The Acculturative Process in Trinidadian Shango

Abstract

Although Trinidad was discovered by Columbus in 1498 and some slaves from Africa were brought to the island a few years later, the population of this territory remained small until the end of the eighteenth century. After 1783, the descendants of the Spanish colonists were supplemented by colonists from France, the French islands of the Caribbean, and Canada. Most Trinidadian Negroes are only secondarily of African descent (Herskovits and Herskovits 1947: 17-22). We are not dealing in Trinidad with change that is initiated by the conjunction of two or more autonomous cultural systems (L. Broom, B. J. Siegel, E. Z. Vogt, and J. B. Watson 1954: 974). In this acculturative situation we are discussing individuals whose ancestors were uprooted from their societies and cultural settings and placed in a new culture (R. Beals 1953: 628). It is evident that the acculturative process resulting from the meeting of Europeans and Africans has somewhat different elements in Africa, and even in other Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, than is the case in Trinidad. To these comments two points should be added. First, only a few hundred Trinidadians of Amerindian descent are found in the island, and, second, persons of East Indian ancestry, whose forbears were brought to the territory as indentured workers from India after slavery was abolished in 1838, now constitute more than 36%o of the population. Yorubas were well represented among the Africans brought as slaves to Trinidad. The present devotees of the shango cult call themselves people and much of the belief system and the ritual of this cult is derived from Yoruba religion. It is difficult to give an accurate estimate of the number of Shangoists in Trinidad. Some devotees attend several of the annual ceremonies given in different cult centers. Some persons

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