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Caribbean history, culture, and politics

Works Count: 43342

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This cluster of papers explores the cultural, social, and political dynamics in the Caribbean region, focusing on topics such as identity, nationalism, globalization, dancehall culture, gender, and postcolonialism. It delves into the complexities of Caribbean societies, their historical roots, and contemporary challenges.

Keywords

Caribbean; Culture; Identity; Politics; Globalization; Dancehall; Nationalism; Gender; Postcolonialism; Race

The politics of sensibility: race, gender and commerce in the sentimental novel

1997-01-01

Markman Ellis

1. Sensibility, history and the novel 2. 'The house of bondage': sentimentalism and the problem of slavery 3. 'Delight in misery': sentimentalism, amelioration and slavery 4. 'An easy, speedy and … 1. Sensibility, history and the novel 2. 'The house of bondage': sentimentalism and the problem of slavery 3. 'Delight in misery': sentimentalism, amelioration and slavery 4. 'An easy, speedy and universal medium': canals, commerce and virtue 5. 'Recovering the path of virtue': the politics of prostitution and the sentimental novel 6. 'The dangerous tendency of novels' and the controversy of sentimentalism.

The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change since 1492

1989-07-01

Thomas D. Boswell , David Watts

List of illustrations Preface Notes and abbreviations 1. The environment 2. Aboriginal peoples: settlement and culture 3. Spanish intrusion and colonisation 4. Early northwest European plantations 5. Northwest European sugar … List of illustrations Preface Notes and abbreviations 1. The environment 2. Aboriginal peoples: settlement and culture 3. Spanish intrusion and colonisation 4. Early northwest European plantations 5. Northwest European sugar estates: the formative period, 1645 to 1665 6. The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy, 1665 to 1833: I General development and trade 7. The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy, 1665 to 1833: II Sugar production, regional population growth, and the slave-white ratios 8. The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy, 1665 to 1833: III Population: social characteristics, migration and the growth of towns 9. The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy, 1665 to 1833: IV Agricultural innovation and environmental change 10. Post-1833 adjustments: the period to 1900 11. Twentieth-century trends, and conclusions Notes References.

Caribbean discourse: selected essays

1990-03-01

Édouard Glissant , J. Michael Dash

Selected essays from the rich and complex collection of Edouard Glissant, one of the most prominent writers and intellectuals of the Caribbean, examine the psychological, sociological, and philosophical implications of … Selected essays from the rich and complex collection of Edouard Glissant, one of the most prominent writers and intellectuals of the Caribbean, examine the psychological, sociological, and philosophical implications of cultural dependency.

Democracy after slavery: black publics and peasant radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica

2001-09-01

Mimí Sheller

Mimi Sheller's ground-breaking comparative study analyzes the struggle for freedom and democracy in two Caribbean societies in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery. Pairing the revolutionary Republic of Haiti … Mimi Sheller's ground-breaking comparative study analyzes the struggle for freedom and democracy in two Caribbean societies in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery. Pairing the revolutionary Republic of Haiti with the British colony of Jamaica, the author shows how peasants in the 19th-century Caribbean developed a radical critique of elite liberalism and constructed an alternative Pan-Caribbean African identity. Comparing two major peasant rebellions and the relation between them, she describes how Haitian and Jamaican survivors of slavery contributed to the making of democracy in the West. Scholars of the Caribbean and of postemancipation societies will find this book essential. At the same time, the issues Sheller addresses on democracy, citizenship, and subaltern publics will also be useful to the broader communities of sociologists, political scientists, and students of colonial and postcolonial studies.

Bury the chains: prophets and rebels in the fight to free an empire's slaves

2006-01-01

Adam Hochschild

From the author of the prize-winning King Leopold's Ghost comes a taut, thrilling account of the first grass-roots human rights campaign, which freed hundreds of thousands of slaves around the … From the author of the prize-winning King Leopold's Ghost comes a taut, thrilling account of the first grass-roots human rights campaign, which freed hundreds of thousands of slaves around the world. In 1787, twelve men gathered in a London printing shop to pursue a seemingly impossible goal: ending slavery in the largest empire on earth. Along the way, they would pioneer most of the tools citizen activists still rely on today, from wall posters and mass mailings to boycotts and lapel pins. This talented group combined a hatred of injustice with uncanny skill in promoting their cause. Within five years, more than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat the chief slave-grown product, sugar; London's smart set was sporting antislavery badges created by Josiah Wedgwood; and the House of Commons had passed the first law banning the slave trade. However, the House of Lords, where slavery backers were more powerful, voted down the bill. But the crusade refused to die, fueled by remarkable figures like Olaudah Equiano, a brilliant ex-slave who enthralled audiences throughout the British Isles; John Newton, the former slave ship captain who wrote Amazing Grace; Granville Sharp, an eccentric musician and self-taught lawyer; and Thomas Clarkson, a fiery organizer who repeatedly crisscrossed Britain on horseback, devoting his life to the cause. He and his fellow activists brought slavery in the British Empire to an end in the 1830s, long before it died in the United States. The only survivor of the printing shop meeting half a century earlier, Clarkson lived to see the day when a slave whip and chains were formally buried in a Jamaican churchyard. Like Hochschild's classic King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains abounds in atmosphere, high drama, and nuanced portraits of unsung heroes and colorful villains. Again Hochschild gives a little-celebrated historical watershed its due at last.

Not Just (Any)BodyCan be a Citizen: The Politics of Law, Sexuality and Postcoloniality in Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas

1994-11-01

M. Jacqui Alexander

I am an outlaw in my country of birth: a national; but not a citizen. Born in Trinidad and Tobago on the cusp of anti-colonial nationalist movements there, I was … I am an outlaw in my country of birth: a national; but not a citizen. Born in Trinidad and Tobago on the cusp of anti-colonial nationalist movements there, I was taught that once we pledged our lives to the new nation, 'every creed and race [had] an equal place.' I was taught to believe 'Massa Day Done', that there would be an imminent end to foreign domination. Subsequent governments have not only eclipsed these promises, they have revised the very texms of citizenship to exclude me. No longer equal, I can be brought up on charges of 'serious indecency' under the Sexual Offences Act of 1986, and if convicted, serve a prison term of five years. In the Bahamas, I can be found guilty of the crime of lesbianism and imprisoned for twenty years. In the United States of North America where I now live, I must constantly keep in my possession the immigrant (green) card given me by the American state, marking me 'legal' resident alien; non-national; non-citizen. If I traverse any of the borders of twenty-two states even with green card in hand, I may be conucted of crimes variously defined as 'lewd unnatural; lascinous conduct; deviate sexual intercourse; gross indecency; buggery or crimes against nature' (Robson, 1992: 58). Why has the state marked these sexual inscriptions on my body? Why has the state focused such a repressive and regressive gaze on me and people like me? These are some of the questions I seek to understand in this paper. I wish to use this moment to look back at the state, to reverse, subvert and ultimately demystify that gaze by taking apart these racialized legislative gestures that have naturalized heterosexuality by criminalizing lesbian and other forms of non-procreative sex. It is crucial for us as feminists to understand the ways in which the state deploys power in this domain and the kinds of symbolic boundaries

The Plural Society in the British West Indies.

1966-03-01

Morris Freilich , Michael G. Smith

Domination and the Arts of Resistance

2017-12-14

James C. Scott

"Play fool, to catch wise."proverb of Jamaican slaves Confrontations between the powerless and powerful are laden with deceptionthe powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, … "Play fool, to catch wise."proverb of Jamaican slaves Confrontations between the powerless and powerful are laden with deceptionthe powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, laborers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of the dominant. At the same time, the powerful also develop a private dialogue about practices and goals of their rule that cannot be openly avowed. In this book, renowned social scientist James C. Scott offers a penetrating discussion both of the public roles played by the powerful and powerless and the mocking, vengeful tone they display off stagewhat he terms their public and hidden transcripts. Using examples from the literature, history, and politics of cultures around the world, Scott examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects. Scott describes the ideological resistance of subordinate groupstheir gossip, folktales, songs, jokes, and theatertheir use of anonymity and ambiguity. He also analyzes how ruling elites attempt to convey an impression of hegemony through such devices as parades, state ceremony, and rituals of subordination and apology. Finally, he identifieswith quotations that range from the recollections of American slaves to those of Russian citizens during the beginnings of Gorbachev's glasnost campaignthe political electricity generated among oppressed groups when, for the first time, the hidden transcript is spoken directly and publicly in the face of power. His landmark work will revise our understanding of subordination, resistance, hegemony, folk culture, and the ideas behind revolt.

Problems in Current Theories of Colonial Discourse

1987-07-01

Benita Parry

Writing of the disparate projects that seek to establish alternative protocols in disciplinary studies, Edward Said finds their common feature to be that all work out of a secular, marginal … Writing of the disparate projects that seek to establish alternative protocols in disciplinary studies, Edward Said finds their common feature to be that all work out of a secular, marginal and oppositional consciousness, posits 'nothing less than new objects of knowledge ... new theoretical models that upset or at the very least radically alter the prevailing paradigmatic norms', and are 'political and practical in as much as they intend ... the end of dominating, coercive systems of knowledge'. 1 The policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, which is condensed in this ecumenical scan of contemporary dissident criticism, can act as a caution against the tendency to disown work done within radical traditions other than the most recently enunciated heterodoxies, as necessarily less subversive of the established order. Said's own critique of Orientalism, directed at 'dismantling the science of imperialism', has fed into and augmented colonial discourse analysis, itself engendered where literary theory converged with the transgressive writings of women, blacks and anti-imperialists in the metropolitan wor ld, and post-colonial interrogations of western canons. The construction of a text disrupting imperialism's authorized version was begun long ago within the political and intellectual cultures of colonial liberation movements, and the counter-discourse developed in this milieu which is known to western academies, read by black activists in the USA and transcribed as armed struggle in the other hemisphere, was written way back in the 1950s by Frantz Fanon, psychiatrist and polemicist, theoretician and guerilla. Although critics now developing a critique of colonialism do invoke Fanon, this can be a ceremonial gesture to an exemplary and exceptional radical stance

The world in creolisation

1987-10-01

Ulf Hannerz

Opening Paragraph From the time when I first became entangled with the Third World, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I have been fascinated by those contemporary ways of … Opening Paragraph From the time when I first became entangled with the Third World, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I have been fascinated by those contemporary ways of life and thought which keep growing out of the interplay between imported and indigenous cultures. They are the cultures on display in market places, shanty towns, beer halls, night clubs, missionary book stores, railway waiting rooms, boarding schools, newspapers and television stations. Nigeria, the country I have been most closely in touch with in an on-and-off way for some time, because of its large size, perhaps, offers particular scope for such cultural development, with several very large cities and hundreds if not thousands of small and middle-size towns. It has a lively if rather erratic press, a popular music scene dominated at different times by such genres as highlife, juju and Afro-beat, about as many universities as breweries (approximately one to every state in the federal republic), dozens of authors published at home and abroad, schoolhouses in just about every village, and an enormous fleet of interurban taxicabs which with great speed can convey you practically from anywhere to anywhere, at some risk to your life.

The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness.

1997-01-01

Peter Erickson , Paul Gilroy

Whilst others scarcely put a toe in the water, in The Black Atlantic Gilroy goes in deep and returns with riches. Guardian Afrocentrism, Eurocentrism, Caribbean Studies. To the forces of … Whilst others scarcely put a toe in the water, in The Black Atlantic Gilroy goes in deep and returns with riches. Guardian Afrocentrism, Eurocentrism, Caribbean Studies. To the forces of cultural nationalism trapped in their respective camps, this bold book sounds like a liberating call. There is, Paul Gilroy tells us, a culture that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but all of these at once; a black Atlantic culture whose themes and techniques transcend ethnicity and nationality to produce something new and, until now, unremarked. Challenging the practices and assumptions of cultural studies, The Black Atlantic also enriches our understanding of modernism.

The Sociology of Slavery: An Analysis of the Origins, Development, and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica.

1969-09-01

Edgar T. Thompson , Orlando Patterson

Dictionary of Jamaican English

1968-12-01

Albert Valdman , G. G. Cassidy , Robert B. Page

General introduction Bibliography Dictionaries and glossaries cited Abbreviations Linguistic Introduction: The Historical Phonology of Jamaican English Dictionary of Jamaican English Supplement. General introduction Bibliography Dictionaries and glossaries cited Abbreviations Linguistic Introduction: The Historical Phonology of Jamaican English Dictionary of Jamaican English Supplement.

From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-American Narrative.

1980-11-01

Blyden Jackson , Robert B. Stepto

Double Jeopardy

2008-03-01

Frances M. Beal

Research Article| March 01 2008 Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female Frances M. Beal Frances M. Beal Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Meridians … Research Article| March 01 2008 Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female Frances M. Beal Frances M. Beal Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Meridians (2008) 8 (2): 166–176. https://doi.org/10.2979/MER.2008.8.2.166 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Frances M. Beal; Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female. Meridians 1 March 2008; 8 (2): 166–176. doi: https://doi.org/10.2979/MER.2008.8.2.166 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsMeridians Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2008 by Smith College2008 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: From the Archives You do not currently have access to this content.

Creolizing the Roman Provinces

2001-04-01

Jane Webster

"Romanization," a concept first discussed by the British scholar Francis Haverfield in 1905, remains the dominant model for intercultural change in the Roman provinces. Building on recent critiques of Romanization, … "Romanization," a concept first discussed by the British scholar Francis Haverfield in 1905, remains the dominant model for intercultural change in the Roman provinces. Building on recent critiques of Romanization, this paper suggests that Romanization—which is simply acculturation—has merits as a means of envisaging the processes by which provincial elites adopted the symbols of Rome, but that the concept is fundamentally flawed when applied to the majority populations of the provinces. Drawing on developments in Caribbean and American historical archaeology, it is suggested that the Roman provinces may more usefully be regarded as creolized than as Romanized. Creolization, a linguistic term indicating the merging of two languages into a single dialect, denotes the processes of multicultural adjustment (including artistic and religious change) through which African-American and African-Caribbean societies were created in the New World. It is argued here that a creole perspective may fruitfully be brought to bear upon the material culture of the Roman provinces. Taking aspects of Romano-Celtic iconography as a case study, it is argued that a creole perspective offers insights into the negotiation of post-conquest identities from the "bottom up" rather than—as is often the case in studies of Romanization—from the perspective of provincial elites.

Real and imagined women: gender, culture and postcolonialism

1994-10-01

Rajeswari Sunder Rajan

The Repeating Island

1996-01-01

Antonio Benítez–Rojo

the repeating islandIn recent decades we have begun to see a clearer outline to the profile of a group of American nations whose colonial experiences and languages have been different, … the repeating islandIn recent decades we have begun to see a clearer outline to the profile of a group of American nations whose colonial experiences and languages have been different, but which share certain undeniable features.I mean the countries usually called "Caribbean" or "of the Caribbean basin."This designation might serve a foreign purpose-the great powers' need to recodify the world's territory better to know, to dominate it-as well as a local one, self-referential, directed toward fixing the furtive image of collective Being.Whatever its motive, this urge to systematize the region's political, economic, social, and anthropological dynamics is a very recent thing.For it is certain that the Caribbean basin, although it includes the first American lands to be explored, conquered, and colonized by Europe, is still, especially in the discourse of the social sciences, one of the least known regions of the modern world.The main obstacles to any global study of the Caribbean's societies, insular or continental, are exactly those things that scholars usually adduce to define the area: its fragmentation; its instability; its reciprocal isolation; its uprootedness; its cultural heterogeneity; its lack of historiography and historical continuity; its contingency and impermanence; its syncretism, etc.This unexpected mix of obstacles and properties is not, of course, mere happenstance.What happens is that postindustrial society-to use a newfangled term-navigates the Caribbean with judgments and intentions that are like those of Columbus; that is, it lands scientists, investors, and technologists-the new (dis)coverers-who come to apply the dog-

The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State

1992-01-01

Gail M. Gerhart , Basil Davidson

Africa without history the road not taken shadows of neglected ancestors tribalism and the new nationalism the rise of the nation-state the challenge of nationalism the black man's burden pirates … Africa without history the road not taken shadows of neglected ancestors tribalism and the new nationalism the rise of the nation-state the challenge of nationalism the black man's burden pirates in power the Euopean parallel.

Slaves and Missionaries: The Disintegration of Jamaican Slave Society, 1787-1834

1983-10-01

William A. Green , Mary Ann Turner

Selected Subaltern Studies.

1989-11-01

Richard Fox , Ranajit Guha , Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Blackness without Ethnicity

2003-01-01

Lívio Sansone

The repeating island: the Caribbean and the postmodern perspective

1993-02-01

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Consuming the Caribbean

2003-12-08

Mimí Sheller

'The killing time': the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica

1995-07-01

Refashioning Futures

1999-12-31

David Scott

How can we best forge a theoretical practice that directly addresses the struggles of once-colonized countries, many of which face the collapse of both state and society in today's era … How can we best forge a theoretical practice that directly addresses the struggles of once-colonized countries, many of which face the collapse of both state and society in today's era of economic reform? David Scott argues that recent cultural theories aimed at "deconstructing" Western representations of the non-West have been successful to a point, but that changing realities in these countries require a new approach. In Refashioning Futures, he proposes a strategic practice of criticism that brings the political more clearly into view in areas of the world where the very coherence of a secular-modern project can no longer be taken for granted. Through a series of linked essays on culture and politics in his native Jamaica and in Sri Lanka, the site of his long scholarly involvement, Scott examines the ways in which modernity inserted itself into and altered the lives of the colonized. The institutional procedures encoded in these modern postcolonial states and their legal systems come under scrutiny, as do our contemporary languages of the political. Scott demonstrates that modern concepts of political representation, community, rights, justice, obligation, and the common good do not apply universally and require reconsideration. His ultimate goal is to describe the modern colonial past in a way that enables us to appreciate more deeply the contours of our historical present and that enlarges the possibility of reshaping it.

Capitalism and Slavery

2022-11-28

Roger Anstey

In Williams's own words, Capitalism and Slavery was "strictly an economic study of the role of Negro slavery and the slave trade in providing the capital which financed the Industrial … In Williams's own words, Capitalism and Slavery was "strictly an economic study of the role of Negro slavery and the slave trade in providing the capital which financed the Industrial Revolution in England and of mature industrial capitalism in destroying the slave system". Williams argues that from the time of the American War of Independence onwards the traditional role and privileged position of the British West Indies in the supply of tropical produce, and especially sugar, was being increasingly questioned in Britain. Equalization of the Sugar Duties was imperiously demanded by the new economic orthodoxy, and consequences at the level of an increase in slavery and the slave trade must be checked by methods appropriate to that sphere. The economic argument for taking a measure which might well be thought likely to restrict British West Indian production even more would therefore seem a strong one.

Indigenous knowledges in global contexts: multiple readings of our world

2001-06-01

George J. Sefa Dei , Budd L. Hall , Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg

Updating Aboriginal traditions of knowledge / Marlene Brant Castellano -- Heart knowledge, blood memory, and the voice of the land: implications of research among Hawaiian elders / Leilani Holmes -- … Updating Aboriginal traditions of knowledge / Marlene Brant Castellano -- Heart knowledge, blood memory, and the voice of the land: implications of research among Hawaiian elders / Leilani Holmes -- Indigenous knowledge : lessons from the elders- a Kenyan case study / Njoki Nathani Wane -- African development : the relevance and implications of 'indigenousness' / George J. Sefa Dei -- Oral Narratives as a site of resistance : indigenous knowledge, colonialism, and western discourse / Elizabeth McIsaac --The retention of knowledge of folkways as a basis for resistance / Patience Elabor-Idemudia -- Indigenous nations and the human genome diversity project / Sandra S. Awang -- Toward indigenous wholeness : feminist praxis in transformative learning on health and the environment / Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg -- Native studies and the academy / Joseph Couture -- Toward an embodied pedagogy : exploring health and the body through Chinese medicine / Roxana Ng -- Not so strange bedfellows : indigenous knowledge, literature studies, and African development / Handel Kashope Wright -- Breaking the educational silence : For Seven Generations, an information legacy of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples / Budd L. Hall -- Ayurveda : mother of indigenous health knowledge / Farah M. Shroff -- Partnership in practice : some reflections on the Aboriginal healing and wellness strategy / Suzanne Dudziak -- Peace research and African development : an indigenous African perspective / Thomas Mark Turay -- Mpambo, the African multiversity: a philosophy to rekindle the African spirit / Paul Wangoola.

The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica.

1972-12-01

Richard Frucht , Edward Brathwaite

The history, civil and commercial, of the British colonies in the West Indies,

1793-01-01

Bryan Edwards , William C. Young , Arthur Broughton

BARB ADOES.-First Arrival of the English BARB ADOES.-First Arrival of the English

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Conversations with Toni Morrison.

1997-01-01

Carolyn M. Jones , Danille Taylor-Guthrie

Without apology Nobel Prize author Toni Morrison describes herself as an African-American woman writer. These collected interviews reveal her to be much more. She has shared space in her creative … Without apology Nobel Prize author Toni Morrison describes herself as an African-American woman writer. These collected interviews reveal her to be much more. She has shared space in her creative life for her career in publishing, in teaching, and in being a single parent. Writing, however, is one thing she refuses to live without. These interviews beginning in 1974 reveal an artist whose creativity is intimately linked with her African-American experience and is fueled by cultural and societal concerns. For twenty years she has created unforgettable characters in her acclaimed novels - The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Jazz. Morrison tells her interviewers that her goal as a writer is to present African-American life not as sociology but in the full range of its depth, magic, and humanity. want my work to capture the vast imagination of black people, she says. That is, I want my books to reflect the imaginative combination of the real world, the very practical, shrewd, day-to-day functioning that black people do, while at the same time they encompass some great supernatural element. Though the scope and the magnitude of her art have brought her international acclaim, even some of her most ardent admirers have viewed her fiction mainly with a focus on class, race, and gender. In these interviews, however, she addresses the artist's concern with moral vision and with a resistance to critical attitudes that categorize black writing largely as sociology. From these interviews comes a greater understanding of Toni Morrison's purpose and the theme of love that streams through her fiction.

The myth of the male breadwinner: women and industrialization in the Caribbean

1995-12-01

Helen I. Safa

* Gender and Industrialization in the Caribbean Basin * The Male Breadwinner and Womens Wage Labor * Women Workers and the Rise and Decline of Puerto Ricos Operation Bootstrap * … * Gender and Industrialization in the Caribbean Basin * The Male Breadwinner and Womens Wage Labor * Women Workers and the Rise and Decline of Puerto Ricos Operation Bootstrap * The Dominican Republic: Export Manufacturing and the Economic Crisis * Cuba: Revolution and Gender Inequality * Conclusion: Economic Restructuring and Gender Subordination

Dangerous liaisons: gender, nation, and postcolonial perspectives

1997-10-01

Anne McClintock , Aamir R. Mufti , Ella Shohat

Conscripts of Modernity

2004-01-01

David Scott

Milton has a great phrase; he says: ''A good book is the precious life-blood of a master's spirit.''But it is more than that.It is the result of the circumstances of … Milton has a great phrase; he says: ''A good book is the precious life-blood of a master's spirit.''But it is more than that.It is the result of the circumstances of the age playing upon a mentality and the circumstances of people who are central to it.i My most general concern in this book is with the conceptual problem of political presents and with how reconstructed pasts and anticipated futures are thought out in relation to them.More specifically, my principal concern is with our own postcolonial present, our present after the collapse of the social and political hopes that went into the anticolonial imagining and postcolonial making of national sovereignties.This is our present, as I have put it elsewhere, after Bandung. 1 My concern is with the relation between this (as it seems to me) dead-end present and, on the one hand, the old utopian futures that inspired and for a long time sustained it and, on the other, an imagined idiom of future futures that might reanimate this present and even engender in it new and unexpected horizons of transformative possibility.What are the critical conceptual resources needed for this exercise?There is today no clear answer to this question.In many parts of the once-colonized world (not least in the one that forms the geopolitical background-if not the specific object-of this book, the Caribbean), the bankruptcy of postcolonial regimes is palpable in the extreme.Where in the early decades of new nationhood an earnestly progressive ideology (radical nationalisms, Marxisms, Fanonian liberationisms, indigenous socialisms, or what have you) aimed at giving point to the relation between where we have come from, where we are, and where we might be going, these days even the nostalgia for what the late Guya-

Out of the Kumbla: Caribbean women and literature

1990-12-01

Carole Boyce Davies , Elaine Savory Fido

Infant and Children Feeding Practices in the Precolonial Caribbean

2025-06-25

Yadira Chinique de Armas , Jason E. Laffoon | Routledge eBooks

we're ready

2025-06-24

| Duke University Press eBooks

What is the place of beauty in Black feminist criticism, a field so very marred by lack of institutional support and premature death? As Black feminist criticism and the field … What is the place of beauty in Black feminist criticism, a field so very marred by lack of institutional support and premature death? As Black feminist criticism and the field of Black studies broadly face greater attacks in the early twenty-first century, this chapter argues that attending to beauty in the university and during the rise of technoscience is both an individual survival practice and a precarious art. Like the honorarium June Jordan requests in 1985 for her criticism on Phillis for her address at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (double her fee as a poet), Black feminist criticism is not to be given freely. Ultimately, the best criticism thrives when all have equitable access to resources—and beautiful critical readings of Phillis are only possible insofar as our institutions create the conditions for such beauty to thrive.

Transforming education in Guyana: Challenges, innovations and future prospects

2025-06-24

Wazim Rafeek Sharif , Mark Lyte , Ganda Soodoo +2 more | World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews

While the educational system of Guyana has hugely grown, numerous persistent obstacles are observable, particularly in hinterland Guyana. The major barriers of education in Guyana are socioeconomic disparities, colonial traditions, … While the educational system of Guyana has hugely grown, numerous persistent obstacles are observable, particularly in hinterland Guyana. The major barriers of education in Guyana are socioeconomic disparities, colonial traditions, and insufficient infrastructures, all which serve to undermine the provision quality of education. Compounding factors of inadequate internet services, insufficient resources, and inadequate numbers of suitably qualified educators heighten these within the hinterland communities of Guyana. Policymaking gaps, as well as the inefficiencies within governance, further complicate the efforts to enhance the education system. Guyana has taken massive steps to deal with these challenges. It first developed an Education Sector Plan 2021 – 2025 with the objective to modernize the curricula, the integration of digital learning in schools, and the assurance that teachers undergo intensive training programs. Moreover, the government has joined hands with both local and international organisations to work with to support reform of the education sector. The future of Guyanese education depends on the growth of Science, Technology. Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), all schools from Nursery through Primary through Secondary and through Tertiary levels. This can be achieved in significant collaboration with the local private sector and regional and international donor agencies with experience in advancing STEM. This article addresses some issues, offer creative solutions, points to future directions of education, and suggests policy changes to enhance the country's education system.

Africans in the Americas

2025-06-20

Jeffry R. Halverson | Routledge eBooks

Imagining Livable Black Futures

2025-06-17

| University of California Press eBooks

A Brief Memoir of Caribbean Solidarity in the Grenada Revolution

2025-06-17

Rupert Lewis | Latin American Perspectives

This paper addresses the Grenada Revolution within the context of the years 1968-1983 when the idea of a Caribbean-wide revolution took root in the practices of many young people from … This paper addresses the Grenada Revolution within the context of the years 1968-1983 when the idea of a Caribbean-wide revolution took root in the practices of many young people from Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica in the north, to Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Guyana, and Suriname in the south. These ideas had their origins within the Black Power movement of the 1960s and early 1970s and the transition in thinking to socialist ideas. A distinct form of regional solidarity and cooperation developed that fell outside of the institutional framework of CARICOM. The inner-workings and conflicts within the leadership were unknown to most of those who were engaged in acts of solidarity with the Grenada project. The legacies of this regional initiative showed the willingness of young Caribbean citizens to throw their support behind a project for national and regional transformation. Este artículo aborda la Revolución de Granada en el contexto del período comprendido entre 1968 y 1983, cuando la idea de una revolución caribeña de alcance regional echó raíces en las prácticas de numerosos jóvenes, desde Cuba, Haití y Jamaica en el norte, hasta Trinidad y Tobago, Granada, Guyana y Surinam en el sur. Estas ideas tuvieron su origen en el movimiento del Poder Negro de las décadas de 1960 y comienzos de 1970, y en la transición hacia un pensamiento de orientación socialista. Se desarrolló una forma particular de solidaridad y cooperación regional que se situaba al margen del marco institucional de la CARICOM. Las dinámicas internas y los conflictos dentro del liderazgo eran desconocidos para la mayoría de quienes participaban en actos de solidaridad con el proyecto granadino. Los legados de esta iniciativa regional evidenciaron la disposición de los jóvenes caribeños a respaldar un proyecto de transformación tanto nacional como regional.

Christianity and Caribbean Art

2025-06-16

Sylviane Ngandu-Kalenga Greensword | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion

Christian and religious art in the Caribbean is a rich tapestry woven with threads of Indigenous, colonial, African, and Indian traditions, reflecting a complex history of cultural exchange and adaptation. … Christian and religious art in the Caribbean is a rich tapestry woven with threads of Indigenous, colonial, African, and Indian traditions, reflecting a complex history of cultural exchange and adaptation. A great challenge when discussing the literature on the earlier forms of this art is that too often, the narratives available utilize European art history as a point of reference, a fact that critic Annie Paul has vehemently deplored. Caribbean religious art typically explores themes of faith, resilience, and liberation. Images of saints, biblical figures, and religious events are common subjects, but they are often depicted with a Caribbean aesthetic, incorporating regional landscapes, flora, and fauna. More recent artworks directly address social and political issues, such as slavery, oppression, and freedom, reflecting the struggles and triumphs of local people throughout history. Thus, the aesthetics of numerous pieces of Caribbean religious art are more functional (serving practical religious purposes) than recreational (serving no other purpose than the appreciation of beauty). For example, Claudine Michel explains that Haitian Vodou has no concept of “art for art’s sake,” but rather, every artifact has a spiritual and/or political function. While a pan-Caribbean survey of religious art is not pursued, art as the material culture of several key religions in the region is examined. More precisely, art is considered a powerfully informative tool regarding the perception and practice of religion. Through art, these religions are in dialogue with one another and, more emphatically, with Christianity, a religion whose impact is visible throughout the Antilles. Anthropologist Joan D. Koss details that “the highly organized religions have produced most of the world’s great art forms.” Nevertheless, readers are encouraged to also examine art forms that have only recently been considered “great,” including folk art authored by Caribbean artists of color, as well as pre-Columbian art forms that illustrate Indigenous religious beliefs and practices.

Entheogenic Healing in Rastafari: Decolonization through Cannabis, Consciousness, and Collective Ritual

2025-06-16

Anna Waldstein , Caley Cannon | BRILL eBooks

The Utica Institute Jubilee Singers

2025-06-15

| University Press of Mississippi eBooks

African Heritage in the New World: Exploring Afro-descendant Influence in Latin America

2025-06-15

Jhonny Richard Rodriguez-Barboza | Perspectiva austral.

This study delves into the profound African influence on Latin American culture, unveiling its indelible imprint on music, dance, spirituality, and culinary traditions. The primary objective is to illuminate the … This study delves into the profound African influence on Latin American culture, unveiling its indelible imprint on music, dance, spirituality, and culinary traditions. The primary objective is to illuminate the historically underappreciated contributions of Afro-descendant communities, thereby enriching the academic corpus and fostering broader recognition of their cultural heritage. Employing a qualitative methodology within a socio-critical paradigm, the research is grounded in a comprehensive literature review, ensuring a nuanced understanding of the cultural amalgamation and its socio-economic ramifications. Findings highlight the vibrant integration of African heritage across various societal spheres, yet also underscore significant gaps in literature, particularly in recognizing contributions beyond the cultural domain. The study concludes that while the rich African legacy in Latin America is undeniable, its full spectrum and depth are yet to be fully acknowledged. It calls for a more inclusive narrative that transcends conventional cultural domains, extending into realms of education, policy, and socio-economic development. Future research should address these lacunae, fostering a more inclusive and equitable representation of Afro-descendant influences in the fabric of Latin American culture.

From plantation sugar to a bittersweet democracy: Black democratic attitudes in the English-speaking Caribbean

2025-06-15

Neil Williams | Politics Groups and Identities

A Blue-Collar Jamaican

2025-06-13

Gilmore Crosby | Productivity Press eBooks

Schooling, Gender And Development In Trinidad And Tobago

2025-06-11

Judith Foreman | Routledge eBooks

Regionalism and Revolution: CARICOM and the Grenada Revolution

2025-06-11

Paul C. Clement | Latin American Perspectives

The ideological conflicts surrounding the Grenada Revolution hindered Caribbean regionalism and almost led to CARICOM's collapse. A significant body of research has examined the events of the 1979 revolution and … The ideological conflicts surrounding the Grenada Revolution hindered Caribbean regionalism and almost led to CARICOM's collapse. A significant body of research has examined the events of the 1979 revolution and the U.S. intervention in 1983. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the revolution’s Marxist-Leninist ideology and its effect on CARICOM and Caribbean regionalism. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the theoretical arguments of regionalism, ideology, and international relations. It explores the situation in the region during the Revolution and invasion, discussing why some CARICOM states supported the invasion while others opposed it. Using an inductive approach, the paper traces the ideological conflicts within CARICOM with regard to the Marxist-Leninist stance of the Grenada Revolutionary Government. The research finding supports the argument that for the future of Caribbean integration, ideological conflicts that influence a country’s ability to implement regional decisions must be considered in policymaking. Los conflictos ideológicos en torno a la Revolución de Granada obstaculizaron el regionalismo caribeño y casi provocan el colapso de la CARICOM. Un volumen importante de investigaciones ha analizado los acontecimientos de la revolución de 1979 y la intervención estadounidense de 1983. Sin embargo, existe una laguna en la literatura con respecto a la ideología marxista-leninista de la revolución y su efecto sobre la CARICOM y el regionalismo en el Caribe. Este trabajo busca llenar ese vacío mediante el examen de los argumentos teóricos sobre el regionalismo, la ideología y las relaciones internacionales. Se analiza la situación en la región durante la Revolución y la invasión, abordando las razones por las cuales algunos Estados miembros de la CARICOM respaldaron la invasión, mientras que otros se opusieron. A través de un enfoque inductivo, el artículo rastrea los conflictos ideológicos dentro de la CARICOM hacia la postura marxista-leninista del Gobierno Revolucionario de Granada. Los hallazgos de la investigación respaldan el argumento de que, para el futuro de la integración caribeña, los conflictos ideológicos que influyen en la capacidad de un país para aplicar decisiones regionales deben ser tomados en cuenta en el diseño de políticas.

King Solomon Was Very Wise—So What's His Story?

2025-06-11

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl | Routledge eBooks

Colonialism in the Dutch Caribbean

2025-06-10

Rose Mary Allen | Manchester University Press eBooks

Deepening Black Celebration and Life in a Dying Empire: A Letter to Black People (and the people who love them)

2025-06-02

Justin A. Coles , Keisha L. Green | Equity & Excellence in Education

CAYMAN Islands: the evolution of the Cayman Islands Foundation Company

2025-06-02

Bernadette Carey | Trusts & Trustees

Abstract Since their introduction in 2017, foundation companies have been promoted as a valuable addition to the extensive suite of sophisticated legal structures available in the Cayman Islands, which can … Abstract Since their introduction in 2017, foundation companies have been promoted as a valuable addition to the extensive suite of sophisticated legal structures available in the Cayman Islands, which can be tailored to meet the diverse needs of international private clients. In practice, foundation companies have proven themselves as structures of choice for, among others, high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, dealmakers, family offices, and charities alike. Their extensive utility has exceeded expectations and cemented the Cayman Islands foundation company as a key component of modern cross-border structuring.

Raya and the Last Dragon

2025-06-01

Jasmine Liu-Zarzuela , Kiana Malbas , Thet H.K. Aye +1 more | Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Pirates of the Caribbean

2025-06-01

Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier | Journal of Popular Music Studies

Mother: Interview with Son Of A Tutu

2025-05-30

Michael Twaits | Routledge eBooks

The Caribbean Community

2025-05-29

Natasha F Ward | Oxford University Press eBooks

Abstract Abstract: This Chapter chronicles the evolution of the regional economic integration project from the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) up to the Caribbean Single … Abstract Abstract: This Chapter chronicles the evolution of the regional economic integration project from the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) up to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) in light of its historical and political context. It then delineates the key institutional structures which underpin CARICOM and briefly reflects on the extent to which these structures hinder or facilitate deeper economic integration. This is followed by an appraisal of the legal architecture of the regional integration arrangement which captures both important advances towards deeper integration and critical areas where progress has stalled. Finally, given the importance of dispute settlement to the proper functioning of any regional integration arrangement, the Chapter undertakes a brief survey of the available modes of dispute settlement within CARICOM.

Engagement and education at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society

2025-05-29

Kaye R. N. Hall , Natalie McGuire | Routledge eBooks

Africa and the Caribbean

2025-05-28

Martin McCauley | Routledge eBooks

Black Vernacular:

2025-05-27

Annie refuses to be Annie: the development of women’s rights in the Caribbean from Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John

2025-05-26

X Li , Qian Xue

Abstract African American author Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Annie John , published in 1985 after being serialized in The New Yorker , is widely regarded by literary critics as a classic … Abstract African American author Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Annie John , published in 1985 after being serialized in The New Yorker , is widely regarded by literary critics as a classic Bildungsroman. The novel Annie John provides readers with a snapshot of the social situation of women in colonial Antigua, demonstrating intergenerational conflicts and shifts in women’s traditional identities through the portrayal of distinctive female characters, thus hinting at the development of laws concerning women’s rights and protection in Antigua. This paper attempts to analyze the novel from the perspective of the rights and interests of Annie’s mother as a married woman, that of Annie as a child in the family and society, and that of Annie as a teenager in the schoolyard, combining relevant laws before and after the independence of Antigua and Barbuda to explore the gradual awakening of women and the gradual improvement of women’s rights in a traditional colonial society. It also offers a more equal and inclusive way to reflects on the development of women in contemporary society.

Available titles in the Critical Caribbean Studies series

2025-05-24

The Haunt of History – Grenada’s Story: Past, Present and Looking to the Future

2025-05-24

M. P. Collins

This paper is an adaptation of the text of my keynote address at the 2019 University of the West Indies conference held to commemorate and interrogate what came to be … This paper is an adaptation of the text of my keynote address at the 2019 University of the West Indies conference held to commemorate and interrogate what came to be known as the Grenada Revolution, demarcating a political period between 1979 and 1983. A leftist political group, the New Jewel Movement (NJM), seized political office, arguing that the government of Prime Minister Eric Gairy was oppressive and ineffective. The paper posits that, at the beginning of its period of office, the NJM had overwhelming support and by 1983, the party, which had transitioned from wanting to be recognized as a “Movement” to presenting itself as a Marxist-Leninist vanguard party, no longer had popular support. The essay argues that an authoritarian colonial history and government played a significant role in the development of authoritarian political attitudes among youthful political leaders in early nineteen-eighties Grenada. Este artículo es una adaptación del texto de mi ponencia principal presentada en la conferencia de 2019 de la Universidad de las Indias Occidentales, organizada para conmemorar e interrogar lo que llegó a conocerse como la Revolución de Granada, que delimitó un período político entre 1979 y 1983. Un grupo político de izquierda, el Movimiento Nueva Joya (New Jewel Movement, NJM), tomó el poder alegando que el gobierno del primer ministro Eric Gairy era opresivo e ineficaz. El artículo sostiene que, al inicio de su mandato, el NJM contaba con un apoyo popular abrumador, pero que para 1983, el partido —que había pasado de aspirar a ser reconocido como un “Movimiento” a presentarse como un partido de vanguardia marxista-leninista— ya no gozaba de respaldo popular. Partiendo de los cuatro años iniciales de entusiasmo popular, seguidos por un rápido y pronunciado declive del partido y los asesinatos de figuras clave de su dirigencia, el ensayo argumenta que una historia colonial autoritaria y un gobierno de corte autoritario desempeñaron un papel significativo en el desarrollo de actitudes políticas autoritarias entre los jóvenes líderes políticos de la Granada de principios de los años ochenta.

Poetry and the Caribbean: Coral Gardens, Jamaica, 2010; What Justice; Academic Tourism Winner of the 2024 SHA Ethnographic Poetry Competition

2025-05-22

J. Brent Crosson

Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright and the Reverberations of Colonial Power

2025-05-22

Jada Watson

EURIPIDES, HECUBA 1045

2025-05-21

James Diggle

ABSTRACT An emendation in Euripides, Hecuba 1045. ABSTRACT An emendation in Euripides, Hecuba 1045.

Stories of #EndSARS: Applying Social Network Analysis through a Postcolonial Framework

2025-05-20

Godswill Okwuchukwu Ezeonyeka , Abhiram Anand Thiruthummal , Sarah Kate Merry

Social media has become central to contemporary activism, transforming how movements worldwide mobilise and organise around shared goals. The #EndSARS movement in Nigeria started in 2017 as a citizen-led effort … Social media has become central to contemporary activism, transforming how movements worldwide mobilise and organise around shared goals. The #EndSARS movement in Nigeria started in 2017 as a citizen-led effort that confronted police brutality, especially from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police. Facilitated primarily by social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, data shows that more than 8 million unique authors participated in creating content that commented on or provided support to the offline protests (NENDO 2020). Much like other contemporary social media activism efforts, #EndSARS lacked established and movement-recognised spokespersons; instead, networked microcelebrities and influential voices emerged intermittently, each with varied social capital, reflecting the movement's decentralised nature. This paper presents research into the lived experiences of #EndSARS activists on Instagram, utilising a modified social network analysis to identify these individuals without relying on popularity metrics alone. Adopting a postcolonial lens, this research centred on inclusive representation to disrupt traditional hierarchies where dominant voices speak over, or on behalf of, marginalised communities. This approach was implemented through Richardson's (2000) crystallisation and by operationalising Tufekci's (2013) concept of the "networked microcelebrity". Standard social network analysis metrics were adapted to recognise diverse voices and multifaceted connections among activists. The resulting visualisation platform highlights interactions among 117 information-rich participants, offering multidirectional perspectives on the movement's narrative. This approach enhanced the visibility of less-prominent activists and provided a nuanced, visually engaging map of the networked narratives driving #EndSARS. In a broader context, this approach initiates the conversation on decolonising social network analysis to incorporate more diverse and representative voices.

More Than Bodies: Diné Masculinities in Anticolonial Spaces and Embodied Discursive Action

2025-05-20

Jacqueline Clark

The article presents interviews with two Diné men, where they describe how they enact and model masculine identities in their anticolonial community organising. The discussions centre on being a cis-hetero … The article presents interviews with two Diné men, where they describe how they enact and model masculine identities in their anticolonial community organising. The discussions centre on being a cis-hetero Diné man, kinship roles and responsibilities, Diné masculinity and femininity, and what it means to create healthy masculinity as an anticolonial practice. The article shows how they imagine, enact, and model their masculinity to contest colonial technologies that disavow Diné men of their body, kin, and land. And through the anticolonial Diné masculinity they live out, they demonstrate what embodied discursive action looks like in their work and communities. Their masculinity offers hope for a future beyond settler domination where Diné men are once again decorated with possibilities, love, care, and health.

A history and social anthropology of the African origins of Jamaica's cannabis

2025-05-20

Toby Leon Moorsom

Fugitive indigeneity: reconsidering Blackness through African worldmaking

2025-05-19

Nana Prempeh

Police, Processions, and Pacification: The Canboulay and Hosay Riots in 1880s Trinidad

2025-05-16

P.G. Murphy

1 From the Caribbean to Africa

2025-05-15

Dread Culture and Memory in (Post) Revolutionary Grenada

2025-05-10

C. Michael Hall

This paper examines the Dread culture that emerged during and after the Grenada Revolution through the lens of a pro-revolutionary song and memorial inscription to assess how different memories commemorate … This paper examines the Dread culture that emerged during and after the Grenada Revolution through the lens of a pro-revolutionary song and memorial inscription to assess how different memories commemorate the event. This paper puts forth the central argument that Dread culture signifies a resistive memory aesthetic that define the people’s experiences with the Grenada Revolution. It locates organic, nostalgic, and uncomfortable memories that permit access to the revolutionary self through textual aesthetics and memory texts. These memory texts convey diverse meanings of the people’s revolutionary experiences, contradictions, and eruptions of identity and re-memory forty years after the Grenada Revolution. Este artículo examina la cultura Dread que surgió durante y después de la Revolución de Granada, a través del análisis de una canción pro-revolucionaria y una inscripción conmemorativa, con el fin de evaluar cómo distintas memorias rememoran dicho acontecimiento. El artículo sostiene como argumento central que la cultura Dread representa una estética de la memoria resistente que define las experiencias del pueblo con respecto a la Revolución de Granada. Identifica memorias orgánicas, nostálgicas e incómodas que permiten el acceso al yo revolucionario mediante estéticas textuales y textos de memoria. Estos textos de memoria transmiten significados diversos sobre las experiencias revolucionarias del pueblo, sus contradicciones y las irrupciones de identidad y re-memoria, cuarenta años después de la Revolución de Granada.

Caribbean Contextual Theology: An Introduction

2025-05-08

Amica M. Liburd