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JAY HAVISER and CHRISTOPHER DECORSE AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN

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JAY HAVISER and CHRISTOPHER DECORSE AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN JAY HAVISER and CHRISTOPHER DECORSE AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN INTERACTION: A RESEARCH PLAN FOR CURAÇAO CREOLE CULTURE The purpose of this paper is three-fold. The first objective is to discuss the dangers of oversimplification and generalization when referring to relationships between Africa and Creoles of the Caribbean. A second aspect is to outline the historical context of interaction between the primary Dutch slave export center at Elmina, Ghana and the major Dutch slave depot and import center at Curaçao, West Indies, with a particular regard for the slave trade period. Thirdly, we will present some specific research directions for the multi-disciplinary study of Curaçao Creole Culture origins and development. WHAT IS AFRICAN? It is not uncommon to read about "African" traits in Caribbean cultures, and the prefixes "Afro-" or "African-" are applied to a wide range of socio-cultural phenomena. However, the application of these terms is frequently vague and can be misleading. Little concern is generally shown for the extensive ethnic variablity in African cultures. Few cultural traits can be used to characterize the entire African continent, the majority are only indicative of a particular ethnic group, region or geographical area. It is also important to recognize culture change in Africa, while in some respects there was a great deal of ethnic and linguistic continuity over the past 500 years, West African societies have not remained static. In some cases imported practices have been adopted by Africans, or partially borrowed and modified for local use. For example, cassava is a food crop found over a large portion of Africa and thus many consider it "African". Yet cassava was introduced to Africa only after the discovery of South America where it originated. It re-entered the Western Hemisphere with certain distinctive preparation techniques used in Africa, as seen in the making of cassava cakes in Haiti and Jamaica (Mintz 1974:4). After European contact, cassava and other imported crops such as plantains and tomatoes were adopted by African cultures and integrated into existing food preparation practices. When a person is described as "African", they are assumed to have been bom themselves or of parents born in Africa, yet there are stereotypical images of such physical traits as dark skin, broad noses, prognathism, and kinky hair texture. However, this image does not recognize the wide variation of physical types associated with different ethnic groups in Africa (Maquet 1972:30). It also fails to include the substantial populations of East Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, and Europeans who also have a long history in Africa. To use these types of generalizations under the term "African", is the same as if we were to refer to all Amerindians as one type, regardless of whether they were Maya, Athabaskan or Arawak. Such simplifications overlook the significant 326 differences among these separate groups and even within each group. For example, there are hundreds of different linguistic groups in Africa and many of these are regarded as having distinct ethnic identities, as can be seen in the tremendous variation within the Bantu and Mande speaking groups. These differences are analagous to those between the Arawakan speakers of the Greater Antilles and the South American mainland. It is critical that researchers avoid generalizations and strive to identify, whenever possible, specific ethnic, regional or creolized influences by their specific name. It is reasonable that there are occasions for the use of the general terms "African" and "Amerindian" (e.g. Maquet 1972:11), but a concerted effort should be made to try and formulate more precise descriptions. This will require research efforts from both Africa and the Caribbean, as has been noted by Posnansky (1984). A significant aspect of such descriptions must acknowledge that "African- American" relates to a culture, a priori, and only indirectly to material culture. It must be clarified that physical type and culture are not biologically bound together. Thus when defining Caribbean Creole cultures, racial traits should be included as secondary to cultural traits. Williams (1972:34) has emphasized that negro slavery was incorporated into a system of white servitude already developed in Europe, and that the origins of negro slavery by Europeans was economic and not racial. However, from the onset of the African slave trade, economic interests allowed for the identification of humans as "chattel property", unlike the system of white servitude which the Africans were supposed to replace. Rationalization in terms of racial concepts and prejudices were to evolve later, as the white colonists began to see increasing numbers of freed slaves and créoles as a social and economic threat (Hoetink 1973:8). Regardless of particular cases of correlation between social behavior, physical type, and culture, it is the cultural values which are more important to the individual in a system, not their social structure. Patterson (1976:52) has very effectively pointed out that when African slaves were brought to the Caribbean, it was their values which they carried with them, not their social structure. Likewise, it was the concept of an artifact that they would introduce in the Caribbean, not the actual artifact. We should, therefore, be very cautious when referring to an artifact or manufacture technique in the Caribbean as "African", because most often the raw material and manufacture were adapted to a West Indian setting. It would therefore be better to refer to an object as "Fanti-influenced" or a manufacture technique as "Congolese style", rather than simply "African". These more precise identifications are dependent on more research in Africa itself, and therefore studies of "African-American" and Creole cultures of the Western Hemisphere must incorporate African sources as a part of their research design. Studies should not be confined to present cultures but also those which existed prior to and during the African slave trade era. It is important to identify the processes of creolization and culture change within Africa, as well as to recognize the process of modification and interpretation that African traditions underwent after reaching the New World. We should attempt to identify influence on the process by which a cultural practice or trait changed, rather than looking for an identical example. 327 NETHERLANDS SLAVE TRADE IN AFRICA AND THE AMERICAS In 1441, the first negro slaves were brought by the Portuguese to Portugal and sold to wealthy Spanish landowners. In 1502, the first negro slaves were brought to the New World from Spain, only later were they to be brought directly from Africa (Bums 1954:123, Dookham 1971:64). As early as 1597, some Africans were brought to Holland, to be sold as slaves. However, there was no motivation by the Dutch to allow such sales, due to an adequate supply of local labor. Those first African slaves in Holland were set free. This Dutch attitude towards African slavery continued up until the early part of the 17th century (Goslinga 1971:341). However, after the Dutch recognized the great economic potential, and after they had gained control of settlements and markets in West Africa and the Americas, they eventually dominated the African slave trade particulary during the middle/late 17th century. Even with British, French, Swedish, and continued Portuguese competition for the slave market, the Dutch remained prominent legal and illegal slave traders. Their most profitable endeavor was primarily the export of Africans from Elmina, Ghana, and later Angola, shipping them to Brazil and the Spanish colonies via the slave depot at Curacao. For the Dutch, there was an intimate connection between their West African and American colonies. The enormous requests for African slaves from Brazil, Dutch Guyana (Suriname) and the Spanish territories, beginning in 1626, was the spark which ignited a Dutch conquest of the West African trade. Even the successful 1637 attack on the Portuguese stronghold at Elmina Ghana, was launched from the Dutch colonies in Brazil, not Holland (Goslinga 1971:344). Upon the initial capture of Curaçao from the Spanish in 1634, and with the loss of New Holland in 1664, the Dutch decided to establish Curacao as a major slave depot (Goslinga 1971:353). The Dutch monopoly of the African slave trade began to erode during the early 18th century, decreasing in economic importance after the Spanish Succession War of 1713. By 1749, the Dutch West India Company gave up slave trade activities, albeit private Dutch trade certainly continued. Eventually, the Dutch were one of the last European nations to emancipate their slaves in 1863. WEST AFRICA DURING THE SLAVE TRADE ERA The size and scope of the slave trade, and the ambiguities of the documentary record, make it difficult to determine the exact number of slaves brought from particular parts of Africa to the New World. The total number of slaves was probably around ten million and it is clear that a very large population is represented (Lovejoy 1982). Most slaves were obtained from West Africa, particularly the "Slave Coast" (Modern Benin and Nigeria). However, many slaves were traded all the way from Mauritania to Angola. This coastline spans over 3500 miles and, along with the adjacent hinterland, includes hundreds of ethno-linguistic groups. Different parts of the coast were more important sources of slaves at certain times and different European nationalities frequently focused their attention on particular regions. When looking for African connections in the New World it is important to keep this historical context in mind. 328 The first European tradepost in sub-Saharan Africa was Castle Sâo Jorge da Mina (Elmina), founded by the Portuguese on the Gold Coast in 1482. With this and other forts at Shama, Axim, and Sao Tomé the Portuguese attempted to control the African trade. The Dutch were among the first to challenge this monopoly.
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