Making a living in the Caribbean requires resourcefulness and even a willingness to circumvent the law. Women of color in Jamaica encounter bureaucratic mazes, neighborhood territoriality, and ingrained racial and cultural prejudices. For them, it requires nothing less than a herculean effort to realize their entrepreneurial dreams.
In Higglers in Kingston, Winnifred Brown-Glaude puts the reader on the ground in frenetic urban Kingston, the capital and largest city in Jamaica. She explores the lives of informal market laborers, called "higglers," across the city as they navigate a corrupt and inaccessible "official" Jamaican economy. But rather than focus merely on the present-day situation, she contextualizes how Jamaica arrived at this point, delving deep into the island's history as a former colony, a home to slaves and masters alike, and an eventual nation of competing and conflicted racial sectors.
Higglers in Kingston weaves together contemporary ethnography, economic history, and sociology of race to address a broad audience of readers on a crucial economic and cultural center.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
introduction
Assessing the “Whole of Informality” 1
1 Intersectionality and
the Politics of Embodiment 21
2 Higglering: A Woman’s Domain? 39
3 “Bait of Satan”? Representations
of Sunday/Negro Markets and Higglering
from Slavery to Independence 65
4 “Natural Rebels” or Just Plain Nuisances?
Representations of Higglers
from Slavery to Independence 91
5 Higgler, ICI, Businesswoman:
What’s in a Name? 119
6 Dirty and Dis/eased: Bodies,
Public Space, and Afro-Jamaican Higglers 141
conclusion
Understanding the Nuances of Informality 165
appendix
List of Higglers Interviewed 175
Notes 177
Bibliography 191
Index 211