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- Title
''All ah we is not one:'' Historical and Ethnic Narratives in Pluralist Trinidad.
- Authors
Brereton, Bridget
- Abstract
Globalization has been impacting the Caribbean region since the end of the fifteenth century, when it was incorporated into an Atlantic economy within just a few generations. One of the results of this earlier phase of globalization was to bring people from many different parts of the world to the region, creating colonial societies with a high degree of ethnic diversity. Trinidad and Tobago, in the southern Caribbean, is a good example; currently people of African and of South Asian (Indian) descent each constitute about forty percent of the population, and several smaller ethnic groups are also represented. The modern (late twentieth-century) globalization trends have tended to deepen ethnic identities, partly as a defensive reaction to their homogenizing and westernizing effects. One aspect of this has been the emergence of ethnic narratives of the nation, challenging the earlier colonial and anti-colonial narratives. This paper will examine the development of an Indocentric and an Afrocentric narrative of the nation's past over the last few decades. I hope to show how the Afrocentric narrative of the country's history is continually challenged by spokespersons for oppositional ethnic versions.
- Publication
Global South, 2010, Vol 4, Issue 2, p218
- ISSN
1932-8648
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2979/globalsouth.4.2.218