CREOLE CULTURE AND LANGUAGE IN THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN : Indymedia Colombia

CREOLE CULTURE AND LANGUAGE IN THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN

By:
Oakley Forbes
Archipielago Movement for Ethnic Native Self Determination (AMEN-SD)

INTRODUCTION.

The Afro-Caribbean Ethnia of the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence has been formed with Maroon Slaves that came to the Islands from Jamaica, who at the same time left from Trinidad on the one hand. On the other the presence of black slaves and their slave masters who brought them in order to cultivate the land. We also find the practice of underground miscegenation which was widely practised by the white landlords during the time of slavery. The Miskito Indians were the first people to settle these territories. They called these islands the Abacoan Islands. They got along quite well with the English men. Finally, we also find British descendants amongst them we can mention the Scottish, the Welsh, and the Irish who left some fundamental aspects of our heritage as well as occasionally Europeans of diverse origins were present and contributed in the formation of the Afro-Caribbean Ethnia.

The presence and formation of the initial Afro-Caribbean Ethnia on the Archipelago corresponds to the period between 1600 and 1800. During this beginning period the only type of miscegenation practice that was carried out was deployed by the slave masters. The other human groups were subjects of such practice. Several centuries later, when the masters freed the slaves in the Archipelago and when the black man had access to private property and to literacy, he also had access to inter-ethnic relations with the white woman and /or with the mestiza. Inter-ethnic marriages began to take place on the Island of San Andres around the twenties, of this century, and spontaneously as something normal since the nineteen-fifties. On the contrary this situation has never become natural on the Island of Old Providence.

Since the opening of The Free Port on the Island of San Andres, the few white men who were considered to be noblemen, they lost their social status and their prestige as the outstanding men, as merchants, and as the leaders of the Archipelago. With the presence of a new dominant class imposed with strategies of Colombianization of the Archipelago from the Central Government from Bogota a new dawn had begun on these Islands. The former noblemen were openly forced to assimilate and made it their own business to become part of the Afro-Caribbean culture and to develop their lifestyle. The Afro-Caribbean Ethnia has acquired the air of good family from this very moment and the cultural differences between those who used to consider themselves of European and Afro-Caribbean origin. The Afro-Caribbean openly assumes his own cultural practices and appropriates himself of those that were considered as only European background. Before this kind of syncretism had occurred, the Afro-Caribbean only used to reproduce European cultural practices in order to satisfy the needs of the white man.

It is important, then, to take into account that the formation of an Afro-Caribbean culture in the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence elements of different origin intervened and that the synthesis is not to be taken for granted. It is also relevant to keep in mind that the culture of a group is conformed by its most dynamic features; although the culture of a group is cohesive and stable characteristic. If the culture changes, the group itself changes. This is the reason why it is important to keep under consideration the fact that no culture exists in vacuum; neither completely isolated from the rest of cultures of the world. The Afro-Caribbean culture is a continuous melting pot. Namely, that without being consolidated thoroughly it is constantly in contact with diverse sub-cultural groups from the Colombian Mainland. These contacts have been taking place in two different ways. From the sixties the National Government has promoted the strategy of sending Natives to the Mainland to intern-schools to develop high-school studies, teacher training, and higher education included. On the other hand with the opening of the free port Mainlanders from almost every corner of the country, including the fringes of the Republic, arrived to the Islands. The same thing happened with the Israeli Jews and the Sirio-Lebanese. These three different types of people took over the northern part of the Island of San Andres and with the help of Colombian bank loans they developed a commercial and hotel infrastructure. While all this was happening the great majority of the Native people who had left for the Mainland were now returning back home.

Forbes and Mitchell (1992) consider that the great majority of the black educated people in the National culture are the worse enemies of their own culture and language. They think that the National Government has given them equal opportunities to all the citizens, including their own co-ethnic members; but because the Ethnic groups are inferior and ignorant, they do not take advantage of the opportunities and they cannot compete with the monolingual citizens of the National culture, namely, “it is the same Ethnic minority groups fault not to take advantage of all the possibilities that the National Government offers”. As part of our problem is the culture and the language of the community, these neo-Colombians stop from using their language and cultural practices with their peers and with their own children, they change their names, sometimes they use Spanish (Castilian) names, at other times they use surnames as first names –and they try to make up for and adequate themselves to the Spanish cultural profiles.

“ In the 500 years of cultural invasion, the few members of the indigenous and black groups that have had access to higher education and to the regional and local power, they have become the best agents of the cultural invasion and the blind implementation of contrary cultural policies to those of the minority groups. That is to say, that the few persons from ethnic minority groups with formal education, have got their education in a culture and a language that is contrary to the regional and local culture and language. In fact, these characters come back home brain washed in order to avoid the promotion, development, and enrichment of the local culture; namely, their role is not certainly to protect the culture of the minority groups of the country”.

“ It is important to keep in mind that centralism is exercised not only from the capital; regionally and locally there are certain tongs that tie them up with the way they think and wish the colonies to keep-on being. No single decision of some importance is taken without the mediation of the concept of some bureaucrat in Bogota. In plain and straight words, this is what we call colonised conscience. Formal education has been an enhancing element of social adjustment and symbolic violence in which the member of a minority group ends up becoming ashamed of his/her own culture and language in front of his/her own people and of strangers without an awareness of his/her own identity. ¡God save the holy acculturation!” (Forbes y Mitchell, pages: 18-19).

1. THE AFRO-CARIBBEAN CULTURE.

In spite of the situation of the cultures and languages in contact and in conflict the Native Community of the Archipelago has been developing a cultural specificity in which some main features are relevant. The Afro-Caribbean culture is the product of the internal relations of the members of the Native Community of the Archipelago and at the same time it is the product of the inter-relations that the community or its members have established with different ethnic groups or with other groups of the different regions of the country or the world. The Native Settlers of the Archipelago have been appropriating certain elements that harmonise with their culture or are useful for the interaction with other groups that enter in contact or in conflict with the native culture. The Afro-Caribbean cultural synthesis is the result of the most intense relation that the native has developed with different groups that live on their territory or elsewhere. Let us make a sample, in our view, of the most extraordinary aspects of the Afro-Caribbean Culture of the Native Settlers of these Islands.

1.1 THE FAMILY.

The Afro-Caribbean family was formed, at the beginning, on the basis of spontaneous solidarity because of survival needs. The whole community was just one big family. The rites and myths, although, coming from different cultural backgrounds, the social structure of the community was basically one of tribal type. All the members of the community knew each other, each and everyone was in charge of the education of its members, the elders were respected, paid homage, consulted and were the last saying in any important decision or issue. The Afro-Caribbean family had everyday practices of African origin that appeared in their life project. These were the deep bases of the community; however the history of the community in the Caribbean was assimilated to cultural practices of the European master. One of the reasons the Afro-Caribbean people were so united, was because there was no trace of a nuclear family amongst them, at that time. The black man did not have his own nuclear family. He himself was owned by his master. His economic value consisted in his capacity to reproduce and the more he multiplied the more aggregated value he became for his master. This situation, in itself, is an important aspect of his machismo and of his irresponsibility as a father or in the case of the black woman, the impossibility to take care of her own children most of the because she had a lot of hard word to do, as a mother. The Afro-Caribbean could not have assumed the responsibilities as a father/mother because s/he did not have that choice. He was not a father but a breeder. She was not a mother but bearer. The black mother could not give affection to her own children; but she had to give it to the master’s.

After the slaves were freed in the Afro-Caribbean environment the possibility to form a couple was developed in multiple forms. The different religious denominations have tried very hard to enforce the idea of the nuclear couple under the tradition of family, country, private property, and capital. The slave master comes from the Christian tradition and is a faithful allied to the nuclear family. The Afro-Caribbean man looses the African features of spontaneous solidarity in the process of assimilation from a tribal society to nuclear family and both Afro-Caribbean women and men become orphans of their basic social and moral virtues and values to face the transformation of the environment in the construction of a proper history and life project.

1.2 THE POSSESSION OF THE LAND.

It is relevant to take into account that the existence and survival of a community, of a people is intimately linked to a territory. A people cannot exist without members; but much less without a territory. When the slaves were liberated, the Runaway Slaves already had possession of some land on these Islands. Some masters shared part of their properties amongst the slaves; however what most facilitated the appropriation of land amongst the Afro-Caribbeans in the Archipelago and especially on the Island of San Andres was the open practice of inter-ethnic relations. Around this period of time women could inherit from their parents; but when they formalised a relation with a man their property passed over to the husband. “Brown skin girl” is not a construct that resulted from this type of inter-ethnic relations. Brown skin women and men are the product of the practice of miscegenation of the former slave master. These practices created the possibility of an intermediary group with certain social status over the rest of the Afro-Caribbeans. The master needed to have an allied between him and his slaves for that reason he recognised his bastard sons and he let them come near his house. This practice was extended throughout the whole Caribbean and it is the one that has permitted the Caribbean man to recognise his outside children without shame and to make a difference between the open type of polygamy that is practised here with the one developed and maintained hidden in the Colombian highlands.

There has always been a strong pressure for the possession of the land in the Archipelago. Both at the macro and at the micro level. At the macro level the United States from before the independence of Panama has had the intention and has subtlety approached the Native to find out his inclination about becoming their overseas territory. On other occasions it has been one of their smaller dependent countries that have done the claims as in the case of Nicaragua. At the micro level the families of the few former noblemen and the newcomers have used different strategies and tactics in order to expropriate the Afro-Caribbeans. Some of the best known methods have been the following: 1) the use of false witnesses; 2) giving shelter, nourishment, and taking care of the sick elders; 3) becoming the legal representative in another man’s will; 4) representing someone that lives abroad; 5) certain doctors ask people on their dying bed to pass their properties over to them, with the help of a public register, and 6) others keep the people’s document when they borrow some money from them and later they reclaim their land.

The old fashion strategies and tactics were refined, increased and corrected after the opening of the free port. 1) A translator, supposedly a friend of the person that leases a piece of land to a stranger was one of the new ways to take away the Native man’s land. The translator has become a central figure in the lost of the land in many indigenous groups. The role played by the translator is very often one of a traitor to his own people. This betrayal has developed the Italian saying “traduttore tradittore” which means that the translator is a betrayer. 2) Burning down the Palace on several occasions has proven to be another way to vanish all traces of stolen land or to register other people’s land. 3) The Local branches of National Banks have often lent the Natives, who had land, some money and later take away their lands. This is pure wild capitalism. 4) Finally a peculiar way to take away other people’s land was introduced, it consisted of a legal process known as the proceedings of ownership of property possession. In this case some insider gets the information from the Agustin Codazzi, a local lawyer sets up and present the case, somebody living Cartagena, in the past or now right here on the Island, works with the Tribunal and when the real owner gets to know and opens his/her eyes s/he has no land any longer. The claim of a piece of land is made on the consideration that someone has own the land for a period of more than twenty years but does not have a document, either because he has never got one, has never registered the land or that the registry disappeared with the burning of the Palace. Lately there are new ways of expropriation. They are now expropriating us from the sea view, they are privatising the beaches and the keys, and they have serious intentions of taking over the Cemeteries, and if we do not open our eyes there will not be any territory left for the Afro-Caribbeans to live and survive on. Now we are a group of people in process of extinction and in the future it will not be studied by linguists; but historians and anthropologist that will give account of the reasons and causes of our extermination.

1.3 GASTRONOMY.

The gastronomy of the Native People of the Archipelago is intimately linked with their diet and working habits. The native settlers had the custom to have three different meals. A main one and two minor ones. Lunch was the basic form of nourishment at midday and some tea both in the morning and in the evening. Tea was accompanied with bread, flitters, fried breadfruit, sweet potato, or planting. Instead of tea one could have some porridge. The Native used to get up early in the morning before day brake and get to work before daylight. A hard day’s work would go-on until around two o’clock in the afternoon when he would rush back home. He would have to get home before his sweated clothes dried back on him. After getting home, he would cool-off, get a rest, and then he would get a big plate of food and then go to bed to take a five. He would later-on get-up, clean-up, then change his clothes and get ready to go and tell stories, play domino, give some gyabits, or stay and play some music, especially if he had a young wife.

On Sundays we used to drink coffee or chocolate and milk. The basic meal on Sundays was usually cooked from Saturday. The whole day Saturday mothers would be dedicated to the cooking of the food for Sunday. Several kinds of light bread, sweeten breads, breads, different types of meat, and a lot of breadkind would form part of a long day of cooking, stewing and baking. Rice and Irish potato surely did not form a strong part of our diet. Instead we would use a lot of cultivated products from the backyard or from our bush-ground. Each family had a great deal of chickens, pigs, and other animals for special events and opportunities. Baked chicken was one of our specialities. Red meat did not form part of our diet. They were only consumed during certain parties in Sangkochie and during the end of year festivities. Red meat was used to cut the alcohol because it is rich in grease. Crisco was an ordinary fat that we used every day for cooking while for special things we would use tin butter. Instead of electric stoves we would use a fireside outside the house, where we would cook and drain the meat or fish that we salted, plus we would smoke them for good taste and to run-away the flies. Nowadays our diet is changing. We can hardly get crabs or fish or anything from the sea at all. We seldom eat vegetable or fruit that contain fibre. This is one of the reasons for so many people suffering from hypertension. However, one could still advocate the idea that the Afro-Caribbean man has the richest plates on the market around the world. Our basic way of seasoning consists of using a lot of limejuice, onion, salt, and black pepper. Our main spice is based on our basket hot pepper and all this with a touch of Hindu flavour that we got from Trinidad from their everyday cooking style.

1.4 RELIGION.

Beyond any doubt, religion is the most important aspect of the tradition of the Afro-Caribbean Community of the Archipelago. Our religious rites are basically protestant. The protestant religion that we practice was first of British origin; but when the Protestant Church was officially founded, it was a Scottish descendent ordained in the United States who did it. Philip Beekman Livingston founded The First Baptist Church. He was also the same one to freed his slaves, shared part of his land with them, and taught them to read. The First Baptist Church of San Andres was founded in 1845. Other religious denominations, such as The Christian Mission were a kind of off-spring of the Baptist Church. When the Catholic Church first came to these Islands it was a Governmental strategy to assimilate our culture and language. Although at the very beginning, it was English that was used to introduce the Catholic religion; once the Catholics were in power, they began to be extraordinarily demanding. For an Islander to get a job he had to become a Catholic. That was when we skilfully introduced the term job catholics. Today there is a kind of standby amongst the different religious denominations and there is no declared war amongst them.

1.5 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION.

For a very long period of time the official administration of the Archipelago was carried-out by people who were completely alien to our culture. Nonetheless, the Government was like something thoroughly apart from us. In a sense we did not realise that there was really a Government. After all they did not bother us. Up to the opening of the free port we lived despite the National Government. After the opening of the free port it was the same Government that started to take-away our land for public buildings, roads, an airport, two hotels and so on and so forth, and lately for military bases. The free port meant and still means the transformation of part of our Archipelago into the infrastructure of a city. A city with an economic and political system in which all the Mainlander mentality began to grow. It is this system that has controlled our life since 1953 and it is this system that everyday is overwhelming us.

1.6 PARTY POLITICS.

The Native Community did not participate in party politics for more than a century. Lisandro May introduced the liberal party to the Island of San Andres. The liberal party did not come alone, the first vices of clientelism and political and administrative corruption came in the package. Many years later Jeremiah Mitchell founded the conservative party which was later appropriated by the Gallardos. Only ten votes were collected in the first elections in which the liberal party participated. These ten votes mark the history of these tranquil Isles and the life of the Islanders. Before the parties, there was unity of thought and action amongst the people. If the Catholic Church had divided the Community in two groups, one defending Spanish culture and the other the Anglo-Saxon tradition; the two parties are the presence of the “statu quo” of the Colombianization. Those nobles who are still expecting the British to come back have now last all hopes. The political parties are so deeply assimilated into every space of the civil and religious life of the Community today that even amongst relatives no decision can be reached, each one belongs to a different group that owns their body and soul.

1.7 ORAL TRADITION.

The oral tradition constitutes the main element of transmission and coverage of the oral literature and history, music and dancing. This traditions begins with the internal context of the group and the communication through interaction which brings fourth a folkloric process. The Afro-Caribbean folklore of the Archipelago is a mixture of the African, the British, and the Creole aspects distributed through a cultural continuum of variations. The members of the elite develop certain forms of local standardise practices of archaic British culture and the Creole people trigger-off a series Caribbean syncretism with a mixture of Amerindian and African feeling.

1.7.1 ORAL LITERATURE.

1. FOLK SONGS.
2. RING PLAY TUNES.
3. SONG PLAYS AND GAMES.
4. PROVERBS AND MAXIMS.
5. RIDDLES.
6. DUPPY OR GHOST STORIES.
7. HISTORICAL NARRATIVES.
8. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
9. A VARIETY OF JOKES AND FOLKLORIC HUMOUR.
10. FABLES, NANCY STORIES, AND UNCLE RABBIT STORIES.
11. RHYMES AND STORIES.

1.7.2 MUSIC AND DANCING.

1. RELIGIOUS MUSIC.
1.1 HYMNS.
1.2 NEGRO SPIRITUALS.
1.3 GOSPEL.
1.4 REGGAE-GOSPEL.
2. BANTA MUSIC.
2.1 AFRO-CARIBBEAN.
2.1.1 CALYPSO.
2.1.2 MENTO.
2.1.3 REGGAE.
2.1.4 SOCCA.
2.2 AFRO-AMERICAN.
2.2.1 JAZZ.
2.2.2 BLUES.
2.2.3 COUNTRY BLUES.

1.7.3 ORAL HISTORY.

The Afro-Caribbean history is illiterate. Namely the construction of the reality of the community lies in the collective subconscious mind of its members. The main reason for this is because the everyday reality is not written. On the other hand our very first language is still not written in the Archipelago. At times it is an advantage not to write in our native language when we are keeping the holy secrets of our community; but at others it is a disadvantage for academic and other specific purposes. This situation becomes problematic when we have not learned to read and write in our very first language and very often we appear as slow learners or as dyslexic, just because we did not learn to read, write, and to manipulate academic skills, activities, and concepts as part of our conscious awareness.

3. THE CREOLE LANGUAGE OF THE AFRO-CARIBBEAN PEOPLE OF SAN ANDRES AND OLD PROVIDENCE.

The structure of our language comes from African languages. Although the basic structure consists of a subject and a predicate, there are also some main differences with European languages. The first difference appears to be the absence of the copula or linking verb.

Examples:

1. Di woman solid man. The woman is solid.
2. Di food nice man. The food is nice.
3. Di gyal coming. The girl is coming.

Another difference is the absence of the auxiliary verb in almost every occasion.

1. I no know. I do not know.
2. We never know. We did not know.
3. Inh no come yet. S/he has not come yet.

There is a central difference that consists of the noun, the adjective or adverb playing the role of the verb.

1. Di children dem home. The children are home.
2. Di man waiting. The man is waiting.

CONCLUSION.

A culture is the sum and the synthesis of the social world of the community. This world is perceived through our believes, norms, routines, and cultural practices. They are the basis for the creation of social presuppositions. Social interaction is based on presuppositions, social patterns and behavioural habits are acquired, as well as the ability to respond to cues and to develop our own expectations. We subscribe to our own believes without any restraint. The beliefs of the community are accepted universally. There is no alternative for doubt, because we accept them as common places. Some forms of cognising and some beliefs, such as prejudices, stereotypes, and religious and political beliefs and ideologies are profoundly embedded in our social realities.

Presuppositions constitute the identity of the members of a community. The social identity of a group make them share the same expectations and aspirations; although the experience of each person is unique and unrepeatable. Each person has a personal and a social identity. These identities become more complex every time. A person interacts with his initial community but s/he also interacts with other communities. Each person does not only have access to one and only one identity; but to multiple identities.

The Afro-Caribbean Community of the Archipelago is undergoing a permanent process of consolidation and a high level of contacts and conflict with other groups. Both contacts and conflicts are important for the consolidation and survival of the community. There is no question if a community is going to get in contact with others or if it is going to isolate itself from the rest of the world. What the whole situation is about is that the Afro-Caribbean Community can get in contact with other groups and communities; but with those that the this community decides to interact with in order to share or confront. No group can appropriate elements of other cultures without mixing with them in order to enrich, strengthen, and consolidate the culture.

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