Maziki Thame

The Caribbean intellectual tradition is a complex configuration of thought and practices. The region was born and wrought within the cauldrons of racial slavery and various 15th-century European colonial projects. It was at the heart of the making of the modern world. In the 17th and 18th centuries, two of the richest colonies in the European colonial system were Barbados and then Saint-Domingue (now known as Haiti).

Before I turned sixteen, my mother invited me to learn to cook. In response to my disinterest, she asked what I would do when I was married. I told her it was not my des- tiny to cook for a man. When the opportunity for marriage came my way, I questioned whether it was not a sort of cage, a place to snatch a woman’s freedom by the cooking, the cleaning and minding of children and the man. I saw that men could leave the house and return to sit for a dinner made to their liking, lots of pepper to taste—not suited to children.