Migritude by Shailja Patel

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Migritude is an autobiography as well as a poetry, spoken-word theater, and text-based performance for stage, as the author defined, literature written by Shailja Patel in 2010. Patel is a third generation of Indian who was born in Kenya, and she referred herself as an East African Asian. The title itself, Migritude, does not exist in any English dictionary because Migritude is originally an acronym from three different words: migration, attitude, and negritude. These three words represent cultural terms, which give the readers hints about major themes that are discussed in the book.

The book consists of four major chapters. Both of the first and second chapter are divided into two big parts; Part I is when the author lived in Nairobi, Kenya (1972-1989) and Part II is when she lived in UK and the U.S. (1990-2004). The third chapter is a collection of poems, and the last chapter consists of timeline of remarkable events and two interviews with the author. 
 
Actually, Migritude itself was a one-woman show that had been performed in many countries before the book was published. Patel often was very brave to disagree with one’s point of view if it is not unreasonable for her. Like, when she dated a man who told that she had a terrible childhood, she was very shocked. Also, she felt bad when she was forbidden to be friends with her Christian friend, Nina, and when she got a pity look because she cut a doughnut into three pieces. All of these things happened made her very critical and aware of her position; that being an immigrant was not as easy as it seemed. “Yes, I’m exploding. Yes, I’m outta control” (p. 36). Despite her beautiful and metaphorical words, there is an anger and frustration lying underneath the surface. However, Patel neatly covered them and transformed them into a good piece of writing.

 There are also some comments from her regarding the theater itself. Besides a writer, Patel is known as a playwright. She said, “Theater is relationship” (p. 85) and “Performing is so much easier than writing because it’s collaborative” (p. 86). By seeing this, we can see that Patel could transform the issues that formerly might be taboo to be discussed into a performance that could be enjoyed by everyone, without removing the messages she wanted to deliver. There is an interesting point contained the second chapter. Patel admitted, “I brought Migritude. A tapestry of poetry, history, politics, packed into a suitcase, embedded in my body, rolled out into theatre. An accounting of Empire enacted on the bodies of women” (p. 96). Patel as if said that she was the living history itself, and she lived with the history. 

 There is one outstanding poem titled Eater of Death. This poem tells a story of Bibi Sardar who lost her entire family during the U.S. attack in October 2001. Even though the author did not explicitly mentioned the attack was ‘war on terror’, the readers can draw conclusion from when and how it happened. “Their names will not be remembered, they are not Amrikan” (p. 112). Unlike the 9/11 victims who were built a national memorial, they were just unknown victims from foreign country. Patel, even though she is not a Muslim, tried to see the tragedy from the perspective of the minority to show that they were actually as suffering as the Americans. Overall, the third chapter has similar themes with the previous two chapters. The difference is, this part is full of poems without any narration included. The last poem, The Making, as if concludes every issues Patel had discussed before: “Make it / to find out / what your own hands are good for” (p. 122). She wanted to say that, it does not matter who you are, the most important thing is you actually can do anything to make the best out of you.

Nonetheless, every piece of work must have some weaknesses and strengths. Now, I would like to analyze some weaknesses and strengths found in this book. To some readers, the poetic and metaphorical words might be quite disturbing and hard to understand. The readers should read more than once in order to understand the literal meaning. Also, some of the readers may complain about the language and the form of writing that the author chose. Sometimes Patel used narrations, poems, performance scripts, or even interviews. It creates confusion for the readers because the form of writing is not consistent. Thus, for some people who like to read novels, it can be disturbing because they do not familiar with other types of writing rather than narration. Similarly, people who enjoy poems might find it disturbing because they do not expect any narration contained. I also found that Migritude contains histories and serious issues, which to some people are unbearable because it is sometimes related to a particular political interest. However, it does not apply to Patel’s writing. What I trying to say is, the issues she was discussing are various, for example, the history of Kenya and Uganda, raping, Indian culture, war, racial profiling, 9/11, and social injustice. She mixed them up into one book. It is kind of overwhelming, and the metaphorical words can be shortcomings because some readers might not get the key point or the main idea she was talking about. Also, I need to say that to some readers who are not really familiar to read such a form of language might find hardship and need to read multiple times in order to entirely understand. 

Despite the weaknesses, Migritude has successfully formulated the “boring” issues into an enjoyable piece of writing. The readers might not realize that they are actually reading a history book because it is delivered beautifully. To me, it is one of the strengths and it what makes the book interesting. There are not many other authors who have been brave enough to be out of conventional way of writing. In addition, Patel’s choice of words is not also full of flowery and exaggerating words. Otherwise, even though most of the writings are in the form of poem, Patel seemed to be straightforward in delivering the messages. Thus, even though the readers do not fully understand the metaphorical terms, they would still understand what Patel was trying to say. The chapter breakdown is also arranged neatly, so it is not exhausting because each chapter is basically short. 

Although the book only consists of 153 pages, Migritude is actually heavy with the author’s arguments, thoughts, and expressions of feelings toward the historical, social, and cultural issues she had encountered. In brief, Migritude is such a unique piece of work that might not have been existed before. Patel had successfully combined the form of narration, poem, and play into one. Even though the issues may too mixed up and do not have more space to be discussed further, Migritude is for sure giving us broader insight about the issues surround us. The metaphorical language might be distracting, but it is actually what makes the book different because the dark side of history and injustices in the world actually could be told in such a beautiful way.

Written for final paper Critical Reading and Review Writing class with some editing