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Theorising Decolonisation (West Indies Federation - 1958-62 (Withdrawal of…
Theorising Decolonisation
West Indies Federation - 1958-62
Withdrawal of Jamaica followed by Trinidad led to the end of the West Indies Federation
Made up of Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago as well as two observer states (British Guiana and British Honduras, both NOT islands)
Intended as a political union that was independent from Britain so just the anglophone Caribbean.
Divided contemporary observers in the Caribbean and beyond as there were issues around taxation, central planning and migration
The various identities that made up the WI Federation is largely what resulted in its failure.
Grenadian
Theophilius Marryshow
championed regional identification over island independence and wanted the Anglophone islands to link together in an administrative and fiscal union but remain in the Empire.
Eric Williams
supported individual island identity and wanted the islands to unite only through a common allegiance to a central government. He wanted centralised economic power in the Federation
Individual concerns came before those of the region for leaders like
Alexander Bustamante
of Jamaica who called those in favour of federation traitors of Jamaica.
Grassroots support for Federation was fragmented and inconsistent, and it was mainly supported through elitist efforts.
Difficult for the people in the Caribbean to imagine those of the other islands as anything but their island identity.
Indo-Caribbean population makes up 37% of population in Trinidad and Tobago and allegedly they resonated more with India's independence than with the Federation.
Cox-Alomar:
Federation favoured by the British governors who wanted a smooth transition from the region.
Wallace:
Jamaican and Trinidadian leaders wanted to become more autonomous and assert themselves on the world stage - a result of their contact with the Empire and British power.
Jamaica feel overpopulation if movement within Federation is free also as the largest population and largest economy it wanted proportional population representation.
Economically Jamaica and Trinidad didn't want to share the resources as they were doing better than the other smaller islands.
Important Dates and Info
1962:
Jamaica
becomes constitutional monarchy
1966:
Bahamas
become constitutional monarchy
1974:
Grenada
becomes constitutional monarchy
1962:
Trinidad
becomes a republic
1978:
Dominica
becomes a republic
1979:
St Lucia
and
St Vincent
become constitutional monarchies
1981:
Antigua and Barbuda
becomes constitutional monarchy
1983:
Saint Kitts and Nevis
becomes constitutional monarchy
Definition:
Not just a legal political movement of power and the transfer of power but also a process of decolonising cultures.
Walter Rodney
Engaging with black people, not looking to prove anything to white people
African History as a form of mobilisation
Claims that because whites fought against the system it allowed blacks to be genuinely emancipated
Admires Cuba as the first revolutionaries where there is now no segregation - blacks are socially and politically emancipated and are moving in the direction of reasserting their Afro-Cuban culture.
More interests in African culture (plastic arts, drama) in Cuba than Jamaica even though the latter is 95% black and in the former black people are a minority.
Claims that this is because black people of Jamaica are still involved in and dominated by imperialist relations
Marxist - arguing how marxism could liberate black people from imperialism.
Prime minister of Jamaica refused to allow African history and Swahili to be taught in schools.
For Jamaicans to engage with the past they have to break with the bonds of the present.
History of Egypt always in the context of Europe or the Middle East and never Africa.
Admires Julius Nyerere in Tanzania and what he has done since indepdnence by using culture prior to the arrival to come to terms with the modern situation.
Historiography
Edward Said:
Building a nation required the independence and integrity of their own culture, free from colonial encroachment
Mary Chamberlain:
In the colonial view, the West Indians had no culture;
What was needed was a mirror which would enable West Indians to recognise their reflection as a genuine, rather than a refracted image - to assert and celebrate their authenticity.