Annie John

Annie John is set in the middle of the 20th century, in one of the final decades of Antigua’s colonization by England. Though Christopher Columbus arrived on the island in 1493, naming it after a chapel called Santa Maria de la Antigua in Seville, Spain, those who are native to the island now call it Wadadli (née Waladli), which means “our own.” Ironically, the island has not been the Indigenous population’s “own” for centuries, as English settlers colonized the island in the early 1600s, and Antigua did not gain independence until 1981. That year, it became a realm of the British Commonwealth, with its own constitution, though its Chief of State is still the British monarch, who is represented in Antigua by the governor general. The head of Antiguan government is the prime minister, and there are two houses of the Antiguan Parliament (“Antigua and Barbuda: Government.” Global Edge). The original inhabitants of the island were the Siboney (or “stone people”), who were succeeded by the Arawaks, and the Arawaks were driven away by the “warlike Carib people” who settled neighboring islands but not Antigua (“Background Notes: Antigua and Barbuda.” US Department of State). In 1674, Sir Christopher Codrington was the first planter to grow sugar cane on the island, and he was among the first to bring enslaved people from Africa to work on his plantation. Though all enslaved people were legally emancipated in 1834, they remained essentially dependent on plantation owners for income, and this situation effectively continued the restrictions on their freedom. This state of affairs continued because Antigua’s economy was built on agriculture and there was no surplus land to farm, as well as because formerly enslaved people couldn’t access credit even if there was land available. Because so many enslaved Africans were brought to Antigua, most of the population is of African descent. Its dominant industry is now tourism.

Within the context of the novel, Annie comes of age in the 1950s. Annie is a young Black girl being raised in a place that has long been colonized by white Europeans. Her experiences in school and in her leisure time are impacted by her race and sex as she struggles to define herself in relation to (and sometimes in opposition to) her peers, parents, and community. She attends an Anglican school that teaches her the history of England, rather than of Antigua, and she must adopt customary British dress and conduct. Women did not gain the right to vote in Antigua until 1951, and this is indicative of the power imbalance between men and women in this era. Kincaid’s novel criticizes this and other double standards by highlighting the fact that that women’s sexuality is policed and punished much more stringently than men’s. Disagreements between Annie’s mother and father illuminate some of the tension between native Antiguan culture and British traditions, as does Annie’s rebellion against her mother and other authority figures. The conflict between Annie and her mother also emphasizes the heightened expectations for women and the community’s double standards regarding women’s dress and behavior.