The Anguish of the West Indian Diaspora in “Basement Lullaby”

“Basement Lullaby”, a short story written by Samuel Selvon, tells about two West Indian musicians – Bar 20 and Fred, who reside in an old and gloomy basement, alienated from the society in ways both spatial and social. Coming home from a late-night performance, they find themselves in a conflict: Bar 20 is sorrowfully reflecting on their miserable lifestyle and reminiscing about home, while Fred, drained after work, is trying to sleep through his friend’s nostalgic monologues. In “Basement Lullaby”, Trinidadian immigrants to Britain are shown to be excluded from the local society, and their inability to assimilate in another culture produces two opposite reactions amongst them, which are exemplified by Bar 20’s everlasting homesickness and Fred’s complete rejection of his Caribbean roots.

The idea that West Indian diaspora in London is rejected by the British society is conveyed clearly through the setting of “Basement Lullaby” and the physical isolation that comes with it. The basement occupied by the characters is grim, remote, and in need of restoration (Selvon 163). Certainly, the description of the musicians’ accommodation illustrates the miserable lifestyle led by Bar 20 and Fred and highlights their underclass position. However, their physical seclusion is directly related to their social alienation, hence the fact that the characters live in a basement becomes significant both as an indicator of their financial incapability and as a symbol of their conflicted mental state: “is as if down there the two boys cut away from life” (Selvon 166). This basement, accordingly, serves as no man’s land, located far from the characters’ home, but not yet in London, since it is detached from the lively streets of the city.

Likewise, Bar 20 and Fred are kept away from the usual life of London due to the nature of their work. Working as musicians in a club, they wake up in the evenings and perform all night until the early morning, which, as Bar 20 points out, “ain’t natural” (Selvon 164). However, the issues caused by their work go beyond their abnormal lifestyle. The songs performed by the two musicians belong to the genre of music called calypso, which is notable for its distinctly Caribbean lyrical motifs and references. It is peculiar that Bar 20 and Fred, two immigrants seeking acceptance by a new society, earn money for their authentic Caribbean exoticism, further accentuating their alienation. Even though “English people won’t know the difference” (Selvon 164), the characters are committed to performing their songs immaculately, and Bar 20 and Fred are shown accusing each other of mistakes. According to Jennifer Rahim, their errors can be seen as “a result of the physical and mental exhaustion of managing a lifestyle that is offbeat in a number of ways” (5). Undoubtedly so, Bar 20 and Fred, despite their strong desire to assimilate, fail to lead a life that could even remotely resemble that of a typical Londoner.

Bar 20’s reaction to his inability to be accepted by the British society is constituted in his nostalgia for Trinidad. Despite his utter desire to propel forward in London, he is held back by his ties to home. His complaints about work and the state of the basement seem reasonable at first, but quickly turn futile, when Bar 20 subconsciously displays that, in fact, his mind is still in Trinidad. He reads a letter from Trinidad, and the “news from home make him homesick”, because he clearly considers himself to be an exile in London (Selvon 166). What should have been a way to gain status in the world, going to Britain, became a torture. Bar 20’s situation forms a vicious cycle: his failure to become a part of a new culture fuels his nostalgia about Trinidad, which, in turn, contributes to his inability to find a legitimate role in the British society. His unwillingness to accept the changes in his life can be compared to the way that, according to Frantz Fanon, the masses within a state, colonised by culturally oppressive powers, “maintain intact traditions totally incongruous with the colonial situation” (171). This comparison is appropriate and applicable to the situation that was faced by the West Indian diaspora in London, where the Caribbean identity was suppressed by the overwhelming and overpowering British culture. Likewise, Bar 20’s understanding of his own identity is dispersed and unsolidified. Although he is in London, his point of reference for every aspect of life comes from Trinidad. For instance, he daydreams of having 75,000 pounds, but still needs to convert that number to West Indian dollars to understand the real value of such an amount of money (Selvon 167). Further, he observes that living in such a miserable accommodation as their basement would have been mocked in Trinidad, making people back home “want to know if you living in a hole or what” (Selvon 167). In this way, Bar 20’s sorrow is doubled, since he not only suffers from his subpar living conditions, but also from the humiliation that he feels that he would have been exposed to at home.

Bar 20’s homesickness is opposed by Fred’s desire to waive his Trinidadian past. Although the situation of the two musicians is identical, the way in which Fred copes with being rejected by the British society is exemplified by his annoyance with Bar 20’s nostalgic monologues. In response to one of Bar 20’s tirades about the things happening in Trinidad, Fred reminds him about their current location: “Here we is in London, in London, man, three-four thousand miles from home, and you decide to talk about the library corner in San Fernando and the cocoa estate” (Selvon 166). Evidently, Fred is annoyed by the fact that Bar 20 constantly reminisces about the place that they both miss. Unlike Bar 20, Fred believes that there is no time to focus on the past, however, his quick transition from dormant to agitated proves that he is also traumatised by the necessity to part with Trinidad. When analyzing the psychological illnesses caused by migration, Dinesh Bhugra and Matthew A. Becker point out that “an individual’s cultural identity may be lost during the assimilation process as he or she moves within the host society”, which is the exact path that Fred seems to follow (Bhugra, Dinesh, and Matthew A. Baker. “Migration, Cultural Bereavement and Cultural Identity.” World Psychiatry, vol. 4, no. 1, 22). However, the loss of cultural identity creates an inner conflict within the mind of an immigrant, who is stuck between the two cultures that affect him most – the culture of his home and of his host country. Despite being rather composed throughout Bar 20’s attempts to spark a conversation, Fred finally loses his calm when Bar 20 breaks their two bottles of whisky, which is the musicians’ only way to forget about their sorrows (Selvon 168).

Sam Selvon’s “Basement Lullaby” is largely concerned with the struggles faced by the West Indian immigrants to Britain. Their confused and alienated state is constituted by conflicts of both external and internal nature. The external conflict lies in the way that the Caribbean diaspora is rejected by the British society, and the internal conflict is shown through the anguish caused by the enormous strength of the characters’ attachment to the Trinidadian culture. “Basement Lullaby”, interestingly, provides no answers to the question, what would be the right way to adapt in a foreign society. While Selvon shows Fred and Bar 20 as individuals in a state of confusion and sadness, he never accuses them of being narrow-minded or overly nostalgic, which allows him to create two distinct characters, with whom every immigrant, not only a West Indian, can identify to a certain extent. The way in which the characters, who are so obviously tangled in their own perception of the world, are understandable and relatable is exactly what makes “Basement Lullaby” so potent.

Works Cited

Bhugra, Dinesh, and Matthew A. Baker. “Migration, Cultural Bereavement and Cultural Identity.” World Psychiatry, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 18–24.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press, 2004.

Rahim, Jennifer. “(Not) Knowing the Difference: Calypso Overseas and the Sound of Belonging in Selected Narratives of Migration.” Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, Dec. 2005.

Selvon, Samuel. Ways of Sunlight. Hodder Education, 2015.