Presents an article on Jamaican art and the early artistic production of Edna Manley and Albert Huie, two artists that are commonly identified in art historical accounts as pioneers in the development of a national Jamaican art. Problem of race and representation in Jamaica as perceived by Huie and Manley; Character which held a particular representational significance for Huie and Manley; Role of Ethiopianism, Rastafarianism, Garveyism, and cultural nationalism in Jamaica.;
Focuses on the Aunt Jemima stereotype of African womanhood and motherhood. Impact of the stereotype on African Caribbean women whose lives have been obscured by this image; Discussion on how a re-invented Aunt Jemima is reflected in the religious symbols of the Spiritual Baptists Church in Toronto, Ontario and the religious lives of individual women; Examination of the symbolic reinterpretation of Aunt Jemima within the everyday lives of immigrant African Caribbean women in Toronto.;
Reviews two books. "Haitian-Dominican Counterpoint: Nation, Race and State on Hispaniola," by Eugenio Matibag; "The Development of Literary Blackness in the Dominican Republic," by Dawn F. Stinchcomb.;
Focuses on the role of women and women's bodies in Trinidad Carnival. Information on the book 'Afro-Creole: Power, Opposition and Play in the Caribbean; Views on the Janus-faced effect of women's bodily performance; Collusion of global capitalism in the marketing and commodification of Caribbean popular culture.
An essay is presented on tropicalized and touristic imagery in colonial photographs and its impact on black histories. It offers critiques on current uses of old touristic postcards as it offers unproblematic historical evidence. It examines the ways in which black inhabitants resisted and critiqued this tropicalization of the islands with an account on how a swimming pool became a site of political protest against tourism's demand for a picturesque and disciplined black population.
The contemporary backdrop for this essay emphasizes such contexts for future Caribbean studies and particularly for conceiving of Caribbean visual culture. It considers ways the exploration of Caribbean art practices and research of Caribbean visual culture might require reconsideration as global and interconnected structures requiring a transnational and intercultural approach. Insight of contemporary Caribbean visual culture is inextricably linked to circulation of knowledge and production of global culture and visual representation.
Discusses the border of race and the routes to reconciliation initiated and foreclosed between Latin America and the anglophone Caribbean. Background on dispute between Guyana and Venezuela; Reflection of the actual response of Guyana to the border dispute with Venezuela in the writing of author Rudolph Collins; Methods taken by both Guyana and Venezuela to achieve the displacement and disenfranchisement of native peoples.;
Considers the ways of the placing of and playing with Puerto Rican flags constitutes a visual praxis of haciendo patria or nation building. Terms that affix paradigms of nationality, albeit a transitory nationality, onto the people of the non-sovereign nation of Puerto Rico; Idea of Puerto Rico for Puerto Rican artists who were not born or did not grow up on the island; Information on the work of art of Juan Sanchez, a Puerto Rican artist.;
his essay reads Madison Smartt Bell's Haitian trilogy in the context of contemporary Haitian literature, and considers why Haitian writers have tended not to evoke the revolution in their work, and why it is an American author has produced the most ambitious work of Haitian historical fiction of recent times.;
Amy Beckford Bailey (1895–1990) was one of the politically engaged women present at the birth of the Jamaican nation in the 1930s and 1940s. Although she is widely known in Jamaica for her outstanding achievements as teacher, social worker, and feminist, what is less known is her large body of public writing. An examination of this writing broadens our sense of her accomplishments and enriches our understanding of this decisive period in the evolution of Jamaican and West Indian history, politics, and intellectual traditions.;
Discusses words from Jamaican dread talk that are integrated into the Spanish spoken by Rastas in Cuba. Existence of international dread talk words in lists of Rasta words; Translation of the term Cabeza Creadora as head of family; Categories of Cuban Rastafarian community.;
Presents Catherine Hall's reply to the critics of her book Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867. Comments on Madhavi Kale's book on the genealogy of the category of indentured labor in the post-Emancipation period; Naturalization of Englishness as a privileged and unexamined identity; Reason for using the narrative form in Hall's book.;
Examines the representations of Jamaican dancehall culture and Yardies in British journalism and in two novels published by X-Press publishing firm. Analysis of the novels Yardie, by Victor Headley and Cop Killer, by Donald Gorgon; Discussion on the Jamaican dancehall music and the raggamuffin or ragga consciousness; Discussion on the symbolic location of Jamaican youth in British discourses.;
The author explores themes of Black masculinity using both historic and contemporary examples. He discusses "neoliberal" expectations regarding sexual orientation, family life, and self-fulfillment. He explores alternate definitions of gender as exhibited in the self-portraits by Abdi Osman and Syrus Ware.
The author responds to articles in the journal by Kevin Gaines and Patricia Saunders concerning her book Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones. Particular focus is given to the notion of outsiderness regarding the status of black women and Caribbean women within radical and intellectual traditions. Lessons from the life and political career of political activist Claudia Jones are explored.
Discusses the history of migrants from the British Caribbean in Cuba during the early twentieth century. Views of sociologist Anthony Maingot on the single greatest lacuna in the study of the Caribbean; Focus on the organization practices of these migrants answering questions within social science scholarship in the Caribbean such as race, religion and nation; Information on the Universal Negro Improvement Association formed by Marcus Garvey.;
This essay examines public discussions around skin bleaching in Jamaica and demonstrates that a discourse of pathology is a dominant frame of meaning used to explain this practice. I argue that the practice of bleaching destabilizes popular conceptions of blackness that rely on an understanding of the body as immutable and naturally marked by race. Depicting skin bleaching as pathological attempts to recenter hegemonic conceptions of blackness and to discipline bodies so that they adhere to them.;
This article discusses the concept of ole negar, which is considered as a racial stereotype in the culture of Jamaica that is incomprehensible to foreigners and even to the people of the country. It explores how the term "ole negar" is being used by the Jamaicans. It cites the possibility of the term to be used in referring to the poorest class of black people in the country.
Analyzing the ongoing problem of Caribbean racial exploitation, particularly fear signified through one of the most potent Caribbean symbols, dreadlocks, I argue that Medusa's alterity is altered by Rastafarians' snake-like hair, but the transformative power of Rasta dreadlocks is contested through certain cinematic depictions of dread.;
