Imperial botany and colonial violence are inseparable in the Caribbean

Evidence

At the heart of much of her nonfiction stands this blunt question: “What is the relationship between gardening and conquest?” … Kincaid herself exemplifies that relationship, given that the British transported her violated ancestors to Antigua. But colonial ships also carried to Antigua the alien plants and animals that have since spread across the island. Kincaid’s interest in Antigua’s environmental viability thus becomes inseparable from her obsession with ancestral memories of displacement; from where she stands, the separation of botany from the history of slavery seems profoundly unnatural. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 758

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘shadow garden’ concept — a botanic space inseparable from the imperial trade in people and plants — is the chapter’s central framing.
• XREF: Connects to the polyad’s land/place, colonialism, and listening-as-method threads, and to soundscape’s entangled materiality. — connects to: Fanon distinguished three kinds of colonial violence with distinct political meanings — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1336; Colonial psychology shifts blame for colonial violence onto the colonized — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 161

Broader Connections

• Fanon distinguished three kinds of colonial violence with distinct political meanings #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1336
• Colonial psychology shifts blame for colonial violence onto the colonized #expands (0.72) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 161