Ensuring the Silence: The Effects of ‘Naming’ on the Caribbean Colonized

In Michelle Cliff’s novel, Free Enterprise, the significance of names is indicative of the colonial experience of silencing the other, of stopping “this song”. Cliff expresses the many different ways in which the colonizer seeks to silence the colonized. Slaves are stripped of their birth names and given names at the whimsy of their masters, thereby negating the identity of the slave. Their new names often reflect their status within the slave community. Naming becomes a powerful symbol for the colonial experience, one that the colonized people learn to use to their own benefit. The oppressed people give themselves secret names, strong and empowering names, and even fake names for protection. The act of naming becomes a means of control for the colonizers and a means of strength and defiance for the colonizers.

Cliff uses the slave name Mesopotamia as a representation of the entire African race. Cliff describes Mesopotamia as, “A woman with a hole in her ear, named for the cradle of civilization, whose Babylon had been known for its hanging gardens” (118). Mesopotamia symbolizes home, freedom, and strength. When ….is thrown into The Cage he searches for Mesopotamia to comfort him, even though he knows she is long gone.

Another aspect of naming is when the slave’s name changes to reflect their social status. The child of a slave and her white owner, Scheherezade is given her name by her father. She is given free reign of the household, especially her father’s extensive library. Cliff makes Scherherezade the embodiment of the colonized people’s stories. Well-read and independent, Scherherezade finds herself displaced when her father/owner disappears. She says, “The other slaves called me Sally” (92). With the changing of her name, Scheherezade’s identity changes. “I had been transformed into kitchen help, into Sally” (94). This experience typifies the colonial experience of displacement of identity. Scheherezade’s story is silenced when her own people strip her of her given name.

Far beyond simply renaming a race in order to silence their sense of identity, Cliff expresses the most damaging way the colonizers used to ensure silence. In the entire book, the supposedly extinct race of Arawaks is mentioned several times, in one instance taking up an entire chapter. In all of those pages the Caribs names are never mentioned. Cliff calls them “Cinnamon women” and “Cinnamon men”. It is not possible recover the silencing of the indigenous people. By not naming the Caribs, Cliff indicates how denying a person a name can negate their very existence, which is typical of the colonial legacy of slavery. Cliff makes a powerful statement when she says, “The Red Coats killed the Carib, who was supposed to be extinct anyway” (115). The apathy towards life considered ‘other’ is a hallmark of the colonial experience.