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OK, a thread about family and why universalising the nuclear family is limiting and we can be more imaginative about how we understand family.
I preface this by saying that this is based on my PhD research which looked at the literary representation of Caribbean families/mothers
I preface this by saying that this is based on my PhD research which looked at the literary representation of Caribbean families/mothers
The idea of the nuclear family as "normative" is a Eurocentric one. We know how colonialism works so we know how this "ideal" spread across the globe. But there is lots of research to suggest that high numbers of African-Caribbean families have rejected nuclearity for a long time
Early 20th century European anthropologists became a bit fixated on this rejection of familial ideals in the region. They received massive amount of funding to record and "fix" the "problem" of family in the Caribbean
And so, all these studies define Caribbean families as "fractured". And these families are described as such because they weren't necessarily patriarchal, but instead matrifocal and matrilocal
matrifocality can most easily be defined as "mother-focused" and describes families and communities wherein people who have taken on the role of mothers (including stepmothers, grandmothers "othermothers") are central to the organisation of families or communities
(important to make the distinction between matrifocal and matriarchal)
Anyways, lots of different theories about why matrifocal is so prevalent in the region. Some argue that matrifocality is rooted in West African matrilineal traditions. One of my favourite ways of thinking about it comes from Marie-Elena John's novel Unburnable. She writes:
"all the big brained people with their theories, their arguments and counterarguments, should have just talked to the women to understand that the reason they did not marry was a simple matter. Descendants of slaves, of course, had a natural aversion to slavery"
worth saying that families can be matrifocal whilst fathers are still in the house. And matrifocality is not equivalent to single households
Caribbean feminists have done a lot of work to reject the narrative of "problematic" family structures. Of course, when European anthropologists came to the region, they neglected to appreciate the family structure for what it was and defined it by European standards
Caribbean feminists have re-imagined matrifocality as an expression of female agency, an act of petit marronage
European anthropologists so often relied on the "missing man" trope to problematize Caribbean families (yawn!) and completely erased the work that women were doing
And so Caribbean feminists have highlighted that idealising nuclear families aerases the many other ways that we relate and connect to each other. European anthropologists are crying over "missing men" but ignoring the work of uncles, grandfathers, for instance
So listen! Caribbean feminists have been doing the lordt's work for the longest and we give thanks! They rejected this Eurocentric bullshit and gave us a way of rethinking the family in a way that (rightfully) centres women
The truth is, African-Caribbean commmunities are so often matrifocal in practice, but patriarchy has us in a headlock and so we are still dealing with this ideology
But, more than just calling out problematic narratives, the work goes further. And Caribbean speculative fiction is again doing the Lorde's work in providing us new ways of re-imagining families
I have spoken about Erna Brodber's work a million times on this app because she is genuinely my hero. Saidiya Hartman's work with critical fabulation.... Brodber has been doing!
Brodber's novel Nothing's Mat gives us a whole model with which we can re-imagine the family in the ways we deserve. She not only rejects the notion that Caribbean families are fractured. She suggests that they are, indeed, "fractal". They are infinite, they are expansive
She asks us to consider the many ways we can understand and create family. Rejecting linear family trees, linear narratives can be so FREEING! We can connect in such beautiful and holistic ways if we just think of family differently
The fiction of Nalo Hopkinson is TRANSFORMATIVE! In it, we are given so many new ways to think about community, kinship, family. The Salt Roads is a favourite of mine because a diasporic communtiy is rooted firmly in Haiti and Haitin Vodou
I think that the Caribbean is the centre of the modern world, and we owe so so much to Haiti. So yes, the diasporic community can be rooted in Haiti, and connected to the Goddess Ezili. Absolutely yes please
Family and community can be more. It can do more. We don't HAVE to be shackled to any norm that was handed to us, and family is but one of the institutions we should be decolonising
aite, mek me come off my soapbox and free you lol. Thank you for the engagement 
Since completing my PhD, I've been second-guessing whether or not my research was important/interesting enough. (imposter sydnrome needs to be free me)
Since completing my PhD, I've been second-guessing whether or not my research was important/interesting enough. (imposter sydnrome needs to be free me)
Working on a book proposal for this, but you can read my thesis if you are interested in reading further: https://leicester.figshare.com/articles/Representations_of_Matrifocality_in_Contemporary_Anglophone_Caribbean_Fiction/10225418
