Politics and Culture in Anglophone Caribbean Essay Example

there was a new introduction of adult voting whereby the Blacks formed a party known as the West Indian National Party (WINP), and it was succeeded by the Caribbean Socialist party. Another party which carried the majority of the Indians vote was African Urial Butler. Ultimately it was the People’s National Movement formed by Eric Williams that governed the Trinidad regime between 1956 and 1986. Clearly race was a determinant during this time of voting. (Hintzen, 1989).

The issue of race has existed from the tumultuous colonial past of Guyana and Trinidad. Both countries have a strong cultural past, but racism has soiled the development of these nations into anything better. The intensity of communal sentiments has greatly contributed to the two countries lack of interracial political alliance whereby the lower class and the middle class are unable to come together despite their economic hardships. As a result of lack of unity, there were several groups of people who emerged and took over top positions in the two countries. The European planters were on top of the list whereby they took over power, status, wealth, and privileges and went on vanish themselves as administrators and businessmen in the two countries. The French and Spanish Creoles in Trinidad viewed themselves as merchants and planters. As a result, they attracted other European settlers and Spanish settlers from Venezuela and made the colony their permanent home. (Hintzen, 1989).

The Trinidadian Creole was marketers, producers, and financiers in the cocoa and coffee industry, unlike the British, who solely depended on the sugar production. The Creoles had much economic success as they invested their resources in the petroleum industry in 1910. The

Creole dominated the business sector, and the social identity of the whites became cemented around the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the whites being in small numbers, their wealth and social prestige made them dominate Trinidad and Guyana. Despite their success, the sugar plantations started to change to more capital-intensive enterprises which were managed by absentee owners in Britain in the late 90s. This led to an eventuality of the sugar industries being taken over by multinationals and resulted in the freedom of Guyana and Trinidad. This signifies that the availability of resources in a country can eliminate racial politics and political fragmentation. (Hintzen, 1989).

Trinidad consists of 39.6% African descendants while 40.3% East Indians. Guyana consists of 43% of its population to be Afro Guyanese while 51% is made up of East Indians. It both countries African were enslaved and worked for their British colonists who later brought in Indians to be indentured and replace the Africans. In the 17th century, the British colonies were looking for cheap labour and Africans were brought into Guyana and Trinidad to work as slaves in the cotton and sugar plantations. Later on, slavery was abolished in 1833 (Hintzen, 1989). This was when the East Indians were brought into the Trinidad and Guyana and indentured to replace Africans.

Another instance of racism is in Trinidad and Guyana whereby East Indians considered Blacks to be lazy, sexually promiscuous, having bad drinking habits and being irresponsible. The East Indians believed the Blacks had been corrupted by the Western culture. On the other hand, Blacks perceived East Indians to be prone to domestic violence, clannish, submissive to authority full of misery as they refused

to adopt the Western culture. With such low regard between the Blacks and East Indians, there existed mutual perceptions about each other regarding distrust, corruptibility, violence and victimization in obtaining power, wealth and status. (Greene, 1974). Lack of intermingling between the two communities led to racial exclusivity.

After the adult elections had been implemented, the Guyana Elections in 1957 which were under the new constitution showed the Guyanese electorates being divided by ethnic backgrounds. With the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) candidate Jagan winning, the Indo-Guyanese had more privileges such as more rice land and improved union representation in the sugar industry. The Indo-Guyanese had better business opportunities and were hired for more government jobs. The party which had been considered to be multiracial became racially biased and led to more tension among other communities in Guyana. After Jagan’s leadership had started being biased, Burnham who was one of the candidates during the 1957 elections came up with a new strategy to win the elections. He started supporting the middle-class Afro Guyanese and worked to maintain a balance between Afro-Guyanese lower classes while achieving his goal of getting more middle-class allies.

The race was his common uniting force which convinced the powerful capitalists of Afro-Guyanese community that he was a radical leader. After economic differences between Burnham and Jagan, they split the People’s Progression party and Burnham took the United National Congress and formed People’s National Congress (PNC). His goal was to gain political independence and freedom while Jagan’s leadership was more of a Marxist, who was an opportunity in the economic exploitation of the people’s biggest problem. This is what led to Burnham taking the throne right

under Jagan’s feet. Jagan and Burnham are the key politicians who dominated the world of politics in the two colonies, but their struggle for political ascendancy left a community of politics which were termed as racially polarized. (Merrill,1993).
In examining the political culture in Guyana, it is evident that Burnham ruled by “raw power” as well as “brute force” and he survived in the government as he perpetuated using the electoral fraud hence maintaining paramountcy over the Judiciary, the Parliament, and the civil services. Burnham had a way in which he demoralized any opposition from Jagan and the People Progression Party (PPP).

We later observe that the economic stagnation under his ruling is what contributed to his decline from power. There is also a clear relationship between race and politics. The main aspect that triggers racial differences is how one uses race and other factors for a higher goal like for instance how Burnham used race to win the middle-class Afro-Guyanese. Strategic leaders are used to speaking in individual races and on particular issues so as to achieve the intended goal of racial unity. (Bissessar, & La Guerre, n.d.)

In the colonial days, there was a definite distinction between behaviour that was considered to be “coolie” and “British.” If one wore an uncoordinated colourful outfit, he was supposed to be practising “coolie” behaviour, whereas if one refused to use the local Creole language and used the Queens English instead, he was considered “British.” Africans or East Indians who adopted the European cultures claimed their place in the society as they met the British standards. They were deemed to be civilized and used the names Afro Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese.

The

Caribbean society has been termed to be artificial as people had no right to civil or political rights, they could not develop as a people or community and as a result, they did not have a government they could call their own. There existed a paternalistic culture whereby racism was the nature of the society. Life for the various communities living in the Caribbean islands was isolated to small villages with small-scale agriculture being practised and trading. To express how social classes separated from the slaves, there was a distinction through dressing, speech, marriage patterns and social distancing. The rich had education, political power, and businesses to lean on while the poor found solace in folk religions and other moral beliefs of being God-fearing. (Frank Knight, 1990).

A straightforward correlation of what the Asians, Africans, and East Indians underwent during slavery is revealed in V.S. Naipaul’s book, “A House for Mr. Biswas”. We get to see a representation of the Indian descendants who have indentured to replace Africans, and his children grow in a racially divided community. Mr. Biswas’ journey of anger, frustration, depression and alienation gives a visual context of how his race, family and the whole community disrespected him hence he is a lonely character who tries to fit in. Naipaul tells a story of a man who believes to have been born on a devilish night in the Indo-Trinidadian community. A prophecy by a Hindu pundit comes to pass when Mr. Biswas is blamed for the death of his father, and he struggles to find self-respect, contentment that his existence means something. (Naipaul, 1995).

Mr. Biswas works at Tulsi store as a painter and

having been attracted to a girl’s smile leading to him writing a note which is misinterpreted as his declaration of love and wanting to marry Shama, a very wealthy daughter of the Tulsi House.With marriage being celebrated as an accessory in his wife’s home he has little to look forward to as his life or more or less accidental. He is surrounded by poverty and illiteracy and yet he wants to own a house of his own. Biswas’ life is a depiction of the culture and beliefs in the Caribbean countries. His marriage is what brings about Biswas’s despairs of being treated as a slave. He became the property of the wealthy Tulsi family, and he works on the farms, and his wife doesn’t care much of what happens to him. This is an apparent alienation between the rich and the poor. Shama reminds Biswas on how his existence doesn’t mean much by saying “you came with just clothes on your back.” Ironically even after throwing tantrums at the Tulsi family and refusing to sleep with his wife, he is shocked with the four kids who he “fathered” without having sex with Shama. (Naipaul, 1995)

Despite the struggles Biswas gets a chance to build his career as a journalist but as luck is never on his side, his career dies with the departure of the editor. His attempts to build a house are unfruitful as his poor judgement leads to the house collapsing. There are challenges back and forth regarding Mr. Biswas’ long-term goal of building a house of his and every time he seems close to it something wrong happens and ruins it. We see

a scenario where Mr. Biswas wanted to give up as he saw no hope of overcoming the challenges.

One can also relate to Biswas’ life especially when he entered a new world of Owen and Shekhar where education was the only determinant of success. People with education were considered to be of a particular class and when Anand, Mr.Biswas’son, receives results in examination being third best Mr. Biswas’s family is viewed in a new light. (Naipaul, 1995) This is a clear conviction that people with education were considered to be of a higher social class and were destined for success.

This is an immigrant story of the Indian origin and is enslaved by his tradition, social class alienation and poverty. His enduring through the humiliation is relatable with the Indian, Asian and African communities that were in the Guyana and Trinidad. Mr.Biswas’ life is a journey of oppression that reflects what the Indo-Guyanese went through as they worked towards independence. His life of being forced to marry a woman whom she barely knew shows how Asians, Indians, and Africans were being victimized, kidnapped and working like slaves for their British colonies. Just like Mr.Biswas working on the sugar estates owned by Tulsi family, the East Indians, Asians and Africans were to work on cotton farms as a way to make a minimum wage for their families. His children get mistreated as their father is considered a nobody in the Tulsi family. (Naipaul, 1995) Mr.Biswas is one of the many stories that express the level of pain the Asians, East Indians and Blacks had to go through to achieve their freedom. The lack of trust between the three

communities also played a significant role in making it hard for them to have a multinational agreement and multiracial acceptance

Over the years the political outline in the Caribbean has changed as politics of distribution is not relevant. The emerging new political paradigms are implemented to define new rules in the political field. Politicians are contributing in embracing the NPC issues which previously included national deregulation of economies which were unfavourable for their communities. Despite the racial factor still being an issue in many countries, economic development has wined over racial discrimination. Unemployment is also an area of concern as there is “absolute poverty” in the Caribbean and with poverty comes high levels of crime. (Henke, & Re?no, 2003).

In conclusion, the political culture of Anglophone Caribbean was merely based on race. More often than not, race played a significant role in the politics of Guyana and Trinidad. The British colonists took advantage of the Africans’ need for cheap labour and enslaved them on their sugar plantation where they were mistreated as they worked. The East Indians and the Asians were brought in and indentured to replace the Africans in the sugar plantations. The lack of trust between these three communities led to them pointing out each other’s weaknesses and each struggling to rise to power, wealth and gain status. Mr. Biswas is an example of what the three communities underwent as his life is full of frustrations, anger, disappointments and he still never gave up. It is also evident that if a country has established high economic resources then the three will be no racial alienation as everyone will be able to efficiently sustain himself without

alienating the person next to them

References

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   Bissessar, A., & La Guerre, J. Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
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3. Unknowns. J Consum Aff, n/a-n/a. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joca.12059
4. Greene, J. (1974). Race vs. politics in Guyana. Kingston, Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies.
5. Henke, H., & Re?no, F. (2003). Modern political culture in the Caribbean. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: University of the West Indies Press.
6. Hintzen, P. (1989). The costs of regime survival. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. Knight, F. (1978). The Caribbean, the genesis of a fragmented nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
8. Merrill, T. (1993). Guyana and Belize. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.
9. Naipaul, V. (1995). A house for Mr. Biswas. New York: Knopf.