Home is where the heart is, I’ve often heard people say. In my homeland, Trinidad, the older folks say it more colorfully: home is where your navel string is buried. I interpret this to mean your home has a part of you that you leave behind no matter where you travel. You can’t take it with you. The navel string represents birth; the beginning of your existence. Through it you remain connected to your home and your home remains connected to you. Wherever you may travel this connection exists; an intangible yet powerful force that is always present, although you may not realize its existence. How you see the places you visit, interact with the societies you encounter, and interpret meaning from your experiences are all directly related to your home. It is an integral part of your identity which cannot be removed or ignored, and it colors your perception of the world.

What would the old mothers say of Caryl Phillips? He seems to be a man of two worlds: the Caribbean where he was born, (presumably where his navel string was buried), and England, where he was raised. He left St. Kitts at barely 3 months old, when his parents migrated to England. He was raised there; integrated into a different society and culture than the one his parents were raised. Which land has the stronger claim as his home? Which one should he claim as his? One definition of home reads: “Home is a word that a person identifies with a place they live, spend much of their time, or feel generally comfortable with. It is highly individual, and personal, and is arrived at in different ways. It can be; the place of your birth, where you grew up, or maybe your first apartment, or house” (Home). Neil Gaiman wrote in American Gods: "He wondered whether home was a thing that happened to a place after a while; or if it was something that you found in the end, if you simply walked and waited and willed it long enough" (Gaiman).

Caryl Phillips’ confusion about his identity stems from his confusion about home and where he belongs. This motivated his travels, as described in The European Tribe. Realizing his disconnection from his Caribbean heritage, Phillips embarks on a journey of discovery: “The direction in which my branches had grown still puzzled me, for the forces that had shaped their development were not to be found in the Caribbean” (Phillips 9). Throughout his narratives, he paints a picture of himself as someone seeking answers, but his perception of the places he visits is colored by the lens of his British upbringing. It seems that on a subconscious level he is aware of this, but there is little he can do to remove his British sensibilities. This leads to no small irony, as any answers he obtains through his travels must necessarily be flawed; his Caribbean nature is at odds with his British upbringing, and his attempt to leave Britain behind results in his discovery of Britain wherever he goes. This conflict is a sure sign of his Caribbeanness.

During his visit to Morocco, Phillips chronicles his movement through and his observations of Casablanca. This is the first leg of his travels, and he uses the metaphor of the Hollywood film “Casablanca” to signify the difference between reality and fiction. His writing is intended to present a different eye, a non-European eye, a non-biased eye. His description however is anything but neutral. It is mired in a condescendingly British tone: “In order to escape the clamour of the street I made the inevitable trip into the Kasbah, which turned out to be like entering the inner circle of hell” (Phillips 12). Would the citizens of Casablanca mirror his sentiments? I think not. A native of Casablanca would have a different concept of hell, and would certainly not apply it to the Kasbah in the way Phillips does; here again Phillips displays his British outlook.

This attitude: looking down your nose upon others, which the British do so well, seems to come easily to Phillips. It colors the entirety of The European Tribe. There are numerous points during his travelogue where he makes generalized statements without providing evidence or presenting an alternate viewpoint: “The British presence reminded me of similar behaviour on some of the Caribbean islands where little, if any, respect is shown for anything indigenously West Indian” (Phillips 37). Which island is he referring to? What exactly is he making reference to? All we are left with is his dry opinion, which comes across as very ethnocentric. In this light, he seems to be an unwitting member of the European Tribe that he indicts throughout his travels. Simultaneously, as a Caribbean man, he is guilty of showing the very lack of respect he is describing. During an interview with Alfred A. Knopf, answering a question about his identity, Phillips alludes to his British roots: “I'm very suspicious of nationalism of all kinds, including sporting nationalism. However, when it comes to team sports, I suppose I still have a soft spot for England. It's where I grew up and went to school” (Knopf).

Caryl Phillips in one sense seems to be running away from the values, morals, attitudes and symbols of British culture which helped to create his identity. But, he can not run from himself. He travels to find answers which he may already know. Also at play are the conflicting legacies he feels within himself: his Caribbean roots and his British upbringing. Trying to integrate these opposing cultures into his sense of home has led to Phillips’ delicate balancing act of the two; with one leg in England and one in St. Kitts. He is British in his outlook, but longs to exercise his Caribbean Identity: “the antagonisms between the cultural heritage of the Old World and the traditions of the new one” (Mjoberg). His sense of home has become even more heightened, yet he understands the irony of his situation: he belongs to two nations, yet feels no tangible connection to either, and therefore belongs to neither. Paul Gilroy’s definition of the Black Atlantic traveler seems to fit Phillips; he desires to transcend the boundaries imposed by the structure of nationality and ethnicity. He is a black intellectual who engages in transnational travel by choice (Bahri). The irony however is in seeking out his home, Phillips has become a Black Atlantic traveler with no fixed port. He has no home other then the one he carries inside himself. In other words, he carries his navel string with him.

SOURCES CITED:

Phillips, Caryl. The European Tribe. 1st ed. : Vintage, 2000.

Gaiman, Neil. American Gods. 1st ed. : HarperTorch, 2002.

Knopf, Alfred. "ChickenBones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes." ChickenBones. 11 Apr. 2005.

"Home." Wikipedia. 11 Apr. 2005.

Mjöberg, Jöran. "A Single, Homeless, Circling Satellite: Derek Walcott, 1992 Nobel Literature Laureate." Nobelprize.org.Nobel Prize. 11 Apr. 2005.

Bahri, Deepika. "Paul Gilroy and The Black Atlantic." Department of English - Emory University. Emory University. 11 Apr. 2005.

Also by Krystian:

Oh! Trinidad.

Trinidad and Tobago