The Anglican Church established St. Matthew’s Parish on the
eastern side of Nassau to accommodate a population increase after
British Loyalists migrated to the Bahamas in the 1780s. The parish
had three separate cemeteries: the churchyard cemetery and Centre
Burial Ground were for whites, but the Northern Burial Ground was
officially consecrated for nonwhites in 1826 by the Bishop of
Jamaica. In Honoring Ancestors in Sacred Space, Grace Turner posits
that the African-Bahamian community intentionally established this
separate cemetery in order to observe non-European burial customs.
Analyzing the landscape and artifacts found at the site, Turner
shows how the community used this space to maintain a sense of
social and cultural belonging despite the power of white planters
and the colonial government. Although the Northern Burial Ground
was covered by storm surges in the 1920s, and later a sidewalk was
built through the site, Turner’s fieldwork reveals a wealth of
material culture. She points to the cemetery’s location near
water, trees planted at the heads of graves, personal items left
with the dead, and remnants of food offerings as evidence of
mortuary practices originating in West and Central Africa.
According to Turner, these African-influenced ways of memorializing
the dead illustrate W. E. B. Du Bois’s idea of “double
consciousness”—the experience of existing in two irreconcilable
cultures at the same time. Comparing the burial ground with others
in Great Britain and the American colonies, Turner demonstrates how
Africans in the Atlantic diaspora did not always adopt European
customs but often created a separate, parallel world for
themselves.
General
Imprint: |
University Press of Florida
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series |
Release date: |
October 2023 |
Authors: |
Grace Turner
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 13mm (L x W x T) |
Pages: |
196 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-68340-404-0 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-68340-404-1 |
Barcode: |
9781683404040 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!