“How it Go?”

…is BlackFood’s monthly feature that showcases poets and artists in The Bahamas and across the globe.

IN 2005, Bahamian artist Antonious Roberts created Sacred Space; an art site near Clifton Pier that made use of rooted casuarina trees to create sculptures depicting slave women looking back towards Africa.

The site which bordered a former sugar plantation, the Whylly Plantation, was a landing site for some of the first African slaves that were brought to The Bahamas.

Sacred Space was well received by the Bahamian public at that time and has now given birth to a play of the same name.

In an interview with Black Food, Sacred Space’s playwright, Rupert Missick, stated that his creation was inspired by Antonius Roberts’ sculptures and is loosely based on the lives of five slave women who lived on the Whylly Plantation.

While delving into their lives, Mr. Missick will explore the issues of the desire for mental and physical freedom and the concept that all life is "sacred space".

Sacred Space, therefore, seems to have been written, in part, to further serious social dialogue regarding African slavery; something that is very much lacking in our society.

In fact, during the interview Mr. Missick stated that that we, as Bahamians, need to remember our history and as time goes on we need to continuously throw off the emotional and mental shackles that we still carry.

He added that we can’t do this, however, unless we acknowledge that there is no such thing as slavery without pain.

Hopefully, Sacred Space will allow us to remember and also allow us to continue to heal as a people.

When speaking of his views on slavery in The Bahamas, Mr. Missick challenged the notion that African slaves in The Bahamas were treated better than other slaves in the Caribbean.

He also challenged claims that Whylly was a "liberal" slave owner who treated his slaves better than most. Mr. Missick asked rhetorically, “What does that mean? Seriously? Is there a nice form of slavery?”

Mr. Missick’s choice, then, to use the slave master’s names for the characters in his play rather than give them West African names was to merely ensure historical accuracy.

Mr. Missick also reasoned that there was no reason to change their names for a second time as he’d be doing the same thing Whylly did – changing the names to please him and to make them more acceptable to his sensibilities.

With respect to his ability to tell the story of the slave women, Mr. Missick stated that he knew many women felt that only women were capable of really writing "proper" female characters.

He has resigned himself, therefore, to leave it up for others to decide whether he did a good job.

When asked whether he had any words of advice for young playwrights, Mr. Missick prefaced his comments by stating that he was nowhere near where he would like to be as a writer and then encouraged young writers to keep writing and reading anything they could get their hands on – especially things they would not ordinarily read.

While the production of Sacred Space has been funded, primarily, by Mr. Missick he also got support from the Clifton Heritage Authority and Coca Cola.

The play which has been in production since this summer will open on November 21^st at the Holy Trinity Activities Center and will run until November 22^nd.

For more information about the Sacred Space play visit BlackFood’s Event’s page, the Imagination Workshop web site (http://theimaginationworkshop.tk/) or Rupert Missick’s Facebook page. ♦bf

Black Food is inviting all poets and artists to share their works. Simply sumbit your piece to: BlackFood.books@gmail.com under the heading "How it go?" to be featured.