The Caribbean Area: Slavery and Creolization, Education vs. Indigenous Cultures.

The Caribbean Area:

Slavery and Creolization,

Education vs. Indigenous Cultures

What are the themes we have covered so far?

South Asia

Racial Composition in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Religion: Indian gods: Krishna & Ganesh; Religion in Iran

Gender and Bride-Bride game

West & South Africa

In Nigeria (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba);

Liberia (Bassa vs. Congo)

Folk belief (Sangoma, dibia man, mask)

Love of eating sweets, bullying at school Education

Common Themes – Children’s Experience of

•Civil Wars (displacement – child soldier)

•Racial, Class, Language and Cultural Differences

•City (Mumbai, Rio, Jos, Nsukka, Johannesburg) vs. Country

1.What color is Friday’s skin? (Friday from Robinson Crusoe) Not yellow, because the aborigines were mostly eliminated there. The few Caribs left were mixed with the black slaves, who get associated with Cannibalism.

2. Can Friday speak? Does Caliban only know how to curse? (The Tempest: Prospero, Miranda and Caliban)

(The Middle Passage) Slavery

Colonial Education Creolization (in people and

language) Caribbean Disapora Cultures

Image source

Recent News in the Caribbean Area

Haiti: Earthquake 2010, 1, 12

Rachel Wheeler– a 12-year-old that raised 250,000 US dollars to build 27 homes in Haiti (source)

famous for its legends of pirates (source 《金銀島》 Treasure Island; Pirates of the Caribbean ）

drug dealing

Tourism, cruising in the area

Outline The Caribbean Area:

Definitions & History of colonization The Texts We Read

Creolization: Definitions English language & of people Race Relations Conflicts and Displacement;

Caribbean Poetry and Music at a Glance: Caribbean poetry; Derek Walcott & dub poetry Popular culture: Different ways; Calypso, (Raggae & Rap)

Our Course: Thematic Continuity, Geographic Expansion

Definition (1): the Caribbean –3 groups

1. the Bahamas to the North East of Cuba 

the Greater Antilles

the

Lesser

Antilles

Brazil

Definition (2): the CaribbeanDon’t forget the triangular trade!!! “discovered” by Columbus in late 15th c., Spanish colonization, followed by the British, French and Dutch.names:

West Indies (Anglophone) –a misnomer (also East Indians); the Antilles (Francophone) the Caribbean as a term encompassing both

Composed of immigrants only: diaspora (離散族群 )

the aboriginal communities [Amerindians-- Arawaks, Caribs, etc.] exterminated; Immigrants from Africa, Asia and Europe.

Columbus & Arawak-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B1C-v0BzTE

Image of the Caribbean

Jan van de Straet’s engraving “America”--the new world as a woman

History of Colonization in the Caribbean Area

1492-96 -- Columbus’s “discovery” of the West Indies

16th-18th centuries --Colonial period:  also a period of wars among colonial nations and pirates,

and conflicts between the white masters, black slaves and mulatto.

Rebellion (1) –the Maroons* e.g. Abeng – (from a West Africa); used primarily as a signaling device; served as a vital means of communication when the Maroons were at war with the British (e.g.) e.g. in Sugar Cane Alley

The Middle Passage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo79PHVI-ck&feature=fvsr

Ways of rebellion (2):petit marronage (小走私 ) in francophone islands

pretend sickness, steal, or even poison their masters.

with music, dance, religion (voodon), or simply their different ways of living;

examples: the school children’s tales of zombies; the songs the laborers sing—at the field, after Madouze dies-- in Sugar Cane Alley;

open rebellion

History of Colonization in the Caribbean Area

1808 --1838 Britain and USA abolished slave trade; complete abolition of slavery in British colonies

1845 East Indian indentured laborers in Trinidad; Chinese indenture in French colonies (e.g. Wide Sargasso Sea)

History of Colonization in the Caribbean Area

1919-1939  seen as Slums of the Empire.

• Negritude (Aimé Césaire);

• Back to Africa movement (started in the 19th century; supported later by MARCUS GARVEY) Rastafari movement

Madouze’s account in SGA

riots & strikes in 1935-

1938 and afterwards

History of Colonization in the Caribbean Area

Since the 50’sColonization in reverse: West Indian migration to England restrictions imposed to Canada, etc.

Independence movements: 1958-62 -- The Federation of the West Indies

independence 1962 -- Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago;1966 Barbados and Guyana;

American Imperialism in the Caribbean Area (Cf. Bob Marley site http://www.bobmarley.com/)

Economic the area becomes the tourists’ heaven and a cheap labor factory (capital, technology and management shipped to the area to use the labor power without leaving the profits there.)

Cultural domination –

music styles – the emergence of reggae (e.g. from rhythm & blue to Ska to reggae )

History of Colonization in the Caribbean Area

Neo-Colonialism of the U.S.A. military intervention (e.g. "Caribbean Basin Initative"– bribing Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean to support the armed confrontation in Grenada and the war in El Salvador. 

The Caribbean Textsand Their Locations

The Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) –1840’s (Martinique), (Grandbois) Dominica, Jamaica (near Spanish town)

Abeng (1984) by Michelle Cliff -- Jamaica 1950’s

Sugar Cane Alley (1983) –Martinique 1930’s

Olive Senior "Bright Thursdays" -- Jamaica

Annie John (1985) –Antigua 1950’s

"Children of the Sea" (from Krik, Krak! 1955) -- Port-au-Prince Haiti 1960’s – 90’s

Creolization (1): Dictionary Definition

A. language: mixture of languages, esp. in Southern US and the Caribbean area.

B. People

1). Orignal meaning: Native, local,”pure”;

2). Native-born whites; (e.g. Antoinette in WSS)

3). Hybrid (mixed-blood)

Definition (2): Creolization in the Caribbean

Language – the mixture of English and African tribal languages into some special kinds of native languages (Patois, such as French Patois, Jamaican Patois).   E

• e.g. Beijan: The English used in Barbados-- closest to standard English (e.g. 1); Jamaican creole,

• "postcreole continuum“*(後新生語連續體 )-- parallels the social hierarchy to some degrees (--those speaking in creole are looked down upon). 

• Postcolonial usage of creole dub poetry—the empire strikes back

Color System in the Caribbean Society

People -- Europeans born in the Caribbean, mulatto

“Dying to raise their color all of them” (199) (e.g. “Bright Thursday”)

The color triangle: white

brown

dark

Race Relations: multiple division

Post-emancipation period – conflicts between different races (e.g. the English vs. the French), between plantation owners and small farmers, ex-slaved and contract laborers between the newly rich and the declining aristocrats.Discriminated: mulatto and creole.

In the contemporary Caribbean area and diaspora: the Bajan vs. the Jamaican, all against Haitian, etc.

WSS

Consequences of creolization

racial conflicts;

split sense of identity – in between Europe and Africa (e.g. Black Skin, White Mask –Frantz Fanon from Martinique)

diverse and dynamic culture (Walcott on its music, painting and language)

The people’s resistance to colonialism: some examples of Caribbean Poetry – Ref.

Caribbean poetry (introd.) Derek Walcott (e.g.) –combination of Western culture and creolized culture and island landscape

• “I happen to have been born in an English and a Creole place, and love both languages. …”

• “ I who am poisoned with the blood of both,Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?”

"A Far Cry From Africa“ Derek Walcott, 1957

As I worked, watching the rotting waves comepast the bow that scissor the sea like milk,I swear to you all, by my mother's milk,by the stars that shall fly from tonight's furnace,that I loved them, my children, my wife, my home;I loved them as poets love the poetrythat kills them, as drowned sailors the sea.

You ever look up from some lonely beachand see a far schooner? Well, when I writethis poem, each phrase go be soaked in salt;I go draw and knot every line as tightas ropes in this rigging; in simple speechmy common language go be the wind,my pages the sails of the schooner Flight.But let me tell you how this business begin.(from “The Schooner Flight”

The people’s resistance to colonialism: some examples of Caribbean Poetry

Dub poetry: forerunner of hip-hop an extension of reggae culture (“new raggae”) a form of performance poetry having its roots in popular Jamaican culture, and more particularly in reggae and Rastafarianism.  The movement has served to bring poetry back to the people

Dub poetry

openness to pop culture and esp. to music (reggae and calypso); appeal of public performance; acceptance of social responsibility --poetry has a “function” (poetry vs fiction as a middle-class genre)amateur poetic practice in the WI (e.g. Jamaican creole )

e.g. Edward Braithwaite,

Kamau Brathwaite“Wings of a Dove”

About a Rasta Man “Brother Man the Rastaman, beard full of lichens地衣brain full of licewatched the mice ”After smoking his pipe of his gangja, he speaks of his people in ‘Bablylon town’

“So beat dem drumsdem, spread

dem wings dem,watch dem fly

dem, soar demhigh dem,

clear in the glory of the Lord.

Watch dem ship demcome to town dem

full o' silk demfull o' food dem

an' dem 'plane demcome to groun' dem

full o' flash demfull o' cash dem

silk dem food demshoe dem wine dem

that dem drink deman' consume dem

praisin' the glory of the Lord.

Kamau Brathwaite“Wings of a Dove”So beat dem burn

dem, learndem that dem

got dem nothin'but dem

bright bright baublesthat will burst dem

when the flame demfrom on high dem

raze an' roar deman' de poor dem

rise an' rage demin de glory of the Lord.

Bob Marley, a Rasta

Mikey Smith “Black and White” Different implications of “black”Michael Smith;

Image source

“Colonization in Reverse” (1) Louise Bennett

What a joyful news, Miss Mattie;

Ah feel like me heart gwine burs--

Jamaica people colonizin

Englan in reverse

By de hundred, by de tousan

From country an from town,

By de ship-load, by the plane-load,

Jamaica is Englan boun. (source)

“Colonization in Reverse” (2)

Dem a pout out a Jamaica;Everybody future planIs fi get a big-time jobAn settle in de motherlan

What a islan! What a people!Man an woman, ole and youngJussa pack dem bag an baggageAn tun history upside dung! --Louis Bennett (e.g.)

(source)

Mutabaruka

“dis poem”

starts with middle passage, but extends to all kinds of racism all over the world.

http://www.mutabaruka.com/lyrics.htm

Music video of the 2006 song Della and Mutabaruka

Note: nyahbingi drumming

The people’s resistance to colonialism: some examples of Popular Culture

Calypso: originated in the songs of African slaves who worked in the plantation fields of Trinidad. Forbidden to talk to each other, they used calypso to communicate feelings and information.

e.g. Work songs in Sugar Cane Alley.

e.g. "Dan is the Man".

"Dan is the Man"

In education, he is taught to be “a block-headed mule”

with his world filled with nonsensical nursery rimes.

How about the education in the film Sugar Cane Alley?

The Caribbean Texts –and their Themes

Sugar Cane Alley –a boy’s experience of 1930’s labor exploitation; Western education vs. local cultures; cultural identitiesThe Wide Sargasso Sea –1830’s (abolishment of slavery) poor creole women (girls) vs. a black girl, TiaAbeng by Michelle Cliff – another creole girl whose great grandfather, Judge Savage, burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. * Claire and ZoeOlive Senior's "Bright Thursdays" –a creole girl’s experience and fear of white culture and open spaceAnnie John –a black girl’s growth to reject of her mother/culture. "Children of the Sea" –refugees from Haiti; two voices

Thematic Continuation in our courseArea Cultures, race & gender (neo-)olonization diasporaIndian

Subcon-tinent

Religions gender (purdah, sati, marriage), caste system, partition children and (lack of) education; sisters, War

--UK. Departure

--Hollywood

--South Africa, the Caribbean, and to US

West & SouthAfrica

1) War and children

2) Apartheid, politics & power land and body, religion, gender, language, children and education

1) Congo in Liberia

2) Boer war Afrikaaner vs. Bantu (Writing vs. silence)

Exile & Return

The Carib-bean

Diaspora + refugee; Creolization language, race & gender children & education; sisters, mother-daughter

Slavery & Contract laborers; US.

“Back” to Africa or UK

The Caribbean area and the Caribbean diaspora

Canada The U.S.

““Children of the Sea”Children of the Sea”; Fugees; Fugees

Annie John M. Cliff, B. Marley

Wide Sargasso Sea Sugar Cane Alley

Derek Walcott

England France India

References

The Evolution of Afro-Caribbean Music <http://www.cariwave.com/Evolution_Afro_Caribbean_M

usic.htm>

Caribbean Poetry: Barbados <http://www.courses.vcu.edu/ENG-snh/Caribbean/Barbados/index.html >