External Views as a Result of Colonialism in the Caribbean

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Upon colonization, there was a huge effort to assimilate - a process "of dragging the whole society into some imitative relationship with this other culture that one could never quite reach. When one talks about assimilation in the Caribbean, one always feels Caribbean people constantly leaning forward, almost about to tip over, striving to reach somewhere else." (Hall, 2001, p.28) This leaning forward, or tipping, that is being referred to is a result of multiple different cultures being pulled into a region from all different areas, and then being taught and expected to act as the culture that has ordered itself superior, however never fully having that ability to be seen as the culture they’re acting as, this being as a result of their skin colour placing them lower in social class. An African or Carib person would never fully be respected as a white person may in this time, and this has led to innately instilled feelings of racism or shame in the people in this region, and therefore a desire to rather be acknowledged of European, or what was seen as ‘superior’ descent, and have an exterior focus.

This pulling of people Hall mentions was not all at once of course; it first began with the Indigenous people colonized, and then proceeded to be the African people, and eventually those of India and China as well. But this is because, as Williams phrases it, “It had not to do with the color of the laborer but the cheapness of the labor. [...] Africa was nearer than the moon, nearer too than the more populous countries of India and China. But their turn was to come." (Williams, 1966, p.13) The introduction of these cultures produced many mixed cultures and produced many new results as a process of the combination. This means that languages formed, those such as Creole, are not one of their cultural parts or the other, but rather a new result and this is something only recently being recognized by some, though few, Caribbean countries.

"Over the centuries, the Caribbean region has been a therefore been a geographical receptacle for a diverse flow of material items and cultural stimuli from outside the region - crops, weeds, animals, peoples, technology, food, ideas, and much more. These variables have been absorbed, modified and transformed." (Richardson, 1992, p.22) As I stated in the opening paragraph, all of these things have shaped and modified the definition of Caribbean culture in some way or another, making the untouched definition of this word unattainable for it has been so thoroughly mixed with so many cultures, all the while being overseen by European rule and assimilation. This thorough mixing has created another issue, one within the identity of the Indigenous people, that makes it difficult to trace their own history back and instead forces them to turn outwards as a way of defining who they are.

"The only real Caribs are dead Caribs." Tracy Assing's (2010) voice echoes from her documentary, The Amerindians. This saying is one that has been past down, arguably from European ideologies of wishing their extinction and by the natives affected by this, but one that is irrevocably untrue and is being refuted by the Carib population of the island. Originally, these people have been denied many things in the past, things and rights such as official recognition on censuses. These descendants have depended on the stories of their grandparents and great-grandparents for their history to be told and remembered, at the same time while the indigenous story of survival has been written out of the history books, says Assing (2010). Through being written out of the history books, miscegenation, and simply an instilled shame, similar to those Forte discusses in his paper, these people have been said to have been 'extinct,' (Assing, 2010) another untrue and almost offensive tort at the living community. Because of this loss of history, many of the people on the islands have had to instead accept or follow their European or Christian descendants simply because of a lack of information about the other side of their family tree. This is something arguably seen in the still heavily reliance on Christianity within this area, and an inability to shake itself of outside cultural forces (European or otherwise) simply because of how long and how deeply rooted these forces are within their history.

This view is being combatted by Assing who argues that being Caribbean is not based on one’s skin colour, but rather their history and who they have always felt the most connected to because of how mixed the region is, an idea that combats this outward focus and instead takes an inward and intrinsic look. This is argued by her because of that seemingly forced mixing mentioned earlier, and the dispersing of culture that has led to a lack of directly and definitionally defined Caribbean culture.

Overall, I feel colonialism and the effects that its setting up had on the Caribbean’s formation are what produced this external focus, and this focus is so deeply entrenched in both the people and the culture that it is intrinsic and inseparable. Through a mixing of cultures, both biologically as well as culturally, many new results have been found and reinforced and strengthened, even in their formation in the colonial eras. Once the European powers had usurped what resources and economic value they could, and had taken their investments out, the countries then developed this external focus as a way of creating and maintaining a market in the absence of one, primarily one of tourism and recreation based on the beauty of the land.

Because of this reoccurrence of external values and focusing throughout the Caribbean’s history, some may try to argue that the Caribbean is merely a composition of many cultures being transported and forced into one and the result of this. However, because of the consistency of this mixing and incorporation of outward values, I feel it can be safely argued that this external focus is so entrenched within the Caribbean that it may be considered part of its culture, something I feel Assing would support, and that the mixing of cultures and what they have produced are actually what may be considered Caribbean culture.

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Works Cited

Assing, T. (Director). (2010). The Amerindians [Motion picture on Screened in CRB100]. Trinidad and Tobago: Third Reel Films.

Forte, M. (2013). Who Is an Indian?. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. (pp. 172-193).

Girvan, N. (2001). New Caribbean Thought: A Reader. Mona, JA: University