History:
Caribbean history cannot be situated within a western understanding of the term “history” as “the whole series of past events connected with someone or something (Oxford Dictionary)” and must be evaluated by understanding “the implosion of Caribbean history (of the converging histories of our peoples) relieves [the Caribbean people] of the linear, hierarchical vision of a single History that would run its unique course. (Glissant, p. 66, 1989)” Glissant –a writer, poet, and philosopher from Martinique– considers the intersectional Caribbean consciousness. In critiquing Hegel, Glissant marks the existence of a non-history where Africans are relegated to ahistorical and Amerindians to a prehistoric in order to reserve history for Europeans (Glissant, 1989). Hence, Caribbean history emerges from disjointed and collective storytelling and outreach that recounts a narrative disrupted by brutal colonial forces.
According to Glissant, a vital history requires the existence of nature: the relationship between an individual and their surroundings, and culture: an accumulation of experiences, shared stories, symbols, and interconnectedness (1989). Caribbean history is characterized by a disconnect between nature and culture resulting from the displacement of millions of Africans from their homeland and the massacre of indigenous Caribbean people. Much as Europeans colonized Caribbean land and people, they colonized and dominated Caribbean history. In Challenges of the Struggle for Sovereignty, Hodge –a Trinidadian novelist– asserts “we can neither achieve the liberation of the Caribbean without affirming and enthroning our culture, nor affirm and enthrone our culture in any real sense until we have won full political sovereignty. (p. 203, 1990)” A diverse and comprehensive Caribbean culture can only emerge through the combined efforts of reclaiming political autonomy and affirming and memorializing Caribbean forms of life both past and present.
Reclaiming a Caribbean history demands centering creole culture that was constructed to resist and rebel against colonial and patriarchal oppression. Hodge writes “think of the implications for our mental health–– we speak Creole, we need Creole, we cannot function without Creole, for our deepest thought processes are bound up in the structure of Creole, but we hold Creole in utter contempt. (p. 204, 1990)” In daily life, Caribbeans maintain unique customs that validate their experience which conflict with ingrained colonial stigmas that devalue and dismiss their existence. The creole language is an accessible and overt expression of Caribbean culture and tells a history of the islands that history books cannot.
Postcolonial historiography is also critically aligned with Marxist and feminist scholarship that repositions the historical method in order to focus upon and reanimate the past of marginalized identity groups … that had been neglected, ignored, and often erased from the annals of history (In Ray et al., 2016)." Margo Okazawa-Rey –an educator, writer, and social activist known as a founding member of the Combahee River Collective– asserted in a presentation at Chapel Hill that we live in a society that makes us forget and it is our responsibility to remember: to remember our traditional cultures, our ancestors and to ignore the messages from the dominant culture to forget the past, assimilate, and carry on (2022). The Caribbean is characterized by a perceived absence of historical material but it is abundantly clear that Caribbean authors are passionately constructing and illustrating Caribbean texts. This is often through untraditional means such as fiction and folklore; Hodge states “[f]or fiction (and perhaps all art) casts a redeeming and enhancing light back upon the reality from which it springs, endowing it with meaning, credibility, and authority. (p. 206, 1990)” The vitality of such a diverse and creole history is both characteristic of the Caribbean and critical to successful liberation, a nourished soul, and enlivened identity.
References
Glissant, É. (1989). The quarrel with history. In Caribbean discourse: Selected essays (pp. 61-67). University of Virginia Press.
Hodge, M. (1990). Challenges of the struggle for sovereignty: Changing the world versus writing stories. In Caribbean women writers: Essays from the first International Conference (pp. 202-208). Calaloux Publications.
Home : Oxford English dictionary. (n.d.). Home : Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87324?rskey=NsFLMR&result=1&isAdvanced=false#eid
In Ray, S., In Schwarz, H., In Villacañas, B. J. L., In Moreiras, A., & In Shemak, A. A. (2016). The encyclopedia of postcolonial studies.
Okazawa-Rey. M. (2022, March, 07). Feminisms and Activism. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America. City, State, Country.