Authors:Kennedy-Jude Providence Abstract: In the global Feminist forum, many women and women-identifying voices are forgotten and subsequently omitted. Women of colour, specifically Black women, are often left out of discourses due to the troubled history of Feminism and its founders. In light of this, black women have frequently been forced to create narratives and discourses through art, music, resistance and scholarship. This discussion aims to highlight the progression of Feminism over the years, beginning with its troubled past and recognizing the potential for its future while incorporating discussions of the reclamation or emergence of Black Caribbean Feminism from the residual shackles of colonialism and the patriarchy. PubDate: 2023-05-29 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.41189 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Brittney Bahadoor Pages: 12 - 18 Abstract: This paper focuses on the history of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago and how the country molded the event to become a staple of nationalism following independence in the 20th century. It explores the historical beginnings of Carnival, from slavery to indentured servitude to modern-day Trinidad. It looks at how becoming a mascot of Trinidadian culture was achieved in two ways—the representation and rhetoric of the event and how it became a commodity that politicians could use to prove a robust national culture to the world. It takes on central themes of unification, regardless of race, class, or culture, and how the event tells the history of this island, even with the costumes and enthralling music. It touches on how Carnival reflects cultural and political movements throughout the country's history, how it became significant for social changes after independence, and how it could withstand the infiltration of global capitalism and still present a story about Trinidad's culture and resilience. It is built around the argument that after independence in 1962, Trinidad needed a way to present itself as a nationalist country now that it does not have a metropole. This was achieved through the propping up of Carnival and allowing it to reflect various movements of the past. The goal is to add to the conversation that Carnival is not just a boisterous party on the island but also reflects the colonial history and diverse peoples and how it was able to modernize itself while sticking to these core values. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.38626 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Dmitri Gourianov Pages: 25 - 29 Abstract: Carol Boyce Davies’ influential work Left of Karl Marx describes the life and time of Claudia Jones, a not very well known influential 20th century Marxist thinker. Through an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations Jones underwent, whether it be her time in prison or her deportation to England, Davies succeeds in capturing her essence, as well as thoroughly analysing her political development. What is left lacking in her discussion of Jones’ life, however, is Davies’ own reasoning as to why the grandmother of intersectionality was left out of the history books, both by Capitalists and Socialists alike. In this work, I use Davies’ work on Claudia Jones’ life to discern why this is the case, and how the factors which contributed to her erasure from the public consciousness were so effective in their efforts. By the end of this review, I look at how the separation of one from their ideas plays a pivotal role in their erasure, and how this occurred to Claudia Jones. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.40012 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Maria Bacchus Pages: 30 - 34 Abstract: This essay aims to analyze the aspirational universality of the terms “citizenship” and “sovereignty” by focusing on the nature of these terms in the Caribbean. This is accomplished through establishing the traditional definitions of sovereignty and citizenship before comparing the main tenets of these definitions with case studies from the Caribbean which challenge, contradict, or negate these traditional definitions. Specifically, this essay will discuss the promises of birthright citizenship entrenched in the constitution of the Dominican Republic in contrast with the statelessness and non-citizenship that those of Haitian descent experience in the Dominican Republic. Next, sovereignty is complicated when its traditional definition is compared to the Caribbean’s history of foreign intervention, specifically in Haiti and Jamaica. This results in the conclusion that sovereignty and citizenship are situation-specific constructs and illusionary in the Caribbean. The prevalence of these illusions is contextualized through building off the work of Yarimar Bonilla and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, who grouped these terms as “North Atlantic Universals,” to reinforce the non-existence of citizenship and sovereignty, according to their traditional definitions, in the Caribbean. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.39941 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Shayna Rivelle Thompson Pages: 35 - 42 Abstract: In this thesis, I will be discussing the origins of Carnival and the artform of Kalinda, within the Carribean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. I will discuss the cultural and spiritual roots of these practices that originated from West, Central and South Africa. The first section of this paper will discuss Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival. The explanation regarding the festival will provide understanding about how, what where, when, and why it came into existence, and would always be significant to the island’s cultural and spiritual structural foundation. The second section will explain the complete physical and spiritual artform of Kalinda and why it is to understand. The last section of this paper will discuss the significant cultural and spiritual connection between Carnival and Kalinda. It will discuss how this festival and artform are significant to the spiritual and cultural foundation of Trinidad and Tobago, hence providing the relevance of it being remembered and carried on at present. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.38639 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Elizabeth Wong Pages: 43 - 48 Abstract: Over the past decade, the Toronto neighbourhood commonly known as Little Jamaica has experienced gentrification through the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit. This gentrification has perpetuated social and economic inequalities affecting the Caribbean diaspora in Little Jamaica. Urban planning tools, such as the Heritage Conservation District, have been central to the effort to preserve and protect the distinctive culture in Little Jamaica. Yet community members recognize these measures as inadequate to curb gentrification and reduce economic inequality. I argue that an analysis of gentrification only as a matter of urban planning fails to account for the way that the local community takes up cultural forms, like food, to resist gentrification. Though food is widely recognized as a means of constructing identity and building community in diaspora, less attention is paid to the political implications of food’s social power. Drawing on interviews with community members and local activists, this essay examines how the Caribbean community in Little Jamaica constructs cultural identity through food, highlighting a tension between authenticity and hybridity that exists within this cultural identity. I conclude that, because food produces cultural identity and community, food and food spaces may play a role in communities’ resistance to gentrification and inequalities in the urban sphere. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.38687 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Alyssa Nurse Pages: 50 - 56 Abstract: The Plantation Economy school of thought has been somewhat absent from mainstream discourse surrounding development despite offering a critical lens to understand the Caribbean region's historical and contemporary economic conditions. This paper examines the extent to which Plantation Economy scholarship can explain the current production structure of Guyana's extractive oil and mineral industries. This is demonstrated through a historical recapitulation of the Plantation Economy’s theoretical underpinnings, situates the pertinent particulars regarding Guyana’s extractive industries and highlights the lack of inter-sectoral linkages, significant exploitative ownership agreements and skewed export dynamics that exist. The intention is to spark a resurgence in Plantation Economy scholarship, especially since its relevance remains as vital as ever in addressing the region's structural barriers to economic development. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.41190 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Max Ray-Ellis Pages: 57 - 64 Abstract: On January 1, 1804, Haiti officially proclaimed its Declaration of Independence, roughly two months after its forces led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines expelled the last remaining French forces from their territory. Their revolution had begun in 1791, when enslaved people sought to break free of brutal French colonial rule that originated in the mid-seventeenth century. The subsequent Haitian Constitution, published in 1805, detailed a “free and form sovereign state, independent of all the other powers of the universe,” known as the “Haitian Empire,” where “slavery is abolished forever” and “equality before the law is irrefutably established.” The future appeared bright for this newly independent Black nation in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, for Haiti and the Haitian people, this bright future was not to be. For the past two plus centuries, Haiti has been continuously disadvantaged and subjected to mistreatment by other nations, including France and the United States. The potential for Haiti to emerge as a prosperous nation has thus been quashed due to numerous cases of foreign interference, which are still ongoing today. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.40015 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Julia Chapman Pages: 65 - 72 Abstract: For Trinidadian-Candian Queer activists, identity must be navigated through queer identity, ethnic community, and cultural background. This paper seeks to explore what Trinidadian Canadian QTBIPOC and allied activism and care can look like in Canada and how this activism is informed by this complex intersectional identity. This research was conducted under the supervision of Professor Tara Goldstein and postdoctoral fellow Jenny Salisbury as part of a Research Opportunity Program (ROP) towards a larger project focused on 60 Years of Queer, Trans, BIPOC (QTBIPOC) Activism and Care. This paper focuses on research into three activists via the ArQuives: Richard Fung, Anthony Mohammed, and Deb Singh. Richard Fung informs complex art-based activism through his complex identities as Trini, Chinese, Canadian, and a gay man. Fung presents an example of complex identity informing complex activism, for Fung, this is film-based art that spans and explores the many topics surrounding his identity. Anthony Mohammad and Deb Singh present similar experiences of complex identity as Trinidadians within a South Asian diaspora and identity within Queer communities. For Mohammad navigating his sexuality as a gay man through Caribbean and South Asian communities presents contradicting yet synchronous experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Mohammed exhibits complex activism through his work in varied queer groups intended for Caribbean and South Asians separately. Singh similarly identifies the acceptability of a particular identity; navigating fluid sexuality, binary gender, and monogamy presents a similar thread of contradicting inclusion and exclusion. Her activism presents through her work in bathhouses for women and nonbinary folx and her work in the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre and Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres. For Trinidadian-Candian Queer activists, their complex navigation of intersectional identities informs their community work and artistic expression as activists. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.40211 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Dmitri Gourianov Pages: 73 - 78 Abstract: Beginning as a small assignment which ought to have taken two days, it soon ballooned into a three month project looking at the Cuban political system and the farming sector’s role in developing not only Socialist theory, but Socialism in practice. As the collapse of Cuban Socialism has been expected for the past four decades by Western scholars and lawmakers, this very same inevitability has perplexed its proponents as it continues to not occur. Cuba has been under embargo by the United States for over sixty years now, and its tremendous pressure on the Socialist government has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricane Ian. One ought to ask the question, then, how Cuba remains so resilient after the collapse of the USSR. Although not a conclusive reason as to why Socialism remains prevalent in Cuba, this essay looks at one aspect of this new Cuban Socialism and its successes -- that being its farming systems. By looking at the roles polycultural cropping and alternative incentive schemes play in Cuba, I conclude that they both play a vital role in the development and reinforcement of Socialism in the island nation. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.40013 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Omar Danaf Pages: 79 - 85 Abstract: Abstract: In recent decades, China has emerged as a major economic power operating within the Caribbean, making the analysis of its foreign policy strategy in the region of paramount importance. This essay will seek to identify the ideology undergirding China’s foreign policy within the Caribbean, using these insights to analyze the effects of Beijing’s increased engagement within the region. This essay will argue that Beijing has sought to create close ties with a number of Caribbean states by launching a slew of generous development assistance projects, attaching conditionalities to these projects to effectively incorporate partner states into their export and ideological network. China views the Caribbean as a valuable political partner, as its proximity to the United States makes its potential alliance with China a prominent counterfactual to Western hegemony. To achieve this argument, I will highlight how China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) has influenced China’s grand strategy within the Caribbean, as it seeks to incorporate the region into a broader economic network to challenge Western economic systems. I will then highlight how economic considerations influence China’s bilateral relations with a number of resource-rich Caribbean states, investigating the diplomatic approach China has used to increase its access to natural resources in the region. Lastly, this essay will investigate how China’s development assistance based strategy has impacted the Caribbean itself. This will cover both its negative and positive effects on domestic industries, while also exploring how China’s ambitious economic expansion has stoked social discontent in the region. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.39844 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Donna Miller Pages: 86 - 91 Abstract: Climate change and food security are among the world’s biggest challenges. A growing population and climate change means that vulnerable regions such as the Caribbean, will continue to face unique strains. The effects of climate change are associated with poverty and a decrease in food security because of the decline in food production and access to a sufficient amount of nutritious food. Trade liberalization increases the number of challenges experienced by notably, the local Caribbean agricultural sector and has devastating effects on food security and rural livelihoods. Reductions in crop diversity and production mixed with low household incomes results in changed diets. These changes have increased the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and hypertension as well as obesity and other long-term health problems. Current and proposed strategies to aid with the challenges of climate change include further research on the creation of heat tolerant cattle breeds, technological developments, micro-insurance interventions, and the expansion of greenhouse farming. The traditional and acquired knowledge and skills of individuals in the agricultural sector is fundamental in creating strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change and it is essential to ensure the strengthening of food security and food sovereignty. Financial resources in the Caribbean are inadequate and therefore, it is imperative that the Global North pay their dues in shouldering the responsibility of reducing the economic and environmental vulnerabilities in the Caribbean. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.38686 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Brittney Bahadoor Pages: 92 - 98 Abstract: This paper discusses the history of ethnopolitics in Guyana and how the racial divide between the two largest ethnic groups in the country—the Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese—not only fractured society but allowed for Western superpowers to exert neocolonial influence. It explores the historical origins of race relations between the Indians and Africans in Guyana from the time of British colonization to the modern political era of the 196 0s. It looks at how politics was utilized both as unifying factor and a dividing factor—dependent on the goals the political leaders sought after. This article breaks down the ever-complicated political parties and their general history and discusses the causes of this political divide, both due to internal pressures and external forces. It also aims to show how the racial politics in Guyana were orchestrated by both the United States and Great Britain as it occurred during the ushering in of the neocolonial era. It is built around the argument that the racial divide caused by the Guyanese politics of the 1960s became the basis for the complicated modern day race relations and the various causes. The goal is to essentially tell part of the racial and political history of Guyana in a way that is accessible to everyone. Guyana is a country with such a deep history which is often times obscured, this article aims to dissect just a portion of it, especially a part that has affected and continues to affect the population and diaspora even today. PubDate: 2023-03-31 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Maria Fernanda de Almeida Pages: 100 - 108 Abstract: Garifuna people have lived on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent for over 300 years. Enslaved Africans who had survived the sinking of two Spanish ships in the 1600s became the first non-American group to settle on the island. Land ownership struggles, racism and discrimination and attempts at cultural erasure mark their history. This paper analyzes the relations and consequences of colonialism to the current status of the neglect of the Garifuna of St. Vincent. It argues that the arrival of Spanish, French, and British to St. Vincent influenced the genocide of Caribs, the creation of stereotypes associated with their people, and the spread of academic literature based on false narratives of their stories. These consequences led to the current struggles that the Garifuna face on the island and in their fight to rewrite historical memory and knowledge. Finally, it is essential to recognize their progress in rebuilding an identity of self-recognition by restoring historical memory and demanding governmental recognition. They have sought to situate themselves as people who live, fight, and exude their mixed culture of Arawak and black ancestry in a transnational territory. However, their case is complex. They carry indigenous and African identities, which insert them into movements and struggles on transnational networks and narratives of belonging around indigenous and black or Afro descendants' movements. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.40014 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Donna Miller Pages: 109 - 112 Abstract: 1.5 Stay Alive is a nature film, music video-like documentary that emphasizes the consequences of a 1.5 degree increase in temperature that would negatively impact the Caribbean region (“1.5 Stay Alive: Science Meets Music in the Caribbean”). The film demonstrated the role that developed countries play in advancing and maintaining the climate crisis in the Caribbean. Disaster capitalism describes the exploitation by developed countries when responding to crises, intentionally creating a more unequal and undemocratic society. Using the example of Hurricane Maria, Klein states that Puerto Rico became broken because of deliberate, systematic interferences to power, water, health, communication, and food systems (2018). Alternatively, developed countries may supply the Caribbean with funds to produce and distribute locally grown produce. An example of what may be done with these funds can be seen in Cuba which created a self-sufficient urban agricultural economy. This would strengthen food security and increase the ability and knowledge to build back food systems following the effects of climate change (Quirk 2012). Information omitted includes details on how developed countries contributed to climate change vulnerabilities in the Caribbean. Environmental changes shape Caribbean agricultural trends which are already historically vulnerable owing to the by-products of colonial and plantation economies (Barker 2012, 42). The film advances the understanding of the effects of global warming in the Caribbean by not only showing the scientific perspective, but also the human side. Climate change affects more than just infrastructure, coral reefs, and economies, but it also affects people’s lives. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.38633 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Maria Bacchus Pages: 113 - 119 Abstract: This essay unpacked and analyzed the seven-part documentary series, Redemption Song, narrated by Stuart Hall about the Caribbean in early 1990s. Given the diversity of the Caribbean, Redemption Song unified the Caribbean through its framing of how the Caribbean’s past of foreign influence has shaped its present. Thus, this essay linked historical causality and the Caribbean’s present as a cultural mosaic to argue that Redemption Song demonstrates how contemporary Caribbean society is a product of its history of foreign influence and colonialism. This was accomplished by discussing a scene from each episode of Redemption Song and connecting it with secondary literature on Caribbean society to touch upon how the series represents, and comments on, contemporary Caribbean society. Namely, this essay discussed issues concerning economy, identity, citizenship, race, class, sovereignty, borders, and tourism and how it has related British, African, Indian, French, Spanish, and American influences in the Caribbean. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.39942 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Maria Paula Vidal Valdespino Pages: 120 - 131 Abstract: When one exists outside the boundaries of what it means to be a person, let alone a ‘good’ womxn, the simple act of existing is a threat to the heteronormative standards present in one’s life (Alexander, 1994; Kempadoo, 2004, p. 27). Within the Caribbean, many colonial discourses on sexuality and race still exist today, where Caribbean womxn are harmed through dehumanizing stereotypes that pin their sexuality and agency with perversion, rejection of nature, and deviancy along with hypersexuality, immorality and purity, despite countries’ ‘independence’ of the colonial world (Reddock, 2007, p. 3-5; Kempadoo, 2004; Alexander, 1994). Using three visual pieces, I will put three of these harmful stereotypes in conversation with decolonial thought found in third-world feminism and Queer thought: “My Labour is Not Unskilled” with rejection of nature, “My Love is Not Unnatural” with perversion, and “My Body is My Own” with agency and opposition of hypersexuality. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.39952 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Elizabeth Wong Pages: 125 - 131 Abstract: Indigeneity has, for the most part, been absent in literature on the Caribbean, even in de-colonial writing. Writing on the Caribbean has often portrayed Indigenous people as extinct and thus as irrelevant to contemporary life in the Caribbean. Yet Indigenous peoples have played and continue to play a central role in Caribbean politics. This essay discusses how and why Indigenous people have been erased from discourse on the contemporary Caribbean. I argue that Indigenous erasure is a longstanding colonial tactic that is still used to justify the dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Drawing on the case of the Maya peoples’ struggle for land in Belize, I describe some of the ways that Indigenous people continue to resist colonial and capitalist violence. Having identified and historicized the myth of Indigenous erasure in the Caribbean, I begin to sketch possibilities for shifting the discourse on the Caribbean such that it highlights rather than ignores the historical and ongoing contributions of Indigenous communities to the Caribbean. I suggest that diaspora and entanglement are two concepts that may be helpful for clarifying the Caribbean’s complex colonial histories in a way that underscores the importance of Indigenous peoples to the Caribbean. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.40016 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Alyssa Nurse Pages: 132 - 137 Abstract: This paper very briefly challenges the normative understanding of development as purely beneficial and aspirational. It argues that capitalist development, as it manifests in the Caribbean, is built on a foundation of colonial violence and exploitation. The paper takes a twofold approach to exploring this relationship, arguing (1) that colonial violence and capitalist development are mutually reinforcing and (2) that the violent legacies of the colonial encounter are replicated in modern-day development initiatives. Through an analysis of development projects in Haiti and Belize, this paper shows how development-induced displacement, environmental degradation, and the erasure of indigenous culture and customs are all examples of this ongoing replication of colonial violence. The paper incorporates scholarship that ex- plains the continued existence of this relationship and raises important questions about how to move forward. Finally, it calls for more decolonial perspectives and critical approaches to capitalist development that recognize and address the ongoing effects of colonial violence especially in Caribbean contexts. PubDate: 2023-03-31 DOI: 10.33137/cq.v7i1.41191 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2023)