african culture forms in the caribbean up to 1838

African culture forms in the Caribbean

Presented by Jordon Campbell

Form 45

Table of Content

Acknowledgement 1

Introduction 2

Religion 3

Dress 5

Food 6

Medicine 7

Family Life 8

Gender 10

Race 12

Class 13

Conclusion 15

Bibliography 16

Acknowledgement

It is a matter of great privilege for me to present this project in which I have put a

majority of my faculties to use to complete, to Ms.Manderson. I express the

greatest of thanks to my teacher for the information she has given me for the

preparation of this project. I offer my heartiest gratitude to my family members

and fellow students for their selfless blessings, information and opinions.

Jordon Campbell

1

Introduction

This intention during the creation of this project is to give the reader an idea of

the treatment of the African enslaved and how they retained their culture even

though brought to a foreign land. Also this project is to enlighten the reader of

how the African societies and peoples were seen in the eyes of the Europeans and

also how the culture of the Africans was seen by the European enslavers.

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Section 1

Religion

The African enslaved retained many of their beliefs from their previous society and these

manifested greatly in their lives as enslaved. Death was a common thing on the plantation more

enslaved died that there were babies born therefore there were many death rituals some of

which are.

The sacrificing of a hog and making a portion of it into a soup which was then put in a calabash

and waved three times this practice would be accompanied by the playing of the drums. The

soup was sometimes placed at the head of the corpse and rum at the feet of it and then the

grave was filled with dirt.

The practice of the ceremony called a wake, this ceremony consists of many activities taking

place on the first night of the death. These activities would include traditional games, wailing,

hymn singing, prayers, dancing and drum beating. These activities take place in the house

where the deceased is ‘laid to rest’. Earlier, on the day of the wake, the body of the deceased is

washed and prepared by the family. She/he is then dressed in his/her best clothing and laid out

on the bed. During the wake, friends and relatives file past the bed to have a last look at the

departed person before the burial takes place during the following day.

Africans had a strong belief in life after death and reincarnation it is said that many did not fear

death and that some of the enslaved who were actually being executed laughed in the faces of

their executioners or sang farewell songs. It was believed also that the soul of a departed family

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member would manifest in a newborn baby, due to this belief parents would withhold naming

their child until their saw any semblance of that relative in that child if there was this would

mean that the relative’s soul is I the child the parent would then name them after the relative.

Africans like the Kalinago believed in the forces of good and evil. Africans believed there was a

constant struggle between the two. They also believed in the spirit world of duppies (ghosts).

Africans also believed in the gods of nature: rain, thunder, fertility and lightning and therefore

had a strong respect for mother earth.

The use of two types of magic: Obeah which was used to inflict hurt or harm and Myalism used

to promote life, love, health and success. Both involved the use of herbs, oils, potions etc.

These magics were deemed illegal in all Caribbean and if one was caught practicing them they

were punishable by death.

4

Dress

The African enslaved were given either two suits of clothing per year or the equivalent yards of

osnaburg. The slaves’ clothing was usually very rough and inadequate. Men commonly had only

two trousers and two or three shirts to last the year. The female slaves had a similar number of

dresses in dull colors. These clothes were often made from osnaburg (commonly called “Negro

cloth”). Osnaburg is a heavy course cotton of the kind used today in feed sacks or drapes. Male

and female children wore only a shirt until they were grown, then they started wearing clothes.

Women wore tie heads with was a piece of cloth wrapped around the head.

A specimen of male enslaved A

sample of osnaburg

Food

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The slaves had to prepare their own meals. They did it the way they were taught back home in

Africa. Also the fact that they, especially the African enslaved women who were experienced in

the production of food and crops, were allowed to grow their own provisions meant that they

were able to choose what to grow for example yam, coco, dasheen etc. They continued their

culinary skills when preparing these crops for eating and these skills were passed down from

generation to generation. Trinidadian slaves had the luxury of beans and palm oils as they

would have had in Africa.

Foo-foo this is an African dish made by boiling and pounding startchy root vegetables and

making them into balls to be eaten with stews or in soups.

Medicine

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Myalism is a communal practice which involves a group of persons performing a unique dance

ritual with the central figure being the Myal-Man or ‘Doctor’. After having conveyed his/her

problem to the Myal-Man, the patient is placed within a circle consisting of the Myal-Man and

his assistants. He/she is then given a drink brewed from herbs and sprinkled with a special type

of powder after which, the members of the circle dance around him/her. The patient then falls

into a trance and is presumed dead by the viewers. The Myal-Man then goes into the bushes,

returning with several herbs from which he squeezes the juice into the mouth and eyes of the

patient. The circle of members then dances around the patient once more after which he/she

then miraculously comes to life. Myalism is a classic African-Caribbean mode of religious

expression, in that it syncretizes African belief systems and behavior, and borrows from

observed Christian worship. By the end of the 19th century Christian elements were apparent,

such as the use of hymns from the Sankey Hymnal. Myalism although thought by the enslaved

to be generally good it was outlawed in most Caribbean countries and was punishable by death.

Also a variety of tropical plants were found by the Africans to be medicinal and they used these

to make elixirs, tonics and poultices.

Section 2

7

Family life

The enslaved Africans brought to the Caribbean were stripped of any family they might have

had in Africa the only thing they had brought with them is their culture. The enslaved had to try

really hard to establish any relationships with the other enslaved on the plantations as those

who might have come from the same area were separated. The act of marriage was not

formally recognized by the masters of the plantation and if the enslaved were married and this

was discovered by the enslavers there were severe penalties therefore the act of marriage

and/or being married had to be furtively kept among the enslaved or only to the couple. At

times though some masters allowed their slaves to be married if they showed obedience and

worked hard but these allowances could be taken away on a whim of the master and therefore

slaves had to work hard to maintain this. However by the 18th century a majority of planters

realized that it would create a more stable society if the enslaved formed households thus

cohabitation was a more common occurrence but it was still seen as a privilege and could still

be revoked by the master. Sexual exploitation was also a large thorn in the side of family life as

enslaved were seen as property without rights therefore the women were prone to sexual

exploitation by the masters or any other plantation heads, this affect family life in the sense

that if a woman were having relations with the plantation heads consensual or not, more often

the latter, a male enslaved would most like not want to also have relations with her. In some

countries where a ‘breeding’ of the enslaved effort occurred children were produced on an

average of four children per couple on a plantation in Barbados. This however was a tragedy as

the infant mortality rate was quite large. Only the most organized, closely bonded and obedient

families were able to make anything out of what slavery threw in their faces this is seen in the

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family of Old Doll who was a retired house keeper in a Barbadian plantation, she was able to

make it so that her children were able to gain outstanding positions on plantations using her

family connections.

Enslaved family

Gender

Men on the Plantation

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Males on the plantation were expected to do most of the manual labour on the sugar

plantation from the cutting of the trees for fuel, the planting, weeding, harvesting of sugarcane,

transport of sugarcane, working the machines and stirring in the boiling house. Most of the

artisans recorded are male artisans such as coopers, wheelwrights, boilermen, carpenters and

blacksmiths.

Women on the Plantation

Enslaved black women played an important role in production of food for the sugar plantation,

as the enslaved females coming from Africa were used farming this was not much of a

challenge. Women were the core of the domestic services provided on most if not all

plantations in the Caribbean, they had to take care of the Greathouse, the household of the

master, the master and his family’s clothing and the master’s children if he had any. Women

were also naturally responsible for the reproduction of the labour supply but as the infant

mortality rate was so high most masters preferred to replace enslaved with purchased ones

seeing that ‘breeding’ slaves was so inefficient. Women were responsible for family life as

children took the domestic status of the mother most children born to enslaved were naturally

enslaved but the time which most mothers had to look after their children was scarce. Female

enslaved were not excepted from field work like men they also had to work in the fields as the

masters did not see them as delicate and they were sometimes needed to make up for the

absence of men from the field as men were used in a variety of non-field occupations. Women

in some Caribbean countries also went to the markets to sell the food they produced.

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Race

During the slavery period, Caribbean social structure was basically a hierarchical one in which

Amerindians, blacks, and browns were subordinated to white control. While the lighter-skinned

(Mulatto) classes were generally spared the more ‘backbreaking’ plantation work as is seen

when the more lighter skinned women have more of a chance of getting a job in the master’s

household, the system routinely dehumanized Amerindian and black labor through a regime of

constant brutality to ensure absolute obedience. Levels of brutality meted out to disobedient or

rebellious slaves were extreme, and often public, in order to set an example for the rest. Such

ruling-class violence defined the very nature of plantation life, for it was thought to be

necessary for the very survival of the system as a whole. Unlike the lighter-skinned indentured

servants, the black ex-slaves were denied credits and loans to go into more lucrative self-

employment and business ventures. Compared to blacks, lighter-skinned ethnicities were given

more favors and facilities by the colonial office to succeed in wealth creation, while every

opportunity was taken by the planter classes to force blacks back into plantation labor. To this

end, planters destroyed fruit trees and provision grounds, diverted water supplies from black

living areas, and prosecuted former slaves from venturing into plantation areas if they were not

plantation workers. In addition, the colonial authorities instituted a tax on land. These

measures were meant to keep blacks from living independently of the plantations.

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Class

The class of each enslaved would naturally depend on what job each enslaved is able to procure

for himself/herself. Also as race was a major factor in the selection of an enslaved for a job, the

colored (mulatto) had an edge over the black enslaved. Of the highest class were the whites.

Some were born in Europe others born of European parents in the colonies. These people had

political power and if they did not own a plantation they had good positions on one as an

employee such as an accountant or overseer. These people were free to do what they wanted

and would soon grow jealous of the increasing wealth of the colored.

The free colored and free blacks were a rung under the whites and they are separated from

each other by race and law. They are not enslaved but still do not have the firm foothold on

society the whites have. These people may be wealthy and educated or either and some mey

own enslaved persons. Like slaves even though they are closer to in than them the free colored

and free blacks want to be on the same footing as whites. Most of these free colored and free

blacks abandon their enslaved brethren and most are restricted by a set of law such as the

Code Noir and Siete Partidas.

The enslaved are beneath the free blacks and free colored and are separated by from the

whites by law and color and are separated from the free blacks and free colored by law only.

The enslaved consist of domestic enslaved, artisans and praedial enslaved. The artisans were

considered to be the most valuable enslaved on the estate because of the importance of their

job in converting the cane to the export product known as raw muscavado sugar. This group of

slaves worked in the workshops and factory.

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Domestic enslaved would most likely be chosen from the colored enslaved and these enslaved

had to do less onerous work out of the sun in the great house.

A nanny with a white child

Then praedial enslaved are on the last rung and have the hardest jobs especially during harvest

times during which these enslaved must wake up really early. This rung consists of both male

and female enslaved both of which have to perform daily tasks on the plantations.

Enslaved gang toiling in the fields under the watch and whip of the a overseer.

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Conclusion

There are many tactics which were employed by the enslaved to keep their culture alive so that

we are able to experience it today. Slaves would practice certain things in secret late at night.

The enslaved conducted their own funeral ceremonies therefore they managed to practice their

funeral rites when this time came. Also the enslaved were given some leniency at Christmas

time so they were able to practice some of their ceremonies without having to worry about

persecution. Also as is seen with religions they were able to blend their African culture to that

of the European faiths and created a mixture of the two for example Pocomania.

Many of these practices are retained in our culture and are still performed this very day

practices such as wakes, kumina dances and even the act of obeah are still present in today’s

society. Also many of the religions which were hybrids of both African and European religions

are still practiced in modern society like the spiritual Baptists.

Also the African culture is still strongly present in the food that is now cooked in the Caribbean,

the means of cooking still remain such as jerking foods and also the spices or seasonings used

on foods.

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Bibliography

‘Death and the Afro-Caribbean peoples’-http://www.shapworkingparty.org.uk/specialedition/2_lashley.html

Date created: 09/2005

Date retrieved: 25/3/2012

‘Wake (ceremony)’-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_(ceremony)



‘African Cultural Forms in the Caribbean up to 1838’-http://www.notesmaster.com/notes/syllabus/viewer/824-african-cultural-forms-in-the-caribbean-up-to-1838



‘Negro Clothing Osnaburg’-http://bquiltin.blogspot.com/2009/07/negro-clothing-osnaburg.html



‘History of Caribbean Food’-http://www.caribbeanfoodemporium.co.uk/history.htm



‘Gimme Plantains & Friendship Breads’-http://www.tasteslikehome.org/2007/09/gimme-plantains-friendship-breads.html



‘Caribbean Racial Formations’-http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6040/Caribbean-Racial-Formations.html



Beckles, Hilary et al Liberties Lost

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK, 2004

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african culture forms in the caribbean up to 1838

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