The African-Caribbean Worldview and the Making of Caribbean Society

Book excerpt: This book brings together contributions from a broad spectrum of authors on the most challenging issue for the Caribbean: resisting the dominating efforts of European colonizers and their descendants and understanding the long-standing struggle of Caribbean people to fashion a culture and society that would give full space to the African heritage of the majority while accommodating their new and evolving circumstances. The book presents contemporary readings of Caribbean religion, education, language, music, race, sexual behaviour in a time of the AIDS pandemic, and the economy. It grew out of a conference held in 2006 in honour of the scholarship of internationally acclaimed Alston Barrington Chevannes, professor of social anthropology at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. This collection is unique, therefore, in both the breadth of its focus and range of topics as well as the specific issues considered, most essays being useful case studies in particular fields. The geographical span includes Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, indeed the Caribbean as a whole. There is perhaps no other publication with such an aim, range and relevance. The theme of a Caribbean worldview makes this book a pioneering contribution to Caribbean studies. The Collection also contains an autobiographical essay by Barry Chevannes. Book jacket.