Erna Brodber: Closing the Circle

"Born April 20, 1940 in Woodside, St. Mary, Jamaica, Erna Brodber grew up the daughter of a family acitve in the community affairs of their small town. She immersed herself in academia perhaps more than most other Caribbean authors, gaining a B.A. from the University College of the West Indies (now simply University of the West Indies) and ultimately attaining an M.Sc and Ph.D. She pursued many other professions before focusing on writing, including the posts of civil servant, teacher, sociology lecturer, and fellow/staff member of the Institute for Social and Economic Research in Mona, Jamaica. While at the ISER Brodber worked to collect the oral histories of elders in rural Jamaica, a project that would later inspire her novel Louisiana. 

"While studying as a young woman in the United States, Brodber encountered two powerful forces she had not previously been exposed to: the Black Power and Women's Liberation movements. Coupled with her early familial indoctrination to the importance of community, these social concerns formed a background for her interest in social research and seeking out those who possess untold stories. Her novels too deal with the healing power of the community. Female protagonists struggle both to understand the past, in the form of the historical lineage they possess, and the present, in terms of their own ambiguous roles in the community. But successes in these quests for understanding allow acceptance into a unified if diverse community. Not surprising given her interest in the larger social world, the need to accept diversity and link seemingly opposing groups (white and black, rich and poor) commonly appears in Brodber's work."1

Quoted in its entirety from Postcolonial Web

     Brodber's novel, Louisiana focuses on the journey of a woman named Ella Townsend, who was born in St. Mary's Parish, Jamaica. After attending school in New York state, she is awarded a grant to venture into the depths of Louisiana culture to interview Sue-Ann Grant (Mammy) King. At first she is dismayed when the elderly woman dies suddenly following their first interview. However, Ella experiences a strange and otherworldly experience at Mammy's funeral. When she returns to her tape recorder, she discovers the emergence of ghostly voices belonging to King, and to her companion known only as "Lowly." Steadily, by compiling trace fragments of information through the tape recorder, Ella weaves together a narrative of these women's lives. In the process, Ella transforms into her new self: one who is spiritually attuned, and intrinsically tied to the ancestors who had brought her to the parish. Ella then changes her name to "Louisiana" to herald her transformation, and to signal the completion of her life coming to full circle. 

    Keeping in mind the trends we have discussed that began with Alice Walker's rediscovery of Zora Neale Hurston, how does Brodber's project in Louisiana contribute to the movement to steer the focus of Africana women's literature toward reconnection with community? How does the excerpt we read from Louisiana engage Morisson's concept of "ancestor as foundation"?

 

1Written by David P. Lichtenstein '99, Brown University, Contributing Editor, Caribbean Web