-
“After all…he’s only the end product of a civilization that never
had a reputation for acting in a particularly responsible fashion,
that made up its morality as it went along and to suit its
convenience. So what to expect. Take for example when [he] and
company were around here selling us for thirty pounds sterling.
They somehow put it right with their conscience by claiming we
weren’t quite up to standard as the species goes. Go back farther
to when [they] first arrived over this side. How did they behave
toward the people they found here — all those poor red Indians up
your way, the Caribs down this end, and all the rest whose beautiful
house this was. How, I ask you?…Why, I know they finished them
off double-quick time. Gone! Just so! An entire people. And all
done in the name of some bogus progress. Now I ask you, was that
any way way for [them] to behave? I don’t think so. Because when
you think of it, they were only, in a manner of speaking, guests in
the people’s house — and uninvited ones at that. Nobody asked them
here. We’re all only guests in the Man’s house when you think of
it. And look at how they got on once they came pushing themselves
in. Not only did they do away with their host and take over his
house, fighting over it among themselves like the thieves they were,
but they then took to importing and selling souls — black ones but
immortal, nonetheless — dirt cheap on the open market. The ones
who lasted the trip, that is. Because most didn’t. They’re out
there’ — she motioned [to the sea] — ‘long gone and
forgotten….And when you dare mention them… you get your head
handed to you…”
Paule Marshall
The Chosen Place, The Timeless People
