#caribbeanness

[undotishment-blog]

We are happy to once again support and partner with The O2N Foundation. After 5 very successful empowerment series, 3 in Trinidad & Tobago, 1 in Antigua & Barbuda and 1 in Guyana, @nicoledyergriffith and @richard_a_g_young are now set to hosting @o2nfoundation 1st international panel discussion in NYC - Venue: 470 Seven Events (470 7th Ave, NY, NY) Date: 3/15/19 Time: 6PM to 8PM A panel of dynamic 🇬🇩🇯🇲🇻🇨🇹🇹 individuals will share their inspirational stories to create, connect and cohere. Be inspired by the experiences of Her Excellency @pennelopebeckles 🇹🇹, my dear friend and @fenoel Designer and CEO Felisha Noel 🇬🇩, @rainemagazine 🇯🇲 @infamousmstish 🇹🇹, @gillianhardingstyle 🇹🇹 and our COO and Co-Founder @beingkcd 🇻🇨 To register please email [email protected] Seats are now extremely LIMITED. Video produced my Mr. Stephen Doobal for @omgttmag #O2Nnyc #paneldiscussion #caribbeanness #caribbeanpeople #caribbeanaesthetic #create #connect #cohere #instagraminspiration #instagood #instadaily #instaphoto #instavideo #instadaily #insta #instagram #undotishment #470sevenevents #nicoledyergriffith #nicoledyer #O2N (at 470 SEVEN events) https://www.instagram.com/p/BujXtL3FG0a/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8kczmrakg4h6

[haitianhistory]

How did  Haiti and its early 19th century colonial struggle influenced Antonio Marceo's vision of Caribbeanness during the Cuban war of Independence ?

"The Afro-Cuban Antonio Maceo was one of the leading figures of Cuba's independence movement, but historians have mis understood his relationship with Haiti and vision of a united Caribbean people. Maceo's struggle against Spanish colonialism was closely associated to the ideal of Caribbeanness. His vision of Caribbeanness proceeded from the definition of his relationship with the neighboring Republic of Haiti. Maceo claimed Haitian history and heritage of liberty and resistance as his own, beside overwhelming depiction of the "Black Republic" by the defenders of colonialism as the antithesis of civilization. He called for the birth Caribbean Haiti and theDominican Republic, while opposing the concept of a Black republic as undemocratic. He established complex relationships, and more extensive than previously thought, with many protagonists of Haitian politics. He envisioned the union of Cuba and Haiti as the source and guarantee of freedom, social justice and independence."

"Maceo's unsuccessful collaboration with (Haitian president Lysius) Salomon demonstrated the strength and boldness of his ideal.While Salomon thought that the preservation of the existence of Haiti required her to compromise with colonial st powers and eventually relinquish her independence of action in internal affairs, Maceo envisioned the union of Cuba and Haiti as the source and guarantee of freedom, social justice and independence. In that regard,Maceo's contribution to the ideal of Caribbeanness rivals the writings and actions of its most famous advocates, Jose Marti, Ramon Emeterio Betances and Eugenio Maria de Hostos."

*Read full article here.

[caribbeancivilisation]

Cubans themselves, especially black Cubans, always thought of the Caribbean black as a second-class black. It was rare that a Cuban black or mulatto formed a family with a Haitian or Jamaican; and even rarer for a white Cuban, who hardly inter-married either with a black Cuban. A Cuban white man did not marry a Caribbean woman and only rarely married a black Cuban woman. Although Caribbeans were gradually absorbed and assimilated into the population as Cuban, a certain degree of segmentation persisted. This was actually part of the segmentation that affected all blacks and mulattos in Cuba, but especially the so-called Antillanos (Caribbeans/West Indians).

Debating Cuba-Caribbean, Esteban Morales, Norman Girvan

[caribbeancivilisation]

“Caribbean” is a root word. “Caribbean” is also a “route” word – it can offer one way to travel; one path in practices of self-articulation. When you add the suffix “-ness” to the root/route, the resultant word is one that compels you to confront a condition of being – that condition or quality of “being Caribbean.” What then is Caribbeanness?

Stuart Hall

[caribbeancivilisation]

The Caribbean is not a common archipelago, but a meta-archipelago (an exalted quality that Hellas possessed, and the great Malay archipelago as well), and as a meta-archipelago it has the virtue of having neither a boundary nor a center. Thus the Caribbean flows outward past the limits of its own sea with a vengeance. Its ultima Thule may be found on the outskirts of Bombay, near the low and murmuring shores of Gambia, at a Balinese temple, in an old bristol pub, in a windmill beside the Zunder Zee, at a cafe in a barrio of Manhattan.

Antonio Benitez-Rojo, The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective 

[caribbeancivilisation]

I owe to my predecessors - from Fernando Ortiz to C.L.R. James, from Aime Cesaire to Kamau Braithwaite, from Wilson Harriss to Edouard Glissant - a great lesson, and it is at every intellectual venture directed toward investigaing Caribbeanness is designed to become an unending search. It doesn't matter which ideology you profess, Caribbeanness will always remain beyond the horizon.

Antonio Benitez-Rojo, The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective 

[thisistherising-blog]

What is missing from the notion of Caribbeanness is the transition from the shared experience to conscious expression; the need to transcend the intellectual pretensions dominated by the learned elite and to be grounded in collective affirmation, supported by the activism of the people.

Edouard Glissant, Toward Caribbeanness