Interview with Caribbean Literary Salon

By: aromaproductions on 3:39 PM

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Born in Antigua, West Indies, ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She is an educator who considers herself a citizen of the world - having lived and taught in the US Virgin Islands, USA, Liberia (West Africa), England and Switzerland. She writes poems and short stories which attempt to capture the atmosphere and depict the ordinary people in countries she has lived. She has published five collections of poems, Shu-Shu Moko Jumbi: The Silent Dancing Spirit, (1974), Palaver (1978), Two Faces, Two Phases (1984), Beyond Dreams: The Ritual Dancer (1989) and If Only The Dust Would Settle (2009). She has also been published abundantly in various literary magazines.

Q: You've been all over the world. Tell us about your travels and migrations.
I come from a line of immigrants. My father was born in the Dominican Republic to an Antiguan mother and a father from St. Martin/Maarten. His mother’s father was English. My mother was born in St. Croix to a Nevisian mother and an Antiguan father whose grandfather was a black South African. That is just the tip of the iceberg. My parents met and married in Antigua, but moved to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands when I was eight.

The travel bug was instilled in me at a young age as we often visited relatives in Antigua, Nevis, St. Kitts, and visited nearby islands like St. Croix, the British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. I also visited the Dominican Republic and Haiti, first as a teenager and later in my early twenties. I fell in love with the African culture and features of Haiti then. I felt that if one hadn’t been to Africa, a trip to Haiti would suffice.

In graduate school at Kent State University I was introduced to West African students, particularly Liberians, by fellow West Indians. We shared a common spirit and culture, lived in similar climates and ate the same food (cassava, yam, plantain, bread-fruit, sour-sap, sugar-apples, mangoes, etc). I was encouraged to travel to Liberia because of this close friendship and feeling of kinship. After teaching in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University for one year, I decided I wanted to continue teaching adults, but not at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Then, the idea of teaching at the same institution where my professors had taught me was uncomfortable. Before leaving for Liberia in 1975, I briefly taught middle school in St. Thomas. I had been to Liberia that summer and decided that I would like to work there. I began teaching at the University of Liberia in 1976 and during that brief time was introduced to my future husband. He was Grenadian and had just returned to Liberia from Switzerland where he specialized in pediatrics.

My husband, Emmanuel, had gone to Liberia at the age of 17. His great uncle had been a part of the Marcus Garvey Movement and had left New York for Liberia in the 1920’s. He had invested in the rubber business and had been successful and in the 1950s he convinced several relatives to send him their sons. There were six in all. Three of them became doctors, my husband being one of them. We married in 1977 and remained and survived a military take-over in 1980 and several coup attempts during that decade.

Q: What brought you to Switzerland, where you live now? Considering you have been here the longest, since 1991, what is making you stay?
In 1989 a civil war broke out in Liberia, and we, along with thousands of Liberian, fled the country in 1990. We settled in London, first as refugees, and later normalized our situation. While there I taught at Fulham Cross Girls’ School in Fulham, London, but my husband was unable to get employment because he had a Swiss medical degree. He had wanted to remain in England because of his many siblings and relatives who had settled there in the 1950 and 1960’s. In 1991, we left for Basel, Switzerland where my husband had been employed by the Basler Kinderspital (Children’s Hospital).

My husband went ahead of us and in summer 1991, three children, Malaika age 13, Cassandra age 10, and Michael 7 and myself moved to Basel, Switzerland. We have made Switzerland our home and I teach (EFL) English as a foreign language to students who are mostly German speakers, but there are many other nationalities as well.

Living in Switzerland was very difficult at the beginning because I had to learn a new language. In Liberia, English was the official language and an English Creole is spoken there. But over the years, my friendship with fellow writers and English teachers has given me comfort psychologically and socially.
In Liberia there was no social security and we had lost everything, so settling in a peaceful place and building up enough social security to live on in our old age was very important. There is also a fantastic compulsory health insurance policy in place. No one is left behind. Our children have also profited from an excellent educational system (one of the best in the world) and are multi-lingual.

What is it like living there? When I first arrived in Switzerland, I was completely lost. The language barrier and difference in culture were huge hurdles. Liberians are open while the German-Swiss are conservative people who hold their feelings back. I spent hours listening to CNN and BBC just to hear English. I discovered TV channels that could be change from French or German to English. I lived for those programs. My writing had stopped. I felt like I was drowning and was depressed. I could not teach because of the language barrier and the teaching methodology for a language school is quite different from that of teaching at university.

But when I began studying for my certificate in teaching English as a foreign language in 1992, I met other English teachers who assured me that they had had the same experience. That was the beginning of a turning point. The director of the Cambridge Certificate program asked us if we had any wishes. Mine was to find an English writers group that I could join and I was put in touch with one (Bern Writers) that I still belong to today. This international, writers’ group has played a large role in anchoring me in Switzerland because they have become my friends and my writing family. I took me ten years before I could express my feelings about Switzerland in writing.

Another thing is that one is not completely accepted unless one speaks the Swiss dialect. In German classes, I learned to speak and write high German but on the street Swiss-German is spoken. It is not a written language and it sounds quite different from German. I can understand the dialect but I don’t speak it at all. So I am still an outsider. My children grew up speaking the Swiss dialect.

What keeps me here besides the practical? I love the beauty of this country and the social amenities that it offers. You can move from a Germanic setting to a French or Italian one in a matter of hours. It is easy to get around and there is always something going on. There are lots of activities and opportunities for the retired. I hope to take up painting and languages (Spanish & French) when I am retired and continue my aerobics classes. It is centrally located and offers easy access to other European countries.

Switzerland is not completely heaven. It is dogged by problems that all countries face and there are those who hate or are threatened by immigrants. Sounds familiar?

Q: Since acquiring a Bachelor’s degree in Education and English and a Master’s in Modern American Literature, you have been teaching English to high school and university students. Presently, you teach English as a Foreign Language in Switzerland. Who are your students here? If asked, how would they describe you as a teacher?
I teach students who begin with zero or little English and take them, if they are motivated, to a level where they can hold English conversation and read English books. They come from Switzerland which means that their mother tongue could be German, French, Italian or Roman. And many come from surrounding countries (Germany, France, Italy and Austria) and Eastern Europe. Many students describe me as patient, especially the older ones. I understand what it is like to learn a foreign language over the age of forty. They show their appreciation by bringing chocolate, bouquets of flowers and little gifts.

Q: Your poetry and short stories take inspiration from the countries you have lived in. Which of your works deal with the Caribbean? When writing about the Caribbean, what are your favorite subjects and/or themes?
My early collections, Shu-Shu Moko Jumbi (KSU:Ohio) and Palaver (Downtown Poets, NY) deal specially with Caribbean subjects and are partly in English Creole; Two Faces; Two Faces and Beyond Dreams: The Ritual Dancer are published in Liberia, and are inspired by that country. If Only the Dust Would Settle, which is semi-autobiographical, takes the reader on a journey from the Caribbean, to Liberia, England and Switzerland. Today I write about what country inspires me that day.

Q: As a writer, you wield two idioms - standard English and West Indian dialect. How do you decide what language to choose?
It depends on the subject, the mood in which it comes to life, and the rhythm in my head. Sometimes the subject naturally dictates that the poem should be in English Creole. I use a lot of dialogue in my short stories and I try to have the characters speak naturally if the story is set in the Caribbean or Liberia. I am a better poet than short story writer. It takes me a long time to write a short story that I feel is publishable.

Q: Your work has generated awards from the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts, the Breadloaf Writers Conference, the Cuyahoga Writers Workshop and Stauffacher English Short Story Competition/Switzerland and The Caribbean Writer. An accomplished writer as yourself, what future goals have you set for yourself? How would you like to develop your work even further?
My future goal is to produce a collection of short stories and a poetry collection that reflect my full journey. Finding a publisher is difficult because many want your work to be completely Caribbean or completely African. And my journey is much more than that. It is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.

Often I feel that I belong everywhere and nowhere.
I also happen to have lived in countries which are like the step-children of their regions. Many West Africans do not accept Liberians and their work as truly African because Liberian are seen as descendants of former/freed slaves from America although they, (Americo-Liberian), represent a small percent of the total Liberian population.

The US Virgin Islands are also seen as part of the USA and is often excluded by publishers when they are publishing Caribbean Writing. If you open an anthology of Caribbean Literature, one never sees work by Virgin Islands writers.
Is that rivalry between the smaller Caribbean Islands and the larger ones still going on? I hope we have moved on.

My aim is to produce my masterpiece. It is one of the things that keep me going and along the way hopefully there are some gems.

Q: Who are your favorite authors, if any, and why?
I read the work of a variety of writers because I teach English conversation and I am always searching for new short stories to discuss with my students.
I often read to see what I can learn from another writer. I like writers who tell their stories in a simple poetic way. I like writers who put words together that take your breath away. I also read to learn about other cultures and style of writing.

Coming from Antigua, I have read some of Joanne Hillhouse (The Boy from Willow Bend) and Jamaica Kinkaid’s work. Kinkaid’s short story “Girl” is one of my favorites that I have used in my conversation classes. Treganzo Roach (The Blessing of Rain), a Kittian born, Virgin Islander also writes beautiful poems and short stories. I have also read Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory) and Olive Senior (Discerner of the Heart). These Caribbean writers, among others, take me home in word and spirit and bring me up to date with the various cultures of the Caribbean. I have lived outside the Caribbean since 1976, so this is very important to me. One has to be careful not to remain in a vacuum.

I have read and have enjoyed the word-craft of Chimamanda Ngoz Adichie (The Thing Around Your Neck, Half of a Yellow Sun), and Jumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth, The Interpreter of Maladies), Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things), Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) and Wilton Sankawulo (Sundown At Dawn) and Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley (Before the Palm Could Bloom, The River is Rising), Liberian writers, colleagues and friends.
Arudhati Roy (The God of Smalls Things) is one of my favorite writers because she has a way with words that I find inspiring.

I am a visual person. To me poetry is painting with words. Here are some examples from The God of Small Things that are memorable. “Baby Kochamma… closed her face like a cupboard,” “Rachel’s new teeth were waiting inside her gum, like words in a pen,”….her lipstick mouth had shifted off her real mouth,” and “A bird in flight reflected in an old dog’s balls. It made him smile out loud.” She inspired me to write a poem called “Manna” which is about African villagers who collect ant-flies after heavy rain in order to roast and eat. Joanne Hillhouse’, “After Glow,” and Juan Rulfo’s “Luvina” are other examples of prose which depict strong memorable imagery

Q: Of the many things you have done and experienced in your life, what things make you feel proudest?
There are many things of which I am proud. One of the things I am proudest of is the three successful children I have brought into this world. Another was serving as guest editor of Sea Breeze: Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writing in 2008. This edition featured the Liberian-Caribbean Connection. I am a proud teacher of many students who are now making fruitful contributions to their society.

Q: What defines you?
My whole life’s experience defines me. Where I come from and where I have been, especially my Liberian experiences, good and harrowing, have made me a richer person and a better writer.

Q: Considering you have friends and family ties all over the world, how often do you find the time to return to the Caribbean?
I visited St. Thomas, Virgin Islands once a year because that is where my father lived. My mother died in 1992. My father died last April, 2009 at the age of 94. When you have old parents your destination is set because you do not know how long they will remain in your life. I have older siblings who still live in St. Thomas. This year however will be the beginning of me spreading my wings as a traveler.

I plan to visit Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Sacramento, California where my younger sister and my aunt and her children live. My oldest daughter lives in Florida, the second is at Oxford, in England. There are my husband’s relatives in England to visit as well. My son still lives in Basel. I also plan to visit my sister-in-law who lives in Cape Town, South Africa and while there I could search for my mother’s family that has roots in Johannesburg.

CLS: Thanks, Althea!

Contact information
Althea Romeo-Mark can be contacted through the following media:
Email: aromeomark at gmail.com or aromeomark48 at yahoo.com
Website: AromaProductions.blogspot.com
Facebook: Althea Romeo-Mark
MySpace: Althea Romeo-Mark
CLS Profile page: Althea Romeo-Mark