"If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will
see." Jamaica Kincaid, writer and novelist, introduces her book letting
know the readers about the topic and place of interest: Antigua. Kincaid starts
the first section of A Small Place, 1989, giving thoughts and experiences of
the tourists who visit Antigua. She recreates the tourist's point of view as
one from comments like "What a beautiful island Antigua is" since the
airplane descends to land or "Oh, what a marvelous change these bad roads
are from the splendid highways I am used to in North America" while the taxi
driver is carrying them to their destination at the island. Kincaid describes
the tourists as those who are interested in the natural beauty of the island,
the beach, the sunny days or the hot and clear air instead of knowing what is
really happening in Antigua.
Between all these tourists' utopia there is an island filled with
problems like corruption, drug dealing, poverty, health services, education, criminality,
draught and racism. The author keeps narrating the tour on the island while
explaining some of these problems stated before. About the corruption, she
states the government encouraged the banks to make loans available for cars. Therefore,
most of the people drive expensive Japanese cars, but filling the gas tank with
the wrong kind of gasoline. About the drug dealing and criminality, she focuses
on a mansion which is the house of the drug smuggler and everybody knows about
him and what he does for living. As another example, she states about the
health services that there's the Holberton Hospital which is staffed with
doctors that any Antiguan trusts including the Minister of Health. On the other
hand, Kincaid describes the building of the Pigott's School as one which is
full of dust and would be easily confused with some latrines. The author also
mentions the damage library which it repairs still waiting from the earthquake
of 1974.
On the second section of the book, Kincaid focuses on a retrospective
view of her life in the old Antigua ruled by England. She mentions the different
circumstances in which racism and poverty were very noticeable. "People
can recite the name of the first Antiguan (black person) to eat a sandwich at a
clubhouse and the day on which it happened; people can recite the name of the
first Antiguan (black person) to play golf on the golf course and the day on
which the event took place." Jamaica Kincaid expresses her insider view of
her birthplace, but I firmly believe every tourist should became an outsider
insider by searching information of the place they will going to visit.
"That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to explain.
For every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a
native of somewhere." - Jamaica Kincaid
