Rachel - Ghosh, 4/18

Yes!  Amitav Ghosh is definitely sets up a political critique from the beginning of Sea of Poppies.  We can see this from the very beginning of the book, on page 11, when the Ibis is first described:




"To his eyes there was something unusually graceful about the Ibis's yacht-like rigging, with her sails aligned along her length rather than across the line of her hull.  He could see why, with her main and headsails standing fair, she might put someone in mind of a white-winged bird in flight...
One thing Zachary did know about the Ibis was that she had been built to serve as a 'blackbirder', for transporting slaves.  This, indeed, was the reason why she had changed hands: in the years since the formal abolition of the slave trade, British and American naval vessels had taken to patrolling the West African coast in growing numbers, and the Ibis was not swift enough to be confident of outrunning them.  As with many another slave-ship, the schooner's new owner had acquired her with an eye to fitting her for a different trade: the export of opium.  In this instance the purchasers were a firm called Burnham Bros., a shipping any and trading house that had extensive interests in India and China."




Ghosh, like Roy and Rushdie, is probably a left-leaning guy.  In the above passage, he reminds readers that the ships built to transport slaves to Europe and the Americas was, historically, an economic enterprise...and a profitable one, at that.  Not only did American agriculture depend on the slave trade, but also sailors, ship builders, auction house owners, and slave hunters.  What is now universally regarded as one of humanity's darkest enterprises was once regarded as "simple economics."  Today, many other commercial enterprises are the same way.  (Some things that fuel war in Africa today: cassiterite, wolframite, **coltan, and gold."  Things that rely on slave labor in Africa: coffee, cacao nibs, chocolate.  Not too long ago: rubber.)


So the Ibis, which is associated with a white bird, has a dark past as a "blackbirder."  It was involved in a social system that Caucasians designed to better serve "their civilization," at the huge expense of Africans.  This is meant to portray the innate disregard "business" - especially the modern corporation - has for people...especially poor people, who are not of European descent. 


Also, an interesting note to just consider...ibises aren't really white.  They have red masks/beaks, and also come in black-and-white variations, as well as scarlet.  (Anyone remember that story "The Scarlet Ibis?")


 Maybe this is Ghosh commenting on the false perceptions most people have of "racial purity."  Best way to troll a white supremacist: send them to any geneticist and have them explain what "genetic admixture" is.


Epic fail.