The Spice of Life: Black Women and the World of Swirl

Photo by JD Mason on Unsplash

“Her homegirl, like many sisters, had come to Spain, looking for the spice of life, the swirl mixed with curls, and I for one was not hating.” Solomon Hillfleet, Fuck Boy

Jungle Fever, the controversial term for a love affair between black and white people, is the name of Spike Lee’s 1991 film. A reference rooted in chattel slavery, it plays on the negative and sex-driven stereotypes assigned to people of African descent. The nefarious sexual practices instituted by white slave owners to breed and increase their “property” also contributed to the beliefs that people of African descent were more lascivious and sexually deviant than their counterparts. There are a lot of elements that could be unpacked from this premise alone, but alas my time is short. I’ll instead focus on what I saw as a traveler when I went to Spain two years ago. How fitting that almost 30 years after this movie was released we can see so many parallels.

In the novel, I mention how I visited the nightclubs in Barcelona. Though my time spent there was short and my experiences few, I saw a…