About the Name:
The word MaComère is widely used by women in the Caribbean to mean "my child’s godmother";
"my best friend and close female confidante"; "my bridesmaid" or "another female
member of a wedding party of which I was bridesmaid"; "the godmother of the child to whom I am also
godmother"; "the woman who, by virtue of the depth of her friendship, has rights and privileges over
my child and whom I see as surrogate mother."
This name seemed appropriate [for the ACWWS journal] because it so clearly expresses the intimate relations which
women in the Caribbean share, is so firmly gendered, and honors the importance of friendship in relation to the
important rituals of marriage, birth and … death.
Moreover, MaComère is a French Creole word which, though related to the French language, has taken on a
structure and a meaning which is indigenous to the Caribbean. The word is spelled in this way, instead of in the
clearly Creole manner (macumé, or makumeh, or macoomé, macomeh or any other variant), so that the
female connotations of the word are highlighted and those meanings that apply to males ("a womanish or gossipy
man"; "a homosexual") are less obvious. In those islands where Kréol (linguistic term
for the French patois) is the first language, the same term is used for both females and males with meaning determined
by context. In islands like Trinidad, however, where English has overlain Kréol, the Creole (linguistic term
for the English patois) has incorporated the redundant: "my macomé," "macomé man,"
thus reinforcing both the perceptions of intimacy and the female quality of the term. Interestingly enough, Richard
Allsopp, in The Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (OUP 1996), has indicated the possibility that maku in Belize
with the meaning "midwife" is also derived from this word. Hence, the word forces us to recall the continuities
and correspondences in Caribbean language and culture, as well as the dynamic, creative and transforming power of Creoles.
In the purely English-speaking islands, the only comparable term is godmother (usually the mother’s best friend). In
the Hispanophone Caribbean, there is the similar comadre, although, as we would expect, some of the connotations are different.
Join me in continuing to interrogate all the connotations of meaning inherent in this culturally rich lexical item from the
Caribbean Creoles.
-Helen Pyne Timothy
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