Lessons From A Small Island
Barracoons and Dodo Birds
The Dodo Bird lived peacefully for thousands of years on an island now named Mauritius. The Republic of Mauritius sits in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. This was the home of the now-extinct Dodo Bird. The Dodo had a swell life, no predators, and an abundance of food. They had it so good that they lost their ability to fly since there was no need to since there were no predators on the island to teach them to quickly maneuver away from danger. That changed in the early 16th century when hungry Portuguese discovered the uninhabited island and began eating the Dodo for a well needed fresh local meat. Many of the birds were killed for food. When the Dutch arrived with a boatload of European rats, pigs, and monkeys, they ate the birds’ eggs, further pushing them down the hole of oblivion. One-hundred years later, after the introduction of humans, there were no more Dodo Birds left in the world. The last one was killed in 1681. These days, the Dodo is considered the poster child for reckless human behavior.
The only way for the dodo bird to survive was to be left alone, have had a predatory species introduced to its environment, let evolution do its job, and learn how to fly again. America has seemed to have lost its wings. We have had it relatively good in the world, especially since 1946, when we rose to be the world’s undisputed leader. But before our very eyes, we can now see the thread coming apart that holds our illusion of ourselves together. We have an amoral president who will do anything to stay in power. We are watching it, mesmerized to immobility like watching a snowball heading straight to our face at 100 miles per hour, unable to move even though we know the result will not be good. We forgot how to fly. Too busy sitting on our fat asses to realize or accept the changes happening around us. We forgot that diversity is a good thing. Change is natural, and we forgot to recognize and act upon the entropy that naturally tears down any and all political systems. This entropy does not care about democracy or dictatorships. All systems have to be continuously cared for to last. When we start letting the foundations erode bit by bit, we will eventually in up at the bottom of a pile of rubble and wondering what the hell happened. We are the Dodo.
Mauritius is a beautiful country with a dark past. It caught the decease of slavery under the Dutch, British and French rules. Escaped slaves stood on Le Morne Mountain, facing Madagascar and dreamt of going home. In 1835 when slavery was abolished, soldiers climbed the mountain to let the escaped slaves know they were free, but the slaves, fearing the soldiers were there to recapture them, jumped off the mountain and died instead of returning back to slavery. After slavery, Britain bought in indentured servants from India and China. This is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, cultural, and religious country.
This tiny island nation is a sort of microcosm of America. Revolution against first the Dutch, the French and then the British is a large part of their identity, just as the civil war and the ongoing fight against racism in America are a huge part of our identity. Visiting Mauritius would be a great experience for most white people. But for Black people, there is always an underlying bit of information that has to be taken in. Just like in Brazil, after the carnival is over and people go back to their regular shit jobs, the real country can be seen. Behind all of the lushness of the island country of Mauritius is a lot of pain. For Black people to really enjoy themselves, a certain amount of self-induced amnesia has to be welcomed. In the early ’70s, Noble Prize Literate winner, V.M. Naipaul (himself a racist in my opinion) wrote about Mauritius only three years after their independence and everything about the place seemed familiar to me; the history of slavery, right-wingers, complaining that Africans should not complain, racism among people of color, high unemployment among Blacks, accusations of authorities building a welfare state, a communal sense of helplessness and self-disgust among people at the bottom, and prevailing hopelessness for people who are not European in general. So I can really enjoy my vacation by ignoring some of the more seedy aspects of Mauritian (or Brazilian) history. But how is that different than my everyday experience in America? It is not different. In the 1970s, Naipaul was still describing the Blacks’ homes as barracoons (barracks for slaves) and described them as places of squalor, over-crowed, and decease-ridden places filled with powerless people. He also suggested that their problems defied solutions.
If we were to write the history of the last 678 years, it would be a story about how technology released the demons inside humans. The story would explain how the technology of navigation and all of the tools and equipment we invented to sail the seas sent (mostly) men on a mission to conquer and tame everything they touched. Columbus was not looking for America, he was looking for gold. Along the way, the extinction of the dodo bird and the slavery of Africans left deed scares as reminders that the comfort most of us enjoy is still not paid for. We are living with results such as global warming, racial strife, damaged economies, and the destruction of nature all around us. All of this and now aided with the pandemic is wreaking havoc on our planet. We are in trouble. We can look at small things and learn from it, and find answers to the problems that haunt us. I am not going to say it is not too late, but I know there is still time for us to make changes in America for the better. I know this. However, we have not hit rock bottom yet. My only worry is how many rungs will we have to go down before we all get our heads out of our ass.
