Colonial Oppression and Atrocities in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones

Abstract

The major thrust of this research is to expose direct and indirect politics behind the patronizing colonial politics. In Dandicat’s The Farming of Bones, deceitful and dire form of colonial aggression is dramatized realistically. The rhetoric of racial harmony and the slogan of white man’s burden are just the hoax to hoodwink the innocent civilians of Haiti. Violence and oppression to which Haitians are subjected in this novel are probed from the viewpoint of postcolonial study. Under the colonial rule, the oppression and exclusion experienced by the people of Haiti are indescribable. Immigrants are not acknowledged as the decent citizen of Haiti though they lived for many decades. They are exploited and deprived of getting basic rights. Sebastian and Amabelle are two youths who are forced to do menial labor and backbreaking job farming. Dominican ruler exerted its hegemony. Oppressions and atrocities are convincing proofs of the extent to which colonial politics can perpetrate violence. In the wake of the troubled relation between Haiti and Dominican Republic, Dominican president launched military invasion. In this genocidal violence, hundreds of thousands of Haitians died. No initiative is taken to end the communal violence. The poor displaced Haitians share the sense of a lost home. Sebastian often reminds everyone of common ties.