1. Slavery, Creolization and Racial Conflicts

2. Neocolonialism

cocoa plantation

Slave Trade: popular from 1500 to 1860.  Life in plantation-- Different forms of rebellion by the slaves in plantations: riot, petit marronage (小走私) in francophone islands-leaving home to meet girl friend, or a forbidden church meeting.  Names: Nanny Grigg in Barbados; Daaga in Trinidad, who lead the first West India Regiment.  Also: the slaves can rebel with music, dance, religion, or simply their different way of living.  They can pretend sickness, steal, or even poison their masters.    Racial Composition in the Caribbean: besides white masters and black slaves, there were also poor whites, criminals, exiles, social misfits and people escaping from faminine, political and religious proscution at home.   The most special is the "gens de couleur" or mulatto in the area.    Racial conflicts in Post-Emancipation period: There were also conflicts between different races, and between plantation owners and small farmers, between the newly rich and the declining aristocrats.    While the whites were on the decrease, mulatto not only increased in number, but also worked hard to earn money, social status as well as political rights.  On the one hand, some newly rich used their money to imitate the whites ("black skin, white mask").  They were, however, looked down upon by the whites and blacks alike, seen as white cockroaches.   (Cf. Wide Sargasso Sea.)   There were even laws (Danish colonial statute book) preventing them from imitating whites and enjoying their luxuries (e.g. jewlery, silk socks, masquerade).  In Trinidad, there have also been conflicts between (East) Indians and West Indians (or Francophone blacks). Among the island-nations nowadays, there are also conflicts.  For instance, Bajans are not welcome in some Caribbean areas, and Jamaicans might also be targeted in Toronto.  Creolization: This idea can be applied to both Europeans born in the Caribbean, mulatto and to the mixture of English and African tribal languages into some special kinds of native languages (Patois, such as French Patois, Jamaican Patois).   The English used in Barbados is closest to standard English, whereas in the other islands, there is often a "postcreole continuum" which parallels the social hierarchy to some degrees (--those speaking in creole are looked down upon).  Creole Language and its Subversive Power--a paper in Chinese by Feng Pin-chia;  Patois Dictionary; Another Patois Dictionary (remote link)

Neocolonialism "Caribbean Basin Initative"-- the Reagan Administration's Caribbean Basin Initative linked to neo-colonialism and the collapse of the Jamaican economy in the 1980s.  "The entire CBI campaign had been a bribe to induce Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean to accredit the armed confrontation in Grenada.  It also provided a cover for $75 million in additional combat funding for the war in El Salvador."