Obviously, in the African-Indian context, we do not have a master-slave relationship with which to contend; however, the interpositions of a majority-minority relationship are to be heeded. Both majority-minority and indenture-master relationships though freely entered into, are wrought with fetters. After victims are set free from the fetters cast by dictatorial relations they should, through introspection, seek to ensure that they, too, do not replicate the same old oppressive relationships that also limited them. Recognizing the problematics of freedom and introspection, Bhabha cites from Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, that:

It certainly enriches the discourse when we consider that the wearing of dreadlocks has a long history in India.

It is through the effort to recapture the self and to scrutinize the self, it is through the lasting tension of their freedom that men

will be able to create the ideal conditions of existence for a human world. 63

Grenadians must always reopen to debate, the very nature and progress of the freedom that was to soon follow the abolition of the slave trade; by the same token, he/she must repeatedly reopen to debate, the very nature and progress of our political independence and freedom. Ultimately, the hashing out of the tensions of freedom, i.e. between freedom and constraints, must be done in all quarters: among indo-Grenadians; among Afro-Grenadians; and among Grenadians at large. Also open to debate is a central feature of Creolite: heterogeneity. Heterogeneous freedom, too, produces its own tensions that must also be periodically mediated by introspection.

Homogeneity is neither avoidable nor undesirable. Many elements of the national culture will inevitably be homogenous, just like others will be heterogeneous and others, probably mixed. However, when I show preference for heterogeneity above homogeneity, I am simply saying that heterogeneity should not be sacrificed for the homogeneity that effaces minority distinctions; or for the homogeneity that couches and sanctions majority dominance. I believe Selwyn Ryan aptly makes the case for heterogeneity here:

We must recognize that the Caribbean is a ‘Creole’ reality…one that is neither ‘primordially’ Anglo-European, African, nor Indian, but a mosaic of all in which the constituent icons and canons must remain recognizable and equally valid. Full cultural emancipation, if it is to mean anything at this point in time, must therefore involve recognizing hybridity and complexity and the tension that they generate, as our inescapable reality. (Express, August 15, 2004),

Ryan does not escape unscathed with the above view. Dr Selwyn Cudjoe takes issue with Ryan’s use of the adjectives “true” and “full,” essentially because he, Cudjoe, does not think we can get to a point of “full” emancipation, except but make incremental progress along that emancipation path. Cudjoe sees slavery and emancipation on the same continuum; however, he does not take issue with Ryan’s creolized description of our societies in the Caribbean. I cite the above quote from Ryan because he talks about cultural elements that must remain “recognizable and equally valid,” as distinct from elements that merge into one.

In the case of Grenada, I think if elements of Indian culture are made “recognizable and equally valid,” that we would have made progress along the path of heterogeneous expression, heterogeneity and homogeneity being on the same continuum, I believe. I wish to clarify, here, that my use of the term ‘heterogeneity’ is more than the application of a potpourri analogy; I am thinking in terms of a concept more akin to the notion of a bionic human, where man and machine remain distinct and distinguishable, yet function interdependently for common purposes. Homogeneity, the notion of being of the same consistency, is more akin to a fruit punch in which there is a sense of uniformity of texture, where the constituent juices in the mixture are no longer recognizable. In Grenada, I think we are far from the point where Indians and Africans can be considered as living in a homogeneously whole nation.

I do not think creolite is to be looked at as a complete and final approach; creolite has to be seen in terms of an evolving approach that needs to be constantly interrogated to weed out its, and our, totalizing tendencies. To make the approach of creolite work for us, we will have to insist on retaining, and complicating, the tension between the theoretical urgency for a final definition (of creolite) and its functional need for more operational latitude. Of course, I am speaking strictly in terms of culture, but Maryse Conde seems to be concerned about this same tension between didactic definition and functional latitude, in the field of language:

The Martinican school of Creolite is singular because it presumes to impose law and order. Creolite is alone in reducing the overall expression of Creoleness to the use of the Creole language …This implies a notion of “authenticity,” which inevitably engenders exclusion, as “authenticity“ is based on the very normative ideology that for so long consigned us to the world’s periphery (Conde, 106.)

Language is important to Creolite because in the marketplace of ideas, translatability of language is central, and without a written grammar a language is not easily translatable for outside uses. We need eventually to entertain all ideas within our Grenadian kriol language; in that sense, I think linguistic form has to be tentatively dictated at some point. Conde does problematize the language question in, that, Grenada will not want its creole grammar to describe an “authentic” language, for fear of essentializing such language, hence marginalizing other expressions. However, in disagreeing with Conde’s fear of authenticity, I think a culturally more ‘authentic’ voice should always be emerging to transport us to an ever more effective level of linguistic competence.

I look at the origin and evolution of the very term creole, coming from the Spanish ‘criollo’ and once used to describe the mestizo métis, and I cannot help but notice the difficulty that intermixing posed, even since the early contacts with the Caribbean. The cultural intermixing process continues in Grenada, today. Therefore, culture and nationality, likewise, are a process and not a finished experience.

The small-population problem of the Grenadian Indian, which is also symbolic of Grenada’s overall predicament as one of the tiniest nations in the world, provides invaluable lessons as to the intensity of effort that must be sustained by all Grenadians in order that we gain international respect. When we indict Indians for their failure of Indian advocacy, we are simultaneously indicting all Grenadians, to the degree that we need to ’fix our house’ before we can take on the Hurricane Ivans of International politics; and before we can take on the bigger struggle for world relevance. The sheer smallness of population size, I agree, is the gateway reason for the eventual failures to retain a more viable Indian cultural presence. In contrast to Grenada, Indians in Trinidad and Guyana, where their populations matched the African populations, were successful in gaining cultural relevance. Irrespective of size, it still remains a challenge for Indian cultural advocacy within Grenada, in the same way that Grenadians are challenged to overcome the limitations and vulnerabilities of their small population in order to gain international respect.

Finally, not to lose sight of a significant question at this historic juncture in Grenadian history, namely: What are we as a national culture at the coincidence of the 200^th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade and the 150^th anniversary of Indian arrivals to Grenada? Pursuing this answer is a responsibility of all Grenadians, if we are to effectively establish our identity coordinates in a cultural space where none is to be marginalized. The non race-specific, Caribbean concept of Creolite, supported by some post-colonial theories, offers a reasonable starting point, and a framework for investigation. In the process, the Indo-Grenadians, because of their significant minority status is encouraged to recoup, and exercise, all the cultural power consistent with their status, and to work for a Grenada with an improved representation of cultural heterogeneity.

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Sources:

Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.

Bhat, Chandrrashekar. 1998. “India and the Indian Diaspora A policy issues.” Hyderabad: University of Hyderabad.

Collins, Merle. 1998. “Writing and Creole Language Politics: Voice and Story.” In Caribbean Creolization, 87-95, eds. Balutansky and Sourieau. Miami: University Press of Florida.

Davies, John. 1666. The History of The Charibby islands. Translation by Fr. Charles Rochefort, 1665. London

Ford, John. 2002. “Representations of deference and defiance in the novels of Caryl Phillips.” In The Society For Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers. Edited by Sandra Courtman. Vol.3. (May)

Honychurch, Lennox. The Leap at Sauteurs: The lost cosmology of indigenous Grenada.

Mahabir, Noorkumar. 1987. “East Indians in Grenada: A study in Absorption.” Indians in the Caribbean, 370-398, I.J. ed. Bahadursingh . New Delhi

Nettleford, R. 2006. “Intangible cultural Heritage Along the Slave Route.”

Ormerod, Beverely. 1998. The Martinican concept of “creoleness”: A multiracial redefinition of culture. University of Western Australia.

Ryan, Selwyn. The Meaning of True Emancipation Trinidad Express, August 15, 2004

Sookram, R. 2003. “Culture and Identity of the Indian Community in Grenada, 1857-1960.” In A History of East Indians in Grenada, 1841 to the present.” UWI: St. Augustine. (Sookram furnished me an 11-page excerpt from his dissertation)

Wynter, Sylvia. “1492: A ‘New World’ View.” 1991. In The New World (Spring/Summer 1991), No. 2 pp. 4-5.

GRENADA UNCOVERED

An uncommon view of Grenada’s geo-cultural beauty

A Grenadian of East Indian descent shares a light moment with his African Grenadian counterparts

A Grenadian of East Indian descent, with hat-covered dreadlocks. It certainly enriches the discourse when we consider that the wearing of dreadlocks has a long history in India.