The African-Caribbean Worldview and the Making of a Caribbean Society

257 Pages·2010·1.46 MB·English

by  Horace Levy

The African-Caribbean Worldview and
the Making of Caribbean Society
The African-Caribbean
Worldview and the
Making of Caribbean Society
EDITED BY HORACE LEVY
University of the West Indies Press
Jamaica • Barbados (cid:129) Trinidad and Tobago
University of the West Indies Press
7A Gibraltar Hall Road Mona
Kingston 7 Jamaica
www.uwipress.com
© 2009 by Horace Levy
All rights reserved.Published 2009
13 12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2 1
CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
The African-Caribbean worldview and the making of Caribbean society /
edited by Horace Levy.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
Papers presented at a conference to celebrate the work of Professor Barry Chevannes
held at the University of the West Indies,Mona campus,Jamaica,January 19–21,
2006.
ISBN:978-976-640-210-5
1.Chevannes,Barry.2.West Indies – Civilization – African influences.3.Jamaica –
Civilization – African influences.4.West Indies – Religion – African influences.
5.West Indies – Social conditions. 6.Identity (Psychology) – West Indies.7.Ethnicity
– West Indies.I.Chevannes,Barry.II.Levy,Horace.
F2169.A47 2009 972.9
Cover illustration:Being in Becoming (acrylic on paper),by Clinton Hutton.
Courtesy of the artist.
Book and cover design by Robert Harris.
Set in Plantin Light 10/14.5 x 24
Printed in the United States of America.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction
HORACE LEVY 1
1 Jamaica,the Caribbean,Africa:Some Oppositions
and Their Politics
DIANE AUSTIN-BROOS 10
2 Myal,Revival and Rastafari in the Making of Western Jamaica:
Dialogues with Chevannes
JEAN BESSON 26
3 Colonial Injustice:The Crown v.the Bedwardites,27 April 1921
VERONT M. SATCHELL 46
4 Education,Race and Respectability in Jamaica,circa the
1938 Labour Rebellion
KHITANYA PETGRAVE 68
5 No Space for Race? The Bleaching of the Nation in
Postcolonial Jamaica
ANNIE PAUL 94
6 Museography and Places of Remembrance of Slavery in
Martinique,or the Gaps in a Memory Difficult to Express
CHRISTINE CHIVALLON 114
7 “Reflection”from the Margin:Jah Cure and Rastafari
Celebrity in Contemporary Jamaica
JAHLANI NIAAH and SONJAH STANLEY NIAAH 132
8 If Yuh Iron Good You Is King:Pan in 3-D
KIM JOHNSON 151
9 Don Drummond:Just How Good Was He?
HERBIE MILLER 170
10 “Blak Up! Blak Up!”:Liturgical Compositions of
Barry Chevannes
ANNA KASAFI PERKINS 187
11 Creoles as Linguistic Markers of National Identity:Examples
from Jamaica and Guyana
BÉATRICE BOUFOY-BASTICK 202
12 Understanding Sexual Behaviour in Jamaica
J. PETER FIGUEROA 210
13 The Third Crisis:Jamaica in the Neoliberal Era
DON ROBOTHAM 223
An Autobiographical Note
BARRY CHEVANNES 241
Contributors 247
vi CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgement must be made of those whose energy and commitment to
acclaiming the life and work of Professor Barry Chevannes fuelled the plan-
ning and conduct of the conference in his honour from which have come the
essays in this collection:Dwight Bryan,Sean Ffrench,Herbert Gayle,Sonjah
Stanley-Niaah, Jahlani Niaah, Shakeisha Wilson, Lori Henry and Paul
Thompson, as well as Ian Boxill, head of the Department of Sociology,
Psychology and Social Work, and Mark Figueroa, dean of the Faculty of
Social Sciences.
vii

Introduction
HORACE LEVY
This book is about the identity of Caribbean people, the bold, if at times
meandering,steps of its emergence and the creative breadth of its embrace
across the region.It is not,however,an abstract disquisition on the subject,
nor even a carefully planned and organized set of presentations.Rather,it is
a collection of articles bursting spontaneously around a powerful theme:The
African-Caribbean Worldview and the Making of the Caribbean.This theme
generated a wealth of wide-ranging contributions from both West Indians
and non-West Indians from around the world,those who have glimpsed and
been struck by the worldview and the making.
So this book makes no claim to be all-inclusive and exhaustive on its
subject.It is about some of the major expressions of identity of a small and
economically weak,yet in culture – some would say – impactful civilization.
It is about the birth pains of this identity,its unique creations and achieve-
ments, its historical and present-day challenges and battles, with special
attention given to the Jamaican site.
The person who inspired the chapters in this collection, delivered at a
conference in January 2006 in his honour, is the well loved Barry
Chevannes.Professor Chevannes is a social anthropologist and former dean
of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies,Mona
campus, Jamaica. International recognition of his work is evident in the
honorary fellowship accorded him by the Royal Anthropological Institute of
the United Kingdom.The depth and breadth of his perspective on the
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