Tante Merle Think Piece

A Critique on ‘Tanti at the Oval’ by Pauls Keens-Douglas

The author articulates the commentary of his eventful day with ‘Tante Merle’ in a very descriptive, dialectal, humorous and poetic way. He captures the social and cultural mores of society in the West Indies with special emphasis on his day at cricket with ‘Tante at the Oval’. Common themes evident and reflective of Caribbean life and cricket are patriotism to the game and the Country, ‘Big Island verses Small Island’ camaraderie and rivalry, the socialisation of all demographics in one place: social, economic, racial, political, gender, age, the vital components seen at any Caribbean event: food and drinks, and the idiosyncrasies of people based on religion, experience, age and gender and the way they express themselves. My opinion on this commentary is that it reflects a very applicable view on cricket, social interactions, and family and gender relations in the Region.

Historically, cricket was categorised and reflected an elite group of the society. It was limited to this elite racial and economic group and interaction outside of this group was not allowed. Today, cricket has become one of the very few events in the Caribbean that socialises and unifies people from different racial, socio-economic, political and geographic areas. It has become a familiar discussion point and social activity for the majority. In Hilary Beckles article, he speaks of cricket being the ideological representation of postcolonial cultural globalization.

In ‘Tanti at the Oval’, Pauls Keens-Douglas described different types of people attending the game, including his somewhat confused, bold, miserable and opinionated aunt, ‘bad john’, ‘people from the small islands’ and ‘the boysies’ that reflected this socialisation of people from different demographic strata and the respective antics. The discussions and opinions of the people at the match is a clear representation of the familiarity of the game. Tanti Merle’s evaluation...