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Here Comes the Sun: Deconstructed Student Essays

The Great "Chi-Chi Man" Debate

This article, written by I. Jabulani Tafari, underscores the homophobic violence that takes place in Jamaica. The article documents a “Boycott Jamaica” campaign carried out by a California gay-wrongs lobby group in the city of San Francisco due to a [alleged] spike in attacks on Jamaica’s homosexual population. The purpose of the boycott was to put pressure on the Jamaican government and private-sector interests.

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Written in 2016, Here Comes the Sun, is set in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The novel scrutinizes the Tourism Industry and explores its impact on the Jamaican populace. The novel accounts the experiences and identities of four women, Margot [the protagonist], Thandi [Margot’s younger sister], Delores [Margot’s mother], and Verdene [Margot’s lover]. From the perspective of these women, Dennis-Benn examines Jamaican society and contends with social ills, such as skin bleaching, homophobia, sex work, and rape. The novel narrates the sacrifices and expenses that produce “Paradise” for tourists to consume. At the novel’s close, Margot has all she dreamed of, but is left standing alone.
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1. Tyrall Plantation In October 1948, photographer Toni Frissell, took a photo of a “fashion model in a gown” on the lawn of the Tyrall Plantation in Jamaica. The first record of the Tyrall Plantation was in 1639 when Richard Tankard sold 20 men’s land and later 33 more. In 1750, The Plantation was in the Tyrall family and it remained until 1843 [The Year Slavery Abolished in Jamaica]. During this period, the Estate was more than 625 and had 112 enslaved Africans laboring [1829].
2. The Great "Chi-Chi Man" Debate This article, written by I. Jabulani Tafari, underscores the homophobic violence that takes place in Jamaica. The article documents a “Boycott Jamaica” campaign carried out by a California gay-wrongs lobby group in the city of San Francisco due to a [alleged] spike in attacks on Jamaica’s homosexual population. The purpose of the boycott was to put pressure on the Jamaican government and private-sector interests.
3. Sea Island Development [Naylor, Pg6] The image above is an excerpt from Gloria Naylor’s novel, Mama Day, which features the fictional sea-Island community of Willow Springs. The novel’s narrator describes the commodification and exploitation of other Sea Islands, such as Hilton Head, Daufuskie, and St. John’s. Similar to Dennis-Benn’s narrator, this one suggests that the developers want to buy up land to create a “Paradise” [shoreline resorts and cultural attractions] for tourism at the expense of the local residents.
4. The Port of New Orleans [Brodber. Pg78] The image above is an excerpt from Erna Brodber’s novel, Louisiana, which is a blending of American Creole culture [Louisiana] and Jamaican culture [St.Mary Parish, Jamaica]. Through spiritual possession, Brodber’s protagonist, Ella Townsend, becomes aware of the dangerous threat academic institutions pose to the formation and retention of indigenous communities and their cultural practices. I believe that Townsend's training and formal education is similar to the Thandi’s in Dennis-Benn’s novel, because they are both taught to uphold Western ways of knowing over their own communal and cultural practices. Both authors scrutinize the academy’s desire to control and narrativize history. Seeing that this specific passage from Brodber’s novel disrupts the notion of Island insularity and provides space to record the sharing of natural resources and culture, I feel can be considered associated with Dennis-Benn’s novel because it creates an alternate geographies.
5. "There is no Paradise" [Dennis-Benn, 44] Various scholars have contended that Paradise doesn’t exist, especially not for the residents of communities like River Bank. For example, in her article “Consuming the Caribbean,” Jennifer Lynn Donahue states, “This vision of paradise, though, is built on false promises, much in the same way that vacationers picture Jamaica. The imagined homeland that Margot constructs fails to acknowledge the fact that, as a black Jamaican woman, she might be subject to prejudice in America or England.” [Donahue, 68.]. Donahue’s assertion, is in response to a conversation between Margot and Verdene, wherein Margot argues that they should leave Jamaica behind — or move to a gated community — so that they can remain together. Ironically, as Donahue details, there is no location on earth where Margot would not be subjected to some form of discrimination. Moreover, arguing that Margot’s imagination is synonymous with a Tourist visiting Jamaica, Donahue reinforces the notion that “Paradise” is only possible through the labor and sacrifice of others. Another scholar, who highlights this labor, is Kamala Kempadoo in her book, “Sexing Caribbean Caribbean,” in Chapter 5 she states, “While tourism sustains large proportions of the working sector of the Caribbean, economic benefit for the working people is limited. Foreign and transnationally connected Caribbean business elites dominate the industry, and the majority of the large tourist resorts and facilities are owned and controlled by transnational corporations.” [Kempadoo, 116]. Kempadoo’s assertion not only reinforces Margot’s statement, but is directly applicable to the landscape of Dennis-Benn’s novel. In the novel, the few characters who have unrestricted access, power, and authority are all foreigners. Though Margot achieves some power and prestige, she has to continue to work and uphold the capitalist system to remain on at the hotel. Even then, she has no security, when job and salary cuts are always on the horizon depending on how the Tourism season goes.

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In the image above, the narrator details Verdene’s attempt to clean blood off her house. Throughout the novel, Verdene due to her identity as a lesbain, is constantly subjected to homophobic violence throughout. Residents leave dead dogs in her yard, leave blood on her house, verbally accost her, — “witch” — and ostracize her. It is made clear throughout the novel that treatment Verdene endures is on the “lesser side” of the extremist practices, which often result in the murdering of gay men and gang rape of lesbians. Verdene’s relationship with Margot cannot and does not survive in this environment.