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Considering three ways in which Caribbean identity is shaped by U.S. imperialism to this day. Focusing on Music, Fashion and Speech.

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Examening US Imperialism - Music, Fashion, Speech

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After the American Civil War, the United States went into a period of isolationism where they decided to focus on their own internal development and chose not to get involved with the affairs of other nations. During this period they had effectively conquered the frontier and therefore had nowhere else to expand in the United States. They were also able to foster their industrial and agricultural growth to the point where they were producing more than their internal markets could consume.
As a result, the United State ended their period of isolationism and revived Manifest Destiny. The closeness of the Caribbean region and the fact that the United States had already been shut out by large consumer states like Africa and Asia, the Caribbean become the ideal place for them to control with a ready consumer market. Specifically, Captain Alfred Mahan argued that for America to become a powerful nation they needed to look outwards and across the sea specifically to the wider Caribbean. He was not the only one who advocated for this, in fact, many others were interested in advocating the necessity for an American empire in the Caribbean.
This wide spread adoption of this idea has caused Caribbean identity to be heavily influence ever since. U.S norms, values and cultural practice has made its way into the daily activities of Caribbean islands. The personal identity of many Caribbean people has altered in include U.S aspects. The national itself has accepted U.S. political and economic ideologies and not only are they practice but taught in school, only further embedding U.S. imperialism into Caribbean identity.

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The term ‘diaspora’ refers to a particular group of people who live in one place but have a connection with another place that they originated from. The word literally means dispersion, referring to the movement of a people whether it was voluntary or forced. In the Caribbean the population is entirely made up of different diasporas, forced diasporas like the Africans and voluntary like the East Indians.
For a diaspora, a sense of identity can be quite conflicted. William Du Bios (cited in Harris, 1993) puts forward the notion that diasporic persons or communities are torn between two identities, he refers to it as ‘double consciousness’, it is not necessarily a visible concept more of an internal conflict. One can be accepted that the new place they are in is now home and generations pass and the original homeland becomes a place that they have no personal connection to. In this case identity is formed based on one’s place of birth and can eventually form an entirely new diaspora. On the other hand, the sense of home can always remain with the homeland and does not change with time and space. Even though generations go by the new place with never be accepted and a longing to return will always persist. This can fuel movements through popularity like Marcus Garvey’s ‘Back to Africa’ movement which demonstrated the amount of people who still identified with the homeland of Africa and connected them.

Therefore, a Caribbean diasporic person is torn between settling down and adopting the local identity or never feeling like they belong but feeling the pull to the ‘mother’ land. Ultimately, a dual-identity is developed, the decision is made to stay, adjust to the new homeland but the pull to the motherland always remains in the psyche. Eventually, the new homeland can become the motherland as the Caribbean has created its own unique history since the migration of different diasporas and has indeed created its own diasporic presence in many other countries.

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Benedict Anderson (1999), argues that identities are often been constructed based on points of knowledge that various interest groups have deemed important. He sees a collective sense of identity as contributing to the creation of a nation. He defines the nation as “an imagined political community … imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each, lives the image of their communion” (1999, p. 6).

In the context of the Caribbean, this means that the Caribbean islands identify with many of the same things like a common history and diaspora, which also means that there is common cultures and sometimes even have the same problems. This fosters the shared beliefs and behaviours among the islands allowing for identification under one commonality; being part of the Caribbean.

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HAITI'S ROLE IN CARIBBEAN IDENTITY FORMATION

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HAITI'S ROLE IN CARIBBEAN IDENTITY FORMATION

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The Haitian Revolution in 1791 to 1803 was a West Indian slave revolt that not only succeeded in abolishing slavery but in achieving national independence, thus creating the first regional nation state. It was the first successful movement driven by a need for individual, independent identity. The revolution was the result of the social antagonism taking place in Haiti, as well as, the influences of the French Revolution.

However, even with the freedom also came a price to be paid. Becoming an independent nation meant that they would become part of the world’s economy meaning they would need to conduct external trade and unfortunately their former colonizer prevented them from doing so by creating a naval blockade. This forced Haiti to then agree to pay France 90 million-franc not only to maintain their freedom but for access to trade relations and diplomatic recognition. Therefore, even to they were able to create a new identity, society was not allowed to change much and immediate freedom had to be given up because of need to remain part of the world’s economy, condemning them to impoverishment.

From its independence to this day, Haiti remains prominent in the Caribbean people’s minds. A calypsonian, David Rudder, sang a calypso entitled “Haiti”. In it he cries “Haiti I’m sorry” where he argues that the world turns a blind eye to Haiti when there is possibly more that can be done to help them. I think he has point, Haiti has been suffering ever since there independence and now many countries are in a position to help and yet it take something like a natural disaster or a cholera outbreak for them to recapture the world’s attention and even then the aid they do receive only seems to maintain the situation, never quite improving it. David Rudder say “one day we’ll turn our heads and look inside you” implying maybe one day people will really and truly help them and not just put a band-aid on the problem.

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A sense of identity involves subjective matters relating to how one sees the world or how one experiences self-hood. It is individual identity comprised of the collective dimension, where other people, history and society have an impact, and the personal dimension, which involves self-hood, the personal characteristics and behaviours of an individual. This means that personal identity is influenced by one environment in connection with personal behaviours and attributes to determine how individuals define themselves with what is important or what matters to them.

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The fact of identity refers to a group situation where the characteristics focused on are objective attributes which are shared, and which concern the behaviour of individuals. Objective attributes which are shared might include race and ethnicity, or gender. This means that this type of identity is developed through socialization. Most of the time there is little choice over this identity, it is given to an individual.

A prominent calypsonian by the name of Chalkdust, sang a calypso called “We Is We (Identity)” which is an excellent example of fact of identity, being a Trinidadian and Tobagonian. In the calypso, he spends his time stating the things that make us unique enough to form an identity like steelpan, the accent and “our kind of Hosey”. He implies that even though our ancestors originated from different places all over the world we have built an image that only we as a people can identify with in the words “regardless of your colour, the world knows you by your culture”. He says “is right here you will find your identity” meaning no matter where you go or where you look your identity will always be in Trinidad and Tobago.

In his calypso, Chalkdust thoroughly describes a fact of identity, his fact of identity and the fact of identity of many people in Trinidad and Tobago as these are the things we all share.

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Album : First Time Around. Arranged By Art De Coteau.

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The concept of Caribbean Identity is quite complex and controversial. It appears to be easy to define but the more it is though about, the more complicated it becomes. The reason for this is because of the various inputs that influence identity, such as, history religion and ethnicity.

The basic definition of an identity is the individual characteristics, style or manner that are fundamental to a person (or thing) and by which that person is recognized. The problem with this definition is that it implies that identity is fixed and based on a person’s choices, however it can be argued that identity is fluid and changes with a person as they grow and interact with society in different social and cultural situations.

Abrahim Khan (1996) suggests that identity can be distinguished into two types. He views identity as difficult to truly determine because it is constantly changing and linked to consciousness and self-awareness.  The first type is the fact of identity and the second is a sense of identity.

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As the end of the course has approached, I can honestly say Caribbean Civilization was not what I expected. Having heard the opinions from previous students, this course was expected to be a rehash of form 5 and 6 history. However, from the first lecture I could clearly distinguish a difference and from there my attitude toward the course gradually changed. The course reminded me to not just focus on knowing the history of the Caribbean but also thinking about how it applies and is understood in the present context.

The atmosphere of the course was quite enjoyable; never once adding to the stress of the semester. This helped in fostering a willingness to learn. The lectures and tutorials were conversational and interactive and the tutor always found ways to make the topic relatable so it was easier to understand and remember a lot of the information. The incorporation of all three campus’ into a single course was a unique experience, talking to people from so many different islands, learning and teaching new things but united for the same purpose only helped strengthen my identify as part of the Caribbean not just my country.

In conclusion, Caribbean Civilization was quite an enjoyable course and even though I didn’t want to at first, relearning some of the information only fostered my love for Caribbean history. I also obtained a lot of new valuable information and developed my way of thinking.