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Diversity and Identity
This brings me to the subject of ethnic and cultural diversity, a feature in which the Greater Caribbean may well be unique in the world. We have European, in its Hispanic, Anglo-Saxon, French, Dutch and Portuguese, versions. We have African; we have Amerindian; from Asia have come East Indians, Chinese and Javanese; from the Middle East have come Syrians, Lebanese and Jews. Then there are the mixtures: mestizos, mulattoes—in Jamaica called “brownings”—“indios”—a term peculiar to the Dominican Republic which does not mean Indian but appears to refer to any person of colour—douglas—I had a hard time explaining to a Jamaican visitor that in this country that is not a man’s name-- and best of all “nowhereians”, an exquisitely Trinidadian term that refers to people who do not fit into the any of the accepted categories.

It used to be fashionable to speak of the existence of something called a “Caribbean identity” underlying this diversity, or encompassing it. Nowadays we are more inclined to accept the reality of many cultural identities coexisting within a society and more so within a region, and even within a single individual. Of course anyone who has been to a Caribbean party is immediately struck by the extent to which rhythm is a common medium of expression of Caribbean people from different places and ethnicities. Reggae, calypso, soca, salsa and merengue are far closer than is often recognised—rhythmically, they are first cousins with common African roots.

But rhythm is not the totality of our reality: what it may do is provide a place of encounter for different cultural elements. The reality is diversity, and surely this it is to be welcomed, indeed celebrated. It would be a boring Caribbean indeed if we were all the same.  For the same reason I believe it is mistaken to think of creating a specific Caribbean identity by means of something called “cultural integration”[11]. Indeed it might even be dangerous, for this lofty ideal begs the question of integration into what, on whose terms, and who will be the arbiter of what constitutes the integral Caribbean culture. Would it not be far more sensible to speak of cultural understanding, interaction and exchange; of mutual respect for, and tolerance of, cultural differences; and of the practice of cultural compromise and consensus? At the end of the day, our inescapable common reality is the space that we inhabit: islands and littoral, and the sea that we share. You only have to look at what is happening at this very moment in other parts of the world to realise how fortunate we are in having a relatively peaceful ethnic and cultural coexistence in the Caribbean. But it is a precious condition that needs to be carefully and constantly nurtured, for once lost it cannot easily be restored, and the consequences can be quite devastating.

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