This issue features archived articles that remain pertinent to the advancement of social development in the Caribbean. Authors have revisited and interrogated key themes, arguments, and perspectives to contribute to ongoing dialogues and discussions on various topics, including Caribbean music, music technology, cultural critique, immigrant experiences, integration and settlement dynamics, employment, the judicial system, elections, carnivals, nationalism, leadership, faith-based groups, religion and group identity, as well as specific insights on Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad and the Anglophone Caribbean.
Pages: 1-15Author(s): Barry Chevannes
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Pages: 16-27Author(s): Curwen Best
This article discusses the early evolution of the 1990s post-soca dance music called ringbang. It traces the roots of this new style back to the early 1980s and analyses how it began to diverge from mainstream soca of the time. The article suggests that this new style has its basis in a number of drum, percussion, bass, and vocal applications and practices. The evolution of post-soca styles owes much to the impact of new music technologies on Caribbean culture.
Keywords: Caribbean music; music technology; cultural criticism; sound production
Pages: 28-51Author(s): Carl E. James
This article explores the extent to which regional immigrants who have settled in Barbados and Antigua are “happily” integrating into these societies. Using newspaper accounts, it discusses the perceptions, interactions and exchanges among nationals and immigrants in relation to the cultural, social and political contexts and discourses of the respective societies. It was found that the social and political situation in the islands, and the skepticism and ambivalence of immigrants and citizens toward each other, produced tension and angst among them. Nationals expected immigrants to assimilate – to become like them, to settle for similar pay and working conditions, and to participate in the political process in the ways nationals do. Immigrants expected their practices and aspirations to be accepted as they tried to make life in their new society.
Keywords: Immigrants, integration, settlement, Antigua, Barbados, Caribbean, newspapers, letters to the editors, employment, judicial system, elections.
Pages: 52-71Author(s): Gabrielle Jamela Hosien
The relationship between Trinidadian mas bandleaders and the State suggests more than simply resistance or co-optation, it points to a negotiation of spheres of authority. Here, I examine the ways that formal and informal spheres blend and shift in relation to each other and notions of legitimacy and leadership. Ethnographic data on the meetings between the San Fernando Carnival Committee and the Lionel Jagessar and Associates mas camp show a struggle over informal legitimacy and the authority it creates. This authority has significance for notions of ‘national’ culture and nationalism, and for State participation in commoditising culture via Carnival.
Keywords: carnival, Trinidad, nationalism, legitimate authority, leadership.
Pages: 72-77Author(s): Carla Ali
This paper uses the article by Barry Chevannes as a springboard to advance a proposition that the enactment of legislation to provide for the recognition of marriage in the Rastafarian context of the word, would confer on parties married pursuant to the Rastafarian tradition, the benefits afforded to persons legally married in accordance with other religions, faiths and practices, in Jamaica. After an examination of the information, it was found that there are existing examples of the co-existence of marriages conducted according to religious rites which also adhere to the formalities in the law. This article therefore addresses issues of marriage, religion, faith, practice, law and legislation.
Keywords: faith-based group, religion, recognition, mortgage
Pages: 78-92Author(s): Meagan A. Sylvester
This paper focuses on the festival music of Calypso and Soca and seeks to highlight the role of identity as a discursive element to explain and describe the process of music meaning to Trinbagonian society. Specifically, the discussion will center around three dimensions of identity construction namely: (a) the navigation of agency in terms of a person-to-world versus a world-to-person directionality; (b) the differentiation between self and other as a way to navigate between uniqueness and a communal sense of belonging and being the same as others; and (c) the navigation of sameness and change across one's biography or parts thereof (Bamberg, M., De Fina, A., Schiffrin, D. (2011). Further references will be made to the sub-genres of Calypso and Soca music such as groovy soca, chutney soca, ragga soca and parang soca in an attempt to explain the various personalities of the citizenry to assist with the analysis of how identity and music are inextricably linked.
Keywords: group identity, soca music, Trinbagonian-ness
Pages: 93-102Author(s): Carl E. James
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Pages: 103-119Author(s): Natalie Dietrich Jones
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Pages: 120-128Author(s): Gabrielle Jamela Hosein
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