ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief comparison between the new diasporas, so far discussed, and an old labour diaspora, namely the Indo-Caribbean one and its more complex forms of belonging. The chapter looks at poetry by Mahadai Das, David Dabydeen and Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming and interrogates how the use of the maternal trope might be affected by this very different diasporic space. The short analysis reveals that these examples strongly rely on birth metaphors to generate diasporic poetic consciousness, perhaps to emphasise change and irreversibility rather than ongoing connections to the original motherland. Furthermore, the chapter draws together all the various performances discussed to reflect on the possibilities of diasporic writing and a particular diasporic idiom, while also offering an outlook on future research perspectives.
