Cultural Erasure
Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 79, octubre de 2005 |
125
Identity and Erasure: Finding the Elusive Caribbean
Anton Allahar
– Caribbean Autobiography: cultural identity and self-representation, by Sandra
Pouchet Paquet. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
– Decolonising the Caribbean: Dutch policies in a comparative perspective, by
Gert Oostindie and Inge Klinkers. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press,
2003.
– Ah Come Back Home: Perspectives on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, edited by Ian I. Smart, and Kimani S. K. Nehusi. Washington: Original World Press,
2000.
The Caribbean can be many things to many people: a geographic region somewhere in America’s backyard, an English-speaking outpost of the British Empire, an exciting holiday destination for North Americans and Europeans, a place where dirty money is easily laundered, and even an undefined, exotic area that contains the dreaded Bermuda Triangle, the mythical lost city of El Dorado, the fabled
Fountain of Youth and the island home of Robinson Crusoe. Enriched by the process of creolization, the cosmopolitanism of the average Caribbean person is also well recognized: ‘No Indian from India, no European, no African can adjust with greater ease and naturalness to new situations’ (Lamming 1960, 34). As a concept or notion ‘the Caribbean’ can also be seen to have a marvellous elasticity that defies the imposition of clear geographic boundaries, has no distinct religious tradition, no agreed-upon set of political values, and no single cultural orientation.
What, then, is the Caribbean? Who can justifiably claim to belong to it? Of the various peoples who have come to comprise the region, whose identity markers will be most central in defining the whole? For not all citizens of a nation or a region will be equally privileged and not all will have equal input in the definition of national or regional identity. In other words, because power
125
Identity and Erasure: Finding the Elusive Caribbean
Anton Allahar
– Caribbean Autobiography: cultural identity and self-representation, by Sandra
Pouchet Paquet. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
– Decolonising the Caribbean: Dutch policies in a comparative perspective, by
Gert Oostindie and Inge Klinkers. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press,
2003.
– Ah Come Back Home: Perspectives on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, edited by Ian I. Smart, and Kimani S. K. Nehusi. Washington: Original World Press,
2000.
The Caribbean can be many things to many people: a geographic region somewhere in America’s backyard, an English-speaking outpost of the British Empire, an exciting holiday destination for North Americans and Europeans, a place where dirty money is easily laundered, and even an undefined, exotic area that contains the dreaded Bermuda Triangle, the mythical lost city of El Dorado, the fabled
Fountain of Youth and the island home of Robinson Crusoe. Enriched by the process of creolization, the cosmopolitanism of the average Caribbean person is also well recognized: ‘No Indian from India, no European, no African can adjust with greater ease and naturalness to new situations’ (Lamming 1960, 34). As a concept or notion ‘the Caribbean’ can also be seen to have a marvellous elasticity that defies the imposition of clear geographic boundaries, has no distinct religious tradition, no agreed-upon set of political values, and no single cultural orientation.
What, then, is the Caribbean? Who can justifiably claim to belong to it? Of the various peoples who have come to comprise the region, whose identity markers will be most central in defining the whole? For not all citizens of a nation or a region will be equally privileged and not all will have equal input in the definition of national or regional identity. In other words, because power
References: Allahar, Anton L. (2003) ‘“Racing” Caribbean Political Culture: Afrocentrism, Black Nationalism and Fanonism’ Allahar, Anton L. (2004) ‘Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Nationalism in Trinidad: Afrocentrism and Hindutva’, Social and Economic Studies (53)2: 117-154. Alleyne Dettmers, Patricia (2000) ‘Beyond Borders, Carnival as Global Phenomena’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp Boyce-Davies, Carole and Elaine Fido (eds) (1990) Out of Kumbla: Caribbean Women and Literature. Hoefte, Rosemarijn and Gert Oostindie (1991) ‘The Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean: Dilemmas of Decolonization’ Knight, Franklin W. and Colin S. Palmer (eds) (1989) The Modern Caribbean. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Lamming, George (1960) The Pleasures of Exile. London: Michael Joseph. Moran, Patricia (2000) ‘Experiencing the Pan African Dimension of Carnival’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp Nehusi, Kimani S. K. (2000a) ‘Going back home to the Carnival’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp. 1-16. ––– (2000b) ‘The Origins of Carnival: Notes from a Preliminary Investigation’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp Nehusi, K.S.K.; and Olaogun Narmer Adeyinka (2000) ‘A Carnival of Resistance, Emancipation, Commemoration, Reconstruction, and Creativity’ Oostindie, Gert and Inge Klinkers (2003) Decolonising the Caribbean: Dutch policies in a comparative perspective Paquet, Sandra Pouchet (2002) Caribbean Autobiography: cultural identity and self-representation. Reddock, Rhoda E. (ed.) (1996) Ethnic Minorities in Caribbean Society. St. Augustine, Trinidad: ISER. Smart, Ian I. and Kimani S. K. Nehusi (eds) (2000) Ah Come Back Home: Perspectives on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Smart, Ian I. (2000a) ‘Carnival, the Ultimate Pan-African Festival’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp. 2976. ––– (2000b) ‘It’s not French (Europe), It’s really French-based Creole (Africa)’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp Springer, Pearl Eintou (2000) ‘Carnival: Identity, Ethnicity and Spirituality’. In Smart and Nehusi (eds) pp Trotman, David V. (1991) ‘The image of Indians in Calypso: Trinidad 1946-1986’. In Selwyn Ryan (ed.) Social and Occupational Stratification in Trinidad and Tobago