Creole Society Theory CREOLIZATION EDWARD K. BRATHWAITE Barrow, Christine. Reddock, Rhoda. Caribbean Sociology: Introductory Readings. Ian Randle Publishers Ltd. Jamaica (2001)

Key Terms Polity - is generally understood to mean a geographic area with a corresponding government. Creole - as used by Brathwaite describes persons, both whites and blacks, freeborn and slave, “born in, native to, committed to the area of living”. When applied to the general society, it denotes both a colonial relationship with a “metropolitan European power, on the one hand, and a plantation arrangement on the other”. Acculturation – (also called ‘cultural assimilation’) this is the extensive borrowing of cultural traits by one group (usually subordinate) from another. Interculturation – the long term mutual exchange of cultural traits between cultures that are in close contact.

Creolization Defined Creolization was a “cultural process that took place within a creole society – that is, within a tropical colonial plantation polity based on slavery. As such, Caribbean islands were attached to and dependent on the British; for it’s economic well-being , its protection and (from the view of the whites), its cultural models.” (Brathwaite, 1971) Creolization can be defined as, “people, mainly from Britain and West Africa, who settled, lived, worked and were born in Jamaica, contributed to the formation of a society… which, in so far as it was neither purely British nor West African, is… creole.”

Creolization Explained The development of Jamaican society was as a result of a ‘cultural process’ – (material, psychological and spiritual) by which interaction between different cultural groups lead to the acquisition of ‘new’ cultural patterns by the subordinate groups. The level of interaction was dictated by the structure and composition of society whereby newcomers to the landscape fell into the societal construct of the existence of one dominant group and the other legally and subordinated slaves. Creolization is based upon an ascriptive value system (colour/class hierarchy) and is largely applied to the European-African relationship. Creolization is a “way of seeing the society, not in terms of white and black, master and slave, in separate nuclear units, but as contributory parts of a whole”. Creole Jamaica was a society in which there was a “juxtaposition of master and slave, elite and labourer, in a culturally heterogeneous relationship.” Creolization is an “obscure force” compelling all members of Jamaican slave society to “conform to a certain concept of themselves; makes them perform in certain roles which, in fact, they quickly come to believe in.” Braithwaite draws a distinction between Plural Society Theory and Creolization. From their several cultural bases, people in the West Indies tend towards certain directions, position, assumptions and ideals. But nothing is really fixed and monolithic. Although there is white/brown/black, there are infinite possibilities within these distinctions and many ways of asserting identity. A common colonial and creole experience is shared among the various divisions, even if that experience is variously interpreted. In short, in Jamaican society, “fixed with the dehumanizing institution of slavery, where two cultures of people, having to adapt themselves to a new environment and to each other.”

Case Study Slave language on the island of Barbados since the seventeenth century has been engaged in an evolutionary process called the creole continuum. The process of creolization begins when two or more different languages encounter each other in the same social and geographical space and must find a linguistic bridge between the two languages in the interest of communication. Initially then, a ‘pidgin’ developed between the dominant language of the British planter elite and the African languages of slaves. Slaves faced great pressure, both internally and externally, to subvert African language, beliefs, and cultural practices in order for the material quality of their life to be enhanced. African cultural elements did survive underground, but also underwent a creolization.

Case Study (ctd.) African culture, then, in becoming Afro-Barbadian, absorbed elements of Euro-creole ideas and practices. This was undoubtedly a rational response to the circumstances of power inequality. But by virtue of its majority representation, black culture emerged as the dominant popular form and survived as the national norm into the modern era. (Beckles) Despite efforts to suppress culture and especially language in Barbados, “the emerging language is ‘crystallized’: it has both gained legitimacy as one self-identification symbol for a new (‘creole’) community and become the ‘target’ of acquisition for new speakers entering the community, either via birth of via the continuing slave trade.” (DeGraff)

Conclusion Plantation society perpetuated cultural assimilation with the advent of the Europeans’ arrival in the Caribbean. With the interaction of the various cultural groups that existed in the context of the Plantation polity, the culture of the subordinate group is significantly changed. Creolization involves both ‘acculturation’ and ‘interculturation’, however, there is often a ‘syncretism’, or an amalgamation of cultural traits that may be blended with or worked into the indigenous cultural patterns to make them more acceptable. Brathwaite in his study of Jamaica argued that despite the debasements of slavery, it remained a viable and creative entity that developed societal institutions from its beginning of history comparable to similar institutions in Britain and North America. Braithwaite divides the process of acculturation with the new slaves underwent into 4 stages: Seasoning – being given a new name, etc. Becoming identified with their work – field slaves, house slaves, etc. Socialization through the gang system and through communal recreational activities – drumming, etc. Identification with the group and with local symbols of authority – authority figures.

Conclusion (ctd.) Furthermore, Brathwaite posited that creolization was “a way of seeing the society, not in terms of white and black, master and slave, in separate nuclear units, but as contributory parts of a whole.” He goes on to add that although there is white/brown/black, there are infinite possibilities within these distinctions and many ways of asserting identity. Brathwaite concludes by stating that a common colonial and creole experience is shared among the various divisions, even if that experience is interpreted in many different ways. He also stresses the “area of sexual relationships” as one of the most potent facilitators of the creolization process. The coloured population “acted as a bridge, a kind of social cement, between the two main colours of the island’s structure, this further helping to integrate the society.

Criticisms The theory focuses on the European-African relationship and largely ignores the other groups in the Caribbean such as the East Indians and the Chinese. The theory does not explore other macro/structural factors that helped the shape Caribbean society.