Afro Carribean Culture - Essay Example

Afro Caribbean Culture Caribbean culture consists of the social, political, and literary elements that are representative of the region’s population as well as its influence around the world. The culture has been historically influenced by culture from Europe, with particular influences from Spain, England, and France. The culture has also incorporated elements of the African peoples as well as the culture of other immigrant populations. The regions neighbour, the United States has also had a major influence on the islands’ cultural, economic, and linguistic elements. The federal governments of the Caribbean have also heavily influenced the culture with institutions, laws, and programs. The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation was created to promote, via the media, the culture of the Caribbean. The region’s history is a product of their geography, history, and political systems. As a settler nation’s collection, the region’s culture has been subject to shaping by migration waves that have combined to form a unique culture. This paper aims to discuss the forces that are shaping its culture today, as well as the older influences that are still at play to date. It also seeks to discuss the process of syncretism and how it has been manifested in the culture of the Caribbean. Finally, it will give a detailed review of “When I was Puerto Rican” by Santiago. The Forces Shaping Caribbean Culture Today Having provided a key resource in wealth generation during the sugar islands era, and acting as a bridge between the new world and Europe during the new world’s colonisation, the region has for the last century or so been under the influence of the United States. This is because the US has been the omnipresent military and economic power of the twentieth century (Scher 11). While the influence may be decisive and ever-present, the Caribbean is not reduced to the status of a US dominion. Except Cuba, events occurring over the last decade or so have pointed to the constant initiative occurrence that is pursued in the common interest across the region. Self-assertiveness of every Caribbean entity, the central role-played by the US, and attempts to reach cooperative outcomes shaped by the various geometries involved are at play in this pursuit. The Caribbean position is constantly reformulated by various factors. These are: histories inherent in each entity, relations with their former colonial masters, present links to the EU, residual presence of a number of European states, shared resonance with Central and South American countries, recent influence wielded by countries from Asia, and changes in the global economy especially production of energy (Scher 11). These factors may relate with the individual society’s economic health as well as their current position in the creation of wealth, political alignments in the current world, degree of regional cooperation, cultural identity, and international exchange. The relationship between the Caribbean and the United States has been a longstanding one and has stretched in to the present times. The influence is extended to include social, economic and military contexts. Economically, the United States is a vital market for Caribbean exports. The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act has cemented relations between the two regions in the twenty first century (Scher 13). This basin is of strategic interest for the United States, especially as it is a vital route of trade. Over 50% of US, imports are transported through this seaway. The foreign policy of the Caribbean also aims to cement its participatory role in the global economy. Because of this, the wish not to be excluded from its US primary market or be shunted past in the formation of global trading blocks has seen the United States play a vital and influential role in the shaping of the region’s hemispheric market. Building and strengthening of relations between the US and the Caribbean has also seen the US figuring prominently in the shaping of the region’s economic security, which is an important political goal of the United States (Scher 13). The beneficiary countries of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, CBI, and the United States companies that were operating in the region under this agreement welcomed the NAFTA agreement with both concern and relief. The CBI was a temporary and unilateral program initiated by the US in 1983 and implemented in 1984 (Scher 13). It aimed at the provision of trade and tariff benefits in the Caribbean countries. The US aimed to respond to left leaning movements in the region, especially in Sandinista and Nicaragua, with trade and aid. Provisions of this agreement allowed the US to withhold preferences to those countries that were influenced by the communists. In 1990, the CBI 2 made the initial deal permanent. The US was convinced that NAFTA would spark economic growth and increase demand for Caribbean products to the US when it was ratified in 1994. However, the ratification of this deal with Mexico eased entry of Mexico’s exports into the United States. The former CBI countries lost their relative advantage to the Mexicans, who were a textile and apparel competitor. This caused the Caribbean nations to increase the preferences of their exports in order to achieve parity with NAFTA. These efforts did not however bear fruit until the year 2000 with the ratification of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (Scher 14). This Act was broadened in the year 2002. While several regional exports do continue receiving US preferential status, they are likely to be replaced by free trade agreements of a bilateral nature, as well as the Free Trade areas of the Americas (Scher 14). This has and will lead to further independence of the Caribbean nations from US dependence, as they will have to look to other markets for the sale of their exports. This has acted to decrease the influence of the United States somewhat. Fear of the spread of communism into the Caribbean led to US involvement in the region (Scher 19). This was in the form of training their officers in techniques against the insurgency and direct utilization of United States forces. The American government, especially under President Carter emphasized human rights and reduced grants and aid to governments ruled by authoritarians. The cold war’s demise allowed the US to depoliticize the perceptions of North America towards the threat posed to them by states such as El Salvador and Nicaragua. This was important in allowing free relations between them, such as opening up trade routes. This hands-on approach to the region’s political direction acted to ensure that the Caribbean continued to look at the US as its protector. Following the collapse of Soviet Communism, the US government acted to bring down Caribbean debt levels and encouraged the region towards trade liberalization. In the twentieth, coming into the twenty first century, the focus of American involvement in the Caribbean has turned towards prevention of illegal drug trade into the country via the Caribbean. Economic domination by the US has ensured that the Caribbean region moves towards producing products and services that are aligned to the American market, as well as purchase most American products and services. The domination by the US militarily has also ensured that the region continues to be governed by administrations with close ties to the American government. Culturally, the region has continued to grow towards an American template (Scher 20). One of the exceptions to US domination in the Caribbean is Cuba. A staunch Soviet ally, the country was downsized by the collapse of the Soviet-led communist block which left it isolated in the period spanning early to mid 1990s (Scher 103). While the US has not lifted its embargo on Cuban products and the EU continues to accuse it of human rights and freedoms violation, Cuba has established relations with China and Russia. Cuba has also made inroads to acceptance in the Caribbean nations block after the US had threatened countries not to trade with Cuba. At a meeting in 1998 of Caribbean nations, Fidel Castro asked the leaders to unite and strengthen their cooperation, which would allow them to prevent domination by the global elite in world trade. The Caribbean nations have embraced Castro and Cuba and accused the United States of not honouring trade promises. Until recently, Castro was an outcast in the region due to US influence, but has recently begun to increase scholarships and grants to neighbouring Caribbean countries. This has coincided with the US aid dropping by an approximated 25%. Cuba is also the only country with embassies in all Caribbean independent states (Scher 103). This has allowed Cuba to exert its influence on the region at a time when the US influence is showing signs of waning. The warm relations between Cuba on one hand and Russia and China on the other have given Cuba enough muscle to exert this influence (Scher 104). Another country whose influence is rising in the region is Venezuela. Prior to 2005, the country had very little influence in the Caribbean. This was changed by a series of events. As Caribbean countries continue to suffer from sky rocketing oil and gas prices, Venezuela greatly benefited from the sky rocketing prices from $10 a barrel in 1999 to $60 in the late 2000s. This gave Chavez a capacity to challenge the region’s old order (Scher 96). Having paid off their debts to the IMF, Venezuela was free from the constraints of debt recall and thus was able to extend its influence without threats of major sanctions. The Petro Caribe agreement of 2005 was aimed at providing refined and crude products to Caribbean states for a 90-day part payment. During the signing of this deal, Chavez claimed that he wanted the region to become a resistance fort to the imperialism of the US. Despite receiving a letter from the State Department in the same year criticizing Chavez of threatening democracy and lending support to radical groups in the region, most of the nations in the Caribbean signed the deal (Scher 96). Venezuela is acting in the present as an alternative to the United States and its self-interests and has the support of a majority of Caribbean nations who see Chavez as able to do what they cannot in criticizing American policy, which is mired in self-interest especially economically. An alliance among Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries opposed to US dominated trade relations will have a huge impact on the region’s future. For many years, Cuba held considerable clout in the Americas, which has been taken over by the Venezuelans (Scher 138). This has much to do with the invalidation of Castro and the emergence of Hugo Chavez. With the Caribbean at a cross roads with governments leaning tote left, the moment seems ripe for a seismic transformation of the region with Venezuela and Cuba being the progressive force in this. Their words and actions resonate deeply with the region’s population dealing with neoliberal domination, exclusion, inequality, and poverty. Seeking economic cooperation with china, they aim to diversify the region’s US dominated investment and trade portfolio. Their support for the FARC rebels in Bolivia shows that they are serious about removing the yoke of American domination by aiding in the replacement of American supported-regimes. The US on the other hand has been on a shuttle diplomacy mission, which has seen them appeal to the region to shun the Cuba-Venezuela block as an anti-democracy drive. This has been caused by the US’s fear of losing support to anti-American forces so close to their border (Scher 138). This is especially important for them given the memory of the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s. Older influences that are still influencing the Caribbean society today are the Europeans that discovered and settled in the region. The colonialists proposed regional integration in the region in the latter part of the 19th century (Scher 50). While their idea of integration was based on a wish to streamline the colonial empire, current leaders have picked up this idea. This idea faced some resistance in its nascent stage since most leaders saw it as a means of neo-colonialism. However, the path to closer cooperation is clearer now and there are talks to integrate the region deeper because f their shared heritage and culture, a similar position to that taken by the colonists. The framework the region is following has its roots in the original framework proposed by the Europeans. The region’s music also has a grounding in European folk music and instruments, the best example being calypso music (Scher 50). European influence also continues to have an effect on the religion of the Caribbean region. The regions of the Caribbean that were under British rule are predominantly protestant, with those under Spanish and Portuguese rule are predominantly catholic. Syncretism in the Caribbean Syncretism is an attempt at amalgamation of different schools of thought, cultures, and religions. Linguistically, it is the merging of varieties of inflections of words in the development of a particular language (Romberg 43). It tends to allow the unity and coexistence of worldviews and cultures, which are otherwise very different and is thus very appealing to rulers of realms with multi-ethnicity. Syncretism can be rejected by various groups using the excuse of orthodoxy and piety which may aid in the authentication, bolstering, or generation of a sense of cultural unity for a majority or minority that is well defined. Espiritisimo is a religious movement prevalent in Puerto Rico that is an example of syncretism. It amalgamates belief in God who is supreme and the spirit world that is inhabited by entities of reincarnation that gradually evolve morally and intellectually (Romberg 44). Espiritisimo, forth gave a practice that absorbed practices from spiritual and religious practices that are inherent in Puerto Rico. These included Vodou, Santeria, Curanderisimo, and Roman Catholicism. The movement was beset by numerous setbacks early on in Puerto Rico. The authorities heavily punished its practitioners and the church ostracized them. The literate class received warmly, books by Allan Kardec, a major influence on the practice. Despite the roadblocks placed on the path of its spread, it flourished across the country. The movement consisted of two divisions in Puerto Rico: one was by a movement in the middle class who wanted to utilize it for the country’s development, and the other was by the lower class, which was known as the indigenous Espiritisimo. This latter form is the most popular and is synonymous to the country (Romberg 44). It involves attempts at spiritual communication via a medium, which is practiced widely in Puerto Rico. Over time, however, with secular development in the country, as well as economics development, Espiritisimo has seen its followers ditch religion. Examples of syncretism in North America include Hoodoo practiced by African American communities in South US. Others, which have incorporated influences of Christian Europe, include the Handsome Lake, the Ghost Dance, and the Native American Church (Romberg 14). When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago Santiago’s greatest challenge in this novel is the task that she undertakes to make her story tag along with universal truths. In this aspect, the novel is stunningly successful. It clearly covers dynamics of creating an identity in the context of geographic, class, and ethnic tensions. The book amalgamates an awareness that is incipient of her status as a conflicted thinker, oldest daughter, and an observer filled with anguish at the disintegration of family. It is especially remarkable that she writes without a hint of the self-pity given the amount of betrayal and sadness, which are the butter of her story. Santiago exists in a dual life as a child growing into adolescence in Puerto Rico. Filled with a pride that can best be termed as stubborn, she hid her frightened self behind a smoke screen of acceptance, telling herself that everything was okay (Santiago 50). Ashamed, and at the same time proud, of her identity as a rural jibaro, Santiago struggles with the question of what and who she is. The novel sheds light on the globally relevant issue of identity creation, concealed shame at the circumstances of life, and the questioning of the manner in which families create environments that are so tortured in which their children evolve. Santiago is plagued by the tormented and ambiguous relationship between her parents, exposed to the sounds of both argument and lovemaking. She is not surprised that the two of them have never wed, or at the regular absence of her poetic, hard-working, but very irresponsible dad. Eventually, the quasi-marital pressures of her parents swell up. The most vivid moments of her book has to do with descriptions of this eruption. As they eat away at each other with verbal bombs, they growled words that did not make sense (Santiago 67). Their fighting, Santiago says, echoes every insult and hurt, dinners that had been wasted, the women, and the abandonment. She goes on to say that as she crouched up against the wall, she saw her mami and papi become disfigured with anger. In the midst of all their anger, they had forgotten all about their kids. The only part that was real in the house was the two of them as far as they were concerned. Nicknamed by her parents Negi due to her dark hue, she grows up being sensitive to her ethnic background and is surprised on moving to New York that African Americans have unfounded yet deep suspicions about her ilk. She becomes ambivalent to the US. The question of how American she will get, and at what cost are some of the questions she asks herself which majority of immigrants grapple with every day. Her main question though is how new she can become when her former country Puerto Rico was, for all her life, her America. Though the book covers America and her homeland in the period spanning 1950-1960, it has a feeling of timelessness about it. The memoir is compelling, illuminating, and moving and accomplishes its task of exploring her past and examining all the various forces that have created her own identity. Work Cited Romberg R. Witchcraft and Welfare. Austin, TX: Univ. of Texas Press, 2003. Print. Santiago E. When I was Puerto Rican. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Print. Scher P. W. Perspectives On The Caribbean: A Reader In Culture, History, And Representation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print. Read More