The Mockery of Liberty: Choreographing Power, Flesh & Choice

The Mockery of Liberty: Choreographing Power, Flesh and Choice, examines the conditions and gendered realities of 20th century Trinidad and Tobago to investigate the pervasive logic of white hegemonic masculinity. Framing my analysis, I build on the work of Thomas Holt and Sylvia Wynter to articulate the success in which white hegemonic masculinity reconfigures itself into the image of a God. Underscoring this evolution, I used the term Ontological Sovereign to refer to the manifestation of white hegemonic masculinity in this post-colonial context. Furthermore, to interrogate the shape that it takes and the weight of its impact I analysis the emergence of national icons that emphasize the notions of national family and love for liberty in relationship to the violence and erasure experienced by Black girls. By examining these social-material conditions of Trinidadian society I argue that rather than liberty being realized it emerges as a mockery in which the colonial subject that emerges at the end of slavery becomes trapped in apparatus of the Ontological Sovereign.