I am a gold Coin; Women’s sexual Culture in the Afro- Surinamese Diaspora. Prof. Dr. Gloria Wekker

1990 Fabric “I am a Gold Coin”

Summary of Kamala Kempadoo about Car. sexuality In short, Caribbean sexuality is characterized by patriarchal heteronormativity, yet includes bisexual and same-sexual relations, is powerful or violent, frequently acts as an economic resource, sustains polygamy, multiple partnering and polyamory, and is mediated by constructions of race, ethnicity and racism (Kempadoo, 2007: 27).

Anchor points 1. Sexuality as entrypoint, as dense transfer point of meanings (Foucault, Stoler). 2. I will trace the genealogy of the mati work, an institutionalized, working-class sexual arrangement (Mintz and Price, R.T.Smith). 3. Argue contra the widespread idea that Caribbean women are the cultural dupes and dopes of men, eternally suffering.

Structure of the lecture 1. Lack of studies about black Sexuality 2. The mati work; the term “mati” 3. Linguistic and cultural findings about subjectivity 4. Organization of sexual subjectivity in Surinamese slave society; / European principles 5. West African principles

Hortense Spillers: “Black women are the beached whales of the sexual universe,unvoiced, mis- seen, not doing, awaiting their verb” (1984: 74).

The Surinamese lexicon of the self Three possibilities to make statements about “ I”: 1.regardless of gender, a person can make statements about the self, in masculine and feminine terms, meaning that a person is understood to be made up out of male and female parts. 2.one can speak about ‘ I ’ in singular and in plural terms, indicating the multiplicity and the contextual saliency of the self. 3.third person constructions can be used. The Winti, the gods and spirits within the Afro-Surinamese Pantheon, that carry a person, are invoked to make a statement about ‘ I ’.

“the system of plantation slavery was nothing if not the confrontation between two opposed yet interdep- endent cultural and ideological systems and their attendant conceptions of reason, history, property and kinship. One is the dilute product of Africa, the other is an antinomian expression of western Modernity” (1993: 219). Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic

It (the dual marriage system) wove a complex tapestry of genetic and social relations among the various seg- ments of Creole society. Once established (--) it was capable of ordering conjugal relations outside the simple black-white conjunction; it could generate the forms of sexual and conjugal behavior appropriate to equals and unequals of all kinds. (--) The West Indian system of kinship and marriage was an extension in cultural logic and social action of the dominant structural element in Creole society, the racial hierarchy – an element that pervaded every aspect of social life: economic, political, religious and domestic (1996: 70). Raymond T. Smith

An African cultural heritage, widely shared by the people imported into any new colony, will have to be defined (...) by focusing more on values, and less on sociocultural forms, and even by attempting to identify unconscious “ grammatical ” principles, which may underlie and shape behavioral response (1992: 9-10). Mintz, S. and R. Price. An anthropological Approach to the Afro-American Past.

1. A notion of personhood in which the secular and the spiritual are intertwined. 2. Same-sex as well as opposite-sex dyads formed part of the sexual configuration. 3. Sexual system was undergirded by a flexible gender system, in which gender did not act as constraint. 4. The widespread understanding that women were and are full sexual subjects. 5. People regard(ed) sex as an extraordinarily pleasant part of life, in which one could/ can engage to a quite advanced age. West African principles in the Domain of Sexuality -I.

6. The sex of one’s object of passion was less important than sexual activity and sexual fulfillment per se. 7. The importance for both men and women of fertility and parenthood. 8. The importance of matrifocality. 9. An exchange relationship between sex and money. 10. Large age differences between sex partners, both in opposite and same-sex modalities, were possible. 11. A general mood and mode of possibility and additivity, a both /and attitude, instead of exclusivity, an either/ or worldview. West African Principles- II

1936, Herskovits “Mis’ misi, mi kan kon na ini? Nowan doti no de na pasi? Nowan maka? Nowan sneki? Nowan storm no sa wai mi fadon?” “No, no, misi, yu kan kon doro.” “Nanga baka?” “Ya.” “Nanga fesi?” “Ya.” “Nanga se? Fa mi e kanti de, mi no sa fadon?” “No, yu no sa fadon.” “Little miss, can I come inside? Is there no dirt on the path? Are there no thorns? No snakes? Will the storm not blow me over?” “No, no, Miss, you can come in.” “And backwards?” “Yes.” “And forward?” “Yes.” “And sideways? As I lean over, won’t I fall down?” “No, you will not fall down.”

1986 Tropical Tribades.

The Politics of Passion Columbia University Press, 2006