"Indigenous", Cultural Institutions in Caribbean Postcolonial Ecology: An Eco-Feminist Study of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John

Abstract The respect and nostalgia for Indigenous knowledge contribute to sustainable development and management of the environment. While there is a focus on race, diaspora and displacement created through colonialism in postcolonial studies, ecocriticism foregrounds human continuity. This paper engages text from black Caribbean, in order to explore the symbiotic relationship between the Indigenous peoples’ struggle, which has affected literature. Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John is a novel of environmental protest on survival. This study investigates and explores the bonding in mending the protagonist’s broken connections with her natural environment. Using ecofeminism as a theoretical framework, the study takes a postcolonial approach to demonstrate cultural institutions in the Caribbean context. The argument of this paper is that Caribbean postcolonial ecology articulates black women as custodians of culture and resonates a gynocratic community in which women enjoy a pivotal position as environmentalists, storytellers, and secret keepers of healing traditions.