UNESCO Glissant Creative-contradictions 074754eo

8/3/2019 UNESCO Glissant Creative-contradictions 074754eo

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TheUnescoCour ier

DECEMBER 1981 - 4.50 French francs

Car ibbean encounter


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TREASURESOFWORLD ART

^^Haiti

Seat of honourC a rv ed in the form of a fearsome beast from the trunk of a guaiac tree, this duho, orceremonial chair, is a fine example of the wood-carving skills of the Taino Indians, one ofthe indigenous peoples who inhabited the Caribbean before the arrival of the Europeans.When Christopher Columbus landed in Santo Domingo in 1492, the Indians who greetedhim invited him to sit on a duho, an honour reserved for people of high rank. This rarespecimen, now in the Muse de l'Homme, Paris, is thought to be one of the many duhothat Columbus brought back with him to Europe.


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TheUnescoCour ier

A window open on the world

DECEMBRER 1981 34th YEAR

PUBLISHED IN 25 LANGUAGESEnglish Italian Turkish MacedonianFrench Hindi Urdu Serbo-CroatSpanish Tamil Catalan SloveneRussian Hebrew Malaysian ChineseGerman Persian KoreanArabic Dutch SwahiliJapanese Portuguese Croato-SerbA selection in Braille is publishedquarterly in English, French and SpanishPublished monthly by UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural OrganizationEditorial, Sales and Distribution OfficesUnesco , Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Pa ri sSubscription rates1 year : 44 French Francs2 years: 75 FFBinder for a year's issues: 32 FFT he U N ES CO COURIER is publ ished monthly (11 issues ayear including on e double i ssue).Indiv idual art ic les an d p h o to g ra p h s n o t c o py ri gh te d may bereprinted p ro v id in g t he c re d it line reads "Repr inted from th eUNESCO COURIER", p lu s d a te of i ss u e, a nd three vouchercopies ar e sen t to th e editor. S i gned a r ti cl es reprinted mustbear author's name. Non-copyright photos will be suppl ied onrequest. Unsol ic i ted manuscr ip t s canno t be returned unlessa c compani ed b y an internat ional reply coupon cover ing postage. S i gned a r ti c les exp ress th e opinions of th e authors an ddo not necessar i ly represent the opinions of UNESCO or thoseof t he ed it o rs o f th e U N ES CO COU RIE R . Pho to cap ti onsand head li n es ar e written by the Unesc o Cou rie r staff.The Unesco Courier is produced in microform (microfilmand/or microfiche) by: (1) University Microfilms (Xerox). .

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Editor-in-chief: Jean Gaudin

Assistant Editor-in-chief: Olga Rode lManaging Editor: Gil l ian WhitcombEditors:Engl ishFrenchSpanishRuss ianGermanArabicJapaneseItalianHind iTamilHebrewPers ianDutch

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page

4 CARIBBEAN ENCOUNTERA journey through the his tory , peoples and places of the Antillesby Alejo Carpentier

10 SLAVERY AND SUGAR...THE BITTER AFTERTASTEby Manuel Moreno Frag ina ls

14 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTUREHAITI'S TRAGIC HEROby Ren Depestre

14 THE PROPHETIC VISION OF SIMON BOLIVARby Manuel Maldonado-Denis

16 CRUCIBLE OF CHANGEby Ren Depestre

29 'OURS'The West Ind ies from withinby Marion Patrick Jones

31 CALENDRIER LAGUNAIREby Aim Csaire

31 FERNANDO ORTIZ'The father of Car ibbean studies'by Lisandro Otero

32 CREATIVE CONTRADICTIONSThe Car ibbean genius has given birth to a new civilizationby Edouard Glissant

38 CALIBAN'S REVENGEby Roberto Fernandez Retamar

40 UNESCO AND THE CARIBBEAN41 JOSE MARTI :

'Citizen of the Americas'

42 MARCUS GARVEY AND THE AFRICAN DREAMby Kenneth Ramchand

43 REGGAE: A JAMAICAN MUSICAL PHENOMENONby Sebastian Clarke

2 TREASURES OF WORLD ARTHATI : Seat o f h on ou r

CoverThe arrival of Christopher Columbus and theSpaniards in 1492 marked the start of anintermingling of cultures in the Caribbeanwhich continued amid the tragic events ofcolonialism and the slave trade. Out of thisprocess involving Europeans, Indians, andabove all black African peoples came aunique historical amalgam, rich in diversityyet united by certain underlying patterns ofliving and thinking. The cultural fusion of theCaribbean, one of the most original and fruitful episodes in history. Is the theme of thisissue of the Unesco Courier. For reasons ofspace the present number deals only withthe Caribbean archipelago, and not thoseparts of the American continent which formpart of the history and geography of theCaribbean. Cover shows Umbral (1949-1950) ,a canvas by the Cuban painter Wifredo Lam.

Photo Lu c Joubert . Muse Na t iona l d'Art Moderne, Paris


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Caribbean encoun te rA journey through the history, peoplesand places of the Antilles

by Alejo Carpentier

Photo Goursat Rapho, Paris THE Car ibbean ha s played a uniqueand privileged role in the history ofthe American continent. H ere in the

Car ibbean was the reality of the newhorizons, new forms of vegetation and newlands first d e sc rib e d b y Christopher Co lumbus in h is log-book. Indeed, it was throughthat log-book and the letters Columbuswrote to the Catholic Monarchs narratinghi s successive voyages that th e idea ofAm eric a w as in stille d in p eo ple 's m in ds ,giving them, for the first time, a completepicture of the world in which they l ived.They learnt that their planet was round andth ey co uld set about e xp lo rin g it in fullknowledge of where th ey w ere going. Forthe first time in history they knew in whatworld they were living.

So important and so far-reaching in itsconsequences was this event that it couldbe said to h av e b een the most significanthistorical event ever , forming a watershed inthe history of the world dividing humanityinto two categor ies : those who l ived beforethe discovery of America, and those whocame after.

America, then, had been discovered,when suddenly, through a combination ofcircumstances, these la nd s, a nd especiallythose of the Car ibbean, became the settingof the first symbiosis, the first recordedmeeting between three races which, assuch, had never met before : the whites ofEurope , the hitherto unknown Indians ofAmerica, and the Africans who, althoughfamiliar to Europeans, were completelyunknown on the other side of the Atlantic. Itwas a monumental symbiosis of extraordinary significance in its scope and thepotential cultural contributions it offered, asymbiosis that was to give rise to a completely original civilization.

Yet hardly had the discovery been madeand no sooner ha d the New World, as itcame to be ca l led , begun to be known thana negative factor emerged which w as sub-

ALEJO CARPENTIER of Cuba , who died lastyear, ranks among the most distinguishednovelists in th e Spanish l an g uage . H i s books havebeen translated into many languages and include,in English editions, The Kingdom of this World(1957) , The Los t Steps (1957), published byKnopf, New York, Explos ion in a Cathedra l(Go l lancz, London, 1963) and Reasons of State(Part r idge, London, 1976). A musicologist, hea lso wrote A History of Cuban Music and manyartic les and essays on Latin American l i teratureand mus ic . The text published here ha s beenadapted from a talk broadcast on C uba n T V during th e third Caribbean Festival of Arts("Carifesta"), held in Cuba in 1979.


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The curving arc of the Caribbean islands, as shown in a map published in Amsterdam in 1662.

THE CARIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO POPULATIONANTIGUA 74,000 JAMAICABAHAMAS 225,000 MARTINIQUEBARBADOS 265 ,000 MONTSERRATBERMUDA 58,000 NETHERLANDS ANTILLESBRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS 12,000 PUERTO R ICOCAYMAN ISLANDSCUBA

12 ,0009,728,000

ST. KITTS-NEVISAND ANGUILLA

DOMINICA 81,000 ST . LUCIAST . VINCENTAND GRENADINESOMINICAN REP. 5,124,000

GRENADA 97,000 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGOGUADELOUPE 330,000 TURKS AND CA/COS ISLANDSHAITI 4,833,000 U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS

POPULATION2, 133,000325 ,00013,000

246,0003,317,000

67,000113,00096,000

1, 133,0006,000

104,000

sequently to be offset by a more positivedevelopment.

To start with the negative factor. The ideaof colonialism was born with the discoveryof America. Before the Spanish came toAmerica, the Portuguese, those extraordinary navigators, had reached the limits ofAsia, ha d explored what they cal led the "thespice islands" and, with some English andFrench rivals, had voyaged on as far as Indiaa nd s aile d down the coasts of Africa. Butthey neve r thought of establishing coloniesin the strict sense of the term. They se t uptrading posts, went in s ea rc h of merchandise and offered merchandise in exchange .They negotiated a n d b a rte re d a n d, althoughthere m ay have been p laces where ten,twelve o r fifteen families settled, they were

the families of traders with no thought intheir heads of colonization.

The Spaniards, on the other hand, wentto America with colonization in mind. Thefirst great colonizer to land in America afterthe discovery was the eldest so n of Columb u s, D ie go , who arr ived with h is wife Mar iaToledo, the niece of the Duke of Alba. Hefounded a sma l l Renaissance-s ty le court atS an to D om ingo w he re un ive rsities andtheatres were soon established and throughthe streets of which once strolled GonzaloFernandez de Ov iedo , who was to becomethe first chronicler of the West Ind ies.

The concept of colonization already seemed firmly established. But history has its surp r is e s a n d people ha d not reckoned with an

unforeseen factor the African Slaves.Transpor ted from th e continent of Africa,th e negroes, who arr ived in Amer ica in fe tters an d cha ins , crammed into th e bowe l s o fpest-r idden vessels, were to be sold likemerchand ise and to be sub jec ted to th emost degrad ing conditions to which it ispossible to reduce human beings. Yet withthem they brough t th e germ o f th e idea o findependence. With the passage o f time itwas to be t he se pa ria h s , these outcas ts ofthe human race, who were to give us no lessa gift th an th e concept of independence.

Were we to have a m ap on which a smal lre d bulb li t up to indicate every upris ing ofnegro slaves on the American continent, weshould se e that, from the sixteenth century ionwards, a bulb has always been flickering I


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Panoramic view of the liesdes Saintes, above, is acomposite of three photostaken one balmy day in1899. "What marvels!"Christopher Columbus hadexclaimed when he madelandfall in the Caribbeanfour centuries before.Sketch-map (right) wasdrawn by the greatnavigator in 1493 . It showsthe north-western coast ofEsparola ("the Spanishisland", now Haiti and theDominican Republic). Thenorth is indicated by a cross. y* *{f*ot*\ c* *

y s om ewh ere . T he first grea t uprising tookp la c e i n the s ix teenth century in the mines ofBuria in Venezuela, le d by th e negro Miguel ,who succeeded in creat ing an i ndependen tk ingdom with a court a nd e ve n a diss identchurch with its own bishop.Very shortly a ft erwar ds , th e u p ris in g of

th e Cariada de l os Neg ros occu rred in Mexic o and so fr ightened th e c olo nia l p ow e rsthat t he V i ce r oy , Martin Enr iquez, felt compelled to mete out such t e rr ib le pun ishmentsas cast rat ion, with no considerat ion of merc y o r ju s tic e , on a n y n eg ro who f led into th emounta ins. Shortly afterwards there was anuprising in t h e s to ckade of Palmares, wherethe runaway slaves of Brazil created an independen t kingdom that resisted thenumerous expeditions which the Portu g ue s e c o lo n is ts s e nt a g ain s t it and main-6

tained it s independence for more than sixtyyears.In Surinam, at the end of the seventeenth

century, there was a rebell ion le d by threeblack leaders : Sant Sam , Boston and Arabi,who succeeded in holding out against fourDutch expeditions sent to que l l them. Therewas the rebellion of the "tailors" in Bahia ,and that in Cuba le d by Aponte. But spec ia lmen tio n m u st be made of th e Oath of BoisCaiman on account of its far-reachinghistorical importance.In a place known as Bo is Ca ima n , or the

Fores t of the Alligators, contingents ofslaves from the French colony of SaintDomingue, now Haiti, met on a stormynight and swore to p ro cla im th e independence of their country, an oath thatwas to be fulfilled and m ade reality by the

grea t leader Toussaint Louver ture (seepage 14). The true concept of i ndependencew as b orn with th e Oath of Bois Ca iman. Toth e concep t o f colonization wh ich th eSpanish ha d brought to Hispaniola was opposed, in th e same country , th e concept ofdecolonizat ion. This w as the beg inn ing o fth e w ars o f independence and o f th e a nti-c o lon ia l wa r s that were to continue right upto the present day.

When we study the c ele bra te d m id -eighteenth century Encyclopdie ofVoltaire, Diderot , Rousseau andd'A lember t , men whose id ea s had such aninf luence on th e leaders o f our wars of independence, we find that t he concep t of independence in that great work w as stillp u re ly ph ilo soph ic a l and was c on ce rn edwith th e independence of man before God


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Cruel facts contradict any attemptto portray the Antilles as an idyllicparadise, for the history of theCaribbean has been punctuated byvolcanic eruptions, earthquakes andcyclones. One of the world's mostterrible natural disasters occurredat two minutes past eight on themorning of 8 May 1902, whenMartinique's highest volcanicmountain. Mont Pele, suddenlyerupted. In less than a minute thetown of Saint-Pierre and all itspopulation (some 28,000) hadperished in the holocaust (left).Cyclones, which in Caribbeanmythology are hurricanes fed bythe wrath of Hu-Ra-Khan the wind-god, have also brought greatsuffering to the peoples of theAntilles. Thirteen of them wererecorded in the 17th century, 33 inthe 18th, 28 in the 19th, and in thiscentury their number is higher still.The havoc wreaked by someparticularly devastating cyclone hasleft a gaping wound in thecollective memory of everyCaribbean island.

and th e m o na rc hy . It speaks of f reedom ofth e will and of man ' s ind iv idua l f reedom, butit does no t speak of pol i t ical i ndependence .By contrast , what th e Negroes of Ha it i we r edemanding and in that respect they wereth e p re cu rs ors of al l ou r w ars of independence political independence andtotal emanc ipa t i on .

Many people may object that th e Oath ofBois C aim an was only taken in 1791,whereas the Un i ted S t at es had ach ieved independence years before. Nobody woulddeny th is . It shou ld not be forgotten,however, that when the thirteen NorthAmer ican c olo nie s w e re freed from thetutelage of the King of England and becamean in dependen t na ti on no longe r sub jec t tothe British throne, there was no change inthe pattern of life in those co lon ies . The land

owners were the same and the greatproperty-owners and merchants continuedto l ive as they ha d before. It d id not occur toanybody that the slaves might be emanc ip ate d. B efo re that s tage was reached,they had to wait for the American Civi l War.In other words, it was bus iness as u su al inthe United States after the Declaration ofIndependence.

This was not the case in Latin America,however, s ince , after the revolts in Haiti,which were followed shortly afterwards bythe wars of independence, culminating inthe final victory at the battle of Ayacucho in1824, the structure of th e soc ia l order andsocial life changed completely with theemergence of the crole, a figure whoalready existed but had not been consideredof any political account.

Who was the crele? The word crele firstappeared in o ld Amer i can documents fromthe 1570's or thereabouts. Broadly speakingthe Creoles were people born on the newcontinent of America, either of mixedSpanish-Indian o r Spanish-Negro blood, orelse were Indians or Negroes born inAmerica but living alongside the colonizers.

The creles, however, felt that they wereoverlooked and neglected. In h is Letter fromJamaica, one of the most importantdocuments we possess concerning thehistory of America, Simn Bol var theLiberator spoke in these words of the statusof the Creoles, including the more affluentamong them, in the times prior to the warsof independence which he was instrumentalin promoting: "We were never Viceroys or |Governors save fo r ve ry exceptional I


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t r easons ; we were seldom archbishops orbishops, and never diplomats; we weresoldiers bu t no more t han subalt er ns; nobleswithout any real p r iv i leges . Las t ly , we wereneither judges nor b an ke rs , a nd we werealmost neve r merchants".The history of Amer ica as a whole

d is p la y s one very important f ea tu r e, name lythat it on ly developed in terms of th e classst ruggle. We have ha d no d yn a stic w a rsove r succession to the throne, as in the caseof Europe; there h av e b een no internecinewars like th e Hundred Years ' War (whichwas a feudal st ruggle) ; we have had noreligious wars in the strict sense of the term.Our constant struggle ove r severa l centurieswas first of al l between the conquistadorsan d th e s ub ju ga te d and opp ressed indigenous class. This was followed by thestruggle of the colonizers against the conquistadors.

The colonizers, who arrived later, set outto create an oligarchy and impose theirauthority, and succeeded in destroying theconquistador class, almost al l of whosemembers ended up in poverty or destitutiono r were murdered or d ispossessed of their

The machete, or long Antillean cutlass, is afamiliar object both in the workaday worldand in the landscape of the Caribbeanimagination. It is widely used for cuttingsugar-cane, for clearing paths, for pruning inthe banana plantation (left) and for toppingfreshly-picked coconuts. It has also served asa weapon in liberation struggles and iswielded symbolically in certain dances (below).


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lands. Very few of them lived out their l ivesto a happy end.

The colonizers, become the aristocracy o roligarchy, then turned against the creles.Eventually, with the coming of the wars ofindependence, the native inhabitants ofAmerica rose up against the Span ish . Butthe conquering creles in their turn createda new oligarchy against which the s laves,the underprivileged and the growing middleclass had to fight. This class included almostal l the intelligentsia intellectuals, writers,professors and teachers, in short, that admirab le middle class that was to continuegrowing throughout the nineteenth centuryright up to the start of the present century.In this phase of the struggle, which was to

continue until the middle of this century,and is still going on, the sense of nationhoodof the American countries had begun to affirm itself. In other words, after prevailing al lover the continent, the creles began toseek their own special identity and, at a laterstage, with the growing independencemovements in th e Anti l les, there arose anawareness of be ing Jamaican, Martiniquaisor Curaaoan, in short of be ing nationals ofthe separate islands forming the vast Car ibbean world and of hav ing characteristics oftheir own and be ing conscious of them.

When we contemplate the entire span ofthe Car ibbean, we stand amazed at thegallery of great men it has offered us overthe centuries men who have forged ourhistory. They show that there exists whatmight be termed a "Caribbean humanism".Our great m en n ev er confined their action o rthinking, or the examp le they set, to theirown orbit but projected themselves on tothe neighbouring peoples. There was bothan exchange of people and an nterpenetra-

, tion of ideas. There ha s always beenamongst us a strong urge for mutualunderstanding in the context of our comm on aspirations.

Admiral Brion, who was from Curaao,supported Bolivar in the independencestruggles of Venezue la , Colombia, Ecuador ,Peru and Bolivia. Petion, the President ofHaiti asked Bolivar to abolish slavery inVenezuela in exchange for his m ora l andmater ia l support in the war. MximoGmez , who won independence for Cuba ,was a Dominican. The parents of the Maceobrothers, who fought in the Cuban independence struggles, had taken part in thewar of independence of Venezue la . And aC ub an , F ra nc is co Javier Yanes , s ignedVenezuela's act of independence. The greatJos Marti, the apostle of Cuba's independence, whose eventful political andhistorical career took place against thebackdrop of the entire Caribbean, bequea thed us many moving pages , imbued with asense of truth and profound lo ve, onVenezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, and thecountries of the Car ibbean in g e ne ra l.

Through this exchange of people andcommunity of ideas, the main land areas ofMexico, V en ez ue la a nd Colombia, whichwere peopled by African slaves in the samecolonizing process, as were Peru , Guayaquiland Brazi l , ultimately came to form part ofthe Car ibbean conglomeration which we ar enow beginning to perceive and understandin it s entirety, as we compare what unites usand what makes each of us unique, oursimilarities and our differences, the birthright of the individual and the commonheritage of us all.

B Alejo Carpent ie r

fitt

Perched almost a thousand metres above the Caribbean on arugged headland in northern Haiti, the citadel of Laferrire,above, was built as a bastion to defend the newly independentcountry against possible invasion by returning colonialistforces. General Henri Christophe, one of the leaders of thevictorious national uprising, initiated the construction of theimposing fortress in the early 19th century. Twenty thousandmen are said to have worked for nine years on the project,depicted in naive painting below. This symbol of the liberationof Haiti, already seriously damaged by an earthquake in 1842, istoday threatened by adverse climatic conditions, humidity andencroaching tropical vegetation. At the request of theGovernment of Haiti, the Director-General of Unesco, Mr.Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, launched an appeal on 10 March 1980for the safeguard of the cultural heritage of Haiti, calling on theinternational community to express "the brotherhood of menthrough the dialogue of their cultures".


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Slavery and sugar. ,the bitter aftertaste

by Manuel Moreno Fraginals

10

IS there such a thing as a Car ibbean ident it y? The question ha s often been r ai sed ,and the fact that it continues to be asked

d em o ns tra te s e ith er that there is noawareness or certainty about this identity orthat there ar e forces that stand to g ain bydenying it s existence. In our view, "culturalidentity" is the historic result of the commonevolution of c omm o n s oc io -e co nom icfactors.

The wide arc of the Antilles forms anisland ecosystem with common climatic andgeological characteristics and, in earlytimes, with similar flora and fauna. From themoment when the Europeans burst on tothe South American scene, the is lands'geographical location made them the natura lmeet ing-place of seaways to th e SpanishEmpire and , in a sense, the "imperial f rontier". As a frontier, the Antilles were to bethe site of the battles of the plundering colon ia l wars. Thus, there was an ea r ly s tage atwhich these is lands had to play a par t in th eEmpire . But they also had exploitableresources, which, in addition to the role theyplayed in support of the empire , were important for their own economic potential. During the eighteenth century, Cuba, for example, was the centre of defence of theSpanish Empire and an outstanding producer of tobacco a n d s u ga r; Jamaica was anisland of sugar plantations and a key basefor the English navy.

The is lan ds ' shared climate, theirgeographical situation in the a rc of the Antilles and their similar phys ica l characteristicsm ad e p os sib le , in most of them, thedevelopment of the s lave sugar plantationsystem. For this type of plantation requiredterrain with specific physical features; it hadto be nea r the sea, have a particulartemperature and degree of rainfall, haveforest resources available, be near cattlesupplies, and have excellent maritime communications between the buyer's market(Europe) and the labour supply market(Africa).

MANUEL MORENO FRAGINALS, Cubanhistorian and university t ea c he r, i s adviser to theCentre of Caribbean Studies of th e Casa de la sAmericas, in Ha va na . H is most recent publishedwork is Distintegration/Abolition of Slavery in theCaribbean.


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The is lands of the Antilles were peopledby a common indigenous stock which waseliminated through a common historical process. The aboriginal cultures of the Caribbean appea r to go back as far as 2500 BC .The coloniz ing process which befel l thesepeop le s spa rked off systernatic annihilationin which the barbarous exploitation to whichthey were subjected was accompanied byepidemics, the breakdown of theireconomy, the psychological shock of theconquest and even premeditated extermination. The extinction of the Ind ians in theis lands colonized by Spain was widelypublicized by the Engl ish, the F re nc h a ndthe Dutch; but what was not made commonknowledge was how the Englis h, F re n chand Dutch themselves systematically exterminated the indigenous populations of theis lands they conquered.On these systematically depopulated

is lands, a common economic structure wasestablished: the slave plantation, a typicalcreation of European capitalism. Ratherthan being the invention of any particularEuropean colonizing power, it was the resultof accumulated colonial exper ience. Theplantation system of the type adopted bythe Portuguese at Sao Tom was t ransferre d to America by the Spaniards. TheHispano-Portuguese model was developedby the English and French (Jamaica andSanto Domingo ar e tragic examp les of thisdevelopment), and was later taken up againby Spanish colonialism, making the exploitation in C uba even more complex.

This point is emphas i zed becausehistorians tend to speak of differentcategories of "slavery" according towhether it was imposed by the Engl ish ,F re n ch , P o rtu g u es e , Spaniards or others.There is only one type of s la v er y a n d it s soleaim is the exploitation of labour; the ex ploiter's nationality is of little importance.We reject the idea that there ar e differenttypes of slavery depending on the religion ofthe exploiter as well as the notion that thereare "benign" and "malignant" forms ofs la v er y. F o r the ens laved mass , s lavery wasalways the same ; the differences in thedegree of exploitation were due to economicfactors rather than to superstructure.

Nor do we accept any type of rac ia l connotation that might suggest a preference onthe part of the s lave-masters for Africans.Africans were ens la ved because Africa wasthe labour market that was ava il ab le , c heapand near ; when conditions changed in thenineteenth century Ch ine se and East Ind ianswere brought in .

The same system of enslavement andcommercialization was attempted with theWest Indian indigenous populations. As early as 1494, Admiral Christopher Columbushimself selected fifty native inhabitants ofHispan io la (Santo Domingo), who were sentto Spain to be sold as slaves. And, according to Bartolom de L as C as as , Columbusreckoned that b y s e llin g al l the Ind ians ofthat island along with other merchandise hewould realize profits to the tune of fortymillion maravedes. As early as 1508 huntsfor nat ives to be sold into s lavery werelegalized in the Caribbean. And if thestatistics provided by Pedro Mrtir deAnglera ar e correct, between 1508 and 1513some forty thousand Caribbean slaves werehunted down and sold to work in the goldm i ne s . C o lo n ia l barbarism resulted in the liquidation of the indigenous population; the tsmall aggressive groups which remained )

Few traces have survived of theindigenous peoples, notably theCarib and the Arawak, whichinhabited the Caribbean islandsbefore they were discovered by theSpaniards. Within a few decades ofEuropean colonial rule thesepeoples had been virtuallyannihilated, and today only ahandful of their descendants exist,scattered throughout the region. Afew small but skilfully craftedexamples of their culture have beenpreserved. Above, skeletal headcarved in black basalt (2 2 cm high)was a religious or ceremonial objectused by an Arawak-speaking peopleof the Taino culture of Puerto Rico.Below, anthropomorphic stonehead (1 2 cm high, 17 cm long) fromthe Dominican Republic. It is one ofthe prized "three-pointed stones"discovered in the Antilles whichmay have been an animist symbolof the Taino civilization.

Photo Museo de l Hombre Dom in ic ano , S an to D om ingo

11


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From the 15th century on, various European powers used the islandof Gore, less than 4 kilometres off Dakar (Senegal) as a port ofcal l or an entrept for the Atlantic slave trade. It was there,packed in dank cellars or the torture chambers set aside for thosewho resisted, that young Africans waited to be shipped to theplantations and manufactories of the New World, especially thoseof the West Indies. One of the great tragedies of history, the slave

trade played a crucial part in shaping the cultural and politicaldestiny of many parts of the Americas. In December 1980 , inrecognition of the cultural and historical importance of the island'sarchitectural heritage, the Director-General of Unesco, Mr.Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, launched an international appeal for thesafeguard and restoration of Gore. Above, map of the island asshown on an engraving of 1779.

^were a hindrance to production and theywere exterminated in a systematic genocidewhose most typical expression was thatindulged in by the Engl ish and by the Frenchin Martinique.From the sixteenth century onwards plan

tation complexes began to be estab l ished inthe Span is h Ca rib bean i sl and s : Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico a nd C ub a. In the seventeenth century the s ys tem s pre ad to theLesser Antilles, a nd la te r to Jamaica. Theplantation economy began to be dominantin the is lands. The Lesser Antilles werecovered with plantations and there was noland left for other forms of economicdevelopment, or even for the slaves toescape to from the plantations. In theGreater Antilles plantation areas alternatedwith other exploitations and the possibilitiesof soc ia l development were g re a te r. T h es edifferences of scale resulted in differences inthe socio-economic levels of the plantations, but otherwise most of the commoncharacteristics remained.Each plantation, when it was estab l ished,

was simply a collection of h um a n b ein gs a ndin no sense constituted a soc ie ty . At this ini ti a l s t age the plantation could be comparedto a prison nearly a ll of whose memberswere of African origin, although they camefrom different ethnic groups, and were between 18 and 30 years old. There was amarked imbalance in the sexes; women onlyformed between 10 and 30 per cent of thepopulation and it was not rare to find plantations comprising men alone.

Under this repressive system, workingtime was strictly regulated and le isure time

was eliminated; diet was determined according to the economic considerations of themasters ; housing wa s p la n ne d for economyand security, an d clothing followed mass industrial production patterns; sexua l life wassubject to reproductive requirements; familyrelations were p ara ly ze d b y the imbalancebetween the sexes.

This set-up, typical of virtually al l the plantations a t the time of their foundation,changed with the passage of time.Clandestine hierarchica l relat ionships wereestab l ished among the slaves, bonds of int er es ts a n d brotherhood were c re a te d , a n dthe birth of children le d to the formation offamily n u cle i, g e ne ra lly of a matriarchaltype, s ince within the repressive system ofthe plantation a father could not takeresponsibility for hi s offspring. There was aprocess of social integration, but it washindered by the decl ine of the group s incethe mortality rate was higher than the birthrate (a logical result of the imbalance between the sexes, and the p ris o n r eg im e ) a n dnew influxes of slaves became necessa ry tomaintain the level of the work force. Neverthe less, a process of socialization was occurring as a result of one unifying factor al lwere slaves and free men were excluded.The plantation requ i red an import-export

centre which, moreover, provided a wholeseries of services that formed the infrastructure of the business. Thus there deve loped akind of u rb a n c e nt re , in which both slavesand f ree men were to be found, but withoutthe prison ethos of the plantation and consequently with different soc ia l relationships.Thus, the city-country distinction which is

typical of al l societ ies assumed a moredefinite connotation in plantation societies.Furthermore, under pressure from externa lfactors (price of slaves, price of plantationproducts, etc.) and internal factors(economic viability of the enterprise, appl icat ion of technological advances, impoverishment of the land, etc.), the plantations gradually developed until they acquired specific soc ia l characteristics thatwere common to al l the is lands.Regard less of the soc ia l level they ha d

ach ieved, the plantation slaves of the Caribbean were subjected to a common processof deculturation. By deculturation is meantthe conscious process whereby, for purposes of economic exploitation, the cultureof a human group was uprooted so as tofacilitate the expropriation of the natura lwealth of the territory in which it waslocated and/or to use the group for cheapunskilled slave or s em i-s la v e la b ou r. InAmerican plantation societies deculturationca n b e s ee n as a technological expedient forobtaining maximum labour efficiency.

Deculturation was a conscious processused on slaves in order to deprive them of al lidentity. Their very names were wrestedfrom them. Out of thousands and thousandsof documents about s la ve s in th e Car ibbeanwe only found twenty in which the originalAfrican names of the slaves appeared. Theireating, living and dress patterns weredestroyed, their mus ic and their religionwere banned , and their masters ' languagewas imposed upon them. The slaves couldonly resist this process of deculturation bymaintaining their original cultural va lues in

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clandestinity. Thus began a struggle between the dominant culture which strove tobe a factor of integration and subjugation,and th e d om in a te d culture as an integratingfactor of res is tance. This dialectical conflictwas to be one of the bas ic sources of Caribbean culture.

This process cannot be understood,however, if we start from the classic tradit ional anthropological schema which cons iders that in such cases a process of"transculturation" or "integration" occurredwhereby African cultural va lues were inserted into European moulds. The reality ofth e Ca ri bbean i sl an d s was quite different.From the beginning it was a question of newsocieties to which Africans a nd E uro pe an scame at the same time, the former as a subjugated peop le in a war of capitalist plunder,and the latter as the exploiting group. Therewas no pre-existing society imbued withAfrican contributions. There was basical ly asys tem of economic exploitation in whichthe dominant class created a culture foritself which was also destined to be imposedon the dominated class.

Naturally, this culture was based onEurocentric v a lu e s a n d patterns which werereworked, re -c reated and updated in relationto the economic, political and soc ia l situation on the plantations. Confronting thedominant culture was a culture of resistancewhich s temmed or iginal ly from Africanv alu es a nd patterns that d isappeared, werere-elaborated or transmuted into the classstruggle process , when they came upagainst both imposed deculturation and arepressive sys tem.

And thus, at a given moment, the slaveplantation sys tem dis integrated. The process of disintegration occurred at differenttimes and with different characteristics inthe various is lands. In some the plantationsd isappeared, in others they were transformed into mode rn p lan t at ions where th e trafficin human be ings continued. There were far-reaching migratory movements between theWest In dia n is la nd s a nd new peop les werebrought out to work in the canefie lds. Tochange the origin of the peop le exploited isnot, however, to change the essent ia lnature of the exploitation.F or th es e historic reasons, the descen

dants of the former s laves, mainly Negroesand mulattoes, constituted the poorest,most unprotected and exploitable stratum ofsoc ie ty . Cu l tu ra ll y , they were profoundly affected by different forms of prejudice andsocial discrimination. They were deliberatelyis ola te d a n d excluded, and attempts weremade to stir up conflicts among them whichwould make it difficult for them to constitutethemselves into a cohesive class. Thecultural forms contributed, created and recreated by these groups were c lose ly l in kedto the situation of social exclusion,economic exploitation and cultural rejectionim po sed upon the m by the dominant class.Seen from this angle , the essence of a

study on cultural identity ought to lie in theanalysis of the forms in which this culture ofresistance endured or was used or recreated. Studies that analyse the symptomatic characteristics of this culture, butnot it s real st ructures, speak of "dual"societies or "plural" societies. Thesetheories ar e supported by extremely interesting observations from outside, butthey overlook the fact that cultural differences are no t merely the opposition oik

Photo Bibl iothque Nat iona le Soc i t de Gograph ie , Paris

T he b as is of Caribbean co lon ia l soc ie t y was th e plantation, a c losed world in whichconfrontation between white master and black s la ve shaped many aspects of ther eg ion ' s cu l tu re . This divided world r evo lved a round two poles. In close physicalproximity but alien in spirit: the "great house" of the master and the cabins of thes la ves . The master l ived in h is mansion with his family and household s laves. The hutsof th e slaves formed a world apar t n which th e b la ck l abou re rs l ived in conditionswhich were often in h uman . Photo above was taken in Martinique in 1882. Below, agroup of huts in a Curaao plantation.

Photo Lu c Joubert , Paris. Nelly a nd R en Depestre Collection 1

J t

UNU.ll vlffB " >j^W KjL Ll jA

pi W".


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. European and African va lues whose culturesinteract in the abstract; on the contrary theyrelate to very real class confrontations.

Other more ideal ist studies tend to seekAfrican graftings on a European stem. Andthere are those who have ded ica tedthemselves to listing Africanisms in order todetermine how many of them, and withwhat degree of success, have penetra ted into pre-established moulds. Then again therear e those who, with a certain anthropological complexity, have elaboratedthe theory of soc ia l exclusion. But, as it hasbeen rightly pointed out, "although many ofth e se p e op le have been barred from accessto total participation in s o cie ty , o r even th emost minor benefits of cit izenship, theyhave never been exc luded from contributingto the economic order". Indeed, theirmarginality as cit izens is a result of th ecapitalist regime.

The role of the Afro-Latin-Americanpeoples of th e Car ibbean as suppliers ofnotoriously cheap labour, and especially themovemen t of Hait ians, Jamaicans,Dominicans, Puerto R ic an s a nd others toth e U nite d S ta te s and to the capita ls ofEurope, ha s reduced the average total costof labour a t the less skilled levels.Marginalization ha s not meant taking awayfrom these m en their status as exploitedpeople or creators of wealth.

Just as negative is the quest for identitybased on colour ("Ngritude") or remoteAfrican cultural roots, even though itoriginated within the exploited peoplesthemselves. These theories forget orover look the fact that exploitation of slave orsemi-slave l abour was not a problem of colour, s ince whites and Ind ians and la te rChinese, East Indians and Polynesians we realso explo i ted a nd e ns la ve d. "Ngritude",which was ear ly in its history a powerful andbeautiful rebe l cry of a group standing outaga ins t p re jud ice , ha s ru n th e risk of beingtransformed into an ideology. The return toAfrica, the recognition of roots, br ingsometh ing of unden iab le value to the Caribbean peoples th e identification of one ofi ts sou rces and a sense of solidarity towardspeoples who for centuries have been ex ploited and impoverished. But beyond theselimits it loses its validity, for Car ibbeanculture is not African but a culture createdand re-created, under specific conditions, inth e crucible of the Caribbean.

Colonial or neo-colonial interests havetried to perpetuate the sense of Car ibbeancul tural diversi ty. To th e rea l barr ier of different l anguages ha s been added theisolat ing or distorting claim that each is landfe els a nd a cts as an independent cultural,a nd he nce political, world. In some cases,th e effort ha s even been made to persuadece rt ai n i sl an d s to seek their identity in th emetropol is or in foreign la nd s, a nd hot inthemse lves . The rea l identity of the Caribbean is quest ioned a nd e ve n denied. But th ehistory and the real i ty exp re s sed in their artistic mani festat ions show quite the oppo s it e. Ca r ib b ean artists a nd s oc ia l scientists today have a much more important taskthan a simplistic quest for African elementsin their culture or compara t ive analysis withpresent-day African cu l tu res . Th i s task is thestudy of speci f ic phenomena of integrationand of common symbol ic forms that havedeveloped in the Car ibbean during the process of consolidation of the new societiesborn there.

B Manua l Moreno Fraginals14

Toussa in t LouvertureHaiti's tragic hero

Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803)

The prophetic visionof S imn Bolvar

Simn Bolvar (1783-1830)


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BROTHERS and friends, I am ToussaintLouverture; my name is perhapsalready known to you. I am intent on

vengeance. I want liberty and equality to berespected in Santo Domingo, and I shallwork until th is goal is achieved. Join us,brothers, and fight alongside us for the samecause.

The man who, in 1793, at the age of fifty,was addressing himself in these terms to hisunfortunate companions, had reached apoint in his life when he felt ready to givehimself completely to a task whichtranscended that of his own destiny.

Toussaint Breda was born on 20 May 1743in the residence of the same name, at theplace called Haut-du-Cap. He was a descendant of Gaou-Guinou, an African prince ofthe Aradas group. His godfather Pierre Baptiste taught him how to read and write. TheFrench he learnt opened the way to suchworks as the Commentaries of JuliusCaesar, the Reveries of Marshal Saxe, theHistory of the Wars by Herodotus and aboveall the famous Histoire Philosophique desIndes by the Abb Raynal. The latter workrepresented an exceptional "opening"(ouverture) for his imaginative genius and forthe name under which the slave of Bredawas to distinguish himself.

In addition, his familiarity with hiscountry's medicinal plants, and therudiments of veterinary science, which hehad acquired while working in the stables ofhis master Bayon Libertat, enabled him toexercise unquestionable influence over theMaroon negroes of the mountains once hehad joined them. His small stature, taciturn

and fragile air, and ugly features cloaked agreat strength of character, combined withoutstanding powers of physical and mentalendurance which brought him phenomenalsuccess when directing the operat ionswhich took place in Santo Domingo (Haiti)from 1791 to 1803.

The principal historical claim to fame ofToussaint Louverture is that he transformedgroups of Maroon negroes into a seasonedand disciplined army of liberation. H is consummate skill in guerilla tactics, plus ashrewd appreciation of when to compromise, enabled him to exploit to the maximum the colonial rivalries between the different empires represented oh the politicaland military stage of the Caribbean.

The closing years of the 18th centurybrought eventful times to the colony of Santo Domingo where Toussaint Louverture hadset in motion the irreversible process ofemancipation. Toussaint was aware that thenew power directing France since the coupd'tat of the 18th Brumaire would put inquestion the fragile conquests of the HaitianRevolution. His fears were justified, forBonaparte lost no time in introducing adecree which made it obligatory to place onall the flags of Santo Domingo the followinginscription: "Gallant black people,remember that the French people and onlythe French people recognize your liberty andthe equality of your rights". ToussaintLouverture reacted sharply to this measure:"It is not", he said, "a circumstantial libertyconceded to us alone that we wish, but theunequivocal adoption of the principle that noman, whether he be born red, black or white,can become the property of his fellow-men."

"When Toussaint Louverture appeared onthe scene", Aim Csaire has written, "itwas to take the declaration of the rights ofman literally, to demonstrate that a pariahrace does not exist, that there are nomarginal countries, and no people meritingexceptional status. It was to embody andparticularize a principle."

Such a universal extension of the law wasquite unthinkable for Napoleon Bonapartewho dispatched an expedition to SantoDomingo under his brother-in-law GeneralLeclerc in order to re-establish slavery. During the night of the 7th and 8th of June 1802Toussaint Louverture fell into a trap set forhim by General Brunet. Conducted on boardthe vessel Le Hros, he was taken to Franceand captivity in the Fort de Joux in the Juramountains where, on 7 April 1803 , he died ofhunger, cold and nostalgia. At the momentof his capture he made the following declaration : "My overthrow means only that thetrunk of the tree of Black liberty has been cutdown. But that tree will grow upward oncemore from its myriad and profound roots."

A few months after these propheticwords, on 28 November 1803 , ToussaintLouverture's right hand man. General Jean-Jacqus Dessalines, procla imed the independence of Hait i at Fort Dauphin. Suchwas the combat of Toussaint Louverture, "acombat for the transformation of formal lawinto real law, a combat for the recognition ofman, and a combat, in short, which explainswhy the revolt of the black slaves of SantoDomingo found, and continues to find, a justplace in the history of universal civilization".

H Ren Depestre

by Manuel Maldonado-Denis

SIMON Bolivar, the "Liberator", always be lieved that the freedom of the peoples ofAmerica would never be fully achieved if

it did not include Cuba and Puerto Rico in itsliberating embrace. Without the liberation ofCuba and Puerto Rico, those last "two jewelsof the Spanish crown", efforts to rid the continent of the colonialist scourge would remainincomplete, in addition to which the independence of the Latin American peopleswould be everlastingly threatened by whatMarti, years later, was to describe as the tigerperpetually stalking the peoples of what, withh is acute historical vision, he called "OurAmerica".

Bolivar was by no means unaware of thehopes and aspirations of the peoples of theCaribbean. On the contrary, h is wide-rangingrevolutionary action was largely sh ap ed b y h isCaribbean experience. For example, we knowof h is exile in Jamaica and of hi s celebrated"Letter from Jamaica" of 1815, in which heoutlined hi s historical plan for the continentand included C ub a and Puerto Rico in h is illustrious scheme of things. We also know ofh is representations to the Haitian revolutionaryPetion and of h is pledge to free the black s laveson Venezuelan soil. The Liberator was utterlycommitted to seeing the whole of LatinAmerica freed from Spanish colonialism.In this context, the famous "Letter from

Jamaica", which he wrote in Kingston on6 September 1815, should be highlighted. In it,he wrote: "The islands of Cu ba a n d Puerto Ricowhose populations, taken together, mustamount to some seven to eight hundred thousand people, are the most peaceful possessions of the Spanish because they a re out oftouch with the independent nations. But surelythose islanders are American too? Are they

not humiliated? Do they not seek well-being?" In fact, what Bolivar was doing herewas to call for the liberation of Cuba andPuerto Rico since their inhabitants were people belonging to the concert of LatinAmerican nations, and at that early stage inthe liberation struggle, when it was difficulteven to start to see the tr iumph of the in surrectionist forces, Bolivar's vision wasinspired.

Reliable historical evidence exists to showthat Bolivar never abandoned his commitment to seeing Cuba and Puerto Ricobecome free and sovereign nations. TheLiberator even visualized the setting-up of amilitary expedition to liberate the twoislands, but the domestic an d internationalsituation prevented him from carrying outhis plan.

It should not be forgotten that at the timeBolivar's revolution was in its infancy, production throughout the Caribbean was based on the enslavement of the negroes. Theonly exception was that of the Republic ofHaiti, whose glorious epic of emancipationfrom slavery culminated in the achievementof independence. A significant consequenceof this was that, as one of the conditionsagreed with Haitian president Petion, inreturn for Haitian support for the LatinAmerican independence struggle SimnBolvar undertook to free all negro slaves inthe liberated continental territories.

Bolivar also conceived the idea of theGreat Congress which was to take place inPanama in 1826. The aim of this Congresswas to unite all the Latin American peoplesin a great federation of free and sovereignpeoples. But the United States was opposedto the independence of Cuba and PuertoRico and accordingly frustrated Bolivar'shistoric plan.'

Bolivar was a Venezuelan aristocrat whowas prepared to abandon all he possessed inthe cause of the freedom of what he called"Southern America", a Southern Americathat had ethnic and cultural features of itsown which distinguished it from the otherAmerica, that of the North. The Liberator ex tended his internationalist and LatinAmericanist view of things over the Caribbean, a racial and cultural kaleidoscope onwhich all the great empires of the period hadconverged. The liberation of Cuba and Puerto Rico was part of Bolivar's grand design,but forces that were too strong even for hisextraordinary capacity for revolutionary ac tion prevented him from seeing this part ofhis vision fulfilled.

As the enemy of slavery and servitude,Bolivar laid the groundwork for the eradication of slave labour and slavery on the continent. The great revolutionary example he setpaved the way for the future both of thecountries which he had liberated and ofthose that were still fighting for theirfreedom.

The history of the Caribbean would not bethe same without the thought and action ofSimn Bolvar. But, even today, there areCaribbean peoples which have not yet succeeded in transforming Bolivar's ideals intoreality. This is why, two hundred years later,Bolivar's ideology is still relevant. Marti wasnot mistaken when he said that "there is stillwork for Bolivar in America".

MANUEL MALDONADO-DENIS, Puerto Ricanessayist , is professor of political science at thesocial sciences faculty of the University of PuertoRico . He is the author of many essays about hiscountry, notably Puerto Rico, Mito y Realidad(Puerto Rico , Myth and Real i t y) .

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Photo Charles Harbu t t Parimage, Paris

Crucible of changeby Ren Depestre

THE map of the Car ibbean is the stuffthat d reams are made of. At thiscross-roads of the p lanet , history ha s

given rise to especially complex centres ofcivilization, with the baroque, the picaresque, the magica l , the ep ic and themarvellous intermingling and criss-crossingone another with e qu al e x ub e ra n ce at thepolitical, social, religious and cultural levels.Their five centuries of ex is tence afford sufficient perspective for us to be fully aware ofand to identify, within the West Indian archipelago, a family of peoples and culturesformed in the mould of history. These

REN DEPESTRE, Haitian author, ha s publishedseveral volumes of poems, essays and fiction including Un Arc-en-ciel pour l'Occident Chrtien(published in Engl ish as A Rainbow for the Christian West, University of Massachusetts Press,1977) and Pote Cuba, (Poet in Cuba). He hascollaborated on two collective works produced byUnesco , Africa en Amrica Lat ina ("Africa inLatin America") and Amrica Lat ina en su s Ideas("Latin America through its Ideas"), and is currently a member of the Unesco secretariat.

p e op le s a nd cultures were moulded, on theone h an d, b y the diversity and concordanceof the mater ia l and spiritual conditions of lifeunder colonization and, on the other, by theardently pursued fight for freedom andliberation from those conditions.For a long time our is lands, the frontiers

of five distinct empires, were defined, not interms of their own intrinsic real i t ies, but inrelation to Europe, Africa and the otherAmericas. Today, however, it is poss ib le tostudy, interpret and understand from withinthe internal sys tem of values proper to oursocieties. The Caribbean is intensely presenton the world scene in al l it s problematicsingularity, its m u sic , its a rts a nd letters, it sidentity crises, and it s dynamic thrusttowards change .Prior to their encounter in the western

hemisphe re , those peop les involved in thecolonizing exper ience knew nothing of oneanother. This ignorance of their spiritual andphys ica l characteristics facilitated the process of ontological misrepresentation whichtypifies the course of their history. Thenatives of the islands knew nothing of theEuropeans or the Africans; conscious of bein g Arawaks, Siboneys, Tainos, Car ibs ,their surprise was , therefore, al l the greater

when they heard themselves suddenly referre d to generically as Indians!

It was not too long before a similarsemantic anomaly affected the self-image ofthe Yorubas, B amb ara s, Ib os , Mandingosfrom Africa south of the Sahara as a resultof their deportation under the existentialtravesty of be ing blacks', negroes or coloured people. Moreover, this tendency toidentify membe r s of the spec ies "racially"had disguised as whites peop les who hadtheir own ethnic specificity as Spaniards,F ren ch , Eng li sh , Dutch, Portuguese etc. Inthe context of the American colonies,necessity wore a white mask. The ignominyand violence of this racial antagonism compounded the universal conflict of master ands lave, settler and n ativ e. P ro sp ero andCal iban.

From this time on, the somatic featuresand phys ica l appearance of Africans, Europeans, a nd n ativ es of the Car ibbean constituted so many social signs which servedto identify the relationship of dominationand dependence between conquerors andtheir victims. It b e came standard practice toargue for a cause and effect relationship between skin colour, the facial structure of different human groups and the particular ifo rm s of insertion into nature and society. I

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k Because of th is reduction of the social and"cultural conflicts of colonization. to racialfac to rs , the hum an essence of workersbe long ing to th e different e th n ic g ro u ps o fAfrica was itself reduced to th e absurdnot ion of t he na tu r a l- in fe r io r it y- o f- the -negro, while the human essence of the settlers from the different nat ions of Europewas e le vat ed to th e no less extravagant notio n o f the natural-super ior ity-of- the-whites.In short, it amoun ted to a mythological andsemiotic reductionism which suppl ied abasis for th e ease of consc ience o f th e settlers who ha d f ree ly le ft Europe, at th e samet ime that it debased and weakened th estates of mind of slaves brought by force tothe Car ibbean.T his m e nta l and physical "blocking out"

was preceded by that of geography.Cheated of the fabulous East which he hadse t out to find, Columbus gave the nameWes t Indies to th e is lands he took over. Butwhen th e totality of "the la nds d is cover edon th e other side of the Oceanic s ea " w e reb ein g n ame d, th e s ta r of Amerigo Vespucc ishone with a more bri l l iant l ight than that ofthe Span i sh Admiral, a nd th es e la nd s w e re ,therefore, called Amer i ca . Everyth ing tookplace as if Eu ro pe, in order to c arry throughit s fantastic plans in the wes te rnhemisphere, felt obl iged to disguise at oneand th e same time the field of operat ion ofits colonial activity and th e realit ies of th ediverse protagonists engaged in it .Thus , in common with th e other countr ies

of th e continent, the Car ibbean's entry intomodern history took place under a falseident ity. Disguised under a mu l ti pl ic it y o fmasks, humanity in our regions acqui red afresh consc iousness of th e forms, contoursand hor izons of th e p lane t . Europe 's audacity permitted it to reap th e benefit of rich expe ri ence in var ious agr icu l tura l , al imentary ,ast ronomical , nava l and military f ields. Itachieved a new mas te ry o ve r land and sea;and nav iga ti on , map-mak ing , and evaluationof distances, currents and winds advancedaccordingly.The plantation s y stem r ep re s en te d th e

economic axis of this progress. The Portuguese had already tested this system on amodes t scale on th e is land of Sao Tom .Within the West Indian archipelago it underwent a spectacular expansion as a result ofthe slave- t rade and the boost this gave toth e production of sugar , tobacco, cof fee,cotton, cocoa, indigo and sp ic e s . Moreover,th e African b io l og ica l f ue l enabled internat io n a l c omme rc e a nd me ch a niz ed industryto profit to the fullest extent from thetechnological innovation of th e first industr ial revolution as appl ied in th e plantation economy, namely , th e steam engine,energy tr an sm is sio n , o rig in a l lubricationmethods , improvement o f windmills, etc.Fo r three centuries during which it funct ioned as the energiz ing force of th e worldmarket , th e production of th e West Indianplantation was one of the essent ialmechanisms for the accumu la tion of capitala nd o ne of the histor ical causes of the scientific and cul tura l success of th e West.

To expedite this s uc ce ss , E uro pe triedfirst of al l to "deculturate" th e Indian andAfrican manpower. Itself a territory of crossbred peoples produced by the Graeco-Lat inand Judaeo-Chr is t ian symbios is , Europefe a re d , n o neth e le s s, th e consequences ofcul tura l cross-breeding in the Amer icas.But , in order to ad van ce its commerce andindust ry , it required an army of st rong-18

a rmed se rv a nts r ath e r t ha n an orchestra ofcoloured Graeco-Latins interpreting thespirit of their ancestors on the hills o f thenew world.Representat ives of what they considered

to be a d iv ine l y -sanc t ioned po l it ica l , socia land cultural order, the Eu ropean s had no intention of ass im i la t ing exo t ic mode l s to theircultural her i tage. They assumed that th eYoruba, Fon, Fant i -Ashant i and Congole segods would ef face themselves before theCa th o lic s a in ts because al l that was notwhite w as b arb aric o r sa vage . Consequen tly , th e descendants of Africans we re i nv it edto forget al l about their past, to take leave oftheir own imaginat ions and identity, and toacquiesce in the dulling of their own consc iousness and sensibi l i ty.

Fortunately, the socio-cultural processreserved for th e Car ibbean took ano the rro ute . T he n ew peoples formed in the Caribbean melt ing-pot did no t en tru st themselvesto the providence of empires in order tof or ge t he essent ial elements o f a new identity. Caugh t up in their own problems andt rapped in th e "racial" myth, they d id notbel ieve that al l that they ha d to do to passfrom "barbarism" to "civilization" was purely and simply to im it at e the behaviour , artsand customs of Europe.Cultural anthropo logy ha s made much of

t he a c cu lt ur at io n of th e descendants ofAf r icans to European mode ls a nd s ymb ols .Above all, it ha s advanced th e idea of"reinterpretation" accord ing to which th e"African mentality" is seen as having re

mained unchanging in its relat ionship towork, l aw , r el ig ion , th e f am i ly , and l ibertythroughout th e long Caribbean process of

r cu l tura l c ross-fer t il iza t ion.T his p h en omenon required th e historical

inputs and creative energies of th e descendants of both Africa and Europe. Thecultural cont r ibut ion of th e slave africanizedth e consc iousness and th e se th emind an d th e body o f th e c olo niz er . In th esame way, the innovations of the lattereuropeanized th e African imagination. Thisgave rise to a dynam ic mu ta ti on of identit ieswhich is perfectly sum m ed up in th e concept o f creolization found in Wes t -Indiansociet ies.This not ion of Creol ism is fundamen ta l in

al l that ha s to do with t he know ledge , interpretation and unders tand ing of histor icalphenomena in th e Car ibbean. The Afr icanand European heri tage, t ransformed by th esocial metabolism o f th e plantat ion regime,cu lminated in o r ig ina l ways of th ink ing, feeling, acting and dreaming. As a result of th em ix in g o f cultural elements inherited fromth e two continents, along with th e pre-Columbian cont r ibut ion, th e Caribbeanbecame that New Wor ld imagined to o soonby Colum bus, at the m om en t w he n hisEurope was feverishly engaged in applyingits masks to the h is to ry o f o the r cont inent s.The o rig in a lity o f th e Ca ribbean and Latin-Amer ican world in general is th e result of asusta ined cross-breed ing which enabled th eoppressed peoples of th e region to discoverthemselves b y te arin g aw ay little by little al l kth e masks of colonization. r


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In Haitian voodoo, the Ogou(known as Ogun in thecandombl religious ceremonyof Brazil and the santera ofCuba) are a family of spirits ordivinities (loas) whose membersare blacksmith-gods. The nameof Ogou is often foundassociated with others, (such asthe names of saints), reflectingthe syncretism of African beliefswith those of Europe and of thepre-Columbian world. Oppositepage, at the festival of Ogun atUndo (Nigeria) a priest hasdraped around his neck a snake,one of the god's favouriteanimals. Chango (the Shango ofBrazil and Trinit) is another loaof Haiti and one of the mostpopular gods of Caribbeanmythology. The god of stormsand hurler of thunderbolts, healso protects the fertility ofwomen and passes throughcyclones and flooded riversunscathed. Left, a fire-bearerjoins in the festival of Shango atEde (Nigeria).

Left, a painting from Haitidepicting the festival of Agou-Taroyo, lord of the se a and theisles, fresh water, rivers, lakes,ponds and springs. He oftenappears to the faithful in theform of a fish. Among hissymbols is a small sailing shipwhich can be seen on the altarsof voodoo temples (houmfors)and which is carried amid greatceremony during the festival inhis honour.

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k Who, then, are th e se C a rib b ea n s whoneve r allowed themselves to be Graeco -Lat inized? What is it that characterizes themby contrast with Europe, Africa, th e otherAmericas, and the rest of the world?

Today it is easier to describe the conditionof our societies than in 1815 when, in th eeyes of Simn Bolvar, such an under takingappeared "at o ne a nd the same time extraordinary and terribly complicated." Since thattime the peoples concerned havethemselves decided to put an end to the carving up of their history effected by successive interventions of the co lon ia l sword.They have looked for, and some h av e e ve nfound, adequate responses to the identityconflicts which the nat ives of the Car ibbeanhave ha d to face s ince the struggles forliberation sustained by such men as Toussaint Louverture, Simn Bolvar, Jos Mart,Marcus Ga rv ey a nd Peralte.

Today in the Car ibbean, newmethodological tools exist which permit there-evaluation of the history of our soc ie t ies .New conceptual frameworks enable us -toavo id the ethnocentricity which consisted inbringing a ll reflection back to the a priorijudgements contained in th e ideologies ofcolonial izat ion. The tenacious "racial"preconceptions which weighed so heavilyon the concep t s of anthropology andhistoriography are in th e process of losingtheir appeal thanks to interdisciplinaryresearch which ha s made poss ib le an exhaustive knowledge of t he e x treme ly complex historico-cultural processes which explain both the astonishing diversity and theunquestionable unity of cultures in theCa rib b ea n n ew world.

Much more is now known of the historyof th e mo vemen ts o f resistance to colonization which many generations of Maroonnegroes inspired from 1519 up to the end ofthe nineteenth century. The works devotedto the Republics of the Maroons havedestroyed the myth of the supposed spirit ofresignation which, it was assumed ,characterized the African slaves. It ha s beenfound, in fact, that th e presence of th eMaroons not only represented a s o cia l a n dpo li ti ca l phenomenon , but also signi f ied aspiritual activity which permitted workers onthe American plantations to create forthemse lves a new set of values in re l ig ion,mag ic , music, dance, popular medic ine ,c re le la n gu a ge s , cooking, oral literature,sexua l l ife, the family and many other areasof social life.In quest of a new existential basis for their

identity, the slaves of the Car ibbean tookover and redirected the dynamism implicit inthe anguish of the "negro condition" whichhad been invented for them, and therebycultivated in themselves the universa l senseof liberty. They discovered in the process rejoinders to the cr ises which threatened todull or to efface their social consciousnessand their sensibility. Like their predecessorsin the Roman Emp ire , they imagined nativereligions of defence endowed with symbolicand mythological structures correspondingto their unfulfilled desires as terriblyhumiliated and oppressed men.

This cultural influence of the Maroons didnot make- itself felt with equal force in a ll ofthe areas of life and culture. The languagesof the masters were not pervadedeverywhere by Maroon influence, even if thevery real impact of African languages hasbeen noted in the case of the Spanish andthe Portuguese of the Americas. With the

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except ion of th e c re le l anguage s of Hait i ,Martinique and Guadeloupe, the papiamento of Cu ra ao a n d Aruba, and the West Indian a nd G uy an es e "Pidgin" jargons, theMaroon influence on European idioms d idnot become genera l .

Similarly, the juridical traditions of WestAfrica, along with the political andeconomic modes of thought proper to thepre-colonial societies of th e African continent were stifled. Techniques and arts suchas iron-working, weaving, and statuary,sculpture in wood and ivory, and other express ions of the African genius, were lostsight of because of th e "purely socioeconomic sensibility" of colonial America.

The historical effects of the Maroon activities were not enough, e it he r , to exorcize"Uncle Tom" attitudes, the fear and theshame of being "negro", the inferiority complex, imitative behaviour, and the forms ofsoc ia l ambivalence characteristic at times ofthe way in which Ca r ib beans behave .

To be sure, the slave-traders of theeconomic traffic have d isappeared from thescene, but even in this period of act ivedecolonizat ion certain "elites" are, alas,engaged in imitating with tragic results theinstitutional models of emp ir es o ld and new,as well as parodying menta l processes completely opposed to the specific outlook andattitudes of those who live in our i s lands.

Nevertheless, the facts are there: ag e ne ra l r en ew al of mind and sensibility iswinning out over the phenomena of colonialrecurrence. Memory and imagination ar ebusy finding new functions for the culturalher i tages which our peoples have patientlyincorporated into their everyday l ife, theirwork, and their most secret d reams .

The Car ibbean basinwhich aManichean vision of history presents aslands in flames surrounded by a boilingsea is in the process of living a newchapter in its historic adventure. At last freeto assume it s own identity, the archipelagoin its totality has something of its own to exp re ss a nd is doing it with vigour in everyfield of thought and action. I ndeed , the dataof history, ecology, society, play, politicsand religion frequently take on an epicdimension in the l ife, as well as in thecultures of the reg ion.

As to the literary and artistic activity of theCar ibbean, it is cha rac ter ized by a sensibilitywhich is Dionysian, solar and dream-like al lat o nc e, a nd which brings together withinthe same compass picaresque realism andpopular surrealism. A dazzling gulf existsbetween the human b e in g a n d h is Car ibbeanenvironment: the elemental joie de vivre (inspite of atrocious social misfortunes) isfound side by side with the almost eroticpleasure produced by a harmony of sounds,colours and forms. In this re sp ec t, a ndwithout underestimating the role ofliterature and the plastic arts, music occupies in the Car ibbean the first place in theaesthetic apprehension of l ived exper ience.

The Caribbean bow will one day break thel a st s ide of t he t ri ang le within which colonia lcommerce ha s hitherto enc losed its destinyand re lease, in every direction wherefellowship beckons, it s arrows of music , art,fiction and poet ry. On that day th e world willlearn that the disorders of history andgeography can be transformed into a stateof health ref lect ing both t he imag ina tive lifeand real experience of societies.

H Ren Depest re

COLOUR PAGESOpposite pageThe farmer-god Zaka, seated astride hishorse in the midst of a fantasticlandscape, is depicted in this paintingby the Haitian artist Edouard Duval.Both Zaka, whose family plays a majorrole in voodoo mythology, and hissteed have the same dreamy air ofmockery, self-confidence and, almost,defiance. Embodied in the rider and hismount are some of the hopes, truthsand mysteries which sustain Haitianculture, quickened by the country'shistorical roots and expressed in worksof painting and literature in whichdream and reality are one.

Photo Alexis Stroukoff, Vogue , F rance

Pages 22 and 23

La Jungla (1943) by the Cuban painterWifredo Lam (right hand page). Thisfamous painting is rightly considered tobe a model expression of the Antilleansensibility in the visual arts. Lam, whowas closely connected with Picassoand the Surrealist movement, heretransmits the vision and experience ofCaribbean man. Clearly discernible inthe teeming mass of plant forms is alandscape with which Lam was familiarduring his childhood in Cuba: the sugarplantation. The bond which unites thepainting to tropical nature in theAntilles appears in colours and formsrecalling the plant life found in so manyCaribbean islands (left hand page). Butmore important than what the paintingtells us about nature is the light itsheds on the intermingling which is thecharacteristic feature of the culture ofCuba and of the Antilles in general. LaJungla, above all in the four mysteriousfigures, conjures up the mythical worldof syncretic Cuban religions. In thisanimistic frenzy, in the rust-colouredleaves and flowers, is the vibrantpresence of the god Shango. But itsspecifically Antillean content apart, thiswork has been seen as the firstexpression in the visual arts of a ThirdWorld which had already understoodthe urgent need to bring together allworld cultures to be shared as acommon heritage.

Photo Yvet te V incen t Al leaume, ParisPhoto Museum of Modern Art, New York

Centre pagesThe riot of colours, the exuberance andthe bustle of this market scene in theport of Miragoane (Haiti) could bematched many times over on otherCaribbean islands. The sailing ships area reminder of the omnipresent sea, thevery essence of Caribbean history.

Photo Michae l Friedel Rapho , P a ri s


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Page 26

Salt-pans form a geometric pattern onthe island of Bonaire. With Aruba andCuraao , Bonaire is one of the largestis lands of the Netherlands Antilles,where Papiamento, a language whichevolved during colonial times, is spoken.Photo Michael Friede! Rapho, Paris

Page 27Sugar an d t obacco , t he chief productsof the old plantation system, are still amainstay of the modern Caribbeaneconomy. Above, the abandoned ruinsof an old sugar factory in Tobagosymbolize the collapse of the old worldof the plantation. The mill, importedfrom Glasgow in 1857, has beenovergrown by vegetation. Refineriestoday use ' ultra-modern techniques.Below, a tobacco field in Cuba, homeof, the famous Havana cigars.

Photo Michae l Friedet Rapho, Paris

Opposite pageIn the Caribbean the exuberantfestivities of the carnival have inspiredthe creation of colourful masks, imagesand other imaginative art-forms whichdraw heavily on the African heritageand are unrivalled examples of theirkind. Above left and below, twoimages of the world-famous carnival ofTrinidad. Above right, Diablito, a workby the Cuban painter RenPortocarrero. Diablitos are maskedfigures who dance in groups duringcertain ceremonies of Cuba's santerafolk religion. They display a strikingaffinity with the figures of the carnival,products of the same world of theimagination.

Photo M. Moisnard Explorer, Par isPho to M i ch a el Friedel Rapho, ParisPhoto Miguel Rojas Mix, ParisPrivate collection, Havana

'Ours'The Wes t Indies from within

by Marion Patrick Jones

THE se a lashes against the edge of thecliff as it has done for hundreds ofyears. Sauters it is called, Sauters,

Grenada. Sauters the place from which theIndians jumped when cornered by invadingEuropean forces.

The desperate battles of Caribs, Arawaksrebaptized Indians remain unsung. Their

rock carvings have crumbled in to the sea,their pottery is only fitfully collected. Namesremain: Jamaica, Chacachare, Naparima.True, in Trinidad that mixture of Carib orArawak and poor Spaniard has maintainedfor us corn, cassava dishes, the guitars, thedancing and the songs of Parang (1), thewhirling of the Cascianne (2) . There is littlethat marks the mass refusal to be enslaved atSauters or the revolt against conquest inTrinidad. Indeed most Trinidadians still seethe revolt in terms of "martyred" priests andtherefore part of native savagery.

This is not by chance. Historical recordingis always a selection of facts, not necessarilyaccording to their actual historical weightbut because of the preoccupations of thepresent. The difference in the case of theEnglish-speaking Caribbean is that evenafter Independence, this selection is notmade internally but largely externally. Nor isthis simply colonial or neo-colonial selectivity. The Caribbean is seen by Left or Rightmainly as the appendage of external black-white racial politics and ambitions.

The known heroes are those who principally influenced blacks abroad. The onlyway to be known culturally is to be publishedabroad, reviewed abroad, exhibited abroad.Yet, for Trinidadians, it is Beryl MacBurnieand her Little Carib that matters in dance andEllie Manette and Spree Simons in music.Few Jamaicans can escape the influence insculpture of an Edna Manley or of LouiseBennett in song. Bahamians remember MetaCumberbatch in music. These stubbornlyfought internally helping to create the Caribbean that is. They were among those whokept faith with countries that seemed tohave no future in themselves or forthemselves.

The beautiful island houses with their icedf ringed wooden carved work, their tinypaned windows, their slotted jalousies, fallin disrepair, replaced by yellow modern concrete, except for the Great Houses ofJamaica and Guyana. For what does thispatient art of the poor matter next to a blackaristocratic tradition, priestess to chief, that

(1 ) Parang : Chr is tmas festivities. Parang songs have aspecial rhythm and are sung in Spanish to a guitar.

(2 ) Casc ianne: An ol d Spanish waltz still kept alive inTrinidad and Venezuela.

must be established for external consumption in another age plantation ownersbuilt their own mytho logy of a whitearistocratic past? Nor is this black or white.Part of "East" Indian tradition in the Caribbean sought for Brahminical princely roots.Ah, the two Naipaul novelist brothers! It wasthe peasant Orinhi that was ours.

Few people know of the existence of J.J.Thomas although, as early as 1869 , he hadestablished a crele grammar for a "patois"already under the pressure of English. HisFroudacity (1889) laid the basis for much ofthe slant of Caribbean History, whether thatof Eric Williams, C.L.R. James, E. Brathwaiteor Walter Rodney. J.J. Thomas was bornaround 1840 two years after the final abolition of slavery in the British West Indies.Froudacity: West Indian Fables Explainedwas a reply to an Englishman, James Anthony Froude's The English in the West In dies (1888) . If Nanny of the Maroons is nowrecalled in Jamaica as the woman who ledslaves against British settlers and whombullets could not kill, she is yet to be giventhe kind of recognition abroad that hermilitary skills would earn her if she were aFrench Joan of Arc.

This preoccupation with abroad permeatesthe entire society. Caribbean history is yet tobe given equality with European history, letalone allowed to play its part in the ac cumulation of knowledge. Part of this stemsfrom the fragility of countries whose historyis in part that of the myth of the naturalnessof European domination. Opposition to thiswas often couched in a co-option but reversal of the dominant ideology. If the realcentre of superiority was In the high cultureof Europe, then the reply to this was seen asthe equality of high culture in India andAfrica and these continents as the source ofthe real opposition to Europe.

This idealization of "abroad", the real andcomplex problems of small countries, thehigh percentage of emigrants to "white" industrialized countries, the fear of the emerging middle class that they would be swallowed by the unrespectable were factors thatcontinually prevented knowledge of thepast, with few exceptions, from rising abovethe level of oral history and folk knowledge.

This history, this cultureours has beenpatiently created in a struggle that, for themost part, took place inside and which was Wprincipally a popular struggle with its f

MARION PATRICK JONES, of Trinidad andT o ba go , is a writer, novelist and anthropologist.Among her published works a re Pan Bea t andJ'ouvert Morning, Columbus Press, Port ofSpain, Tr in idad.

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backbone in slums and barrack yards, plan-' tat ions an d small fa rms . It was, as everywhere else, a struggle complicated not onlyby race but by freed or unfreed, by class, bystatus. If the maroons emerge, because ofthe wars they waged from 1655 to 1880, asable to impose a treaty with Britain ensuringtheir freedom from slavery, they were alsoused by Governor Edward Eyre to put down,in the name of Britain, the revolt of 1865,associated with George William Gordon andPaul Bogle, for better parliamentaryrepresentation in Jamaica. Both were ex ecuted by the colonial authorities for"subversion".

The struggle in the late nineteenth centurywas part of the effervescence which wasmarked by J.J. Thomas culturally inTrinidad. It was in popular culture thathistory was kept, grievances given politicalcommentary. It was out of this that whatthere was of lite culture emerged. Bothwere part of a political battle for autonomy,for trade union rights, eventually for independence. It was never simply a struggleagainst racial supremacy or for integration,although racism was an important part ofthe pattern of colonial domination. To forgetthe association between popular culture andpolitics or the dimensions of the polit ical isto misunderstand the nature of society in theEnglish-speaking Caribbean.The 1920s and 1930s were marked by the

paintings of Alf Cadallo, peopled with mythas by ordinary people, with the flambeaux,the crowded old barrack yards. The povertythat marked colonial rule became the groundfrom which beauty emerged. But, at thesame time, Cipriani (3 ) was resisting colonialencroachment on the few areas of autonomyleft. Alfred Richards (4 ) was organizingdockers into a union, there were yearly petitions to keep carnival going or to keep thepaper carved temples of the Muslim festivalof Hosea on the St. James street.

(3 ) Cipr iani: Captain Cipr iani was a Trin idadian o f Cor -s ican descen t who fought in th e 1914-1918 wa r an dreturned to Tr in idad to fight for au tonomy an d againstwhite privilege. Many t imes Mayor of Por t o f Spain,he is on e of th e m o st important heroes o f Trin idad.

(4) Alfred Richards: Closely associated with Cipriani, hefought to improve th e condit ions of inden tured labouran d for th e establishment of trade unions.

None of these were as simple as they nowsound. First of all, they built on a past thath ad s ee n the Central Administrative Buildingburned down by the people of Port of Spainin a revolt against water taxes the famousRed House riots. They mobilized workers,unemployed, the property-less againstBritish rule and they underlined an importantproblem: trade union rights.

By the late 1930s working class dissatisfaction had spilled over in a ser ies of revolts: asugar strike in St. Kitts in 1935, a revoltagainst customs duties in St. Vincent in thes ame y e ar , a coa l strike in S t. L ucia in 1935, asympathy strike in Barbados in 1937 whichbecame a full-fledged conflict led by Payne,revolt in the suga r plantations in Guyana in1937, the dockers' strike in Jamaica in 1938.Uriah Buzz Butler emerged in Trinidad as theleader of a labour movement, a womansingle-handed stopped the feared policemanCharlie King literally dead, while in Jamaicathe strike had thrown up two major leaders :Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante(each later prime minister of his country),and, let us not forget it, a number of determined courageous women who fed thestrikers and without whom the strike wouldhave failed.

None of these local leaders became heroesto the outside world. Bourgeois traditions ofrevolution have not accepted Gordon,although his arguments were along the linesof George Washington and of Jefferson. Lefttraditions have not included the attempt at asocialist group and a First of May labourparade associated in Trinidad with Richards,Achong and Jones.

This period also saw the blossoming ofculture. It is parallel to this that emerges during the war y ea rs , in the slums "behind thebridge" in Port of Spain, the steel band.Created by the poor, steel band music,beaten at first on stolen dustbin covers tothe horror of middle-class Trinidad

accompanied the pitched gang warfarethat had in the past marked stick fighting,and was to become in post-war years thenational music.

This process is also part of the history of"culture" in the English-speaking Caribbean.The national cultural elements elaborated bythe poor are first fought against, then areadopted by the lites, whether this is dance,song, music or food. It is reggae that is

"Jamaican", Rex Nettleford adapts populardance, Sylvia Winter writes her finest playson the miming of John Cannoe, and who canforget the sensitive jewel of Erro l John'sMoon on a Rainbow Shawl?

Nor is it simply song, music, dance.Pawan's rabies discovery coincides with the1920s and 1930s. W. Arthur Lewis ineconomics, M.G. Smith in social anthropology cannot be understood outside ofpopular problems or the fight to guide ourown future. Both belong to the Independence struggle of the 1940s and 1950s.Their greatness and limitations stem fromthis.

But what of the men that led us to Independence? For they too fought againstenormous odds. Take Eric Williams (5).Author of a seminal work in historyCapitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams filledthe Trinidad Public Library to hear his historylectures in 1949 and 1950. Fired from the thenCaribbean Commission because of h i s "b iased" views on the "Negro in the Caribbean",Eric "let his bucket down" in a series of lectures in Woodford Square. It is out of thisthat the people of Trinidad and Tobagoargued that the only solution for the problems and conflicts that marked every institution was Independence. True, we had abankrupt treasury, true we were at the timemany fewer than today's million people, yetmost of us had had enough.

This movement for Independence as wellas the question of American bases which ac companied it was in itself complex. Certainwell-defined segments of the population op posed Independence which they saw as likely to end certain privileges. This push to Independence was true in Jamaica under theleadership of Manley and Bustamante whereit grew more directly out of the trade unionmovement and o

UNESCO Glissant Creative-contradictions 074754eo

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