Identity, Who Are We? Can Culture Identify Us?

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 push themselves as serious performers in the male dominated industries of the region.
Carnival, which was born out of slavery as a mean of freedom of expression has since grown and been embodied by most of the Caribbean nationals, and they carry that with them even as they leave the region. This is seen in the Carnivals worldwide, where the West Indian diaspora still practice this element of their cultural identity. The carnival industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry, and is a key marker of the Caribbean identity.

Fanon stated in the Wretched of the Earth, "A national culture is not a folklore, not an abstract populism that believes it can discover the people's true nature. It is not made up of the inert dregs of gratuitous actions, that is to say actions which are less and less attached to the ever-present reality of the people. A national culture is the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify, and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence." (pg 233)

Thus we see links to Caribbean persons holding on to their culture even as times and cultures are being mixed and hybridized, as it symbolizes the nature of the Caribbean and how it has grown from colonization.