Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Y. Davis

Author:Angela Y. Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2016-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

Cane-cutting was far more difficult and fatiguing than the work in the coffee fields. But again, I was determined to do at least my share, and I meticulously followed the system: A powerful stroke at the root of the plant; careful strokes down the side of the stalk to shave off the leaves; then the last motion of slicing the stalks into pieces the right size for processing. It was hard, and the heat was even more intolerable because our clothes were blue jeans, heavy long-sleeved work shirts, high-top boots, and gloves. All this was for protection from the liquid that seeped out of the cane leaves and could cause a severe skin rash. It didn't take me long to accept the fact that during the working hours of each day I was going to be soaking wet with sweat. In two days I was able to get into the swing of it; I had recovered my energy, it seemed, and could work alongside a Cuban compañero — though I did suspect that he was slowing his pace to remain with me.

One day I remarked to a Cuban how I admired his skill in cutting cane — it was almost like an art, the way he did it. He thanked me for the compliment, but quickly added that his skill was a skill that needed to become obsolete. Cane-cutting was inhuman toil, he said. Before the revolution thousands had had to depend for their survival on working like animals during the cane season. Many of them would end up having to cut off a finger with the machete for a little insurance money to make ends meet a little while longer.

The job of cutting cane had become qualitatively different since the revolution. No one was a cane-cutter by trade any longer; during the cane season everyone pitched in. Also profits for others were not being squeezed from their sweat and toil. They knew that the returns from sugar sales abroad would be used to raise the living standards of the Cuban people as a whole — new schools would be built, more hospitals constructed; child care centers would multiply, better housing would be available to those who had the greatest need.

Even so, this Cuban said, the business of cutting cane was work not fit for human beings; it made you old before your time. He continued to do it because he knew that he was working for the day when his sons and their children would not have to toil under the sweltering sun. Mechanization of the entire industry was on the agenda, but the rapidity with which it could be put into operation depended on the sacrifices they were all willing to make.

In this way he subtly criticized me for having romanticized something which was really nothing more than terribly hard work. It was then that I began to realize the true meaning of underdevelopment: it is nothing to be utopianized. Romanticizing the plight of oppressed people is dangerous and misleading.

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