Girard and the Tainos

Although we have issues with Philippe Girard's scholarship on Haiti, this is a decent introduction to the history of the Taino. Except for the suggestion that ganja or marijuana was part of the cohoba ritual, Girard does a decent job covering the history of the Taino. Of course, accepting the demise of the Taino as an organized society after the Spanish conquest makes Girard a supporter of the Taino extinction narrative. 

Justin Elie and Indianist Music in Haiti

Currently reading Largey's Vodou Nation and found the chapter on Ludovic Lamothe and Justin Elie fascinating. Unfortunately, unlike Lamothe, it's much harder to find recordings of Elie's music on the internet, so I can't locate examples of Elie's use of stock exotica for his Indianist compositions that appealed to the US market. It's amazing, Elie's music reflected a strain of Haitian thought that reveres the indigenous people of Hispaniola as 'symbolic ancestors' and key figures in anti-colonial movements (a practice seen among elites, such as Nau's Caciques d'Haiti published in the 19th century or peasant armed resistance to the US Occupation naming themselves cacos after the caciques), but his music really had no authentic connection to the music of the pre-colonial inhabitants of Haiti. Furthermore, I am a little disappointed that I cannot locate recordings of his work that reflect the Afro-Caribbean and Vodou heritage of Haiti, except for "Legende Creole" (which Largey attributes to Haitian Vodou influences). Alas, if only I could locate more of his meringues. "Chants de la montagne" has some stereotypical "Indian" traits, while 'Legende Creole" is based on a Haitian children's song with Vodou references ("Zonbi Ban-n Mannan").

One of these days, I'll have to track down Elie's "Prayer at Eventide," "Nostalgie," Kiskaya and other works that were popular in New York. It's astonishing how reviews and promoters in New York actually seemed to believe Elie's music was grounded in years of research in Central and South America (Elie did indeed tour throughout the Caribbean before moving to New York, but never engaged in ethnographic research with indigenous groups). Regardless, Largey's research on this Indianist legacy in Haitian literature, intellectual thought, and music is useful for future studies of indigenism and indigenous revivalism elsewhere in the Caribbean. 

Of Cannibals and Kings

Neil Whitehead's Of Cannibals and Kings: Primal Anthropology in the Americas has been on our reading list for some time. A short book consisting of English translations of early Spanish sources on the indigenous Caribbean and an introductory essay by Whitehead, it is important for offering a new translation (based on the Italian) of Ramon Pané and a translation of Rodrigo de Navarrete and Rodrigo de Figueroa. Although Whitehead unconvincingly posits possibly "Taino" or Amerindian influences on Haitian Vodou and West Indian obeah, suggesting Damballa, zombi and perhaps even bokor may be at least in part derived from native Caribbean spirituality and religion, his essay raised a number of legitimate questions about the ways in which scholars have engaged in linguistic analysis of Pané's brief account. Moreover, the translation of Rodrigo de Navarrete's brief relation of the "Aruacas" (who appear to have been centered in the area of Guyana) provides an interesting description of indigenous South American "allies" of the Spanish. Indeed, if the category of caribe was a political rather than ethnic identifier, at least in how it was used by Columbus, Chanca, Figueroa and Navarrete, that dichotomy was clearly understood by indigenous actors who, like the Aruacas, appear to have used trade and alliances with the Spanish to expand their power and settlements against their caribe enemies. Even more intriguing is the unnamed morisco survivor of a shipwreck who lived for years among the Aruacas. He was one of the main informants of Navarrete and perhaps would have given his native hosts a more nuanced perspective on Castile and its history of aggression and expansion. Unfortuantely, Navarette did not share all of the details he learned about the Aruacas (Arawaks), but his brief relation indicates a culture in which astronomical knowledge and lore was important to the shamans. Indeed, similar astronomical lore appears to have been important for the "Carib" and "Taino" shaman class, who likewise played a pivotal role in the ceremonies using song to record history, genealogy, and the deeds of great men. 

Hunters of the Caribbean

I recall watching this old documentary on the Taino several years ago. In my memory, it was better than this, though we were even more ignorant of indigenous Caribbean history and cultures in those days. Nonetheless, this documentary is effective as a brief introduction. I would have chosen a different title and emphasize more of the agricultural practices of the Taino.

Encomiendas and Indian Slavery in Puerto Rico

Eugenio Fernandez Mendez's Las encomiendas y esclavitud de los indios de Puerto Rico, 1508-1550 is a brief study of the forced labor and coercion in the first half of 16th century Borinquen. Drawing primarily from the Spanish chroniclers and sources such as those compiled in Tapia's Biblioteca de Puerto Rico, this short book focuses on the Spanish conquest and the various repartimientos and divisions of Indians into encomiendas until the final dissolution of the encomiendas. Unfortunately, by c.1550 their population was decimated and devastated by the encomiendas and outright enslavement. "Carib" and Indian slaves from Yucatan, Panuco, or Tierra Firme were still not enough to address the labor shortages and other problems facing the colony. However, the indigenous population of the island survived and went on to form part of the Puerto Rican population. Fernandez Mendez cites sources attesting to an Indian presence larger than that asserted by Rodrigo de Bastidas for the 1540s. Indeed, even after the Laws of 1542, illegal enslavement of Indians continued. These and other "free" Indians not enumerated in the 1540s undoubtedly persisted, helping to explain some of the markedly "Indian" features in Puerto Rican culture long after the demise of encomiendas. What would have made this study more valuable would have been an examination of Taino resistance to the encomiendas after the 1511 rebellion. Perhaps a deeper look at indios alzados and African slave rebels could have shed light on this other dynamic in 16th century Puerto Rico. 

Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad

We have been thinking about Trinidad & Tobago quite often these days. Endeavoring to understand the historical background of Trinidadian society as described in the various works of novelists such as C.L.R. James, Edgar Mittelholzer, and V.S. Naipaul has sparked our interest again. Brereton's study, Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad, 1870-1900 provides a great introduction through its focus on race relations in the diverse Trinidad of the period. Trinidad, after all, was shaped not only by Indian indentured laborers but also by its resident Anglophone West Indians from other British colonies who, together with the population of free colored origin, French Creoles, liberated Africans, Portuguese, Venezuelan migrants, native Afro-Trinidadians, Chinese, and colonial officials, transformed Trinidadian society during the pivotal final decades of the 19th century. The central message of Brereton's study seems to be that the ethnic divisions, plus distinctions of class, color, and religion, were maintained as Trinidad's economy transitioned in the post-emancipation era. This helps explain the reasons why a Naipaul could see himself as a product of an internally divided colonial society lacking cohesion as its disparate parts enjoyed different relations with colonial authority and the dominant, elite culture. It also facilitates in understanding the class/caste structure of Trinidad explored in Mittelholzer's A Morning at the Office.

Brereton begins with an examination of 19th century Trinidad before 1870, covering the free colored population, emancipation, new village settlements of formerly enslaved people, and Indian indenture immigration from 1845 onwards. In the second half of the 19th century, new infrastructure appeared with railways in the 1870s and 1880s, additional roads and settlements, Port of Spain's urban expansion, and cocoa cultivation originally produced by small farmers before French Creoles dominated the industry. Some manufacturing and an incipient urban working class appeared, mostly in Port of Spain. Unlike sugar, most of the cocoa industry was locally owned but the Trinidadian economy lacked adequate diversification of exports. As a crown colony until 1924, most governors sided with sugar planter interests and did little about the harmful system of indirect taxation via import duties on basic foodstuffs, kerosene, clothes, and agricultural tools, which had a harmful impact on the masses. Reformers wanted government officials on the council to be elected by the population, but French Creoles and the governors resisted and continued to dominate government policy in the interests of the white planters. According to Brereton, French Creoles formed a closed group dominating import-export, cocoa, municipal government posts, the medical professional, and journalism.

For non-white, non-elite groups, things were, of course, quite different. Education was, despite schools established in all wards, rather limited for the lower classes. At best, they only received a limited education that would make them better workers while fees and exclusion of illegitimate children barred many Indians and poor black children from admission. Indeed, it was difficult for even middle-class Afro-Trinidadians to receive a secondary education, although a few, often of Barbadian origins, managed to receive scholarships into elite schools. Our C.L.R. James appears to be an example of this fortunate group. Others can be found in families of mixed-race French Creole origin, such as the Romains and Philips. Culturally similar to white French Creoles and benefitting from their education and connections, some even rose to high posts in government, with Michel Maxwell Philip becoming mayor of Port of Spain in 1867. This group's combativeness against discrimination in government may have brought them together with the small black middle class.

Former slaves and their descendants, to a smaller degree, also entered a middle class or middling status as skilled artisans, teachers, journalists, editors, lawyers, doctors, civil servants, and clerks. Again, helping elucidate the origins of C.L.R. James, primary school teachers were the nucleus of the black middle class and schoolteachers were highly regarded. Take the example of J.J. Thomas, a black teacher in second-half of 19th century. Thomas was the son of ex-slaves, received his early education at a a ward school, taught, entered civil service in 1867, wrote his Creole Grammar in 1869 and went on to master patois, French, Spanish, Latin and Greek. His famous Froudacity was an excellent reply to Froude's racist tract on the West Indies and a defense of the right for black West Indians to self-government. Even the father of George Padmore, H.A. Nurse, or Henry Sylvester Williams, attest to the intellectual and political achievements of Trinidad's black middle class. One could also add their literary achievements in intellectual journals and political activism, although some distanced themselves from the lower-classes and their musical or spiritual practices. 

For our interests in understanding the Indian population of Trinidad during the late 19th century, Brereton's study is of great utility. Indentured Indian labor was indispensable for the revival of Trinidad's sugar sector, but Indians also purchased crown land and gradually established themselves as landowners. Both white and black Trinidadians looked down on Indians from a Western/Christian perspective. Indians, according to Brereton, likewise disliked black Trinidadians, viewing them as "impure" So, geographical and occupational separation plus mutual contempt separated Trinidadians of African and Indian origin. These divisions appear to be the foundation for V.S. Naipaul's "shocking" experience of entering into Creole Trinidadian urban life during his youth in the 1930s. The complexity of Black-Indian relations in colonial Trinidad warrants much further investigation, but one cannot help being astonished by the heterogeneity of the Trinidadian population which had only become predominantly English-speaking among its black population by the late 1800s. Adding another element in South Asian indentured workers and their communities only contributed more to the overflowing pot of ethnic and social diversity that did not end well once conflict over resources between black and Indian groups grew in the 1880s and beyond.

With such an internally variegated subject colonial population, it is no surprise that the struggle for political offices to black Trinidadians or the right to elect representatives faced an uphill battle that, unsurprisingly, led to the type of independent political parties based on ethnicity or sheer opportunism and greed, brilliantly satirized by Naipaul's The Suffrage of Elvira. The Trinidadian society described by James in Minty Alley or the early novels of Naipaul belongs to a period after that encompassed in this study. Nevertheless, the developments in Trinidadian society between 1870 and 1900 appear to have established the framework for social and racial relations for the generations of the pre-WWII and postwar Trinidadian writers we know and love: James, Selvon, Naipaul. 

Eccentric Neighborhoods

Eccentric Neighborhoods is quite similar to The House on the Lagoon,, but even more autobiographical and featuring some characters of Taino descent. Elvira, the central character, is like the author in that both are from Ponce and have fathers who became governor of Puerto Rico. Of course, for this novel, Ferre changes the name of Ponce to La Concordia and surely fictionalizes several aspects of her own family's origins for a series of stories within a story about the Vernets and Riva de Santillana families. Since it lacks the narrative conceit of the more illustrious Lagoon, and Elvira is a less compelling character than Isabel, Eccentric Neighborhoods was less magical and a more arduous read. One finds the plethora of characters to be less engaging in Eccentric Neighborhoods, although both novels retain a strong focus on women, inter-generational gender dynamics, and the search for independence and autonomy. Needless to say, these concerns for the strong women in Ferre's novels mirror the condition of Puerto Rico in the 20th century. But perhaps due to the novel's greater autobiographical influences and its greater focus on Ponce and Puerto Rico's transformation from sugar to industrialization and the commonwealth (under a ficitonalized Marín), the novel provides a fascinating literary reconstruction of the lives of the criollo hacendado class and the rise of families like the Vernets, who wisely catch on to the New Deal and the future of industrialization. There is neither praise nor blame attached to the process, although the slums and destruction of the environment continue as Puerto Rico is thrust along into the 20th century (and Americanization). Eccentric Neighborhoods is truly a fascinating novel from a historical perspective, immersing the reader in the various neighborhoods, architectural delights, and transformations of Ponce and the rest of the island. 

Caonabo & Anacaona

Never realized Fernandito Villalona also had a song in honor of Caonabo. Pleasant enough listening and stresses the love of Anacaona and Caonabo.

Irving Rouse Video

Although we cannot locate the full documentary this clip is taken from, we thought it still worthwhile to share a clip of Irving Rouse discussing Caribbean archaeology.