Spanning the Region with Fanon

            Photo Credit Institute of Gender and Development Studies, UWI St. Augustine  The Indigenous Geographies Workshop held on March 30 th, 2017, was hosted by the Institute of Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) of the University of the West Indies. Panel 3 (3:00pm – 4:30pm) focused on Women’s Organizing, Advocacy and Empowerment. The discussions focused on 4 key speakers, Annelita from Bolivia, Marie-Jose, Nelcia, and Aurelia from Guyana. The discussions were focussed on indigenous persons, and women’s rights. Many key issues were brought to light which had a link to the beliefs of the author of the text used for the GEOG 3116 course Frantz Fanon.             The first speaker was Annelita, an indigenous woman from Belize who spoke on her growing up as an indigenous woman in Belize, and shared her background with those in attendance. She highlighted the marginalization that occu...

Photo Credit looptt.com The indigenous persons in Trinidad and Tobago passed through a very rough history, filled with stories made up that had them appearing as uncivilised. The story of them eating humming birds which caused their civilisation to sink in the pitch lake had many untruths to it. These persons also have no representation in the political arena, so their rights are not always upheld. Additionally, these indigenous persons do not believe in landownership, thus many lands which they occupied were taken since they lacked the rights to it in the form of documentation, another form of colonialism and capitalism as spoken by Fanon.  The indigenous persons feel undone by, as the "rumours" created about them by the colonizers are still spread today and are included in school textbooks, while their true stories are not well documented or broadcasted. Their forms of technology were also ignored, as they had various tools to make work easier, but were wiped from h...

Caribbean territories have grasped different economy models to development within different periods of time. The 1950s and 1960s was centred on the Arthur Lewis’ dual economy model which was referred to as “industrialization by invitation.” It stroke competition between new foreign capital and the local capitalist since these multinational cooperation’s were able to develop exporting capacities of products to the U.S and Europe at a minimum cost. This caused the strategy to fail as it did not reduce unemployment or develop the local economy. The most impacting model to date is state-led development in which means that the state is the full driver of the economy. Many countries have employed this formation of Statis development such as Manley’s democratic socialist PNP in Jamaica and the People’s Revolutionary Government in Grenada were ideological formations of statist development.  In Trinidad and Tobago a state-led capitalist development was formed as Eric Williams...

Photo Taken from caribbeansinaction,com As we continue to seek ways to define the Caribbean identity, we must first understand intersectionality, which is simply the outcome of the intersection of different sources. It is for this reason we experience simultaneous expressions of oppression and privilege, Confused? Take for example a black man, he is privileged due to his masculinity, yet he experiences oppression because he is black. In the Caribbean region, this intersectionality determines one's status, and leads to accessibility, dress and stereotypes. Since colonialism, the Caribbean has has a hierarchical  system defined by race and ethnicity, which then brought forward racism. This was a central principle which was used to organise principles, as well as Caribbean life, and traditions. This also formed the basis for the cultural diversity and creativity, as well as what led to disparities in social and economic sectors. Gender is the complex social systems of persona...

Photo taken from Global Graffiti Magazine Identity refers to the roles played by race, gender, sexuality, nationality, class, geographic location, etc. in affecting and determining who we are. (Appiah, 2006) Due to the segmented nature of the Caribbean, identities have formed differently, yet similar as there are also binding factors that relate persons. Thus we can see there is no single Caribbean identity, but in fact numerous identities in the Caribbean society. The Caribbean identity is heavily identifiable by ways of its culture, namely the steelpan, limbo, reggae and soca music, and carnival. These are heightened by the media which pushes these factors to the masses both locally and internationally, thereby defining the ways of the Caribbean culture. Women in Caribbean music tend to be highly sexualised in terms of song lyrics, artisy performances, dancers dress codes and music videos, however the women also take a feminist stance in their lyrics, and use their songs to pus...

Photo Taken from hollywoodrepublican.net Globalization, we hear so much about it yet we never seem to grasp the concept. Globalization is “The process whereby ‘flows of trade, finance, and information between countries are broadened and deepened so that they function so that they function as one global market” (Mohammed, 2007). But yet most of these products come from the global north, namely the US and Europe so how "global" is it??? Globalization is merely seen by many as the deepening and forcing of the ways of the advanced states onto smaller states, which will shape them into being like them, and thus follow their trends, lifestyle and consumption patterns. Why do they want us to be like them you ask? Lets just say in "Trini slang", you quicker buy KFC than eat a plate of blue food. Meaning persons see these foods as superior to the foods in their own country, and thus it works as a symbol of status. As it stands, the Caribbean like many other Lesser E...

Photo Credit: Caribbean-Painters.com Columbus discovered the new world...Colonialism introduced democracy and civilization to the new world and indigenous persons were cannibals......lie lies and more lies. The Caribbean was home to numerous indigenous persons, who lived in harmony prior to the arrival of the Europeans. They developed systems of organization within their communities and developed trade systems among tribes so were they really barbaric? Or was it all a ploy by the Europeans to enhance their image and make the genocide seem like the right thing to do. Certainly colonialism as it was told in books was much different than the actual situation, which is now being brought to light. The genocides, the abuse, the slavery, the poor working conditions faced by all workers on the plantations are examples on how colonialism really affected the Caribbean. The economies of the region also suffered as the mono-cropping system led to lack of agricultural diversity which...

Photo taken from Caribbeanislandcruises.com In trying to describe the Caribbean, there are numerous misconceptions and stereotypes which are associated with the idea of the Caribbean. Persons usually think of the Caribbean as a relatively laid back, beach loving, hula skirt wearing people, which is far from the truth. The same occurs with many misconceptions with the cultural groups and dialects, which often associates a random language when persons try to speak Jamaican and associate slangs to groups such as "Yea Mon" to Rastafarian sects. The fact is that there is no one true definition that relates to defining the Caribbean, as most definitions tend to leave out one grouping of persons. Thus, it can be said that there is no one true identity to the Caribbean due to its similar yet diverse histories and cultural associations. Fanonian perspectives can apply as seen in his publication "Black Faces, White Masks" in regard to Blacks, where black men and women a...