A Small Madness

Margaret Laurence's protagonist in The Diviners might have asked - "What means Pocomania?"

Pocomania is a ceremony that is enacted in obscure villages in Jamaica. Men and women ongregate in a hut that functions as a makeshift church. It is believed that they intuitively feel it to be the proper time to gather together. The leader or 'mother' of the group guides the group in trance into the spirit world, where spirits will talk to them, tell them of things they had not known before. This is Pucumina, Pocomania, of which the meaning is ' a small madness'. African slaves, transported to Caribbean colonies, preserved andd semi-secretly practised these rites, and today they incorporate elements of Chrisitianity as well. Pocomania represents the hybridity that has developed from the intermingling of cultures in the wake of the Middle Passage. Indeed it could be read as a symbol for post-colonial hybridity the world over, wherever the cultures of colonizer and colonized have clashed in contact zones and developed into something rich and strange.

At a more mundane level, the answer to "What means Pocomania?" would be that it is an abbreviation for Post-Colonial Mania. Year after year, in obscure places in Jadavpur, men and women congregate in classrooms that function as makeshift cafes. It is believed that they intuitively feel it to be the proper time to gather together (if they forget, the almanac, er, timetable reminds them). Another small madness is enacted, as the spirits of the Caribbean(not rum), Canada, Africa, Australia, India tell them of things they had not known before. Something rich and strange happens here, desi readings of post-colonial, indigenous and subaltern writing, using a bifocal vision that scrutinizes both the local and the global.

Loco about Poco. That's what this e-adda is all about.