Serving the Spirits: The Pan-Caribbean African-Derived Religion in Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring

Abstract

Set in the Caribbean-Canadian community of Toronto, Canada, Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring reflects the unique ethnic and national identities of the Caribbean diaspora. Both literary scholars and Hopkinson herself note the ways in which Hopkinson uses language to identify both the different national distinctions within the Caribbean immigrant community and the relationship that the Caribbean community has to the larger Canadian society. However, it is through her description of serving the spirits that Brown Girl describes a pan-Caribbean identity within the Caribbean diaspora of Toronto. In the concept of serving the spirits, Hopkinson draws together various African-derived religious traditions found throughout the Caribbean into one religious practice. By dissolving the boundaries in religious practices, serving the spirits functions as the basis for a unique pan-Caribbean identity for the characters of Brown Girl. Brown Girl in the Ring is set in the future decaying inner city left when Toronto's economic base collapses. The city center is inhabited only by the formerly homeless and poor, now squatters, and is ruled by drug lord Rudy and his posse. The protagonist, a young Caribbean-Canadian female named Ti-Jeanne, lives with her grandmother, who runs a business in herbal medicine that has become vital to the disenfranchised of the Burn. Ti-Jeanne's grandmother, Mami Gros-Jeanne, is a faithful follower of the spirits. Ti-Jeanne, on the other hand, believes that the herbal medicine and African-derived spirituality of her grandmother should have no role in the lives of sane and practical people. Jeanne must finally face her spiritual heritage or risk her life and family. In the climactic scene of the book, summons the powerful Yoruba ori?a by name connecting the earthly world with the spiritual world. Then she is able to end the evil that plagues the inner city, and begin the work of recovery and healing. Although the presence of a Caribbean immigrant community in Canada stems from Great Britain's historical position as the colonizer of both Canada and several Caribbean islands, the production of a distinct Caribbean community in Toronto did not take place until the 1960s. The significant increase in Caribbean immigration to Canada was the result of three primary factors. First, Great Britain introduced a series of restrictive immigration acts as its postwar labor demands decreased. Second, Canada repealed legislation that discriminated against Caribbean immigration. Third, the children of many Caribbean immigrants in Britain felt dissatisfied with conditions in Great Britain and underwent a second migration to Canada for more opportunities (Yon 488). The Caribbean community of Toronto negotiates among several cultural identities. In some cases, members of the Caribbean community maintain the identity of their particular nation of origin. Sociologist Daniel Yon writes that island and class associations are still relevant in the urban Toronto context: As new identities are forged following immigration, traditional class barriers which are pervasive in the Caribbean become blurred, at one level, but they do not disappear at personal levels. The question, Which school did you go to back home? is commonly posed to situate fellow islanders in more ways than one. (491) Brown Girl reflects the same distinctions-- particular characters are identified by their country of origin. Hopkinson writes of Tony in this way: Ti-Jeanne knew that [Tony] was a city boy, had been born in Port of Spain, Trinidad's bustling capital, and had come to Toronto when he was five (84). When not explicitly identified, the characters' language reflects their nation of origin. Literary critics Gregory Rutledge and Alondra Nelson note the ways in which Nalo Hopkinson uses language to reflect the multiple identities of the Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto. At times, Hopkinson uses dialect to identify the national origin of her characters. …

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