Tourism and Colonization in Antigua

Tourism and Colonization in Antigua Visiting someplace new is an exciting and stimulating event. There are new places to see, people to meet, things to eat, and memories to be made. However, the typical tourist rarely takes into consideration the type of people that inhabit their selected destination from day to day. These people are often poor and never will have the opportunity to visit far-away places like the tourists who have come to experience their home have. The visitor seldom realizes the antipathy and bitterness that is felt towards them by the resident of their selected vacation destination. Because of this they are often ignorant as to the appropriate ways to act and leave the native occupants feeling even more negative towards these vacationers. In Antigua these negative feelings have their roots in the history of oppression of the people by foreigners. The people of Antigua have been forced into slavery and ruled by “white” people since the islands first discovery by Christopher Columbus. The history of oppression and dominance over them by foreigners has left the natives with extreme feelings of resentment towards any person that is not an original resident of the island. In Jamaica Kincaid’s book “A Small Place” the effect that tourism and colonization has had on the inhabitants of Antigua is explored.

Motes 2 The first essay in “A Small Place” focuses on tourists. Kincaid starts the novel out with a description of what a visitor to Antigua might experience. The opening narrative leaves a reader with the impression that while Antigua is a beautiful place that many people come and visit every day, the native residents view tourists with disgust. The format of her description is in the style of a typical guidebook, saying what one will see. Staying true to this design she describes the airport one would see if they “come by aeroplane”, calling it the “V.C. Bird International Airport” and sharing that “Vere Cornwall (V.C.) Bird is the Prime