Intellectual Traditions Flashcards
Afro-Caribbean Thought
In different parts of the world, the circumstances that the same group of people face can evoke different reactions. In the case of Africans and those of African descent, their reactions to their circumstances have led to Pan-Africanism, Negritude, Rastafari and Garveyism. The political actions which they have generated tend to reflect not only the situation of the time, but also the countries where these reforms took place and the tools they used to institute these changes. During the second half of the 19th century, a wave of criticism began among West Indian writers who spoke out about the injustices of colonialism, underdevelopment, social inequality and racial discrimination. This movement led to a rise in black awareness and the establishment of ideologies that shaped the political landscape in both the Caribbean and the international community.
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a philosophy based on the belief that Africans ad people who are of African ancestry have a commonality of goals and other links. The movement encourages harmony and unity among black people in order for them to achieve their shared objectives. A key aspect of Pan-Africanism philosophy is an understanding and promotion of Black Power or unity among black people, which advocates a sense of racial pride and self-esteem. Pan-Africanism developed as a response by African people and people of African descent to the treatment and oppression of their forebears during colonisation and slavery. The idea of Pan-Africanism is said to have begun in America during the mid 1800s. It is a belief that African peoples, including those on the continent of Africa ad in the diaspora, share a common history and a common destiny and that they have an interdependence which is manifested in the creation of political institutions.
Pan-Africanism and its Contribution to Development in the Caribbean
In the first half of the 20th century, the typical Caribbean worker was faced with poor remuneration and deplorable housing and living conditions. There was limited self-government with no social services, few workers’ right and, in 1930s and beyond led to a mass movement in the Caribbean, fueled by the ideology of Pan-Africanism, as workers sought to have these issues addressed. The end results were:
-Public awareness of the plight of blacks, especially in the Caribbean and USA.
-Increased international cooperation among blacks.
-The emergence of some radical leaders.
-An awakening of the workers’ class consciousness.
KEY LEADERS:
Henry Williams (1869-1911)
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Cyril Briggs (1888-1966)
George Padmore (1902-1959)
Walter Rodney (1942-1990)
Opposition to the Caribbean Pan-African Movement
The main interest groups in the Caribbean who opposed the Pan-Africanism movement in the Caribbean were the white planter-merchant class and those of mixed, Asian and Middle-Eastern descent who recognised the potential far-reaching impact of the movement:
-They saw Pan-Africanism as a disruption or attack on their interests in terms of the social, political and economic situation
-In Particular, the white planter-merchant class viewed education and enlightenment of the former-enslaved peoples as causing the disintegration of colonialism.
These interest groups were mostly involved in manufacturing and trade. Yet more opposition interest groups included shopkeepers, business owners, small-scale farmers and landlords. All these groups offered resistance to the movement because it would mean a restructuring of the class system.
Negritude
The negritude movement began as a literary movement in France among French-speaking Africans and Caribbean intellectuals and writers who were living there. It was in response to their objections to French colonial rule and the concerted effort to integrate them into French society. The various Negritude movements around the world developed because of shared concerns and interests among blacks.
Basically accepting being black along with its culture
The basic needs and Objectives of Negritude
The Basic Needs of Negritude:
-Emphasis on the importance and dignity of African traditions and its people.
-The richness of African life should be advanced over the insensitivity and materialistic nature of the Western culture.
-Africans must utilise their own cultural traditions to determine how they operate in the modern world.
The Objectives of Negritude:
-To promote the fierce pride and spirit of the African people and to use Africa as the foundation for establishing a cultural and ethnic identity for blacks.
-To neutralise the persistent notion of blackness.
-To eradicate the barriers that existed between black students of the numerous French colonies and, by extension, all people of black descent.
The Impact of Negritude on the Caribbean
-Its beginning in French Martinique, with political activist Aime Cesaire, was the basis of protest against French colonialism.
-It influenced many Caribbean writers, such as Derek Walcott, Claude McKay, Patrick Chamoiseau and Jean Bernabe.
Embraced more in Haiti and Cuba than in Commonwealth Caribbean, Negritude is seen in the acceptance of the movement’s ideals by Jacques Roumain, the founder of the Haitian Communist party.
Rastafari
The Rastafari movement, or Rastafarianism, emerged as a popular movement in response to people’s need for an organisation that was free from state control. Rastafari was influenced by Marcus Garvey and adherents are of the belief that he was the second John the Baptist. Leonard P. Howell, a Jamaican who initially worked with Garvey in the United States, is credited with being the first Rasta. He authored the first book about Rastafari philosophy, The Promised Key. His promotion of the divinity of Haile Selassie as the Black Messiah helped to establish Rastafari as a religion.
The Rastafari movement has some fundamental components:
-It is a religious movement among black Jamaicans
-It teachers that blacks will eventually be redeemed
-It claims that blacks will return to Africa.
Economic and Political Thought
Leaders in the Caribbean have drawn on different schools of thought to utilise a variety of politcal and economic ideologies to develop the countries that they have led. Even after the Second World War, the region was still dominated by Great Britain and the United States, which supported the capitalist system that was in plcae. In addition. France and Britain faced financial trouble a their economies had weakened, leading to the dependence on the US. When the Caribbean countries later received independence from Britian, they were faced with:
-A very dissatisfied population.
-Ridding themselves totally of the shackles of colonialism.
instituting a political system that achieved democracy.
Economic and Political Thought Cont’d
The economic conditions and political instability in the Caribbean during the 1960s and the decades leading up to 1990s were worsened by:
-Countries experimenting in and embracing political ideologies.
-An increase in violence and migration.
-The collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, as it provided ais to some countries, including Cuba, in the form of financial support and market availabilty.
Industrialisation By Invitation
Faced with a series of upsprings in the 1930s, which were a result of protests against persistently high levels of poverty, Caribbean leaders were forced to seek practical yet sweeping solutions. In the 1950s, St. Lucian economist, Sir Arthur Lewis, devised an economic model, later referred to as ‘Industrialisation by Invitation’, as the solution for governments to address the issues that countries faced.
Industrialisation by Invitation in the Caribbean
A model Lewis was able to refer to when formulating his theory was Operation Bootstrap, which had been implemented in Puerto Rico from the 1940s onwards. An example of the part of the Commonwealth Caribbean implementing policies that reflect the principles behind Lewis’ model in Jamaica, where an initiative called the ‘Ten- Year Plan of Development’ was issued in 1947 but revised in 1951. It offered monetary incentives, such as tax holidays, duty-free importation of raw materials and tariff protection, and invited North American companies, such as Alcan, Reynolds, Alcoa and Kaiser to conduct mining in the country.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Industrialsation by Invitation
Advantages:
-Provided an impetus to diversification, and investment in light industry in particular.
-The creation of Free Trade Zones (FTZs): areas usually located near a major port, which provided unrestricted and duty-free trade. An example is Montego Bay Freezone in Jamaica.
Disadvantages:
-Despite the theory behind the concept, unemployment remained high in many places.
EPZs have a reputation for low wages and poor working conditions.
Marxism
Karl Marx’s Comminist Manifesto if 1848 provides the arguement for Marxism. It presents criticism of the capatalist system where the factors of production are in the hands of the wealthy or the bourgeoisie and they exploit the working class, or the proletariat, because the profits they receive are much greater than the wages they pay. Marxism has political, economic and social tenets, and predicts the inevitable overthrow of capitalism by communism:
-All societies are made up of social class.
-Industrial societies have two main classes- the bourgeoisie and the proletariats.
-These two classes will always be in conflict.
The Impact of Marxism on the Caribbean
While Marxism was a popular theory, political thinkers in the Caribbean embraced the Neo-Marxist ideology. Neo-Marxists believe that:
-the capitalist class has control of the mass media, the security forces and the political machinery.
-the capitalist class uses the superstructure to strengthen its dominant position in society.
