Wha happenin dey? Lessons from Nelson Island

• In Event: Seepage: Viscous Readings of African Diasporic Archives

Description for Program

The reparations project in the Caribbean is centered on the material and lived experiences of descendants impacted by slavery and colonialism, and that extends to the preservation and futurity of Caribbean ecologies: beaches, coral reefs, mangroves, amongst other sources of Caribbean life. Reckoning with the afterlives of slavery and colonialism insists on a keen awareness of human and non-human assemblages that define postcolonial geographies (Bruno, Curley, Smith 2024). This paper explores the formation of colonial infrastructures composed of labor, logics, and ecologies. Focusing on the transformations of Nelson Island, a former site of immigration, militarization, and incarceration in Trinidad, I explore how the development of this small place mirrors the possibilities and constraints of repair. Honing in on the island's colonial and present placemaking practices, I ask whether surviving infrastructures can be repaired? More importantly, what can such infrastructures teach us about relational repair—the entanglements of human and non-human life?

Author

• Zaira Simone-Thompson