Theme 9

• Aspects of social life in the Caribbean 1900 - 1985

  • Ethnic/Race Relations
  • Class
• Plural societies


  Explanation of why different groups co-exist in a community but do not integrate, keeping their own identities, beliefs, and traditions
• In some Caribbean countries, different ethnic groups co-exist but do not integrate, maintaining separate identities, beliefs, and traditions
• In other Caribbean countries, various ethnic groups have inter-married and interacted, leading to no separate identities among them
• Race Relations


  Explanation of the conscious attempt during slavery to separate dominant white group from non-white groups and give higher status to whites
• In some communities, light-skin complexion is given higher status, affecting areas like employment
• Portuguese immigrants were not accepted in the upper class despite being white, becoming shopkeepers and small businessmen
• Indians enriched Caribbean society by bringing religions, languages, and cultural practices
• Chinese, Syrians/Lebanese, like the Portuguese, became shopkeepers or pedlars of cloth and household goods
• Newcomers' divisions of race, religions, language, and culture prevented effective unity against white control
• Racial tensions expressed mostly in Guyana and Trinidad due to competition for economic and political power between ethnic groups
• Racial tensions mainly seen at election time, but generally, both ethnic groups interact daily in various settings
• In Guyana, the two ethnic groups remained more separate compared to Trinidad and Tobago
• Class - Three Tier System

  • Upper Class - Whites with power/status
  • Middle Class - Coloureds and Blacks
  • Lower Class - Black Masses, former slaves
• In Trinidad and Guyana, a four-tier system emerged with the addition of Indians after emancipation
• After emancipation, social mobility was possible through economic success and educational standing
• Wealth from 1838-1938 remained concentrated in the hands of a small white upper class
• Male plantation labourers made around $25 a year, with low wages continuing into the 1930s
• Low wages exacerbated by irregular, seasonal employment, leading people to move into towns with few job opportunities
• Migration to towns posed challenges in terms of health and housing for new arrivals
• Low wages


  Was made worse by irregular, seasonal employment
• People moved into towns to escape low wages


  Towns had few jobs for the new arrivals, health and housing became worse
• To escape poverty

  Many emigrated to wherever work was available (e.g., Panama to build canal, Central America to work on railways and banana plantations, internally Guyanese migrated to mine for gold and diamonds)
• Poverty


  Was more common in smaller than larger colonies
• 1838-1938, most lacked an adequate diet
• Actual starvation was rare but the diet was unbalanced – low in protein, minerals, and vitamins. Malnutrition affected babies and children
• Malaria, hookworm infestation, venereal diseases, yaws made West Indian masses chronically sick
• Cholera, typhoid, smallpox despite vaccination had been known for a long time
• Medical care was not available to most ordinary people. Most had to rely on bush doctors and herbal remedies
• Creoles generally adopted European fashions. Decent clothes became part of West Indian sense of self-respect and self-worth
• A large number did not go to school
• Those who attended school did so irregularly
• Few reached the highest forms of primary school. A tiny number got to secondary school
• Working-class children got a few years before basic institution in an overcrowded, badly equipped primary school
• Organizations setting up schools

  • Missionaries, Anglican Church, Mico Charity (British charitable organization)
• Literacy gave a person status. They could get a better life than their parents had
• Upper-class attitudes – “we do not want a population of simple penmen, what is required is knowledge of shovel and hoe”
• The Indians were reluctant to send their children to school. They feared they would be made to convert to Christianity or would be ill-treated or mocked
• By the 1930s, West Indians were more or less literate, and that in itself was an achievement as literacy is one of the essential conditions for a modern society
• By the 1920s, education had been made mandatory for all children between 6 and 14 in almost all the islands