The Caribbean Civilization course has given me an ethnocentric view of the Caribbean. This course has opened my eyes to the history of our ancestors and what it means to be a West Indian, belonging to the multi-ethnic and multicultural Caribbean. I also got a chance to expand my lexicon which can be used in everyday life as well as explaining our heritage to others. 

The course allowed me to look at Caribbean history in a different perspective. A perspective based on the less powerful persons in society over the normal perspective forced onto us by the powerful group in society. This allowed me to challenge my previous knowledge about certain historical events. For example, the perspective that Christopher Columbus discovered the Caribbean when in fact it was already inhabited by the Neo-Indians and other groups of persons visited the Caribbean before him (artefacts were found to prove these statements). I was enlightened on the excruciating fact that Caribbean society was built on pain, suffering, dehumanizing and bloodshed among others of our ancestors.

It was overall a very enjoyable course where I learned about past and present Caribbean society and facts that affect Caribbean people negatively and positively and the changes the society took to reach where we are today. An example is the fact that females and males are not oppressed as much as before and have greater opportunities in pressuring their dreams and being educated in the Caribbean.  

   WHY IS HAITI SO POOR?

Haiti which was once known as St. Dominique during the French colonial reign, which lasted for about 300 years until the slaves fought and won their freedom. Haiti was once one of the richest Caribbean island due to its ports where slaves, sugar and coffee were the main merchandise, but it was due to colonization and early independence which befell them. 

One perspective that makes Haiti poor is due to its geographic location and events of deforestation that have been occurring since colonialization. During colonialization majority of the forested area was cut down to provide land for plantation estates, ports for exportation and importation of goods and houses. Deforestation leads to a host of negative effects such as removal of top soil (soil which contains minerals and nutrients needed for plant growth), less infiltration during rainfall would occur and water would thus run on the surface carrying sediments into waterways increasing turbidity and unfit for consumption, there is an increased chance of landslides since there is nothing to hold the soil in place and these factors can lead to flooding. 

The mountain range between Haiti and the Dominican Republic causes Haiti to experience drought and less rainfall. Due to the direction of the winds coming mainly form the East (Domninican republic side) it hits the mountain range and are forced upwards to form relief rainfall patterns. The winds also lead to the movement of hurricanes towards Haiti which leads to flooding, landslides, and other hazards. 

These factors have a negative effect on agriculture in the country, meaning the have little or no sources of food and due to economic constraints, they are unable to import food and thus they are starving. There is an increased temperature due to the lack of trees and this leads to formation of pathogens (diseases) and vectors. Also sue to removal of top soil it is difficult to grow crops to feed themselves and tress which could have been used to export as lumber and firewood (as they did in the past). 

          Europe and North America have influence on Caribbean literature in certain ways, characters, businesses and in rear cases style of writing (where mainly mesolect and acrolect is used). Examples of these are seen in the book Through It All Giselle Mills and Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul (pg20). 

The Caribbean taste for foreign goods also expand to our preference in reading foreign literature over the local ones. Parents influence their children to read foreign books since it is perceived in society that Acrolect is the superior language, and it would increase ones’ social class. The school system in the Caribbean promotes local literature on a smaller scale than foreign literature. In primary school we are required to ‘Boyo and Carla’ a local literature but as we get older more foreign literature is introduced for Comprehension at exam periods. At secondary school level majority of books by Shakespeare are used in Literature and English studies. Yes, some local books such as ‘Response’ and ‘Bite In’ are used, but it’s not frequently used.

In society people are stereotyped based on social class, physical appearance, behaviour and race and a person’s perception about others. Stereotypes are used to gain social approval from parents, teachers, and peers when people gain certain attitudes and beliefs that are similar to certain group in society. Stereotypes are widely held beliefs that people have certain traits because they belong to a certain group in society. It is usually inaccurate and frequently portray less powerful people in society. It is used to determine what job a person would obtain. The poor in the video was a ‘domestic help’ who would get charitable goods from the richer/ person of higher class. 

In the video the poor was seen as nothing but being poor and couldn’t be hard working or have nice things, but in reality, they could have been hardworking.   

Hence, the statement by Chiamanda ‘stories are impressionable on the way we think, our minds become vulnerable and subjected’ can be seen in Caribbean society in the form of literature and stereotyping persons.

Plotnik, Rod, and Haig Kouyoumdjian. Introduction to Psychology. 9th ed., Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning, 2011.

Roachford, Edlin D. Communication Studies:Preparing students for CAPE. IUniverse, 2008.

            The Caribbean can be described as a patriarchal society, “this is a social system where men dominate all social institutions (a set of values, ideas and beliefs each society has) and females are oppressed.” An ideal explanation of this is to discuss gender roles.

            “Gender roles are traditional or stereotypical behaviors, attitudes and personality traits that parents, peers and society expect us to have because we are male or female.” It has a significant impact on how people act, behave, and think in society based mainly on traditions and religion. Hence, it is used to distinguish what careers, roles and chores in a household males and females are expected to do. In the family women are expected to the ‘center of focus’ meaning she cooks, cleans, be the major caretaker and nurturer, they may or may engage in a career; this ideology is then passed onto her children.

            This also influences education where girls are keep home from school to help with household chores and a prevent or not supported in perusing higher levels of education. While boys can persist their education. Females are also expected to follow in careers that would enhance household skills such as Food and Nutrition while boys wold engage in sports and Science. 

Women are also stereotyped to wear clothes that are very exposing, having an ‘hourglass figure’ and being slim and able to dance (‘whine’). Women are also demerited, by society and ridiculed (they are called ‘whores’/ ‘ho’) if they have more than one sexual while men are merited or honored by peers. These are promoted through media especially in Dancehall songs which demerit women in various ways making them seem as very sexual and seductive beings’ inferior to men. Men are stereotyped to be aggressive, superior to females and fearless.