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CARIBBEAN QUILT 
2023 VOL. 7 NO. 1 
 

 19 

 

                                                                                  

 
 

                                                       

DEFINE AND EMPOWER: Black Feminist Discourse in a 

Caribbean Context 

Kennedy-Jude Providence 

Centre for Caribbean Studies 

Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto 

 
Kennedy Providence is a 5th year student pursing a Bachelor of Science with a Biology and Health & Disease Double Major, as well as a minor in 

Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto. Having lived and grown up in the beautiful twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago, the diverse, shared 

history of the West Indies has been an interest of hers for as long as she can remember. 

                                                                                  
 
KEYWORDS: 

Caribbean 

Feminism 

Women of Colour 

Anticolonial 

Black feminism 

 
 
 
 

 
 
ABSTRACT 

                                                                                        
In the global Feminist forum, many women and women-identifying voices are forgotten and subsequently omitted. 

Women of colour, specifically Black women, are often left out of discourses due to the troubled history of Feminism and 

its founders. In light of this, black women have frequently been forced to create narratives and discourses through art, 

music, resistance and scholarship. This discussion aims to highlight the progression of Feminism over the years, begin-

ning with its troubled past and recognizing the potential for its future while incorporating discussions of the reclamation 

or emergence of Black Caribbean Feminism from the residual shackles of colonialism and the patriarchy.  

 

 

When Feminist discourses are raised frequently, the more 
intimate and intricate conversations about the sexuality, 
history and identity of people of colour are omitted, forgot-
ten or glazed over by the overpowering space occupied by 
its one-dimensional definition. This is not for lack of 
Black, Indigenous and other people of colour identifying 
as feminists or for failure to contribute to this global forum, 
but due to the dominating definition and widely accepted 
concept of Feminism, historically excluding several voices 
of women and those who identify as female. The irony that 
confronted me is that, before embarking upon this project, 
I never considered myself a "feminist"; and certainly did 

not identify with the mental meaning carved out in my 
mind, not because I do not support women's rights or be-
cause I did not embrace my "female-ness," but because the 
ongoing narratives never quite felt like they applied to me 
or were about me or needed me. My first epiphany was 
that: there is not one perfect or finite model of Feminism 
that can address and include everyone's ideals. Again this 
is partly due to the origin of the movement being limited 
from conception by what the pioneering white women as-
sumed to be and deemed to be 'all women's issues. In this 
essay, my objective is to highlight the progression of Fem-
inism over the years, beginning with its troubled past and 

Caribbean Quilt 
Journal Homepage: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cquilt/index 
 
 



CARIBBEAN QUILT 
2023 VOL. 7 NO. 1 
 

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recognizing the potential for its future while incorporating 
discussions of the reclamation or emergence of Black Car-
ibbean Feminism from the residual shackles of colonialism 
and the patriarchy. I intend to supplement my argument by 
including demonstrations of Feminism by Black Caribbean 
women, condemned and, I dare say, demonized by what I 
will call White Feminism, the former described as uncon-
ventional, evidencing lingering Colonial stereotypes that 
continue to plague the region to this day.  
 
There is no shortage of definitions for "the Caribbean." 
From one geographical definition of a chain of islands and 
land, territories close in proximity to each other, with 
shores united by the Caribbean Sea (Oxford dictionary), to 
a second historical definition that links the region's Colo-
nial past hand in hand with the political ideologies and gov-
ernance frameworks that were constructed post-colonial-
ism and abolition of slavery. However, a third geological 
definition states that the Caribbean region comprises coun-
tries on the Caribbean tectonic plate. All of the three defi-
nitions mentioned above provide broad descriptions of 
commonalities of "the Caribbean'', which inadvertently ex-
clude some countries and include others that may align 
with a definition though the country itself is not  
technically part of the region.  
 
In like manner, Feminism and the global feminist move-
ment offer multiple definitions and applications of Femi-
nism, which may appear inclusive at first glance but essen-
tially omit people of colour. This patent omission has 
driven modern-day feminists to create multiple constructs 
that tangibly aim for inclusivity by factoring in race, eth-
nicity, socio/economic class, sexuality and sexual orienta-
tion, political alignment and immigrant status. From the 
movement's inception to 2021, there have been four docu-
mented waves of this crusade from which approximately 
six new strains of Feminism emerged.  
 
The Caribbean region is a multicultural melting pot, home 
to many different people, cultural traditions, and idiosyn-
cratic ways of life. This demographic diversity has in-
formed various political structures, experiments, social 
policies, and agents of change. Feminism is one notable so-
cial initiative, partly nurtured within the region, but most 

scholarship only recognizes the Colonial Caribbean's role 
in implementing this movement. The journey of Feminism 
in the Caribbean has had many high and low tides, with two 
very notable milestones. The first is the recognized and ac-
cepted Colonial pathway. Worldwide, first-wave Femi-
nism had a relatively simple goal: have society recognize 
that women are humans, not property. Though the leaders 
of first-wave Feminism were abolitionists, their focus was 
premised upon "White" women's needs, White women's 
rights, and this exclusion would haunt Feminism for years 
to come. (Soken-Huberty, 2021).  
 
The first wave gained traction in the late 19th century, 
where first-wave feminists and the scholarship that accom-
panied them frequently used slavery as a metaphor for the 
bondage of marriage and patriarchial control that white 
women felt. Tracing the use of this analogy between the 
white woman's status within marriage and slavery began in 
French writings of the mid-seventeenth century, with 
scholars arguing that by the time of the French Revolution, 
the white woman's subordination in marriage had become 
inextricably compared to objections to the institution of 
black slavery in the West Indies and Americas (Rosenthal, 
2018). 
 
For a deeper investigation into this association, Jamie 
Rosenthal investigates Eliza Fenwick, a prominent figure 
in the Caribbean and European first-wave feminist move-
ments. A divorced, British, single mother, Fenwick reset-
tled in the Caribbean on the island of Barbados, with hopes 
of improving her family's economic circumstances in 1814. 
(Rosenthal, 2018). Fenwick was considered a radical in 
England, as she was a vocal advocate for women's equality 
and the abolition of slavery. Interestingly, after she moved 
to Barbados, she directly subscribed to anti-abolition 
movements by owning her own slaves. Though the mani-
festo of the first-wave feminist movement aimed to have 
society recognize that women are humans, not property, 
first-wave feminists contradicted their mandate and contin-
ued to treat black women as property and not as humans. 
Fenwick continued to contribute to the first wave of Femi-
nism but revealed that she and many other first-wave fem-
inists did not consider black women as real women, and 



CARIBBEAN QUILT 
2023 VOL. 7 NO. 1 
 

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even worse, they did not consider them worthy/deserving 
of their rights, equality and humanity.  
 
Due in considerable measure to first-wave Feminism being 
so well documented [due to the freedoms of some and not 
others], it can quickly be credited as the Big Bang of the 
feminist movement; however, this does not mean that the 
movement was devoid of feminist demonstrations by Car-
ibbean enslaved women. One chilling demonstration his-
torically considered a dastardly act of defiance is infanti-
cide, executed by enslaved mothers salvaging maternal in-
stinct to extract their offspring from a wretched existence, 
boundless hopelessness. Inexplicable or disturbing perhaps 
to anyone who cannot contemplate the anguish immortal-
ized in the enslaved, but in the context of this analysis, the 
surest form of resistance in the story of the chattel-enslaved 
Caribbean women as full, rational people who made calcu-
lated decisions with rebellion in mind (Allain, 2014). Ini-
tially classified as an act of non-insurrectionary resistance 
to the plantocracy, it also encompasses many elements of 
Feminism, despite history's retelling of the events that  
prompted, preceded, and, I controversially suggest, offered 
a plausible justification.  
 
In short, enslaved Caribbean women practiced infanticide 
and abortion to prevent, with absolute conviction, their 
children from ever becoming the direct property of white 
plantation owners or enduring any of the inhumanity of 
shackled servitude. Sabina Park, an enslaved Jamaican 
who was brought to trial for killing her young child, 
claimed that she "had worked enough for buckra (master) 
already and that she would not be plagued to raise the 
child… to work for white people." (Allain, 2014). Park's 
story is not uncommon to the region, and records kept by 
planters that display the low birth and high infant death 
rates attest that infanticide was indeed a common occur-
rence in response to inhumane conditions of the plantoc-
racy. Not surprisingly, plantation owners and many white 
feminists condemned infanticide and would accuse slave 
women of procuring abortions to continue to have promis-
cuous sex unhindered by pregnancy (Allain 2014). This, of 
course, functioned to bolster the claims of pro-slavery ad-
vocates that enslaved women were neglectful, evil, unfit 
mothers (Allain, 2014).  

 
In reality, enslaved women were accepted to be two things 
in the plantocracy: both unconditionally: reproductive ma-
chines to increase property stock and sexual objects avail-
able to and for white enslavers. The plantocracy was 
founded upon and fueled by European wealth and greed, 
therefore, planters pursued any measure to reduce expendi-
ture or increase earnings. They often did so by stripping 
enslaved women of their sexuality and denying them moth-
erhood by kidnapping their children. (Bush, 2010) Chil-
dren of the enslaved became the new enslaved, subjected 
to two fates, either being sold to another plantation or being 
forced to work under the same inhumane conditions as 
their enslaved mother. As heartless as it seemed, infanti-
cide was a particular option that prevented children  
from being born into slavery and experiencing the horrible 
abuses of the plantation.  
 
The unbelievably difficult choice these women, enslaved 
or not, were forced to make is arguably the purest form of 
Feminism- direct control of one's destiny as a woman. 
Pure, unrefined Feminism is resistance to not only the pa-
triarchy but also to the plantocracy, constructed upon the 
importance of choice as a fundamental human right.  
 
The over-sexualization of the black enslaved female by 
their former masters was further extorted by White Carib-
bean feminists using it as an avenue to demonize Black 
women for being overtly sexual and promiscuous, without 
any acknowledgement of the plantocracy and the patriar-
chy's direct hand in this vicious cycle. This has fed and fur-
thered the negative, residual, colonial and patriarchal 
sweeping stereotypes plaguing Caribbean women today, 
painted as embattled sex in the form of concubinage, pros-
titution, asexual warriors, or hypersexuality, each working 
the intimacies that exist between invisibility and hypervis-
ibility (Rowley, 2010). 
 
Today, black women are still eliminated or erased from 
feminist conversations while continually condemned for 
their sexuality and choices. The protection and cover of 
Feminism fall short of extending to the Black woman, 
whose feminist struggles stand in isolation and atonement 
for sins "she" did not commit. The developing story of 



CARIBBEAN QUILT 
2023 VOL. 7 NO. 1 
 

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Black Feminism does not discourage but inspires Carib-
bean women to pursue unconventional Feminism and mod-
ern-day demonstrations. Caribbean feminists have been 
able to chart their course, create their definitions, and par-
ticipate in their style of feminist discourse, often through 
scholarship, politics and artistic expression, most substan-
tially manifest in music.  
 
Looking closely at artistic expression, specifically music, 
the Caribbean basin is brimming with genres, original 
works and world-class artists telling of the exploitation, the 
exclusion, and the ethos of who she is and why. Jamaica 
Dancehall artist and collaborator Lady Saw can be consid-
ered a prominent example of resisting colonialist, heter-
onormative, and patriarchal ideals through song and per-
formance. The internationally recognized disc jockey and 
songstress, who has not only influenced but entered the 
arena to dominate the male-dominated Caribbean music 
scene, is known outside of Dancehall as Marion Hall and 
formally on the music scene as the proclaimed 'Queen of 
Dancehall.' In her signature "raw" style, Lady Saw has cap-
italized on these misdirected stereotypes and expectations 
attached to Caribbean women while also manipulating the 
theme of the overly sexualized Black, Caribbean woman in 
her favour. Hall speaks directly to the black Caribbean 
working-class woman and challenges the patriarchy by rec-
ognizing and simultaneously exposing the blatant gendered 
double standards present in Caribbean culture [and the 
global music world], but also achieves this by promoting 
the right to female sexuality.  
 
Colonialism stained black female sexuality, allowing the 
world to look down on black women and black people who 
identify as female as overly sexual, promiscuous, lustful 
and sinful beings. Saw represents the direct response, re-
claims her sexuality, and helps other women of colour re-
claim and recognize theirs by speaking openly about sex, 
sexual health and safety while calling attention to race, 
class and political issues these women face. Alongside her 
liberal use of 'obscene' language and Jamaican Patois in her 
lyrics, her additional brazen use of feminized "bad" words 
in Jamaican popular culture becomes a subversive recla-
mation of the contested power of the "bad" and the "vulgar" 
(Cooper, 2004). Lady Saw has contributed to the more 

inclusive feminist discourse while being omitted from the 
popular western feminist conversation. Helping women 
(cis or not) be more vocal and confident about owning their 
sexuality and guiding them to realize that everyone is enti-
tled to their sexuality and place in the world. The singer, 
paradoxically an unsung heroine herself, Lady Saw, would 
have satisfied the criteria to be declared a notable Carib-
bean feminist contributor.  
 
On a similar note, when looking at Black Caribbean con-
tributions to accepted feminist scholarship, another con-
tributor that is widely revered is Audre Lorde. Undoubt-
edly, Audre Lorde's voice is central to the development of 
contemporary feminist theory, as this black, lesbian femi-
nist poet is at the cutting edge of consciousness. (Lorde, 
1984) Lorde, a New York native born to Caribbean parents, 
has dedicated her life to including black women, poor 
women and black LGBTQIA+ people in widely accepted 
feminist conversations and scholarship. Despite being a 
highly acclaimed academic, she has witnessed and faced 
the deliberate exclusion and erasure of black voices from 
ongoing conversations of Feminism. It is a particular aca-
demic arrogance to assume any discussion of feminist the-
ory without examining our many differences and without 
significant input from poor women, Black and Third World 
women, and lesbians (Lorde, 1984). 
  
A significant incident occurred when she was asked to 
speak at a conference for the New York University's Insti-
tute for Humanities. Despite her status, the organizers 
failed to prepare the panel for the contributions of black 
women and lesbians in a country where racism, sexism, 
and homophobia are inseparable (Lorde, 1984). Addition-
ally, there was a failure to add more than one opportunity 
for these voices to contribute, as one sole panel allowed 
black women, lesbians and people who identify as women 
to discuss their issues. Thereby once again, assuming les-
bian and Black women have nothing to say about existen-
tialism, the erotic, women's culture and silence, developing 
feminist theory, or heterosexuality and power (Lorde, 
1984). Lorde's forcible inclusion through poetry and writ-
ing has helped shape feminist thought by commenting on 
the tools of racist patriarchy that have been used over time 
to examine the fruits of that same patriarchy. (Lorde, 1984) 



CARIBBEAN QUILT 
2023 VOL. 7 NO. 1 
 

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Lorde's freedom to publish accessible feminist scholarship 
is a direct form of writing back to the plantocracy, the pa-
triarchy and harmful colonial first-wave feminism, as it re-
claims black women's rights in developing feminist dis-
course.  
In closing, far from being one dimensional, Feminism casts 
a wide net and should transcend more sectors, with the In-
digenous and Black being key vulnerable and under-repre-
sented constituencies as articulated above. It may be a point 
of contention that black enslaved women (such as Sabina 
Park), and modern free Black women Lady Saw and Audre 
Lord can and should be recognized as black feminist icons 
sharing the same space, and the fact that their inclusion is 
considered potentially contentious speaks to the residual 
colonial pressures that stain the Caribbean region and the 
world today. The Caribbean region, by any definition of 
feminist inspiration, has spawned many female pioneers 
and leaders in all sectors. In recent years there have been 
11 female Heads of Government for Caribbean countries, 
where Dominica was first in 1980, with the most recent be-
ing Dame Sandra Mason, the newly appointed President of 
Barbados, following their 2021 status of an Island Repub-
lic. Expressive world-renowned female designers, athletes/ 
sportsmen/ sportswomen, dancers, craftsmen, writers, ju-
rists, professionals and the like, the Caribbean has pro-
duced a catchment of internationally renowned feminists, 
endowed with all the attributes to step and take their place 
in any discourse or definition, of any wave of Feminism, 
old or new. The future of Caribbean black feminism and 
intersectional, inclusive feminist discourses is auspicious.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



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2023 VOL. 7 NO. 1 
 

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