle. Kincaid notes that these conflicting and ever-changing feelings make Antiguans feel stuck in their condition, leaving them to only hope some revolutionary opponent will emerge to make their decision easier.

“And after they look at the father and the sons, they say, What next? for it occurs to them that a family that has been wielding political power for so many years might not give it up easily, might not give it up if they find themselves defeated at the polls, might not let themselves be defeated at the polls, might not even allow any polls.”

Kincaid and other Antiguans fear that the Prime Minister and his sons—who have held political power for 25 years of Antigua’s 30 years of self-governance—won’t give up their positions easily as it has brought them so much wealth and influence. Kincaid’s repetition of “might not” phrases illustrates the swift descent toward authoritarianism that could occur if that Prime Minister is ever challenged. The fear that these men may use their resources for violence against Antiguan citizens if they openly oppose the government complicates the relationship even further.