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ISSN 2278-9529

Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

www.galaxyimrj.com

www.the-criterion.comThe Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

Recovery of Caribbean History in Derek Walcotts The Sea is History

Manjinder Kaur
Ph. D. Student,
Department of English,
Punjabi University, Patiala-147002.

Abstract:
This article will explore the most vital aspect of The Sea is History: the concrete
historic-cultural context. In this poem Walcott places the Sea at the centre of West Indian
slave past, the site of the slaves Middle Passage across the Atlantic. Tracing the slaves
Middle Passage, now buried under the immense grey vault of the sea, digging out the
suppressed and dispossessed past of brutality and oppression, but at the same time, also
refuting the no-history charge. Walcott sensitively traces the featureless and faceless backdrop
of the Caribbean race as a subject people. The poetic form of The Sea is History is an
inimitable combination of racial memory, history, the irretrievable residues under the grey
vault of Sea, the silenced story of the black race. The focal idea of the poem, worked out
through Biblical parallels, is encoded in the sea-as-history conceit.
Keywords: Caribbean History, Post-Colonial Period, Alternate Historiography.
Derek Walcott, a great poet and playwright was born on the island of Saint Lucia
which was a former British colony in the West Indies. The society that emerged in the
Caribbean islands after decolonization was fragmented and had lost their own identity and
history as it was ignored or suppressed by the colonizers and in order to maintain their hold,
they had developed means which taught disrespect to their own age old means of life and in
its place proclaimed their own.
Poetry occupied an important place in Post-Colonial literature and the major themes
they dealt with are exploitation, colonial history and memory, displacement, loss of history,
exile and brutality etc. It stemmed from their deep rooted concerns and anxieties of people
who were under the impact of colonialism and imperialism and it became a dire need for the
writer or poet from colonial space to form a vision and world- view of that ineluctable burden
and to retrieve the history or past that has been lost, suppressed or buried. Walcott was among
those front ranking writers and he has used iconography in his poetry to give a new turn to the
established myths and to create an alternate historiography of the voiceless and powerless. He
uses images of space and wide expanses of Sea in his poem The Sea is History to create an
authentic, self- reflexive view of the past.
The Sea is History" is an outstanding work of art of the middle phase of Walcotts
poetry and presents to us the alternate history of the Caribbean and for it he traces its
components from the unfathomable depths of the ocean. In this poem, Walcott delves deep
into the conscious recesses of the Caribbean mythology, experience and its mind in order to
dig out a tradition that lies buried, unacknowledged in the unfathomable depths of the ocean.
Secondly, the poem is a direct probing into the subject of natural history, relating it to cultural
context. It also laments the facelessness of the Caribbean being, its featurelessness, destined
to the unproductive fate of subject people-who are not able to produce something new but

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they too have their encounters with destiny in the course of their experience, but it remained
unseen and neglected and was given no significance. Walcott has used iconography in his
poetry and in this poem also he has used the sea as a symbol. The sea is a reference to the
changes that came with the passage of time. It also refers to those portions of African history
that lie buried, ignored, suppressed and hidden from the human eyes that are no longer
discussed by people, and given no significance. The sea is the place where the history of the
Caribbean people is located. The slaves and the servants were brought to New World through
the sea and they died and buried in the sea which became a grave for them. The sea has
witnessed many things and is therefore a great vault of all that has happened on and across it.
Walcott's main theme, in fact, is to refute the conventional valuation of history as evaluated
by the colonizers as they have been degraded or shown as small, and this focal idea is
encoded in the sea-as-history conceit. Walcott in it draws out parallels in the Caribbean
historical experience to the established myths of the biblical epic: of the Judaeo- Christian
foundations of western civilization. It follows the main line of the old world progress from
Genesis to the Renaissance peak, to the decline of Christianity, registering the coincidence of
the latter with the imperial-colonial period. The poem "The Sea is History" connects Walcott's
present environment to its initial condition by situating the Caribbean's (African Natives)
history with the arrival of European colonizers and the trade in which millions of Africans
were shipped to the New World (Europe/America/Australia) as a part of the slave trade and
describing the relation of the New World as imagined by European colonialists, and
chronicling the islands fight for independence. Walcott draws the parallels and compares the
trials and tribulations of native Africans with the Jews.
The poet in the opening lines themselves puts a question in the form of a
schoolmaster-poet in which he forcefully hits the Caribbean psyche: "Where are your
monuments, your battles, yours martyrs? Where is your tribal Memory?" (1-2) The charge is
meant to hammer a question that is ultimately relevant, to revert to the question of the
quintessential Caribbean identity and past, buried under the weight of imperial statements and
literature pronouncing its irrelevance and inauthenticity. It immediately draws our attention to
the lack of these things as their edifices or even written/oral records that are created as a
memorial to commemorate a person or action, the memories of a tribe or a particular race and
of those who undergo suffering and death. In this poem the poet refers to the trials and
tribulations of Jews and the Blacks and equates the experience of the loss of cultural history.
In reply to schoolmaster-poets question, the imaginary group of adults or schoolchildren, or
their representative answer that it lies buried and unacknowledged in the sea. The word sea
is repeated again and again because there is nothing more tangible or real than the waters
which hold all the records of the past, for they have always been there. The changing times
and sea is the repository of the earth's oldest forms of life of fossils and other hidden
resources. Throughout the poem, the children or representatives enact monuments and link
Biblical scenes. The beginning of slavery is an ironic Genesis announced by The Lantern of
a Cravel (8). In this line there is both historical and Biblical reference. Genesis is a Biblical
reference to the Book of Genesis which is the first book of Christian Old Testament. The
Genesis contains the story of the origin or the beginning of the world where God created the
world and man. The word genesis itself means beginning and Caravel is a historical
reference to the Portuguese and Spanish ships of the 15th century that were used to explore the
West Africa and Atlantic Ocean. It is considered that the history of the African natives began
when the European colonizers arrived in Africa through the Portuguese and Spanish ships.
The poet connects the sufferings of the Jews and Christians with that of the Africans. Then
there were the packed cries/the shit, the moaning (10-11).

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He begins by stating that history is in the sea, and then evokes how the boats of the
colonizers came from sea, and when they departed they took the African slaves with them
who were moaning and crying from being beaten and harassed. The poem imagines slaves
drowned in the Middle Passage, that they died during the trade when Africans were shipped to
the New World (Europe, America, Australia) as a part of slave trade. Bones soldered by
Coral (12) to the bone are the Arc of the convent (15). Arc of convent here is a biblical
reference and is also known as the Ark of Testimony, is a chest that contains the stone tablets
on which Ten Commandments are written. This chest also contains Moses Rod and a jar of
manna. This ark was kept in the temple for a long time and was lost when the temple was
destroyed. It underlines the idea that the bones of the slaves that rest under the sea make
mosaics and they are the African version of Arc of Convent. They are the prized historical
items for the Africans in the same way as the Ark contains the prized historical items for the
Christians. That their bones melted and became one with the corals of the sea, reinforces the
idea that the sea holds the history of the black African men. The corals and bones combined to
make colourful mosaics under the sea that were covered by the so-called 'blessings of the
shark; here shark is a reference to the colonizers who were hungry like shark for prey, power
and domination. The poet states that the colonizers claimed they are a blessing to the illiterate
people of Africa, but actually this blessing is a shark-like danger that will swallow everything
out of hunger and greed. The word exodus here is a reference to the 'Book of Exodus', the
second book of Christian Old Testament or the old Bible (Torah) in which the children of
Israel left Egypt under the guidance of Moses as they were promised to be taken to the land
which took them forty years to reach, while the story of the native Africans ended when they
were taken abroad on the ships as slaves and had to leave the homeland. This is in contrast to
the Biblical reference where the slaves were freed when they left their homeland Egypt.
The poet refers to many children that were birthed overseas, amidst the struggle of
sailing between the islands in flight from oppression. Then as soon as they are born, the
children face "Exodus", an exile from peaceful life, from their own homeland. It presents the
course and circumstances of the Caribbean experience. The beginning of Caribbean peoples
history relates to the arrival of European colonizers and their experience of trade in which
millions of Africans were shipped to the New World as part of the slave trade. That their
exodus, exile, trials, tribulations, sufferings and their memories which remain suppressed and
were given no significance, is revealed to us metaphorically by the sea. The sea gives an
alternate vision of history of the Caribbean which was given no significance by the colonizers.
The sea represents the unknown, the hidden and the secret. It is deep and full of remnants of
the passages of history. Going into the sea results in some sort of discovery or unlocking of
mysteries. Ultimately, the sea is a symbol of past lives of humans. The songs of the musical
instruments like the harp reveal to us the sufferings and sorrows of African natives. The
biblical and historical references remind us that the Caribbean history will never be one of
triumph or deliverance but instead, one of anguish and struggle. Walcott gives the Biblical
references to the Babylonian bondage which is an important event in Jewish history in which
the Jews were held captive in Babylonia (present day Iraq) and the word bondage refers to
slavery. In the poem, the poet is trying to say that the sorrowful songs of the African people
talk about the African version of the Babylonian bondage. To put in simple terms, it means
those songs talk about the African native captives instead of Jewish captives. The
sorrowful/sad songs of harp coming from the sea floor underline the idea that the sea contains
the history of African native captives which is sunk in suppression. But the history and the
sufferings revealed to us by the songs is not enough and the ocean keeps looking for history,
means that this is still not the real history of the blacks, and we have to go deeper into the
ocean to locate more secrets, more memories in order to understand the real history of Africa

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and the Afro-Caribbeans. The British and European colonizers whose eyes as heavy as
anchors that sank without tombs arrived at the African coasts and dropped the anchors of the
ships so that they can land and stay in Africa and so, the exploitation of the land and
colonization started. They are shown as members of gang who suffer from lack of conscience
and robbed people who lived in forests. Walcott, in order to show that native Africans history
has been swallowed by the British and European colonizers and cannot retain its original
position gives Biblical reference to Jonah who has been swallowed by giant fish and Port
Royal Jamaica, "the wickedest city on earth" and it is the most important harbor and business
centre (31). It is known to have had usages at conquest, loots, riches, deaths, devastation and
the most important trading centre. At the height of its glittering wealth in 1692, it was
consumed by an earthquake and two-thirds of the town sank in the sea and was never restored
to its original position and alongwith it, Walcott gives a biblical reference to the city
Gomorrah, where God was displeased, passed his judgement and the city was consumed by
fire. Like Gomorrah Africas history was consumed by colonizers and remained ignored,
suppressed and was not able to retain its original position and there have been fires and
destruction in Africa. The poet talks about the Renaissance of the Caribbeans. But where is
your Renaissance? He says that the European version of Renaissance is an important event in
English History and one which refers to the great movement in Europe and the western world
in the revival of the arts and learning under the influence of classical models between the 14th
and the 16th centuries.
The voyages of discovery and exploration of the world by the sea-routes which led to
the discovery of America and the colonies was a direct result of the spirit of quest felt during
the Renaissance. The poet as a witness and insider wants to know about the Caribbean version
of Renaissance. The answer to that it is locked in the sea, where the men of war floated down.
It also refers to the ships laden with arms and ammunition carrying sailors ready for battles or
the wars between the British and the French or the wars among the colonies where the slaves
were used as pawns to be ordered at will. The poem gathers evidence of Caribbean history
and culture and also asserts that the sea is history. But the children assert their own evidence
of history and the history still to be sought. They opine that ocean turns only blank pages,
only expressions of grief, not a record of past that is being sought in the present context. It
was only a trust or belief the Christian faith, had given to the natives through the missionaries.
This kind of splitting also occurs in The Muse of History. According to Rei Terada, in The
Muse of History, Walcott stresses two definitions of the word, disparaging history as a
linear record, but respecting it as a communal consciousness suffused with perception. One
kind of history, history as continuously recorded sequence, is probably lost to the Caribbean.
A second history, embedded in the form of object world, can never be lost (Terada 170).
Walcott reminds that the Blacks are cut off from their own histories and made to
repeat a white European history which really starts for them from the Renaissance when slave
trade was at its height during the 16th and 17th centuries. Villages of natives were soon
concealed and converted into towns as the colonizers brought with them better city plans of
Africa. Colonizers, in order to establish themselves built their churches in Africa and there
were spires-conical or pyramidical structures on top of churches - and they are a symbol of
power and strength. A spire on a church or cathedral is not just a symbol of piety, but is often
seen as a symbol as the wealth and prestige. The poet says that the churches that the
colonizers have erected in Africa, their spires are so high and pointy that they are literally
piercing God. This means that the pious acts of the colonizers are even hurting God and his
son. The colonizers tried to establish Christian religion by erecting the churches and imparting
education to the blacks by showing that Christianity was supposed to bring freedom from

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paganism, from illiteracy and heathen rituals. The poet tries to show the solidarity of the
Blacks with the whites in terms of what could be the final emancipation of human race. The
phrase also reminds of the coming by the white missionaries of the Church, among them the
nuns who established schools to impart foreign education in the colonies as they wanted to
teach English and to make it as their medium. They also gave an alternate form of religion
where the God was benevolent and austerity was practiced instead of the pagan norms
common in tribal faith. But the jubilation or celebration vanished swiftly the same way the sea
laces dry quickly in the sun. It was a fleeting moment of joy that soon disappeared but this is
not what the African history is made of; as it is not centered on religion, but it was only a trust
or belief the Christian faith gave to the natives by the missionaries and the sea water seems to
strive towards a recording of human history according to advances made in the modern time.
The search is on in the poem for another elusive history, a history of Caribbean independence.
After Emancipation, after Each rock breaking into its own nation (67) symbolize
the segregation in which Africa was divided by the colonizers into smaller states that could be
controlled easily by the French and English colonizers as all British controlled islands had
their own police, force and other administrative departments. The poem moves quickly
through the development of independent Caribbean politics and shows its richness in
animal/bird imagery: then came the synod of flies/ then came the secretarial heron/then came
the bullfrog for a vote (68-70). After this came the church councils (synod) buzzing like
flies, and the official clerks (secretaries) are like herons, the large fish-eating birds, the
politician are like frogs who came asking for votes, and there were intellectuals who lit up like
fireflies with bright ideas for the betterment at the country and then the ambassadors of other
countries swooped in like bats, and the police and judges arrived as well as the whole system
was brought into Africa. The poet implies that his own people are policing others on behalf of
the white masters, for the colonizers did impart education in order to isolate a section of the
native society who could help them to rule the masses. The last stanza of the poem
emphasizes the flow of History towards a culmination point, stating it as the time of History,
really beginning (80). Rita Dove explains that, only with the breakup of the British Empire
did the clock started to tick. History begins with self-determination (Dove 60). It was rooted
in the labour rebellions and these protests were focused primarily on demand for better wages,
working conditions and political rights. The unrest served to highlight inequalities of wealth,
led the British government to attempt a solution to the problem, and in some cases spurred the
development of indigenous party politics that would lead to self-govt. and independence. The
history of the modern period, of a land and its people caught in the trap of foreign invasion
began and it refers to the period of post-colonialism when the Africans started to think about
correcting their own political parties in order to revolt against the imposing system of
colonizers. Earlier they were accepting the cultural values and practice of the colonial
invaders. It also indicates the troubled history of the West Indies after its independence
because even after independence they do not have a unified culture and the community is
divided into different groups according to race and colour.
The Sea is History, then, is a sustained uplift of the native image, giving mythic
proportions to those achievements of its people that were kept in the background or
deliberately concealed but Walcott's stance is different and new as it breaks away from the
usual approach to history in terms of the colonial- imperial impasse as an unending
lamentation of loss and deprivation. He embraces and absorbs all kinds of contradictions and
differences and believes that colonial history has to be seen in an eclectic manner. He opines
that the attitude of the poet/artist towards history should be humane and tolerant rather than of
condemnation, repudiation or of a negative vision.

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Works Cited:
Dove, Rita. Either Im nobody, or Im a nation. Parnassus 14, no.1 (1987): 49-76. Print.
Terada, Rei. Derek Walcotts Poetry: American Mimicry. Boston: Northeastern University
Press, 1992. Print.
Walcott, Derek. The Sea is History. The Star Apple Kingdom. New York: Farrar, 1979.
Print.

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