The Caribbean Diaspora

In Caribbean society and culture migration has been a traditional practice and is
regarded positively. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many
Caribbean emigrants, mainly from Jamaica and Barbados, went to Panama to find
work on the canal that was being built across the peninsula. Although the regular
work was attractive, there were many dangers attached to it, not to mention jungle
diseases to which island migrants in particular were not accustomed.

Afro-Caribbean workers were also subject to racist discrimination and abuse. But
many workers sent money home to their families to enable them to join them in
Panama, where a large diasporic community was founded. After the canal was
finished, many workers found employment on the sugar plantations
Over time Britain, Canada and the United States have moved to curb immigration
from the Caribbean and have even stipulated their preference for highly educated
and skilled persons. At the same time they have been forced to accept poor and
unskilled or semi-skilled migrants on a seasonal basis because their own residents
are unwilling to work at strenuous or low-status jobs. The labour shortage in farm
work has given poor farmers and unemployed youth in the Caribbean and
elsewhere an opportunity to earn an income in metropolitan countries.
Caribbean people also migrate on a seasonal basis to perform domestic work,
childcare and taking care of the elderly. While Caribbean countries have benefited
from the temporary or permanent migration of their people, there have also been
negative influences:
■ the ‘brain drain’ effect through the emigration of skilled people, most of whom
were trained by Caribbean institutions (e.g. nurses, teachers, technicians);
■ the experience of racism in the metropolitan country and treatment as
second-class citizens as far as wages, benefits and grievances are concerned;
■ the injustices felt by seasonal workers, who are largely segregated from
resident communities on large farms or orchards and who hold down jobs that
residents think are too menial for them
■ the ‘mindset’ that better opportunities lie with extraregional countries.
Diaspora communities can be very influential, even influencing laws and elections
in host countries. The Cuban people of Florida, for example, are said to have had
a major influence in determining every United States presidential election since
2000. One of the greatest impacts of the migratory movement of Caribbean
nationals within and outside the region is the inflow of remittances to their
remaining family and other dependants.
This inflow of goods and money for dependent children led to the coining of the
term ‘barrel children’ – children who received food and clothing from their parents
instead of direct care. However, the downside to this type of migration is that many
families can be disrupted as parents and spouses live abroad, sometimes for long
periods
Migration acted as a form of cultural exchange, where the music, language and
literature of home and host countries expanded with the back and forth
movements of migran
Discussion
One of the most striking demographic figures in the Caribbean region is the one-to-one
ratio of nationals living in their home countries and the members of the diaspora living
abroad:
“There is nearly one person living abroad in the diaspora to every person still
resident within the Caribbean, making the diaspora an untapped potential resource
for economic development” – World Bank, 2013.
This figure can be perceived as an opportunity to unlock a potential growth in the
economy and development of this region if managed adequately.
More than 85% of the members of the Caribbean diaspora are active investors in their
home countries, particularly in real estate. Most of the support from the diaspora goes to
charity, remittance-investments to support relatives with small businesses, and other
entrepreneurship investments. Additionally, it could bring added value to job creation and
productivity increases through more investments, as well as through mentoring.
Governments should be responsible for supporting and fostering these interests by:
Creating new policies and strategies that provide incentives to these key members;
reducing barriers and bureaucratic processes, and increase information transparency, so
that they could play an even bigger role in contributing to the region’s development. The
weak legal enforcement and regulations among countries is making it difficult to unravel
the potential demand for investments among the diaspora.
Data collection - Conducting diaspora mappings to understand what their interests are in
order to develop investment opportunities tailored to their needs.
Establishing dedicated units or agencies and invest in channels to promote the
diaspora’s engagement in their home country’s development efforts. An example of this
can be the development of an online mechanism that could facilitate networking between
professionals overseas and in the region, where the diaspora could mentor and
recommend good practices with like-minded individuals in the region.
Creating formal platforms to facilitate communication between policymakers and
members of the diaspora, that allows them to actively participate in decision-making,
while also generating awareness of investment opportunities.
Cultural Impacts of Migratory Movements In
the Caribbean
Amerindians
The Amerindians cultivated a number of ground provisions. These have been used
throughout the Caribbean, and even today the cultivation of these crops is
widespread.

The farming practices consisted of slash and burn, which allowed for Amerindian
tribes to move their villages from one place to another. They used urine mixed with
the ash from burnt stumps to fertilise the soil.

The hunting techniques that they used are still practised in some form. Most
people hunted and fished to supplement farming. The primary hunting weapon
was the bow and arrow.
Europeans
The influence of European cultural institutions is still present in Caribbean society,
for example in religion, politics and education. These institutions were established
according to the cultural values and ideologies of the colonisers. The various
colonists brought their different languages into the region. English, Spanish,
French and Dutch are spoken in the Caribbean.
These languages have often been infused with African and even East Indian
languages to form Creole. Many leisure activities practised by the Europeans are
now found within Caribbean culture, such as ballroom dancing and the
masquerade balls that are part of Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival celebrations. The
carnival celebrations mimic the dances and balls of the old slave masters.
Africans
During the plantation era, in an attempt to minimise communication between
Africans for fear of revolts taking place, slaves from different regions of Western
Africa speaking different languages were mixed.

However, the slaves managed to create their own form of communication through
language and this can still be witnessed today in the contemporary Caribbean, for
example in place names and the dialects spoken. African-derived religions have
become part of Caribbean culture. Traditional African-derived religions from the
Congo, Nigeria and Dahomey have been influenced by Christianity to form
syncretic religions. (Voodoo, Orisha, Shango)
Music is also a significant aspect of African culture that is practised in the
Caribbean today. Drums have always been an important musical instrument in
African culture. The tamboo bamboo is used in funeral services in rural areas in
Caribbean territories. The heritage of food, such as yam, cassava and ackee, is
deeply rooted in African culture. Ackee was also a staple food in Dahomey, West
Africa, and it became a staple food for enslaved Africans on the plantations.
East Indians
Religious beliefs and doctrines are a major influence on Caribbean society and
culture. Hinduism and Buddhism both originated in India and are now practised in
the Caribbean

The culinary practices of the East Indians have also contributed to Caribbean
society and culture. Curries and spices play an important part in cuisine, and
firesides or ‘chulhas’ are used.

East Indian music has impacted greatly on Caribbean society and culture.
Traditional musical instruments are used in worship and sometimes for
celebrations and festivals. Typical instruments include the ‘tassa’, ‘dholak’,
‘majeera’ and ‘sitar’.
Summary
The Caribbean has been a destination for migrants over many thousands of years.
Each group has contributed to the creation of Caribbean society and culture.
Migrants came through normal processes of diffusion and expansion of cultures,
through voyages intent on discovering new trade routes, as well as through force
by being enslaved, and through worker indentureship schemes. Each group
added to the increasing diversity of Caribbean society and culture, especially as
each group impacted on the various territories differently.
Today both diversity and complexity deepen as we see the resurgence of groups
thought to have long died out, namely the Amerindians, with a demand to be
recognised as a vibrant part of Caribbean society and culture. And we also see
Africans, Indians, Chinese and whites not only as Caribbean people, but also as
part of the various diasporas, having homelands elsewhere and learning to forge
an identity under such circumstances. The complexity deepens considerably when
Caribbean people migrate to metropolitan countries and live in ‘a double diaspora’.
Historical processes III: systems of
production
A system of production refers to the ways in which an economy is organised to
produce commodities to sustain society

Systems of production were utilised by all racial and national groups in the
Caribbean with each group having its own distinctive style of providing food and
surplus goods for trade and use.

Early societies had simple systems of production such as hunting and gathering or
subsistence agriculture. Once surpluses occurred, trade became important.
Amerindian societies were at different stages of economic organisation when the
Europeans arrived in the Americas. The Tainos, the most advanced, were
producing agricultural surpluses and trade was mostly for the purpose of feeding
and providing for the wants of their increasingly urban communities
The Spaniards, however, introduced the idea that wealth in the form of gold and
silver (bullion) was the desired goal of production. They believed that if Spain had
access to its own gold and silver mines, then it would be the most powerful
country in Europe. Thus, the main driving force behind Spain’s colonisation of the
Americas was the lure of precious metals.
Early systems of production
The Tainos produced agricultural surpluses in order to sustain their growing
communities. They practised crop rotation on a subsistence basis, with a little
surplus. The men would look for a suitable plot to cultivate.
One of the methods of returning nutrients to the soil in traditional societies,
including those in the Caribbean, is called slash and burn cultivation.
In a fallow system at least once every two years the ground is left to recover
nutrients naturally, often being grazed by animals whose manure fertilises the soil,
followed by another session of slash and burn.
The Kalinagos did not practice as much farming as the Tainos, and the little they
did was carried out by the Taino women they captured. Their economy was based
mainly on fishing, hunting and raiding. The Mayan economy was well advanced,
compared to the Tainos and Kalinagos. They practiced large scale agriculture and
carried out extensive trading
The Encomienda
When Spain conquered the peoples of the Caribbean, the Spanish monarchs
decided that control over the native population should be divided up among the
incoming Spaniards, who had the right to exact from them some form of tribute –
produce, gold or personal services. In return, the Spaniards would guarantee
religious instruction in the Roman Catholic faith. This system was known as the
encomienda. In reality, the Amerindians were treated as slaves and put to work in
the mines.

They quickly died from hunger, overwork, harsh punishments and European
diseases. Many committed suicide. The system of production was a get-rich-quick
scheme where precious metals were taken from a conquered people by forced
labour and sent to Spain to increase Spain’s power and prestige in Europe
White indentureship
Following the genocide of the Taino civilisation, the Spanish needed another
labour force to work on the plantations. The first indentureship scheme involved
white immigrants, particularly from Great Britain. The immigrants came to the
West Indies because of economic hardship in their own countries.

The indentureship contract indicated that they would work for 4—5 years and, if
after this they chose to return home, they would be paid. If they chose to stay in
the Caribbean, they were told, they would be given a plot of land, tools and
materials to start their own farms. However, many of them died due to disease,
overwork or ill-treatment.
Enslavement
Slavery was a total institution. A total institution determines all aspects of life,
social, economic and political. lavery imposed institutional organisation on the
lives of African people, including the social and economic arrangements of the
plantation and, by extension, the society. Slavery formed the basis of plantation
society and this was the system of production in the Caribbean associated with
sugar cultivation.
One fundamental way in which slavery shaped the lives of Africans was through
attempts to dehumanise them. Africans were regarded as ‘chattels’ (property like
land or buildings) and were thus owned by Europeans who had paid for them. This
attempt at dehumanisation involved suppressing the social and cultural ties which
helped to form an identity and a sense of belonging
For example:
■ Choosing Africans from different tribal groups for the plantations to minimise
communication and bonds of kinship between them was based on a fear of
Africans banding together.
■ Giving the Africans European names and forbidding them to practise their
religions, customs and traditions, so that any semblance of social and family life
was discouraged, was also based on a fear of developing solidarity and identity.
■ Meting out harsh physical punishments, torture, and even death, for quite minor
infringements, was designed to force Africans to submit to the will of the
Europeans
■ Playing one group of Africans against another was meant to promote European
values and ways of life. For example, the domestic or house slaves and lighter
skinned, partly European slaves were accorded higher status and prestige
because of their constant and intimate contact with Europeans.
The Plantation System
The plantation system is the longest existing system of production in the history of
the Caribbean. It is the only system of production that spanned the period from the
arrival of the Spanish to post-slavery. Sugar and tobacco were the main crops
grown on Caribbean plantations. Tropical conditions proved to be ideal for growing
them. This, coupled with high demand in Europe resulting from growing industrial
economies, brought many wealthy investors to the region who were looking to
establish plantations.

.Labour was coloured and the whites were the owners, managers and supervisors.
When coupled with slavery as a total institution the plantation system became a
sophisticated economic mechanism that dominated the culture and society of the
Caribbean,
locking it into European economies. For example, the plantation system:

■ relied on the Atlantic slave trade for its labour supply and provided the raw
materials for the third leg of the triangular trade – sugar, rum and molasses for the
port cities of England, France and Holland;

■ provided the basis for the growing manufacturing and industrial strength of
Europe (plantations were a form of investment financed from the capitals of
Europe);

■ was so valuable that in 1651 Britain instituted the Navigation Laws whereby only
English ships could trade with English colonies, and this prevented other nations
from getting a share of the profitable trade arising from the slave plantations of the
Caribbean; France followed in 1664 with similar laws.
The plantation system, and in particular the cultivation of sugar,required large
amounts of human labour and cheap labour sources were vital to the viability of
these large farms that on average would be approximately 150 acres in size. The
typical plantation needed about one labourer per acre for optimum
production,hence the average labour-intensive plantation utilised 150–160
labourers for various tasks.

The Caribbean plantations were self-sufficient for the most part, with plantation
managers even encouraging the labourers to grow their own food in a bid to cut
costs. A typical plantation in the Americas had living quarters for the labourers
equipped with garden plots known as ‘provision grounds’ for growing food, though
fl our, rice and salted meats had to be brought in
Indentureship
After Emancipation, the planters sought a reliable source of labour, particularly in the
larger territories where the ex-slaves refused to work for what they regarded as very low
wages. The system of production in the British, French and Dutch Caribbean was thus
thrown into jeopardy. Indentureship has been described as another form of slavery,
though the Indian and Chinese immigrants were not regarded as chattels and they
continued to practise their religions, speak their languages and maintain their traditions
as best they could. But they were paid extremely low wages and their accommodation
was crowded, substandard and unsanitary. They were always in debt to the company
store where they were forced to buy goods

In addition, they were assigned to a plantation or estate and not allowed to move about
freely. If caught some distance from the plantation to which they had been assigned they
were charged with vagrancy, flogged and jailed. If they tried to escape they were hunted
down and jailed for breach of contract, then returned to the plantation
As a system of production, indentureship was very much related to African slavery
and, indeed, plantation society survived because of this new supply of labour.

The socioeconomic influences of the plantation still pervaded the whole society
even though some Africans had opted to move away. For example, the Indians
were a non-white group of labourers who now occupied the lowest stratum of the
society and were expected to see the European bosses as superior.

They were also encouraged to keep themselves apart from the Africans, thus
continuing disunity among workers. Although a new group had entered Caribbean
society, the system of production – the plantation – continued to influence social
and economic affairs in the same way
As a system of production Indian indentureship undoubtedly saved the sugar
plantations in the British, French and Dutch Caribbean in the aftermath of
Emancipation. The very low wages labourers were paid exploited the labour force
and enabled the plantations to survive through some turbulent times when the
price of sugar on the world market was falling.

However, the long association with enslaved and indentured labour predisposed
Caribbean planters into a preference for exploitative systems of production. In the
twentieth century, the number of plantations quickly decreased as the planters
found that they could not survive by paying a fair wage
Summary
The systems of production established by Europeans in the Caribbean have
continued mainly intact, even though centuries have passed since they were first
introduced. While the encomienda system, slavery and indentureship were all
eventually abolished, the plantation is still seen as the main organiser of society
and culture in the Caribbean. The plantation is a synonym now for highly stratified,
ex-colonial societies where labour was brought in and now forms rival groups, in
an economy that is still largely based on monocultural (one main product)exports.

Europeans did not develop the economic institutions of Caribbean societies. Their
emphasis was on producing agricultural products by monoculture and exporting
the raw materials to Europe to be manufactured. Today, Caribbean societies
continue to struggle with systems of production that are not geared towards
developing a vibrant, indigenous manufacturing sector and food production
The legacy of the plantation system continues to affect Caribbean societies and
economies today. George Beckford (1972), for example, portrayed Caribbean
society as ‘plantation society’, although the era of the large plantations dominating
economic and social life is long gone. His work focused on the legacy of slavery
and indentureship and the system of economic organisation, the plantation, which
used this form of labour.
To him the most significant characteristic of Caribbean society today is its stratified
nature, which in his analysis continues to reflect the historical divisions among the
various groups where caste (race and colour) and class (occupation) were rigidly
tied.
Whites and people of lighter colour were the wealthier members of plantation
societies and they continue to be so today, although other groups – africans, those
of mixed heritage and Indians – are increasingly accessing social mobility, mainly
through education.