Markers of identity in Martinique: being French, black, Creole

Abstract

Martinican identity involves the negotiation of multiple markers of difference. These often conflicting identities have been powerfully played out as a form of cultural politics: the Négritude movement, which emphasised African roots, the Creolité movement, which proclaimed Martinique's identity as a unique mix of multiple cultures, and the ever-present pull of the French assimilationist state. This paper seeks to bridge the gap between these intellectual and political discourses and the lived experiences of people living on the island. It draws on examples of what are labelled intellectual, environmental, social, and Creole markers, and explores the ways in which identity is inscribed on Martinique's physical, social, and cultural landscape. Using the prism of markers as an analytical tool to think through the ways in which identity has been asserted, prescribed, and analysed in Martinique, it examines the interplay between diverging manifestations of identity: intellectualized from above and lived, practised, and contested from below.

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