To Da-Duh, In Memoriam

“To Da-duh, in Memoriam” is a short story by Paule Marshall (1929-2019), a Black American feminist writer who wrote stories based on her experiences growing up as a second-generation Barbadian immigrant in Brooklyn, New York. First published in 1967 in New World Magazine, “To Da-duh, in Memoriam” is a semi-autobiographical story about a nine-year-old girl’s visit to meet her formidable grandmother, Da-duh, in Barbados in 1937. What begins as a playful competition between New York’s skyscrapers versus Barbados’s towering sugarcanes reveals deeper rifts—and connections—between colony and metropole and youth and age as the story explores themes of Conflict and Cultural Connections Between Generations, Environment as a Source of Identity, and The Black Diaspora and Colonialization. Da-duh dies soon after her visit, and as an adult, the narrator resolves to honor her grandmother and her Barbadian roots through art.

This guide references the edition of “To Da-duh, in Memoriam” reprinted in Reena and Other Stories, published by The Feminist Press in 1983. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature discussions of illness, death, graphic violence, bullying, racism, and physical abuse. 

The story begins in 1937 as the nine-year-old narrator, accompanied by her mother and sister, arrives by boat in Bridgetown, Barbados, for a family visit. The father stays in Brooklyn, New York, deeming the trip a waste of money. The narrator is struck by the deference that her mother, who left Barbados 15 years earlier, shows Da-duh, the family matriarch.

The narrator has never met Da-duh before, and as the 80-something-year-old woman sizes her up, she boldly meets Da-duh’s stare. Da-duh calls her “fierce” and takes her by the hand to meet the rest of the relatives; the narrator, her mother, and her sister then head to Da-duh’s home in St. Thomas. Da-duh, a small and statuesque woman, is disappointed that the children are so dark-skinned. 

The following day, Da-duh takes the narrator out and shows her the proliferation of fruit orchards and sugarcane fields. She asks if there is anything as nice in New York, adding that she has heard that the city has no trees. The narrator says that there are chestnut trees, but they do not provide fruit like the trees Da-duh owns. When Da-duh asks the narrator to describe snow, the latter says it piles up higher than her grandmother’s house and is cold enough to freeze someone. She also performs popular American songs and dances for Da-duh, who reacts in silent bewilderment. Da-duh is rendered even more speechless by her granddaughter’s revelation that she beat up a white girl in her class, remarking, “[T]he world’s changing up so I can scarce recognize it anymore” (102). 

The narrator spends most of the remainder of her visit with Da-duh, telling her all about the buildings and technology that New York has to offer. The grandmother is taken aback and almost fearful hearing these descriptions of this modern metropolis. Finally, she shows her granddaughter a tall palm tree—the tallest thing Da-duh has ever laid eyes on. She asks the narrator if there is anything so high in New York, and the narrator is by now almost reluctant to deal Da-duh’s spirit a final blow by telling her about the Empire State Building, of which she promises to send Da-duh a postcard upon her return home. 

Da-duh never receives the postcard, though. After the family leaves, the 1937 Bridgetown strike takes place, leading the British to fly planes low over the island to scare the protesters. Da-duh is the only one who refuses to take refuge in the cane fields; she stays home, and the townspeople later find her dead in her chair by the window.

For a “brief period” as an adult, the narrator paints landscapes of the sugarcane fields of Barbados in fond remembrance of her grandmother, whom she vividly imagines seeing the planes come at her like “monstrous birds.” Da-duh’s death continues to impact her despite her efforts to do “penance” through her art, and the noise of machinery vibrating through the apartment floor is a constant presence.