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The Caribbean Area: History

"It's a lazy life that we live here,/ Tho' we carry a fair share of work." Una Marson "In Jamaica"

(《中美》 153-54)

 
 Some Anglophone Nations: Barbados / Trinidad and Tobago / Jamaica / Antigua

 Definition of Terms and History

 Images

 
 Some Anglophone Nations: Barbados / Trinidad and Tobago / Jamaica / Antigua
  Barbados      map (external link)

 

  • Known as "Little England," Barbados is the most British of the West Indies islands. 
     
  • population: 95 % African, and 5 % white.
history: occupied by the British since 1627 and remained a colony for over 300 years.  Internal autonomy attained in 1961, and full independence in 1966. (more history.) 

Authors: Austin Clarke

 Limbo dance 《中美》p. 199

 

 
Bridge Town, the  capital of Barbado, established in 1629.  It still retains a lot of European (Renaissance) architecture.

 

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Trinidad and Tobago  

 
Ice Cream vendor.  The words "Snow Cones" here show the British  influence. 《國家與人民》 p. 204


Economical problems: In the early 1970's, black-power supporters protested against widespread unemployment and what they considered social and economic inequality in Trinidad and Tobago.  Violent demonstrations broke out, and the government twice declared a state of emergency.  Racial tensions eased in the mid-1970's, but unemployment continued to be a major problem in the country. 

  • history: Discovered by Columbus in 1498, and then settled by the Spaniards.  British rule was established in 1802.  Joined the West Indies Federation in 1958, but left to become independent in 1962. 
     Independence: Trinidad--1956, it was lead by Eric Williams (1956-1981) in 1950s.  He became Prime Minister in 1955.  His People's National Movement (PNM) was in power for thirty years (1966-1986). 
  • In 1980, the national government allowed a local governing council to be established on Tobago island.
population & language: 43% African, 36% Indian, some whites and Chinese.
Virtually all speak English. Small percentages also speak Hindi, French patois, and several
other dialects. 

cultures: Trinidad has two major folk traditions: Creole and East Indian. Creole is a mixture of African
elements with Spanish, French, and English colonial culture. 

Trinidad's East Indian culture came to the island with indentured servants brought to fill a labor shortage created by the emancipation of the African slaves in 1833. Most remained on the land, and they still dominate the agricultural sector, but many have become prominent in business and the professions. East Indians have retained much of their own way of life, including Hindu and Muslim religious festivals and practices. (source)
 

Authors: Sam Selvon  (India-Trinidad-U.K.-Canada); Neil Bissoondath (India-Trinidad-Canada)

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Jamaica 

  • population: majority African, some East Indians, Europeans, and Chinese. 
  • history: Discovered by Columbus in 1494, Jamaica was a Spanish settlement until it was captured by the British in 1655
  • the Moroon--To the safety of the impenetrable hills (e.g. Blue Mountains), bands of former slaves fled, after they were freed
    and armed by the Spanish to fight the English when they seized the island in 1655. The Maroons, as they became known, founded a community and underground state that would fight a guerrilla war against the English settlers on and off for nearly eighty years. 
  • Jamaica prospered during the 1700's.  Sugar became the major crop, and the island ranked as the most important slave market in the Western Hemisphere.
  •    Full internal self-government came in 1959, within the West Indies Federation, and full independence with the British Commonwealth in 1962.
  • Since 1960's, Jamaica has faced many problems, including inflation, unemployment, and poverty.  Many Jamaicans became dissatisfied, and their discontent sometimes let to riots and violent crime.  . . . Michael Manley of the People's National Party was elected prime minister of Jamaica in 1972.  He sought to solve the economic problems by adopting socialistic policies.   The next prime minister was Edward Seaga of the Jamaican Labor Party. 
    World Book V11: 23
     Jamaica: A short History: history offered by Island Life.com with pictures.

     

  • People: 90% of African descent.
 

a  ghetto in Kingston 《國家與人民》p. 172
"In the ghetto, where discontent was ever-present, the ideas of such black nationalists as the Jamaican born Marcus Garvey were gaining momentum.  Conventional social democracy had not improved the lot of the sufferers in the ghetto. Garveyism, whose potency had been sharpened by the American Black Power ideology of the Sixties,  was combining with Rastafarianism; it seemed to offer a viable alternative to what was widely  perceived as the corrupt system of Babylon." (from The Story of Jamaican Music)  

 Marcus Garvey--the first prophet of black self determination in the 1920s, founded the Black Star shipping line, intended to transport descendants of slaves back to Africa.  

 

Authors: Derek Walcott  (Jamaica-U.S.),  Michelle Cliff (Jamaica-U.S.)

 
 An old man at a Jamaican carnival. 
(《中美》 151) 

 

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Antigua

 
 Definition of Terms and History
  Definition of Terms
West Indies:
A. In a broader sense, (Time Encyclopedia 1277) 
1. The chain of islands extending from Florida to the North coast of South America, separating the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean.  Also called Antilles (excluding Bahamas). 
2. Including three groups: a. the Bahamas to the North East of Cuba 
                                         b. the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, 
                                       1-3 and Puerto Rico 
                                         c. the Lesser Antilles (Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, & other 
                                             windward and leeward islands). 
B. In a narrower sense, (Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English 199-)
1. Called "British West Indies" before the Caribbean nations gained independence in 1960's. 
2. Concept resulting from Christopher Columbus' mistake in thinking that he had reached India. 
3. Strictly speaking, 'West Indies' refers to the Anglophone islands, but ...it has been used more widely and conveniently to include as well the former British mainland territories, more or less adjacent to the Caribbean, of Belize in Central America, and Guyana in South America. 
4. Sometimes even including Bahamas and Bermuda.
West Indian Literature:
1. Anglophone Caribbean literature, sometimes called "Commonwealth Caribbean Literature." 
2. Literature of the Caribbean diaspora in U.K., U.S. and Canada.
Caribbean Literature
1. to define the literatures not linguistically but geographically. 
2. showing the awareness of the pan-Caribbean context of West Indian literature. 
Important Names: Trinidad-- CLR James, Eric Williams, V.S. Naipaul, The Mighty Sparrow, Neil Bissoondath
Barbados--George Lamming, Austin Clark 
Martinique--Aime Cesaire 
St Lucia--Derek Walcott

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History

Important Historical Dates: (Time Encyclopedia 1277; Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English 200-201) 
  1. 1492 --96  The arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492--
      after which the Arawaks and Caribs were almost eliminated as the Spanish, English, French and Dutch came to settle and exploited the spices and sugar.
  2. 1624  British settlement of Barbados.
  3. 1655  British capture of Jamaica from Spain. 
  4. 16th-18th centuries --Colonial period
      also a period of wars among colonial nations and pirates, and conflicts between the white masters, black slaves and mulatto.
  5. 1797  British capture Trinidad from Spain.
  6. 1808- 1838 -- Abolishment of slavery (1834 in Anglophone islands, 1848 in Francophone islands, and 1863 in Dutch islands). 
  7. 1845  First shipload of East Indian indentured laborers arrived in Trinidad.
      Indentured Laborers--in the 19th century, a larger number of Asiatics, mostly from India but also including some Chinese, were imported to form the labour force and consequently to add to the ethnic and cultural mix of the Caribbean.  In Trinidad, for instance, a lot of East Indians lived in St. James, which has streets named after Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.   The area where most Indians live is the (Atlantic) coast line along Sangre Grande, Rio Claro, and Plaisance. 
  8. 1919-1939  seen as Slums of the Empire.
  9.  riots & strikes in 1935-1938 and afterwards
     
  10. 1960's--Independence of the Caribbean nations
  11. 1958-1962  West Indies Federation 

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 Images
 

The yellow Caribs, the native of the Caribbean

From  Rogozinski, Jan.  A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and Carib to the Present.
     New York: Meridian, 1992.  156.

 
 
 

The Caribbean Area: The carnival in Grenada

加勒比海 (台灣麥克大地之美系列, 1997)
 
Caribbean Paintings

 
The Great Master by Hector Hyppolite

 
Peace and Love by Osmond Watson
 
Prospere Pierre-Louis, Spirit
 
Memory of the Colonial Past
 
Eugene Palmer, Duppy Shadow 1993
 
 Image Source: 
Poupeye, Veerle.  Caribbean Art.  London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Other image link: Drawings of the Middle Passage by Feelings

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 References
  Benson, Eugene, & W. Conolly, eds.  Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English.  2 Vols.  New York: Routledge, 1994.
Time Encyclopedia
《國家與人民︰中美》。 郭震唐、聶良知編。  台北︰錦繡,1990.
《世界風物誌20: 拉丁美洲I》。  郭震唐總編。  台北︰地球,1977.
Boot, Adrian, & Christ. Salewicz.  Bob Marley: Songs of Freedom.  Rita Marley, Executive Ed.   London: Bloomsbury, 1995.
The World Book Encyclopedia  Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1985.
 
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