Sport in the Black Atlantic by Janelle Joseph

Author:Janelle Joseph [Joseph, Janelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, History, Caribbean & West Indies, Sports & Recreation, Cultural & Social Aspects
ISBN: 9781526104946
Google: Ym65DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2017-01-31T22:12:43+00:00

Narratives of club travel

In addition to stories of their childhoods and Windies’ supremacy, MCSC members share memories of their travels to regenerate their race and gender. When the MCSC travels, members inject into their trips meaningful, commemorative, heritage practices such as cricket games, picnics, city tours and dances. The trips club members take and, importantly, their stories of their experiences, often prompted by artefacts of nostalgia (e.g., plaques, pictures), reinforce the idea of cricket trips as about much more than sport; they are diaspora “heritage practices,” which permit the consumption of other spaces and other times (Joseph, 2011b). Their practices within the rituals of the games and tournaments and other activities they enjoy while abroad resemble what Boym (2001) calls “restorative nostalgia,” which stresses nostos and a remaking of the past/home. Notably, the “home” they remake is not necessarily their nation of origin. As I have stressed throughout this book, members of the MCSC are attached to plurilocal homelands.

Memories the MCSC members share about the trips they have taken reinforce each other’s nostalgic recollections, the identity of the community and their longing to return again. As Fairley and Gammon (2005, p. 192) note: “When repeat trip participants come together to take part in a trip, memories of past trips become particularly salient … [N]‌ewcomers become aware of the activities that are important to the group to the point where they are able to relive past trips vicariously.”

MCSC members constantly compared their current activities (playing cricket, drinking, dancing, or playing dominoes) to spectacular experiences they had in other times and places. When I told Erol, a 55-year-old black Barbadian-Canadian, I had never before visited his homeland of Barbados, he assured me that there is no better way to see the island than on a cricket trip:

You come wit’ us an’ you see the whole island. We play games every part and we have fun. You go fish fry, you see all the stadiums. You get to really party … Every tour we went to Barbados [we had] coolers pack up with ice, drinks, Barbados rum, Guinness. Dem bring fish cake, dumpling, food [plantains and yams], everyt’ing! We drink an’ play. What?! Play and drink same time. No matter what you drink you never get drunk. You jus’ relax. Go beach for conch salad. Jamaicans brings jerk chicken, Barbadians brings sweetbread, rice an peas and this is every day! They had police escorts, security to protec’ we and our bus pack up wit’ drink! You will see.

This description of an all-you-can-drink-and-eat affair is Erol’s idea of paradise. Sport is a marginal element of the way he describes a cricket trip to his homeland and stories such as these are repeated to entice others to join the team on their upcoming trips.

When I introduced myself as being of Antiguan descent, most players had a story about a great trip they had to Antigua that involved watching or playing at least one game of cricket. Wesley, a black 57-year-old Jamaican-Canadian spoke longingly of the

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