Cultural Retention in the Caribbean
Introduction
The Caribbean culture is a summary of art, music, literature, and politics, culinary, and social elements that represent the Caribbean people worldwide. Historically, the Caribbean culture has been influenced by Amerindian, African, European, and Indian traditions. According to Beckles (2001), if the export of rum and sugar changed Indian, African, and European lives in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, culture remains the Caribbean’s most famous export in the 20th and 21st century. For this reason, there is no other aspect of the Caribbean’s existence that had creativity and refusal in accepting marginality, and external domination is so manifested as its cultural production. The parallel export of most talented Caribbean cultural producers to the diaspora with a decreasing connection to the countries of origin and increasing marginalization of the region in global economics and politics implies the region’s former productivity culturally cannot be assumed (Beckles, 2001). Only marginally have governments in the Caribbean acted on the potential of a creative economy that brings value in the region through the current growth of music, literature, and other festivals such as Bocas, Calabash, Bim, or St. Lucia Jazz.
The non-governmental sector has supported the development and growth of the Caribbean culture. According to Higman (2007), any framework that thinks of Caribbean culture should deal with the question of origin, considering almost all cultural forms in the region have some elements of their origin outside. This is evidence of cultural retentions from the original cultures that were transported to the region via migration, slavery, indentureship, and so on. There are historical circumstances such as introduction, transmission, change, and participation because most aspects that describe the Caribbean culture primarily connect with a particular ethnic or social group, with only a few regarded as common property. However, even in circumstances where cultural aspects are shared widely, we cannot assume the meaning is common to various groups (Higman, 2007). This paper examines reggae and literature, two examples of Caribbean cultural forms that we see evidence of cultural retentions from original cultures. It explains the impact such cultural retention has on Caribbean societies that are now largely creolized.
Discussion
Creolization refers to the process through which elements from different cultures are blend together, thereby creating a new culture. According to Beckles (2001), it is the process by which creole cultures and languages emerge. Still, scholars in social sciences have used the term in describing new cultural expressions resulting from contact between relocated people and societies. Creolization is used traditionally in reference to the Caribbean, although it’s not exclusive to the region with other scholars using the term while representing other Diasporas. Creolization happens if participants choose some cultural elements to be part of or to become an inherited culture. As such, participants select specific elements from the incoming or inherited cultures, endow them with new meaning distinct from the ones they had initially, then merge them creatively, thereby developing new varieties superseding prior ‘forms. Within the Caribbean, attempts to create a ‘heritage’ industry have been profoundly ambivalent (Beckles, 2001). Some architecturally splendid houses like Devonshire House in Jamaica and Nelson’s dockyard in Antigua will never be separated from their association with white privilege, slavery, and imperial conquest.
Cultural forms have managed to survive beyond the original group in the Caribbean (Higman, 2007). For instance, although a significant population of Amerindian can only be found in Guyana with vestigial presences in the Republic of Dominica and Trinidad, some aspects of their culture such as food, hammocks, and names of places, art forms, and mythology still have a wide distribution. Other cultural forms do not have any association with their originating groups such as fife music and drum from the 18th-century British soldiery now found only in African-Caribbean events like the Jamaican Jonkonnu festival. However, other forms have completely disappeared, such as South Indian fire-walking for being prohibited by colonialists or stayed within a particular group and was unknown to others (Higman, 2007). Some of the cultural forms that have disappeared include maticore or chowtal singing that remains solely within the Indo-Caribbean. But how do reggae and literature show evidence of cultural retentions from original cultures?
Reggae
Reggae originated in the rocksteady and ska of the 1960s Jamaica but was strongly influenced by other traditional Caribbean calypso music, Mento and the American jazz, blues, and rhythm. According to Murrell (1998), the genre has grown to a global phenomenon recognized today by UNESCO as a cultural institution. Reggae roots spring from post-war Jamaica social upheaval and is a fusion or creolization of various musical styles and eras intertwined with a message of hope and unity. Mento refers to the Jamaican folk music of the 1940s and 1950s and is similar to the Calypso whose origin is Trinidad. The Mento sound is associated with the Jamaican convergent society. Colonized in the 1500s by Spain and Britain in the mid-1600s, Jamaica is dominated by enslaved people transported from Africa to be labourers in sugar plantations. Hence, this mix of cultures was a big contribution to the growth of identifiable Jamaican sounds characterized by a fusion of African and European traits whose origin is enslaved work songs created with rumba box, guitar, banjo, and bongo (Murrell, 1998). The mixture of Mento with other satirical lyrics from everyday life and repetition of verse created a foundation from where reggae blossomed.
Like the other musical styling within the Caribbean, reggae is characterized by strong cultural associations with politics and religion. According to Murrell (1998), the growth of Rastafarianism and ska music played a key role in creating the popular genre, although the urban music received significant influence from feelings of youth who lived in Kingston. The direct musical reggae predecessors are ska and rocksteady, while its social predecessors include the struggle for independence in Jamaica and the perennial political issues. While there is wide incorporation of Rastafarian beliefs into reggae songs by the majority of reggae lyricists and musicians, not all reggae musicians, follow the Jamaican religion. In terms of politics, the Jamaican society was characterized by opposition between young people, otherwise known as “yout’-man” against the Rasta, otherwise referred to as “down-pressors,” for example, the police. Also, Rastafarian beliefs characterized Africa as the homeland and Jamaica the Babylonian prison, a situation that undermined politician’s statements for a united Jamaica (Murrell, 1998). Moreover, Rastafarians’ marijuana or ganja use was criminalized by Jamaican law.
As such, the impact of reggae as cultural retention on the Caribbean society is massive. According to Stolzoff (2000), songs that initially focused on sex and love began to change to include spiritual, social and political notions in their lyrics. Most reggae musicians turned to be Jamaican’s social commentators, prophets, and shamans. And to those at lower classes in the society reggae become and is still a way of ensuring their voice is heard, of expressing their feelings on conditions facing them and the country generally. For this reason, music plays a significant role in Jamaican society and, more so, for the majority poor. Before the recording industry began in the country, Jamaicans maintained their tradition from a generation to the other through music. This music was heard at work, funerals, religious gatherings, and other social events. Jamaica’s history is one but long tales of sad intrigues, lawlessness, suffering, and immoral profits (Stolzoff, 2000). At the centre is Africa slaves who are the ancestors of Jamaicans today, while reggae has continued to reflect the folk music’s heritage since its invention.
Hence, Reggae mirrors what people retained and carried through from Africa and other cultural aspects Jamaicans had learned from other countries transcending their history According to Stolzoff (2000), it deals with most racial and social problems encountered in Jamaican history by principally concentrating with rights and truths as well as colonial legacies. Thus, reggae’s presence is strongly felt today not only in the Caribbean but globally, influencing other genres like hip hop, punk, and rock through renowned artists such as Sean Paul, Eric Clapton, Protoje, Rihanna, and Chronixx. Again, Caribbean’s and particularly Jamaicans always mirror their environment through music to create an authentic reflection of their nation (Stolzoff, 2000). This power of reggae, which is built on a historical foundation and the spirit of Jamaican people and messages about their future, has become a notion appreciated universally.
Vodou
Vodou is the creolized religion that was forged by the descendants of Kongo, Yoruba, Dahomean and other ethnic groups from Africa enslaved and transported to the colonial Saint-Domingue, now Haiti and Christianised in 16th and 17th centuries by the Roman Catholic missionaries. According to Mocombe (2016), the African dances performed by slaves in the 17th century in western Hispaniola island and the religious beliefs of Lemba, Siniga, Fon, Yoruba among others were combined with other beliefs from European folk origin like the Roman Catholic saints, effectively developing the neo-African religion, Vodou. Between 1780 and 1790, there was an increase in slave importation to Hispaniola as well as the emergence of Vodou and a gradual ascendancy of Fon ideas (Mocombe, 2016). Further synthesis of the religion was brought by revolutionary leaders trying to find the rites useful to their cause in the last decade of the 18th century.
As such, the supernatural phenomenon of significance in Vodou is lwa or Zanj, miste and other names derived from old African gods while other deities have names of African tribal names or places, names derived Haiti or Catholic saints (Beckles, 2001). However, others have names from the uncertain origin. Hence, the notable contradictions and confusion in Vodou beliefs on the beings are partly due to contradictions in Fon religious system adopted by Haitians and partly due to the merging of Fon system with the Yoruba’s. The endless variation in beliefs in the ultimate reality has resulted in a lack of hierarchy in the Vodou cult and written documents. For this reason, inconsistency and variety in Haitian Vodou has developed and continues to develop partly through the mechanism of the altered state of consciousness, especially in forms of dreams and possession-trance. However, in Haiti, possession-trance has not been highly prescribed or stereotyped (Beckles, 2001). And during possession-trance, members and cult leaders act and speak in names of spirits and behave in ways that could modify the future performance of rituals or the adherent’s perception of spirits.
As such, the grand Iwa comprises nature and functional spirits of African origin (Mocombe, 2016). Among the nature spirits, the most prominent is the Dambala, a serpent spirit identified with rainbow and mostly associated with floods; the spirit of winds, Bade; the Fon spirit of thunder, Sogbo; the spirit of thunder and lightning among the Yoruba, Sango or Sango; and the spirit of the sea, Agwe. On the other hand, the functional Iwa includes Legba, the Fon guardian of all barriers and crossroads; family spirits associated with war, Ogou, and Zaka, crop and agriculture among many others. Additionally, in West Africa, the concept of soul is meticulously elaborated while in the traditional Fon believes, all persons have three souls and adults males have four (Mocombe, 2016). Alternatively, in Haitian Vodou, every man is considered to have two souls.
The Haiti dictatorial president between 1957 and 1971, Francois Duvalier managed to successfully exploit Vodou for political reasons (Higman, 2007). Nevertheless, the majority of observers opine the cult has been weakened in the recent years while an important factor contributing to its decline is the decay of large extended families, especially in rural areas. Further, many large cult centres are today split up into minor sects manned by priests whose training is inadequate. The economic poverty that continues to deepen, particularly in the countryside has contributed to the impoverishment of the ritual (Higman, 2007). The expanding urbanization has seen the emergence of innovative cult leaders dealing with problems of heterogeneous clientele rather than those with traditional concerns about farming or demands of ancestral spirits.
Hence, in Haiti, a saying goes that the country is 30% Protestant, 70% Catholic and 100% Vodou. According to Mocombe (2016), the spiritual system has been creolized, is practised in the entire Caribbean nation infusing everything from agriculture and medicine to arts and cosmology. Vodou is everywhere for anyone to see, its impact is huge, ceremonies are expensive, but also targets of hate crime leading to an argument that Vodou is currently in danger. However, at Ile-a-Vache, in a remote Haiti southern coast, the Vodou religion is well and alive (Mocombe, 2016). Being completely off, only two medical clinics are available for 14000 residents, and so the islands principal Vodou priest acts as the spiritual leader, midwife, and doctor all at once.
Conclusion
The creolization concept is at the core of discussions on transnationalization, transculturalism, hybridization, multiculturalism, and diversity. Its focus is cultural syncretism, which is the source of cross-fertilization of different cultures. Whenever creolization occurs, individuals choose some aspects from the inherited or incoming cultures, invest them with other meanings and subsequently merge them to create new varieties to replace those original forms. Hence, creolization is the cultural element insisting on new and common to identity in a different place. The subject is closely linked to diasporic consciousness that reflects some level of anxiety on cultural identities within a current location. Further, the homeland is key, and its recovery is through historical memories or social organization since the past provides a continuous pole for identification and attraction. However, creolization is not just a mixture since cultural transmission in situations of de-terrorialisation and displacement suggests the recognition of powerful ‘others.’ Thus, the creolization force brings cultures to relate to one another. This relational process does not reduce them to the same level or resolve itself in an unchanged and reified form.
References
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