Beyond Tradition: Reinterpreting The Caribbean Historical Experience, written by Heathr Cateau and Rita Pemberton, shot at The Gleaner on Thursday, August 31. - Andrew Smith/Photography Editor
Title: Beyond Tradition: Reinterpreting The Caribbean Historical Experience
Authors: Edited by Heather Cateau and Rita Pemberton
Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers
Reviewer: Raymond Forrest
This book is the edited product of the Association of Caribbean Historians, emanating out of 33rd Annual Conference at the St Augustine Campus (UWI) in 2001. The book presents 10 different essays written by less well-known Caribbean historians.
These ten essays were chosen because they represent a diverse mix of historical analyses, that exposes a wide range of economic, political and social activities.
The title itself is significant as it speaks of reinterpreting Caribbean historical experiences away from the previous concentration on the activities of European elites in this region, and away from the centrality of the sugar plantation, to bring a more dynamic and accurate view of our past.
The ten essays are therefore split into three parts. The first looks primarily at 18th century society, with H. Cateau exploring the economic viability of other white occupational groups (e.g attorneys, overseers, book-keepers) who functioned alongside the plantation system; while C. Fergus uses African diaspora studies to examine possible African Secret Societies that were transformed and reformulated in the Caribbean (involving religion, ritual, resistance and social organisation); while A. Josephs looks at the colonial life impressions of white women, as seen in the letters and books that they wrote on their observations when they lived in the Caribbean.
The second set of essays vary from an examination of the use of ports, whether through P. Welch's analysis of the importance of the Bridgetown (Barbados) port to trade in the region between 1714 and 1834; or J. Van Gefenstein Garcia's essay on the use of ports by privateers, insurgents (rebels) and Spanish royalists during the Spanish American Wars for independence. R. Pemberton then switches the focus by looking at the development of the St. Vincent Botanic Gardens and its role; before concluding with an essay by K. Parmadas on how medicinal practices were being used to seek to control the lives of Indian indentured labourers to the Caribbean, starting on the ships that carried them here.
South caribbean
The last set of essays focuses on the South Caribbean, primarily Trinidad. M. Toussaint looks at the failed attempt by George Numa Dessources in 1853-55 to establish an Afro-Trinidadian colony in Venezuela; while M. Ellis looks at the Afro-Trinidadian quest for economic independence in the 19th century and early 20th century by self-employment practices (drawing heavily on the influence of Garveyism); and closes with L. Luke's essay on real and imagined grievances by the people of Tobago with Trinidad in their quest for autonomy.
The essays are well researched and should provide food for thought for others interested in a look at other than the usual path of Caribbean history. As to its greater boast of accomplishing the task of escaping the shadow of plantation society, it has however, failed to do this.
