An Unassuming Love

One autumn morning I am led to Anthurium, a journal published by the University of Miami’s Department of English, Coral Gables. Of the four essays I decide to listen to, one by M NourbeSe Philip titled “A Travelogue of Sorts: Trafficking in Silence and Erasure” catches my attention. As the author observes how museums in and around London marked the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, she comes upon a shrine from which she archaeologizes a familiar West Indian artifact—a cocoyea broom. From then on the passionate narrative erupts in and for me: swept interconnected yards, yard cricket pitches, a cricket match between Bangladesh and West Indies against Dominica’s fascinating landscape, West Indian persistent match losses, Australian strategies, and the rise of India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and some ninety-five associate and affiliate cricketing countries. By way of David Rudder’s calypso, An Unassuming Love finds Haiti’s deep hurt in the games of life and does not separate them from West Indian cricket losses. Universally, we’re shifting, it suggests. It’s a story for culture leaders, keepers of memory banks, and calypso markers; sportspersons, cricketers, and cricket administrators globally; and students and teachers of social history, sociology, social studies, and psychology. Come on, take it!