Safiya Sinclair’s childhood was shaped, in part, by exploration: of literature, of education, and of the natural landscape around her home in Jamaica, all encouraged by her gentle mother who found peace through “smoking herb.”
But it was also defined by isolation, as her domineering Rastafari father imposed rigid standards for righteous living. Growing up Rastafarian in a predominantly Christian country marred by British colonialism, she and her siblings were “oddities” — “the outliers in Jamaican society,” she said.
As her father grew increasingly violent and restricting, and as Sinclair encountered other controlling and belittling men, she found her own sense of identity and independence through writing.
Sinclair pushed back against patriarchal forces, and left home as a young woman. Still, she said, it would take years of processing — plus some therapy — to reach a place where she felt safe to write her memoir, “How to Say Babylon.” She’ll speak about her upbringing, and her new book, at The Arts Campus at Willits this Thursday for the Aspen Words Winter Words series.
“I felt like, now, it was no longer just something that happened to me,” Sinclair told Aspen Public Radio. “Now I could try to take these moments from my life, and by writing them down and crafting them and making this book, that somehow I could also change them into something beautiful, something positive, something healing.”
Her hope was that “this traumatic cycle might somehow be broken, and that whoever comes next would never have to go through the same things.” Writing the book was challenging, she said, but also “incredibly cathartic.”
“There were moments where I had to really relive these things and really come face to face with the memories again,” Sinclair said. “But a lot of the time, … I felt like, well, now that I have written it down, I've given it my best words, I've given it all the truth, I have given it all the grace I have — it felt released from me.”
Sinclair also weaves a cultural narrative into “How to Say Babylon,” in an effort to combat the “ignorance” of stereotypes she encountered when she moved to the U.S. While many people associate Jamaica with Bob Marley and marijuana and beach life, she said that few know the “real history” of Rastafari people — and Rastafari women — as a “persecuted minority” in the predominantly Christian country.
“I knew that when people think about Jamaica or think about Rastafari, … they have a very male-centric idea of what Rastafari is, and nobody, or almost nobody, would think about the woman,” she said.
“Being a young girl (who) grew up inside of Rastafari (culture), that was one of the main things that spurred me on to writing the book,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair paints that cultural context in rich colors — the poet in her still gets to play in the prose — informed by interviews and newspaper archives.
“Rastafari history, it's mostly an oral tradition, … mostly from brethren to brethren,” Sinclair said.
“I had to invite myself into the circle to tell the story,” she added. “And that's what I did.”
Sinclair will be in conversation with literary podcaster Mitzi Rapkin for the talk at TACAW. The event begins at 6 p.m. Aspen Words will also stream the event online.
