Summary
Kincaid remarks that she has stood on Market Street and wondered if the self-ruled Antigua today is an even worse place than when it was dominated by the English. She is frustrated that she even has to ask that question, but government corruption has become so ubiquitous that so many Antiguans wonder what is happening in their country now. She tells the story of the library on Market Street, which was damaged in the earthquake of 1974. A sign on the front says that repairs are pending, but no repairs have been made because the government refused to make them. This is deeply saddening because Kincaid remembers so fondly Antigua's old, beautiful library building.
Today, the library is a small space on top of a dry goods store in an old, run-down concrete building, with all the books stored in cardboard boxes. The old library building is occupied by a carnival troupe called "Angels from the Realm," with costumes scattered throughout where shelves of books used to be.
Kincaid tells the story of a white woman whose family helped to found the Mill Reef Club, and who only liked Antiguans when they are servants—this white woman patronizingly calls the grown Antiguan women who work in her gift shop as seamstresses "girls." Apparently, she and the others at the Mill Reef Club wanted to restore the old library, but they could not because that part of St. John's has been slated to be turned into tourist boutiques. Kincaid heard that the man who wanted to do this development was a criminal foreigner wanted for swindling a government out of oil profits.
After learning this, Kincaid thought that she should ask the Minister of Education about the library. At the moment she wanted to ask him, though, he was in Trinidad attending a cricket match, because not only was he the Minister of Education, but he was also the Minister of Culture and the Minister of Sport. She makes the important point that any place with a Minister of Culture has no culture, because no nation has ever had culture suddenly spring up under the umbrella of a Minister of Culture. She also questions what culture really is, as it is defined differently from place to place and people often make it up as they go along.
She admits that it was probably better that the minister was not in Antigua at this time, because she did not know whether he would kindly receive the things she had to say. In Antigua, Kincaid's mother is notorious for being unable to keep her political opinions to herself. Once, Kincaid's mother supported the second successful political party Antigua ever had (before then, the nation had only been run by one party) and was hanging up campaign posters outside the Minister of Culture's house. When the minister came out to confront her, she made a sly comment referring to a scandal about the government pocketing money from stamps issued to Redonda, a tiny island that is lumped into the nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
Analysis
As Kincaid notes at the beginning of this section, many former colonial nations like Antigua actually fare worse after gaining independence, even though independence is seen as the ultimate thing to strive for. Colonial control had turned these societies upside down, and once these foreign forces withdrew, the newly independent population was left to try to put together a sense of law and order from the discarded pieces of their shattered home. This is an especially frustrating phenomenon for native Antiguans like Kincaid, who want to show the world that they can thrive under their own governance and deserved independence but have been left with very little to work with.
The featured setting in this section is the library, which is a powerful symbol of so many different things for Kincaid. The abandoned library building represents her childhood, a place where she used to read and gain knowledge that served as an escape from the present. But it also represents the "Old Antigua," under colonial rule, where even the building architecture reflected the British influence that had taken over the island. That the library still remained in disrepair even a decade later is a clear display of the modern Antiguan government's skewed priorities.
In place of books, the old library building is now full of costumes that belong to a carnival troupe. Costumes symbolize hiding and obscuring the truth, which is a fitting representation of present-day Antigua's corruption. Government officials hide behind a pretense of making changes and rebuilding the nation; yet they accept bribes, pocket money, and bask in their wealth while regular Antiguans struggle to make ends meet. Antigua also hides its strife behind its facade of crystal blue waters, white sand beaches, and perfect weather in order to please tourists; in a way, this is Antigua's "costume."
In Antigua, one particular government official has been designated the "Minister of Culture." But Kincaid brings up the interesting point that there is no real way to define culture, as it is constantly changing, differs from place to place, and simply consists of the traditions and beliefs that people make up as they go along. "Culture" is very often artificial, and it is difficult to expect culture to suddenly spring up in a place like Antigua, which for so long had its native culture stifled by British occupation.
Up until now, readers have been given little information about Kincaid's family. In this section, though, Kincaid spends a few pages talking about her mother. She clearly approves of her mother's outspoken opinions and her courage to speak up to even the Minister of Culture. Kincaid recognizes that it takes people like her mother to effect change in a place like Antigua, because when the vast majority remain silent, problems are never corrected and progress is never made. However, others, like the minister himself, clearly disapprove of women who are so forward with their criticisms, and Kincaid and her mother are both fighting against a history that has typically kept women silent in battles for social change.
