French Speaking Caribbean

.....Well, I've been expecting you. I just knew that you liked the last blog so much that you just couldn't stay away. I don't blame you. I do know how to run on when I'm given all the freedom in the world. We are back with another post but instead of talking about versatility, we'll be focusing more on the side of creolization in the Caribbean, specifically our French speaking areas. Only three countries in the Caribbean are actually in this category and they include Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. Not the Dominican Republic...that's a whole different language despite being one island. All three of these countries were, unsurprisingly, all French colonies in the past. 

Let's dive into some history to get you more familiar with these islands. First up in this section we have the island that is tied to have the longest name (seriously I had to count it like three times over because I was actually surprised it's the same amount of letters) Guadeloupe!! It's such a funny name to say "Guadeloupe". Anyway, this country was inhabited by French settlers in 1635. Their economy was very much dependent on crops like  sugar which gave the name "plantation economy".

Our first example to creolization music in the French Caribbean will be contredanse. Now you might even be confused on how to properly pronounce that but work with me. Contredanse is a group dance that came from Europe to the Caribbean by the colonizers. This normally ballroom dance have their own series of patterns and musical components. The music that is played during the contredanse is fused with African music, and this gives all the amazing songs that we know and research today. In Guadeloupe, they have their own style of contredanse style called Gwoka. Yup, you read that right. This island just loves its funny words lol. This style first appeared in the seventeenth century during the transatlantic slave trade.  African Guadeloupean slaves during that time used to assemble to sing, dance, and play drums.

This is a image of a lady from Guadeloupe performing the gwoka. Image taken from https://i0.wp.com/d1v9pyzt136u2g.cloudfront.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/02090025/afropop.jpg?fit=2400%2C1600&ssl=1

This is a video performance of Gwoka. They also have a over voice but it's in French. I even tried to turn on captions and they also gave me french... thanks. I picked this video because it shows Gwoka in different forms, in full performances, in practices, men and ladies practicing their dances in a more controlled environment. Everything.

Our next history lesson comes from the other long name in the bunch- Martinique, (the names not as funny:(). Anyway, Martinique was one of the islands that had little to no natural resources, so it was one of the islands that Spain didn't bother to look more into. this gave the opportunity for French settlers to settle there. They established plantations that contributed to cocoa, cotton, coffee and were tended to by enslaved black people. 

This a photo of women performing the dance. Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0d/5c/90/0d5c900bd5f03f7e724b63beeb808dcf.jpg

I chose this video because I really like the music playing, like you can hear a little bit of everything. It is a pretty interesting dance, it's literally a blend of so many cultures such as Latin American and Europe.

Finally we have last but certainly not least, Haiti. This country was also colonized by the French. The Haitian Revolution then occurred because more and more people were willing to fight for their freedom. The uprisings started in 1791 and continued until 1803 where at that point they had succeeded in moving out French rule in their communities. We will be looking at a dish from Haiti that shows creolization, a dish called soupe joumou. Vegetables in the dish include cabbage, carrots, turnips, scotch bonnet peppers, and green or yellow squash. This meal also contains beef. This soup is especially meaningful to Haitians because it serves as a constant reminder of their triumph over adversity, as in, them rising above their slave masters and fighting for their freedom. The soup is eaten every January 1st to commemorate that historic victory.

This is an image of what the dish looks like which is pretty nice. Image taken from https://www.caribbeangreenliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Haitian-Soup-Joumou5.jpg

This video goes into detail about how to make the dish. It is pretty straightforward but it is probably something that is getting lost in translation lol. Nevertheless, I thank you for turning in and I hope you enjoyed!

References

Green, N. (2021, December 27). Soup joumou: A Haitian New Year tradition, a reminder of a slave-led revolution. Retrieved from WLRN: https://www.wlrn.org/news/2016-12-29/soup-joumou-a-haitian-new-year-tradition-a-reminder-of-a-slave-led-revolution

LeGrand, C. C. (2019). Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean. Sound Caribbean. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9789769624900

Martinique land of music. (nd). Retrieved from AZ Martinique: https://azmartinique.com/en/all-to-know/studies-research/martinique-land-of-music

Nesrine, C. (2021, October 25). 20 Interesting Facts About Guadeloupe, France. Retrieved from Kevmrc Travel Blog: https://www.kevmrc.com/interesting-facts-about-guadeloupe-france

UNESCO. (2021, December 27). Gwoka: music, song, dance and cultural practice representative of Guadeloupean identity. Retrieved from UNESCO: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/gwoka-music-song-dance-and-cultural-practice-representative-of-guadeloupean-identity-00991