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At the beginning of this course my perspective was that it was going to be the same as Caribbean Studies. Additionally being a medical student I thought it was going to be extremely challenging in terms of all the reading and new information I was going to be exposed to. However the course has been quite an intriguing learning experience especially the fact that Africans ventured to the Caribbean before slavery and even that a lot of wife murders stemmed from the new freedom experienced by Indian women during indentureship.  I believe that this course has truly broadened my knowledge on our unique history as a Caribbean region and how certain challenges still affect us today from fractured gender identities to the lack of unity between certain race groups.

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The study of male and female relationships in the Caribbean would not be satisfactory without referencing the historical experiences of colonialism , slavery and indentureship . Particularly African slavery sheds light on the fact that challenges faced  Caribbean women were and still is greatly different from that of the western women. White women on the  plantation ensured that  African women were stripped of all physical materials which were used to express their culture and traditional fashion however they were very inventive and began wrapping their hair and cutting up their dresses in unique styles and patterns. This tradition can be seen today where the head wrap has made its way into the fashion industry and are sold in stores not only in the Caribbean but worldwide. African women were treated as being of a lower social status  and inferior to the whites on the plantation even though white women were facing their own challenges. Additionally in modern day a lot of European women are now attempting to undergo physical alterations in an attempt to obtain the natural bodies that African and women of colour are born with. This is seen by the growing plastic surgery industry worldwide.

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Since the intervention of Europeans into the Caribbean region any other race group was brainwashed into believing that they are of a lower social class or inferior. Evidence of this can be seen when examining the plantation system where status was ascribed and based on race and colour. A reflection of this can be seen in the Caribbean today where people of a lighter skin colour are favoured and held in higher esteem,due to this belief skin bleaching has become a norm in various islands. Not only has this act been etched in the minds of the people but it is also portrayed in certain dancehall songs often referred to as “cake soap”. Triggered by deep historical ,sociocultural and psychosocial roots this dangerous act indicates the European dominance still affects us today. It has led to the blinding of the Caribbean people of how unique and beautiful we are by not accepting our race and colour. However many European people today venture to our islands or even purchase materials to make their skin darker.

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Uploaded by Nick Recorteds on 2013-10-03.

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The European rulers being fueled by the hunger to attain economic advancement were in dire need of a new workers to fill the labour void left after the abolition of chattel  slavery. This eventually led to the indentureship program . The Indians who ventured to the Caribbean were willing to work for the small wages being offered in order to escape from the extreme poverty occurring in India at the time.The European rulers used the fact that the Indians were in an alien environment practicing their own unique, strange traditions and that they were now obtaining money for a job which was done for free by the enslaved people to force a wedge between the two groups. This tension however has been etched in the two  communities, a great example would be the clear race politics being practiced in Trinidad and Tobago today. There are two dominant political parties one being mainly made up of the persons of African decent and the other being of East ndian decent . This rivalry is  heavily portrayed on social media whenever any racist or inappropriate language are by the political leaders, the public becomes greatly engaged in the disputes creating memes and making comments which aids in depicting the division in our society today.

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The unique history of the caribbean has without a doubt been responsible for the intense cultural diversity that we see today. Every group of people who ventured to the region has imprinted their customs and traditions therefore contributing to the melting pot of various cultures that we possess here in the Caribbean. However some of the atrocities that were inflicted by the metropoles who passed through the region has managed to linger and still affect us in modern day society. The topic being discussed in these entries are primarily focused on the fallout of certain practices of the  plantation system in the present day Caribbean .