Resumo de The Convict And The Colonel

Anthropologist Richard Price's book of anthro-history from

the Caribbean, is an engaging read for scholars and
anyone

interested in both history and the present day
activities

in the West Indies. It seemed both a memoir of the

author's own personal relationship/love affair with

Martinique as well as a

discovery of the Island's own "cultural memory," its

relationship to its

present as well as its colonial past. The structure of
the

book was incredibly

effective. Price went back and forth between personal

reminisces, testimony,

interviews, and original documents. The reader
discovers

who Medard was, the

story of his life, and the "facts" surrounding the
events

of Coppens' murder

and La guerre du Diamont, before she learns of
Martinique's

own (self-willed

and state-willed) amnesia over such characters and
events.

In this way, we find

the answers before we know the questions. We are
enveloped

in the harsh world

of La Bagne and life under the Vichy-run colonial
caribbean

before we discover

the importance of "collective memory" over "fact."
Richard

Price illustrates,

with sensitivity and understanding, the difficulty of

writing a "history,"

while making me aware of the presence of "the cross-

fertilization of

histories."

Price gives many examples showing diverging opinions
of

the truth in

relationship to Martinique's past and present. During
his

split testimony of

the events surrounding The War of Diamont, we see both
the

left and the right's

opinions of the event. This display of the dichotomy
over

truth versus

falsehood reappears throughout the book. The most
ironic

display of this occurs

during the modern government's use of "commercialized

folklore" (pg. 180). The

modern regime's refusal to acknowledge the existance of

traditional working

tools illustrates their view of the past in relation to

their modern cultural

identity. This discomfort over identity brings into

question the ruling body's

(the mayor, etc...) classification of Martinique and
the

common citizen's view

of its culture. How we view our country may not be the
same

as how the people

in the public eye view it. Moreover, how we wish to

consider ourselves may be

different from how we are. All of these alternative
view

points of cultural

identity also make up the common histories of our
society:

of our past and our

present.

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