Popular culture, national identity, and race in the Caribbean

Abstract

The idea that cultural identity of Caribbean peoples is somehow problematic has been around for so long and been upheld by such a variety of writers that it has become almost an axiom. Certainly, at least some of apprehension about Caribbean identity is founded in an insidious racism that eventually came to justify continued subjugation of an African slave labor force in New World. It is easy on this account to dismiss doubting remarks of observers like historian of Jamaican Maroon wars, Dallas, who, in his book published in early nineteenth century, asserted that the notion of a free, active, negro republic does not seem to have any reasonable foundation (cited in Lewis 1983:106). On similar grounds, one might disregard Froude's (1888: 287) convinced assertion nearly a century after: Give them independence, and in a few generations they will peel off such civilization as they have learnt as easily and as willingly as their coats and trousers.

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