Know Your Caribbean

Caribbean DJs, life savers, joy creators, unforgettable night makers we love y’all, but the people have spoken. How many of y’all have had your favourite song play for 3.2 seconds only for the DJ to run his mouth for 30’seconds after then change the song? But at the same time isn’t one of the best parts of Caribbean DJs is the right balance of hype man? I do honestly think Caribbean DJs are some of the most diverse DJs in the world - they can go from a hard Bounty Killa to a Whitney Houston back to a Zouk and circle back to a piece of Busta Rhymes all in one set and it works. Anywho - do you agree with this poll? (I low key feel the 12% who voted no are Caribbean DJs 😅 - don’t @ me I love y’all !) #caribbeandj #caribbeanmusic #demahchatchatchattoomuch

This is the second year without Carnival. But Carnival can never die. How can you kill the spirit of the people? This year @nhcarnivalldn collaborated with @deliveroo to create limited edition Carnival patties to support Carnival food traders who are unable to operate due to COVID-19. I was asked to design my own pattie stamp and with honour I developed a design to support our women to feel safe and empowered in our Carnival space. I made sure to use a body type that reflects that all body types should be seen and celebrated during Carnival, and of course I had to use my fav bad gyal @chantal_olivia_miller_ of Island Girls Rock! These patties are only on sale today (Monday 30th) in selected areas in London and Manchester so get yours quick ! Doesn’t deliver to your area? Why not get one for a friend who lives in the available areas as a nice lil surprise. Patties from 4 Carnival ambassadors represent different aspects of Carnival, comes beautifully packaged with a story card. Google ‘Deliveroo’s Notting Hill Carnival Patties’ to order yours and show some love those behind the scenes who make the Carnival magic. #CarnivalCyahDone #Nottinghillcarnival2021 #jouvert #duttymas #dirtymas #jamaicanpattie #caribbeanfood #nottinghillcarnival

Listen…. When we get featured on the big screen, it’s always a mixture of emotions…. the excitement of seeing ourselves on screen… eyes wide, back straight, leaning in, ears perked and eyes sharpened to every movement and word spoken…. Then there is that bitter disappointment when clear cultural nuances are ignored by the producers, or that we are portrayed so damn cheesy, or worst of all - they never bothered to hire one of the many talented Caribbean actors and actresses out there. I asked and y’all voted - I couldn’t share all your responses but Taye Diggs in How Stella got her groove back clearly traumatised the cluster of countries we call the Caribbean. Cool Runnings came in close second, with many of you screaming to the mountaintops about Luke Cage and Brad Pitt’s ‘everyting gone be irie’ made us not feel irie. Not so honourable mentions include Bad Boyz II wack Haitian accents, Death in Paradise, Al Pacino’s ‘Cuban’ accent in Scarface, Denzel in the Mighty Quinn, the rastaman from Trading Places, Cosby show with a ‘bajan’, Sebastian the crab, She’s gotta have it the series, as well as Drake and DJ Khaled (😭😂😅) oh yes … and Tom Hanks son … What y’all think ? Who hurt your feelings da most ? #knowyourcaribbean #lukecage #howstellagothergrooveback #bradpitt #meetjoeblack #badcaribbeanaccents

Found this excerpt written in a book from Martinique in the 1800s. What we know as JabJab/ Lans Kòd/Nèg Gwo Siwo/Nèg Mawon/Tiznados was described as this in 1887: ‘The "molasses-negro" wears nothing but a cloth around his loins;—his whole body and face being smeared with an atrocious mixture of soot and molasses. He is supposed to represent the original African ancestor.’ Imma leave that right here. How powerful are we. #jabjab #nèggwosiwo #negmawon #lanskod #tiznado #knowyourcaribbean Book : Two years in the French West Indies Pic 1: from Carriacou ❤️

Our Cutlass/Machete earrings come in Gold, Silver and Black and Gold acrylic. Maaannn you feel powerful when you put them on! Comes beautifully packaged for a gift to a loved one or to your damn self (you deserve it, don’t you!) Link in my bio to get yourself a pair of our Bad Gyal Earrings 🗡 🗡🗡 *International Shipping* #ChroniclesOfTheCaribbeanBadGyal

What happens to us when the drum starts playing? I call it an invocation. An invocation of spirit, no matter where you are when the drum starts I dare you not to dance (even if on the inside). The mere fact that the African drum was made illegal across the region in clear laws from Tobago, to Barbados, across the French Caribbean in the Code Noir, in the Jamaican parliaments, in South Carolina’s rice fields - the African drum was illegal in Trinidad up until the 1930s. (Some of our grandparents were alive then, and this ban is what birthed the innovation of Steel pan). Music has always been integral to our survival, from our stink face to hard hip hop blasting down the highway or a piece ah wine in sweaty fete, to the closeness in a sweet piece of Gouyad, a great dance partner twirling to zouk, or late nights alongside the Nyabinghi drum - the beat, the rhythm… the drum is our literal heart beat. I enclose excerpts from ‘History of the Caribby Islands’ - published in 1666, which describes just how our ancestors survived - through music. Follow on to see some of the slave codes, their futile efforts to stamp out our light , and finally to this day - we dance still, anywhere, anytime … the time beat of our drum. #DemTryButDemCyahStopDeRiddim #Knowyourcaribbean #caribbeanhistory #caribbeanmusic #slavery *slide 9 - law continues to state that any slave owner permitting the use of the drum will be charged a hefty fee.

Covid-19 has not only left us without Carnival on the streets, but many Caribbean communities will suffer greatly financially from the inability to trade this year. I am proud to be part of an initiative that will support Caribbean communities whilst bringing to life what Carnival means to us. All I can say now is staaaay tuned !!! News on this, how you can support to come this week! @nhcarnivalldn #nottinghillcarnival2021 Song : Million by @kesthebandofficial #jouvert #dirtymas #duttymas

Let’s talk about the word ‘Coolie’. Often used in our daily conversations to speak with some kind of anti-African pride regarding hair texture. ‘She has good coolie hair’, ‘I have good hair because my Granny is a coolie.’ The ‘good’ hair debate is one for another day…. The word coolie means a labourer, has a variety of other implications and is can be regarded as offensive depending upon the historical and geographical context. During the 19th & early 20th centuries, coolie was a term implying an indentured labourer from South Asia, South East Asia or China. However, coolie is now regarded as a racial slur – in reference to people from Asia. In 2000, the parliament of South Africa enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which has among its primary objectives the prevention of hate speech terms such as coolie (koelie). The origins of the word are uncertain but it is thought to have originated from the Tamil word for a payment for work, kuli (கூலி).An alternative etymological explanation is that the word came from Hindustani word qulī (क़ुली, قلی), which itself could be from the Ottoman word for slave, قول (qul). Another explanation is that the Hindustani word qulī from the Gujarati aboriginal caste known as Kuli, and the word was picked up by the Portuguese who then used it in South India, hence the Tamil word kuli. In 1727, Dr. Engelbert Kämpfer described "coolies" as dock labourers who would unload Dutch ships in Japan. The Chinese phrase 苦力 (pinyin: kǔlì) literally translates as "bitter strength" but is more commonly understood as meaning "bitter labour". Many were systematically overworked & generally Indian coolies had higher mortality rates, many could not afford passage back home after their term of indenture. Companies would promise good food, clothing, adequate housing, safe passage & schools. However, these promises were rarely kept,leading to the image of these labourers who were in abject poverty as ‘dirty’, and the term becoming derogatory. In the last 3 slides - added history of the word Dougla/Dogla too. #coolie #indianindenturedlabourers #caribbeanhistory #knowyourcaribbean

239,909. This is the number of Indian labourers who came to Guyana between 1839 (at the end of African chattel slavery) and 1917. Of that number only 75,547 returned back to India, the rest making Guyana home. (It should be noted that some could not afford to go back home as many were fooled into indentureship by being unable to read the contracts and signed with mere thumbprints). Conditions on the plantations were unsanitary with the British Government doing nothing to maintain healthy living conditions for the influx of new labourers sent to toil the cane fields that Africans refused to work on at the close of slavery. In 1874 there were over 51,000 cases of Malaria amongst the indentured labourers, in 1886 out of a population of 69,000, over 17,000 were reported sick with various illness like hookworm which causes malnutrition, infertility or birth defects, anaemia, and compromised immune systems. One observer who visited many colonies which housed Indian indentureship described Guyana as having the most deplorable conditions out of all. At the end of the indentureship period there were 44,000 less Indians than expected. Influenza was particularly deadly with one plantation losing over 1/5 of its population to the flu. The death rate surpassed birth rates whilst the British Government invested money into machinery for gold mining in Guyana, and enjoying their profits from sugar. What a life to have lived. May she rest in peace. Elandi Yeagan. ❤️ 🇮🇳❤️🇬🇾 #KnowYourCaribbean #indianindenturedlabourers #guyana

How India has shaped our culture too. How did Ganja come to Jamaica? By way of the Indian indentured labourers in the 1800s. Ganja is borrowed from Hindi gāñjā, a name for cannabis, which is derived from Sanskrit gañjā. The word was used in Europe as early as 1856, when the British enacted a tax on the “ganja” trade. Indians form the 3rd largest racial group in Jamaica after Africans and those of mixed heritage. However, because most African-mixed Jamaicans self-report as 'black', the population of people with partial Indian ancestry is estimated to be much larger. With these workers came cannabis plants and their knowledge of the many preparations, including ganja. Ganja specifically refers to the buds of the flower.  In Hindi Charas is the resin and Bhang refers to the leaves and seeds of the plant, as well as a milky tea prepared from the same. Due to deteriorating socioeconomic conditions in British India, more than 36,000 Indians came to Jamaica as indentured labourers between 1845- 1917, mostly from the Bhojpuri region and the Awadhi region of the Hindi Belt in North India and other places in the Hindi Belt of North India. A significant minority were from South India. Around 2/3 of the labourers who came remained on the island. The demand for their labour came after the end of slavery in 1830 and the failure to attract workers from Europe. It was a difficult journey for the labourers, who with fundamental cultural and linguistic differences and a tendency to not mix with the local population, caused the Africans as well as the British to look down on them. Indians were harassed with the derogatory term, "coolie," referring to their worker status. They were initially placed at the bottom of the social ladder. The British Indian government encouraged indentured labour & recruiting depots were established in Calcutta and Madras, although agents were paid significantly less per recruit than for a European worker. Most Indians who signed contracts did so in the hope of returning to India with the fruits of their labour rather than intending to migrate permanently. History continued in the comments ! #KnowYourcaribbean #indocarobbean #ganja

‘Lazy’ ‘Drunken coolies’ - These are recorded opinions of the indentured labourers from India to the Caribbean. ‘The Madrassies are for the most part, very inferior, and there are many habitual amd professed beggars and vagabonds amongst them’. "industrious, cheerful, contented, docile, obedient." "less easily offended, devoid of the savage, unruly disposition of the African." (To be noted the man who wrote this had a black mother.) Negative Colonial opinions of indentured labourers was just another example of Europe’s validation for the harsh treatments of those who came across to replace African labour at the end of African chattel slavery. Of the more than 150,000 East Indians who came to Trinidad between 1845 and 1917 only a little more than 40,000 returned to India. The number returning to India decreased steadily toward the end of the century. By 1902 only 1 in 5 persons returned home. Various reasons included ostracism from family members back home, incentives to stay, and most commonly inability to pay the return passage home. The SS Ganges, the last East Indian immigrant ship to Trinidad, arrived on the 22nd of April 1917. On board were 247 males, 115 females, 12 boys, 10 girls, and 10 infants. It is thanks to the Indo-Caribbean diaspora we have curry anything and marijuana, amongst a long list of other cultural contributions. I wish I could have heard these men play! Source: A History of the East Indian Indentured Plantation Worker in Trinidad, 1845-1917. John Allen Perry #knowyourcaribbean #indocaribbean #trinidad

A swift breakdown of some of the countless contributions from African culture into the Spanish speaking Caribbean, South and Central America. African influence is often erased in commercialised representations of these countries and @senoredison breaks it down beautifully. Big up Panama 🇵🇦 Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 Cuba 🇨🇺 Guatemala 🇬🇹 Honduras 🇭🇳 Belize 🇧🇿 Venezuela 🇻🇪 Colombia 🇨🇴 Bay Islands, Nicaragua 🇳🇮 Mexico 🇲🇽 and the entire Spanish speaking diaspora ❤️ Found via @island360 #KnowYourcaribbean