In General
Caribbean cultural identity relates to more than immediate physical geography. I make this as a first comment because of the natural tendency that many of us have to associate culture and cultural identity with geography, even as many things that we know challenge us on this point. Of course, physical geography can be important, even dispositive for some, but it is only really one strand of what can form the ties of community. Central to my comments is this: Even as we move forward as a new collective—really, new collectives—our past is ever-present, impacting who we are, who we become, and how we identify.
Strands of Cultural Identity
Along with immediate physical geography, I would consider that racial identity, common language, and a shared or common history are all important to forming Caribbean cultural identity. Of course, all distinct and overlapping cultural identities eventually flow outward to our larger human community based on a common experience of being humans on the planet. While not a strand of cultural identity, political identity as such is an important influence that alternately can feed and is fed by cultural identity and other related factors, and there is always pressure exerted by political sentiment to help define culture and cultural identity. Direct aspects of folklore and expressive culture such as music, dance, food and drink, and cultural lore and storytelling are important aspects of a shared Caribbean cultural identity, important as much for similarities as well as differences rooted in the older, separate histories of the peoples of the region, as well as for the new histories forged together as a regional common people.
A Melting Pot?
From the general pot of the persons and experiences of the Original Inhabitants of the region (often distinct peoples from area to area), and that of transplanted Africans, Asians, and Europeans, generally, communities were formed: A different recipe in each case even if with some or all of the same general ingredients. So, communities started with elements of sameness, and differences, and commenced forming anew as one from different departure points. Geography alone has never been sufficient to overcome elements of difference, but this is not really required for successful community forming, as differences as well as sameness are important to community forming and ongoing community consciousness.
Racial Identity
One important sustaining difference that can work to strengthen as well as divide a new collective community consciousness is certainly race. Challenges are not helped, of course, by the leftovers of a tortured and tangled past, as well as tendencies around racial nationalism emerging from factors such as kinship, political consciousness and maybe practical resource concerns, real and imagined. While racial inequities— also both real and imagined— may be in the mix of establishing racial identity, it is certain to say that race persists on all sides as an important strand of community consciousness and identity, often across other pulls of nationhood and general community. But all this to say only that racial identity existed before and even was an engine behind early community formation, and this has not gone away.
And so, Indo-Caribbeans formerly of the region but now in the diaspora beyond the Caribbean, might or might not continue to find common cause with those remaining in the region, and this can be different across religious lines, as Indo-Caribbeans crossed the waters to arrive in the region pre-partition of the Indian Subcontinent; but racial identity evidenced by many choices might in all cases persist. Of course, the same can be said of Africans and Europeans, and appears a general principle applicable to much of our time, and newer-type racial identities are also prompted by the leftovers of history and the peculiarities of the region. But one builder of community beyond racial identity can be a common language: Maybe a new shared common history, often with a common language in the vanguard, can often replace some of the prior distinct and often dissimilar histories.
Language
The plain geography of the Caribbean includes numbers of people who speak primarily Spanish, French and English, and in that order, and with some instances of other European languages such as Dutch. More than a mention is required of the prevalence of Creole French in Haiti, and certainly there are other expressions of newer language forms, derivatives and dialects. Languages spoken by the original inhabitants are not widely spoken in the region, and the same can be said to varying degrees regarding the original languages of the transplanted, non-European peoples. In any case, what is significant for us regarding language in the region is that there is no one common language, thus any dream of the potential of a common language as a uniting force beyond, let’s say race, is sure to remain just a dream for the long, foreseeable future.
So Afro-Caribbeans, whether they speak Spanish, Creole, French or English, might or might not identify as such first in the diaspora, depending on several factors. But this fact, one way or the other, is not dispositive, one way or the other, as has been the focus of my comments thus far. Language is only one strand influencing cultural identity, and the strands and related sub-strands are tangled, and there is not much to be done about this except to move forward.
Common History
Even as a new common history in the region unfolds (whether based on a national, sub-regional, or a general regional collectiveness), the unfolding happens alongside all the other strands and factors that have brought the peoples of the region along history’s road. Very importantly, old, separate histories, feed in to so much that it becomes difficult to separate out in favor of the new history forged together. For example, when do the traditional foods of those brought together give way, if at all, to full regional expressions owned by all? Maybe this has already happened to some extent, but the separate common histories underpinning are hard to forget. And, so, you see, to not forget continues to encourage a focus on the old common history, and racial identity, and much of this will exist across language differences, and the proximity occasioned by geography holds little solution for this, especially in our modern age of ease of travel and internet connections in the blink of an eye, all facilitating choice instead of forcing commonality and any new collective rooted in any part of isolation.
Building an On-line Community
Strands of folkloric expression in any case eventually all feed into a common well of human experiences. However, this in itself does not avoid the need for the formation of layers of smaller communities than the whole human community. Our present internet age of multiple overlapping communities emerging is still actively demonstrating this fact. Particularly, while there is a need for dynamic flexibility and openness in looking at what would constitute Caribbean cultural identity, in the end the question resolves itself by what people do. Just plain choice, or interest, trumps all. And, again, with due acknowledgement given to the fact that all micro-communities eventually flow out to our larger community of humans on the planet, there is no requirement of connectedness merely on account of immediate physical geography, without more, especially in our new age of connectedness.
Caribbean Folklore On-line
Multiple, tangled strands; multiple peoples; and so that old time feel that we speak of on our website can mean different things to different people. Our vision for Caribbean Folklore is this: Even within a general Caribbean community, we accept the logic of multiple communities within the general community, and we believe that there will be at every turn opportunities to celebrate sameness, even in spite of differences; differences, even in spite of sameness; and a new common history that is still unfolding. And we also acknowledge that elements of the strands that make us in the end one group on the planet might certainly spark some broader interest in our offerings.
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