The article discusses the history of philosophy in the Caribbean. Particular focus is given to the philosophies of the peoples who lived and worked on sugar cane plantations, also called the canepiece. These include the Taíno people, enslaved Africans, indentured Indian and Chinese workers, and their descendants. Details related to Taíno ontology, the roles of slavery and liberty in Afro-Caribbean philosophy, and the role of labor in Indo-Caribbean philosophy are presented. Other topics include genocide, social harmony, and the relationship between the Enlightenment and colonialism.
The article analyzes Jamaican education policies formed by Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and his government. The author is mainly interested in assessing the influence of Manley's notion of equality on his educational reforms for Jamaica's poor black citizens. Manley's understanding of equality is explained, which was largely influenced by a commitment to black pride and social justice. The educational standards and curricula developed by the Jamaican government are then detailed, with emphasis given to vocational programs and content dealing with Jamaicans' African heritage. The author concludes by evaluating the government's stance on educating Rastafarians.
African Consciences is a Parisian based initiative of artistes from the `Black Atlantic' and Africa. They use music to shape a discourse on their identity in relation to Africa, strongly bound to consciousness. The musical itinerary provided by reggae and hip hop constitutes what they see as a means for action to bring alive a "global African network". In this chapter I will reconsider the practice of repatriation, and the meanings it conveys now. I will try to analyse it through African Consciences' "Door of no Return" where they intend to travel back the road of the trans Atlantic trade in Africans. African Consciences has a mediated relation to Africa through roads that join their musical practice to their understanding of African history and tradition. It also carries an ideological intent to bring forth a global Africa through the articulation of routes and roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR].
In this article, I explore the impact of slavery and the Slave trade on the most fundamental relationship in human societies, the bond between mother and child. Firstly, I review European accounts of motherhood and childrearing (pre-enslavement) in the African cultures of origin. Secondly, I address the traumas of dislocation and enslavement during the Middle Passage. This is followed by some insights into the experiences of women and children in Caribbean Slave societies where I argue that, despite the harsh conditions, African-derived conceptualisations of motherhood and parenting endured. I conclude with a brief consideration of the reverberations of slavery into the post slavery era, specifically in relation to European attempts to change African-derived practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR];.
The article discusses the importance of percussionists and drummers in Jamaican popular music, especially reggae, arguing that their contributions have often been under-estimated. It emphasizes the traditional African roots of characteristic Jamaican drumming styles. An overview of the history of Jamaican percussion and drumming is provided. Musicians discussed include Babu Bryan, known for his Kumina drumming, Watta King, a drummer in the Buru tradition, and Oswald "Count Ossie" Williams, who developed the Nyabinghi style of Rastafarian drumming.
"The political discourse surrounding the terms postcolonial, post-colonial or Post Colonial is one that tries to define the experiences and the quality of life that former colonies share. Do the colonies that speak the same language share a common experience that differs from colonies that do not share that language? Did the colonies that speak one of the European languages such as French, Spanish or Dutch inherited from their colonizers experience a colonization that is in any way different from the colonies of the British Empire? If not what are the commonalities?";
The critical importance of the artist to the anti-slavery agency of the enslaved, is observable in one verse of a song by the enslaved in the USA: Got one mind for the boss to see;Got another mind for what i know is me. The Jamaican expression for this thought is 'plie fuul fi kech wiz'. The philosophy of praxis which these two examples denote ,are rooted in an aesthetcism in which performance became a critically important modus operandi for Black agency during ,and indeed after slavery; The social being the enslaved described themselves to be having one mind for the slvaeholder to see and another mind for what they knew themselves to be , denotes a social being who consciously constructs a (feigned) personality out of the cultural and intellectual fabric of white supremacy to protect and to mask the real personality and intentions of the enslaved through performance rituals of flattery, mimicry and deception and other forms of creative improvisational socio-political acts of becoming.;
"The problem involved in the description of Caribbean aesthetics is not only due to the heterogeneity of Caribbean culture - given its antecedents - but also the complex cognitive and social orientation of the individual Caribbean artist." (author)
"The first article by Keith Ellis, Caribbean Identity and Integration in The Work of Nicolás Guillén, uses examples of Guillén's works to demonstrate that in his poetry, his essays, as well as in his personal relations, he demonstrated a desire to build throughout the Caribbean the kind of consciousness that would facilitate its meaningful integration." (foreword);
Yun examines a rare communal biography by an Afro-Chinese Cuban, Antonio Chuffat Latour. She maintains that his work is a valuable document of the Chinese experience in the Caribbean and argues for the inclusion of Africanity and blackness as part of a reconsideration of what constitutes a Caribbean Chinese identity.;
"First let me congratulate UNESCO, UNICA and UWI for taking the initiative to host this Conference, and let me say how much I have enjoyed the enthusiastic advocacy for this field by Ms. Helene-Marie Gosselin of UNESCO. Her quarterly reports on Education and HIV/AIDS are a joy to read, both for substance and method of presentation. I also wish to congratulate Professor Kochhar and PVC Hamilton of the University of the West Indies for their work in organizing the conference...."
