Essay question number 2

Caribbean identity is defining as the cultures beliefs, qualities and religions of the
geographical region of the Caribbean, society in the Caribbean are multi-racial, multi-
cultural, and multi-lingual. Since there are many Caribbean confronting people, they are
forced to construct their identity based on what is close and familiar first and then move
outward. We need to focus on what is common and with which we readily identify in order
to develop a sense of solidarity, loyalty, and belongingness. People develop a sense of place
as they grow up in a particular locality. They identify with their immediate village or towns
and the region around. They develop relationships to these places and people with whom
they share a culture. These relationships are really connections, grounded in that place, to
other people and other places, and describe how a person is socially located

Ethnicity looms large in developing an identity. Ethnicity refers to your membership

in cultural groups such as racial, religious, language, gender, and even national groups. For
example, a person in Maroon descent in Jamaica today identifies with Jamaica and the
Caribbean in ways that differ from someone in mainstream Jamaica society. The person may
feel more strongly rooted in Jamaica because of how his/her ancestry forged lifestyle in
defiance of the colonial overlords and won recognition by treaty to their lands. So that,
within Jamaica there are different Caribbean identities depending on connections and
relations.

All people of the Caribbean are transplanted people the exception being the
Amerindians. This is one commonality, whether the Europeans who initiated the
transplanting were Dutch or French.one common identifier throughout the Caribbean, then
is that we have a homeland in another place.

From a common experience of European colonization, we developed institutions,

languages, political systems and customs that reflected those of a specific colonizer. African
slavery was a common denominator whether or in the Spanish territories. The Europeans
need labour, the African, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Madeirans, Javanese and Europeans
themselves came as laborers. The presence of various ethnicities in the Caribbean had a
common root because these groups were bought here for specific purposes. Syncretism,
adaptation, hybrid forms were created as various cultures met and clashed as the way
people talk, dress and their religion.

Being a part of Caribbean identity, whether you are an Indian in Guyana or a Rastafari in
Jamaica, then it is a problematic relationship that you have developed with your original
culture and homeland. In concluding, ethnicity place an important role in the Caribbean
identity since, African slavery, Indian indenturship occurred and mixed everyone’s cultures
and beliefs in the Caribbean.