Ocean Stirrings

A mix of fictive narrative, letters and poetry, with episodes of great warmth, exuberant humour, drama, and heartbreak, telling a story of Louse Little. The mother of the revolutionary firebrand Malcolm X was a Grenadian woman born at the turn of the 20th century in a small rural community in a deeply colonial society where access to education had only just begun for the children of working people. She emigrated to Canada and then the USA, where she became involved in the struggle for Black civil rights led by Marcus Garvey. Within the sparse facts of Louise Langdon Norton Little’ s biography, Merle Collins, the distinguished Grenadian novelist, has created a moving and deeply feminist work that gives vivid inwardness to both the heroism and tragedy of a life that involved fighting the Ku Klux Klan, discovering that male comrades in the struggle could be abusers at home, recognition of her skills as an organiser, but also a period of mental collapse that saw her incarcerated in a mental hospital until her family fought for her release.

Merle Collins was born in Aruba to Grenadian parents who returned to Grenada soon after her birth. She was deeply involved in the Grenadian revolution and served as a coordinator for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean for the Government of Grenada. She left Grenada in 1983. The author of three novels, a collection of short stories and three collections of poetry, she has recently retired from teaching Caribbean Literature at the University of Maryland.