Afro-Creole: Power, Opposition, and Play in the Caribbean (review)

Afro-Creole: Power, Opposition, and Play in the Caribbean, by Richard D. E. Burton. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1997. xi + 297 pp. ISBN 0-8014-8325-5 paper.

Certain statements, once made, crop up time and again to haunt those who made them. One such is V. S. Naipaul's claim in The Middle Passage (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969, p.29) that history is built around achievement and creation, and that nothing was created in the West Indies. I couldn't help going back to those words as I read Richard Burton's fascinating argument outlining how, from Jamaica to Trinidad by way of Haiti, predominantly African communities (if not societies) carved out for themselves a culture that has become distinctly Caribbean. Not only was something created in the Caribbean, but what was created all hangs together, and what at first seem disparate elements turn out to be closely linked in a vast symbolic network. The author sees, for example, the recurrence of the image of the slave driver's rod in what he terms a multiplicity of disguises (9-10): from its evolution into religion as the rod of correction; to the shepherd's crooks, swords, and scepters of Revival; to the rods and staffs of Rastafarianism; to the swords, flags, and other physical "props" of Vodou; to the stickfighter's baton--later mutated into the flashing willow of the cricket bat; and, finally, to the many staffs, staves, words, banners, and other emblems of popular counterpower ritualistically displayed during carnival. The research that leads to this type of synthesis is voluminous and convincing, and by the end of the book, the reader is sufficiently armed to challenge anyone who asserts that nothing was created in the Caribbean.

The central argument of this book revolves around the efficacy of religion, festivities, and the phenomenon of play as elements of cultural resistance-cum-opposition. The author does well what he set out to do, and admits that there are lacunae: he does not deal with the whole question of maroonage (promised for a forthcoming book), nor with the East Indian contribution to Caribbean culture (with the excuse that doing so would have taken him too far afield from the Afro-Creole of his title). But these are almost nit-picks in a text as richly documented and as soundly argued as this is.

In the final analysis, the author shows, the elements of power, opposition, and play serve two purposes: while they provide ample proof of the creativity and ingenuity of the creole population, they also serve as links to the very value system they purport to reject. In this regard, Afro-Creole admirably captures the essence of what it means to be Caribbean. By daring to "run against orthodox thinking" (12) on the matter of the culture of resistance, the author has provided a provocative and thoroughly enjoyable reexamination of the entire question of African survival in the Caribbean. He will not end debate on the matter, but he has certainly greatly enriched it.

Keith Q. Warner

 

Keith Q. Warner is Professor of French in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia).

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