Thoughts on nakedness, humanity

THIS WEEK I drove past a completely naked man standing on South Quay, opposite City Gate.

It was around midday, so the city was buzzing with pedestrians and vendors, amidst the usual hustle and crush of vehicles.

The man was gesturing wildly and talking to himself in a frenzied way. People walked past, trying not to look at or get too close to him, while others watched him from a distance, talking about what they were witnessing.

I started to wonder about nakedness and how we have weaponised the naked human body. As expressed by one professor, nakedness is “a complicated set of ideas that tell us a lot about the societies we live in and the societies from which we emerged.”

For instance, nakedness is associated with being primitive or less developed. Or too often you hear statements like, “She was asking to be raped, look at how she was dressed.” Ministries only recently updated their rather Victorian dress codes to reflect our region and weather more appropriately.

I then began to think about the way we have turned clothing into sociopolitical or elitist statements (yes, this is sadly typical of the ramblings of my mind).

For instance, how we judge someone wearing a “rubber slipper” as opposed to expensive high-heeled pumps. Or the challenge of clothing faced by someone from a humble background who has to attend an interview.

One of the stories I grew up hearing about my grandmother is that she would say, “If you only have one pants, make sure it always clean and iron.”

Instinctively, she knew that doors could open or close depending on what you were wearing.

Which brings me to real point of this article.

Much has been written this week about the fact that in TT we celebrate religious freedoms in our relatively harmonious society. For instance, today we acknowledge the resilience of Spiritual Shouter Baptists who faced consistent discrimination and exclusion from society. Throughout the weekend we will honour the sacrifices and triumphs of the prophet Jesus Christ. Some of us got covered in colourful abeer powder as we celebrated the ancient Hindu spring festival of Holi. But has our openness to various religions helped us to be more humane?

On Monday, Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the UWI and chairman of the Caribbean Community Commission on Reparation and Social Justice, addressed the UN General Assembly as he made the Caribbean case for reparations from slavery. His address coincided with the UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Prof Beckles detailed some of the horrors of enslavement and the fact that African people were legally declared as non-human and property by Britain and other Western nations to support the business of slavery.

Prof Beckles has written extensively on the causal and lingering impacts of slavery on areas from the health and well-being of Caribbean people to problems with literacy and identity. The conversation about reparations therefore goes much deeper than financial compensation. It extends to other concerns such as debt forgiveness, scholarships for Caribbean youth, investment in cultural institutions or counselling for the generational trauma from enslavement.

In his address the professor also referenced the military action in Gaza and the takeover by gangs in Haiti where the imbalance of power relations are being played out before our eyes. The historical reality of Haiti is particularly relevant to what we are discussing here, as this nation was forced to pay significant reparations to France for the revolution that freed Haitians from enslavement.

As commentators have pointed out, other Western nations stood by silently and allowed this act of inhumanity to be perpetrated, in much the same way as they did during apartheid in South Africa or other global examples of injustice.

Thus, in today’s world, any discussion about humanity is complicated. The fact that we continue to see citizens on the street like that naked man, exposes that this is a long-standing problem, especially since my siblings and I were attacked by one such person as children.

So, we cover our bodies to protect from the elements, attract the opposite sex or make fashion statements. However, until we act more humanely towards each other, we will continue to be like the emperor in the parable; supposedly well dressed, but in reality exposing our nakedness for all the world to see our true nature.

Dara E Healy is a performance artist and founder of the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN