In Search of the Blue Lotus: A Feminist Counter-Narrative to the Dominant Hegemonic Discourse

Many of us move from childhood to adulthood without much thought of how the events of our childhood impact our lives today. Some memories are happy; others sad or traumatic. Some we remember - childhood play days, the earthy smell of rain after a dry spell, and the feeling a new mother gets when she holds her baby; others we wish to or choose to forget - thick black smoke from riots, feelings of fear because of death threats, and the uncertainty of life in another country. In this very personal diary, Sandra, through a first-person reflexive narrative, shares some of her memories of growing up in a politically charged time of Guyana's fight for independence in the 1960s, her immigration to Canada for an arranged marriage at the age of 16, her life as a journeyperson hairstylist, and her scholarly trajectory toward a doctoral degree. She shares her growing awareness of some of the issues that affected and impacted her life - issues such as racism, gender, democracy, freedom, class struggles, privileges, unequal power relations, resistance to colonial politics, and ultimately her own complicity in, and efforts to challenge the normative discourse of the dominant ideology.