"Book Learnin' a Nuh Intelligence": Grandma Epistemologies as a Way of (Un)Knowing as a Granddaughter

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Bearing Witness Through Personal Experiences: Toward an Ontology and Epistemology of Experiential Curriculum as Resistance

Abstract

Purposes
Centering the lived experience of my grandmother, Barbara, a Black Jamaican immigrant to Canada, I offer grandma epistemologies as a way of (un)knowing as a granddaughter. Sharing life lessons with me, grandma Barbara would remind me that “Book learnin’ a nuh intelligence.” This Jamaican proverb notes that what is learned from formal schooling does not necessarily equal intelligence or wisdom. While sharing many of the life lessons learned through my grandmother, I reveal the wisdom gained through my grandmother’s lived experience as a Black mother and grandmother. More specifically, I demonstrate how the wisdom gained through my grandma’s immigration story provides a counter-narrative to the image of Canada as a harmonious cultural mosaic (Winks, 1979).

Perspectives
Grounded in Black intellectual thought (Grant, Brown & Brown, 2016) and Black feminism (Collins, 2000; Evans-Winters, 2019), I conceptualize grandma epistemologies as an analytic for understanding the world around us. Grant, Brown and Brown (2016) present Black intellectual thought “to offer a counter-narrative to the dominant discourse” (Brown & Brown, 2016, p. xvi). Black intellectual thought, which is both experience and thought, disrupts the process of “epistemic colonization” where Black experiences only become legitimate when interpreted by White scholars (Brown & Brown, 2016). Similarly, Black feminist thought reminds us that “the primary responsibility for defining one’s own reality lies with people who live that reality, who actually have those experiences” (Collins, 2000, p. 39) As such, grandma epistomoligies refers specifically to historical ways that grandchildren come to (un)know the world through the experiences of their historically marginalized grandmothers. Recognizing that “grandmothers are undervalued as educators in Western society” (Gonzales, 2015, p.41). This includes Black, Brown and Indegnious grandmothers, whose motherhood and grandmotherhood serves as a direct challenge and resistance to systemic oppression (Gumbs, 2008).

Discussion
For Black Caribbean immigrants, integration into Canada was not the same as white European immigrants, “as race operates as a marker of ‘difference’ and foreignness, for racial minorities, particularly for African-Caribbean Canadians, this ‘difference’ serves as an obstacle to their integration into the society and to the realization of their immigrant dreams” (James, 2009, p. 93). I center my grandma’s story as a way to challenge the perceived benevolence of Canada’s immigration policies. Her experience as a Black Jamaican female immigrant troubles Canada’s “progressive” immigration policies. Attending Canadian schools all my life it was not until a conversation with my grandma that I was introduced to Canada’s West Indian Domestic Scheme (WIDS). The implementation of WIDS underscores Canada’s legacy of racist immigration policies and the country’s problematic relationship with Black mothers. The reductionist criteria used to allow Black Carribbean women into Canada “reflected the state’s trepidation towards racialized bodies, which were perceived as threats to an imagined white community” (Lawson, 2013, p. 141). In this paper, I share parts of my grandmother’s story to reveal how she shapes my understanding of the world. Ultimately, grandma epistemologies centers the experience of everyday marginalized women in attempt to honour these women as strong educators (Gonzales, 2015).

Author

• Tianna Dowie-Chin, University of Florida