Caribbean Civilization Portfolio (1001) by Jeaniesha Mckenzie https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0 816009826 en-us 2017-12-01 14:39:36 UTC 2026-01-28 18:57:56 UTC hello@padlet.com Objective 1 jeaniesha1 https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212279175 Doing a course like Caribbean civilization, one can be exposed to a lot of material and also a different view of the Caribbean and its history. An outstanding one would have to be the Chimamanda N. Adichie “The Danger of a Single Story”. It was a story of truth and expression. It portrayed the ideology of Chimamanda and how she overcame the obstacle of not having a single story. She loved to read as she started at the tender age of four according to her. That was when she was introduced to American and British novels. She used them as a guide you write her own stories about white blue eyed people. She was so surprised when she read Nigerian books because she did not know that they could belong in literature. She believed this as there were not many and thought that only British and Americans could belong in literature. What agitated her was the ideology Europe had about Africa. “Beasts who have no houses having their mouths and eyes in their breasts” was said was by same philosopher John Locke who spoke out men being their own owners. From the moment Locke spoke the words the stories of Africa became Eurocentric. While viewing the video on November 27th, one can come to a conclusion that the Africans were viewed as primitive people. One can beg to disagree as in Caribbean civilization I learned about authors like Ivan Sertima who spoke about life before Columbus. “The civilization of Africa developed very sophisticated vessels. They built Reed boats with and without sails, log rafts lashed together, dugouts as wide-berthed Viking ships, double canoes, lateen-rigged dhows, join you boats, and ripe sewn plank vessels with straw cabins and cooking facilities. These vessels could be found navigating the Nile and Niger rivers.” (Davidson) If the African were so primitive according to the Europeans, how were they able to build such advance boats and navigate? Due to Eurocentrism, a term used frequently in Caribbean civilization lectures, we can see that the Europeans wanted the praise for discovering the Americas when the Africans which Sertima called the moors were already sailing across the Atlantic. Everyone had this one view that Africa was full of dying people and Caribbean civilization used Chimamanda’s story to show students that u cannot have a single story. 


]]> 2017-12-01 14:42:50 UTC https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212279175 Objective 2 jeaniesha1 https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212286913 “Ethnic minority groups of migrants’ origins, residing in host countries but maintaining strong sentimental and material links to their countries of origin and or their homeland.” (Sheffer) This was how Gabriel Sheffer defined modern diaspora. We in the Caribbean fall into the category of cultural diaspora. A social environment for me that shows this is the University of the West Indies (UWI) Trinidad and Tobago. In UWI students are exposed to many cultures as students from all over the Caribbean as well as the rest of the world come to study at UWI and are quite enthusiastic to share their cultures as well as engage in the Trinbago culture. One of the major things is Carnival. Carnival originated from the slavery era as the blacks mocked their white masters. Carnival was developed by the French in 1783 as it represented a season of festivities from Christmas to Ash Wednesday. It signified the beginning of the Lenten season for Catholics. The African began to engage in the festivities in 1833 and paraded through the streets pretending to be their former white masters. Past experiences make our culture special and unique. It makes us who we are. UWI helps build culture as a result of the diaspora. Everyone comes from somewhere and many of us would not have been here if not for our forefathers who travelled through the Atlantic to the Caribbean. When listening to the plenary on the13th of November which spoke about culture, I decided to do culture as an objective. The Caribbean has such a rich culture with every Caribbean island having something new to the table and UWI is a great place to learn and become socialized in the cultures of our Caribbean students.

 

]]> 2017-12-01 14:57:09 UTC https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212286913 Objective 3 jeaniesha1 https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212288845 Haiti according to the History of Haiti was considered the “Pearl of the Antilles” (Coupeau). “St. Domingue was “France’s most prosperous colony in the Caribbean overshadowing Guadeloupe and Martinique” (Bryan). Haiti’s contemporary society is as a result of past experiences. “Geography and bad luck are only partly to blame for Haiti's tragedy”. (Henley). This was said in an article done by “The Guardian” that spoke about Haiti and the events such as the earthquake in 2010 and the amount of debt the country is in as a result of borrowing so much money since their post-colonial stage to now. Many say that Haiti’s bad luck stems from their religion of Voodoo. It is said that these “evil” spirits a free all over the country and as a result the country cannot move forward due to this curse. According the World Bank, Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas. Over fifty nine percent (59%) of Haitians live under the poverty line. While gathering information on Thursday 26th October 2017, I came across my old history notes and saw that Haiti economic problems stemmed from their post emancipation era where they gained their independence from France and was ruled by a number of leaders like Toussaint L’overture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Alexandre Pétion. Toussaint used the same method as the French rulers which was dictatorship as he treated his own people like slaves. I thoroughly enjoyed the Haitian Revolution as it Haiti was the first black nation to gain independence from mother country. One can think that if they waited for the rest of the Caribbean to gain independence they would not be in the predicament there are in at present day with the poverty and how prone they are to natural disasters.

 

]]> 2017-12-01 15:00:21 UTC https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212288845 Objective 4 jeaniesha1 https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212290598 Doing a course like Caribbean civilization one can safely say what was expected was quite different to what the course entailed. The course carried my mind through a wonderful journey where past experiences shaped our Caribbean society into how negative it is today. Topics like Eurocentrism were taught giving students an insight into why society is how it is, and how important history is for any society when recorded properly. I learnt to be open minded as well as previous teachings of our history done in secondary school was more Eurocentric. In Caribbean civilization, it was seen to be more Caribbean based as local authors such as Dr Eric Williams and Hillary Beckles gave us views of history from a Caribbean point of view. The course being an online course was quite unusual as questions and discussions you would usually have in a classroom environment were not how they usually were. Although there was a chat box, students tuned to use it for personal views rather than share their views of the plenary that was going on at the time. From the moment I logged into the first plenary on Monday 11th September, I already knew that this course was one to be filled with unexpected twists and turns. From learning about slavery all the way to culture and getting a better understanding of the course was of ease as the tutorials helped to clarify any problems one can have after listening to the lecture. It was quite an enjoyable course as the material learnt gave a wonderful insight of the Caribbean.

 

]]> 2017-12-01 15:03:31 UTC https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212290598 Introduction jeaniesha1 https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212291487 This portfolio seeks to display my personal views on social issues and my understanding of Caribbean Civilization. studying a foundation like Caribbean Civilization I was exposed to many issues that applied to the Caribbean due to past experiences. In this portfolio each objective addressed was reflected in the four objectives. The first objective highlighted the views of a story teller Chimamanda N. Adichie . The second objective displayed the culture and diaspora. the third was the about the contemporary Haitian society and the last objective was my views of Caribbean civilization course. ]]> 2017-12-01 15:04:59 UTC https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212291487 Cited works jeaniesha1 https://padlet.com/jeaniesha1/3vzk36u2wys0/wish/212320610 Bryan, Patrick E. ",The Haitian Revolution and its effects." n.d. 4.

Coupeau, Steve,. " The History Of Haiti,." n.d. 3.

Davidson, Basil. "African Before Columbus." (1969).

Henley, Jon. "Haiti: a long descent to hell." (2010).

Sheffer, Gabriel. 1969.

https://www.google.tt/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://sta.uwi.edu/conferences/09/salises/documents/M%2520Franklin.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwj4rpb3lOXXAhWKSyYKHVJtDBoQFggeMAE&usg=AOvVaw34SIfyAXRqzmvLtWNfO40e

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster

http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

 

 

 



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