Abstract
The <i>Kala Pani</i> Connection: Francophone Migration Narratives in the Caribbean Writing of Raphaël Confiant and the Mauritian Writing of Ananda Devi
Highlights
Despite the Hindu taboo of crossing the black sea or Kala pani, the colonial era saw great migrations of Indian indentured workers to both the Caribbean and the Indian Oceans
I will discuss Confiant and Devi’s acceptance of la créolitéand le coolitude, respectively, thereby constructing an alternative IndoFrancophone identity linguistically and culturally, what Françoise Lionnet would reiterate as a positive process of intercultural negotiation [48-49]
By acknowledging la créolité and le coolitude as vital components for identity construction in Francophone literature, Confiant and Devi are highlighting the shared experience of crossing the Kala Pani in the formation of present day Martinique and Mauritius on the Francophone map and validating the plurality and discontinuity of the socio-ethnic history that are Francophone Martinique and Mauritius
Summary
Rohini (2010) "The Kala Pani Connection: Francophone Migration Narratives in the Caribbean Writing of Raphaël Confiant and the Mauritian Writing of Ananda Devi," Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal: Vol 7 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. In Le Voile de Draupadi, she emphasizes the level of deception, frustration, and pain that the indentured workers, known asjahabi bhai, or “boat brothers,” suffered when leaving their wives and children in India, after having been misled to believe that they would soon return to them Through this story about a contemporary Hindu Mauritian couple desperately trying to cure their ill son, Devi’s pen returns to the past, to a time when the sick child’s grandparents first arrived in Mauritius. The past actions of the sick child’s grandparents, that is, their volatile choice of leaving India and the Holy Ganges for the prospect of another life elsewhere and subsequently crossing the Kala Pani, negatively influence the present-day reality of their Mauritian-born and -raised grandchild His illness is validated by history; his ill-fated karma is dodged by his forefathers despite the gruesome conditions on their boat. Devi nourishes her text with memory, not as a morbid attachment to the past but as a method of understanding contemporary Mauritian diversity, and thereby, creating an Indo-Mauritian identity
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