Abstract
The archival memory of the Caribbean is built on the documentary legacies of colonialism. From slave registers to plantation deeds, the shelves of Caribbean Archives are filled with the records of colonial conquest, enslavement and suppression. Yet within these former Caribbean colonies—now small independent nations—is the evidence of human triumph over adversity, pride in self-sufficiency and a fierce and persistence dedication to political and social independence. That evidence is manifest through political movements, oral narratives, heroic legends and through alternate, different readings of the colonial records. These alternate readings are among the issues considered in this essay as it addresses the rethinking of a history that foregrounds the marginalized and highlights a dignity that has been suppressed. A case study of a website from the small island-nation of St. Kitts and Nevis demonstrates how the web is proving its agility in responding to complex understandings of history by enabling the uniting of both tangible and intangible community knowledge and heritage as it also eases access to official archival collections.
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Notes
This essay is dedicated to the memory of Victoria Borg O’Flaherty, former archivist of St. Kitts and Nevis, good friend and treasured colleague.
Marronage refers to enslaved persons escaping the structures of enslavement to establish communities usually in the hinterlands of the territory. In some smaller Caribbean territories, migration to other islands would also constitute marronage.
Christmas Sport is the name given to the festivities which took place traditionally in the two-week period in December, leading up to Christmas Day and Boxing Day (25 and 26 December, respectively). Sugar factories were customarily closed during this time period as plantation work ceased, allowing laborers their time to “leh go!” (i.e., dancing in the streets, singing calypsos and storytelling, in addition to preparing special foods that are linked to the festivities of Christmas). A key feature of the Christmas Sport is the Masquerade, which will be described later.
It is noteworthy that the first wave of militant working-class protests that swept the entire British West Indies began in St. Kitts in January 1935. These riots across the Caribbean resulted in the convening of the Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the social and economic conditions in Barbados, British Guiana, British Honduras, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and the Windward Islands in 1938 chaired by Lord Moyne. The Moyne Commission Report led to sweeping social, economic and political changes that advanced the cause for self-governance, regional federation and later independence across the English-speaking Caribbean.
Masquerade is a traditional group dance, with meaningful costumes, drum rhythms and fife melodies, that has been culturally linked to the Yoruba practice and developed during the era of enslavement. It was traditionally performed as part of “Christmas Sport”, during the break in plantation work activity for the Yuletide season. It is now a cultural marker for St. Kitts and Nevis, is performed especially during times of carnival, community festival and for the tourist gaze. Masquerade is also a marker for the Kittian/Nevisian Diaspora and is found in Bermuda, the Dominican Republic and other parts where large descendants of St. Kitts and Nevis reside.
CXC is the acronym for the Caribbean Examinations Council, the body that orchestrates the secondary education qualifications, which most public schools within the Commonwealth Caribbean participates and is used as the basis for matriculation in regional and international tertiary institutions. For more information, see https://www.cxc.org/ accessed 11 May 2023.
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Bastian, J.A., Griffin, S.H. Archival dignity, colonial records and community narratives. Arch Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-024-09436-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-024-09436-y