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Notes
Incidentally, this tagline “unity in diversity” is not particularly new. It is the subtitle of the cultural policies of both Ghana and Australia from which Trinidad and Tobago multicultural policy takes its inspiration.
Jason Edward Kaufman, “In Trinidad, an Ascendant Hindu Paradise Flourishes During Divali,” Artifino, November 17, 2010. In his article Kaufman asserted incorrectly that “around half the population [of Trinidad and Tobago] traces its roots to India.”
This position was reiterated by the Honorable Nela Khan, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, when she addressed the opening session of GOPIO’s Multicultural Conference.
The term “alienation” is used much too loosely. In his speech the minister of arts and multiculturalism used the term to suggest that the East Indian population feels separated from the mainstream or what they sometimes call “Creole” society. He does not pay much attention to the inverse of the proposition that East Indians may have separated themselves from the society because of their culture and religions. Apart from asking why and how East Indians feel separated from other groups in the society, the real question is why they feel that way. The term “alienation” [or estrangement] is taken from Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 in which he argues that creative labor is the essence of one’s humanity. Capitalist relations however have distorted this relationship thereby separating man’s essence [who and what he is] from his existence [what he must do to exist] which leads Marx to argue that “the object produced by labour, now stands opposed to it as an alien being, as a power independent of the producer…[T]he more the worker expends himself in work the more powerful becomes the world of objects which he creates in face of himself, the poorer he becomes in his inner life, and the less he belongs to himself…The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, assumes an external existence, but that it exists independently, outside himself, and alien to him, and that it stands opposed to him as an autonomous power.” [Karl Marx, Early Writings (New York: McGraw Hill, 1964), pp. 122–3.]. This separation is called estrangement or alienation. So that it is almost a meaningless statement [or a statement of little meaning] when one affirms that a group of people feels alienated from the society. It cannot be the basis upon which one develops public policy or a national culture policy.
See Martin Daly, “Equal to Pythagoras,” Trinidad Express, January 13, 2011; and Lennox Grant, “Knife-and Fork Dining on Golden Memories,” Trinidad Express, January 13, 2011.
Eric Williams, History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago (Port of Spain: PNM Publishing Company, 1962), p. 281.
Imtiaz Cajee, Timol: A Quest for Justice (Johannesburg: STE 2005), p. 7. This is a book all Trinbagonians should read. It tells the story of Ahmed Timol, “one of the most celebrated official murder victims of apartheid South Africa” (p. 13) who gave his life for his country. The author draws upon the wisdom of C. L. R. James, Michael Manley, and V. S. Naipaul to set up his story. This story is even more touching because it speaks to the commitment to his nation of a South African of Indian descent. In this context, the statement of Dr. Dadoo, another South African of Indian descent, is instructive and speaks to the limitations of a concept of multiculturalism in a postcolonial society: “Insulating ourselves from the national and international development of society would be nothing short of suicidal. We can no longer afford to remain narrow, sectarian and fanatical. We either march forward with the rest of the world or condemn ourselves to stew in our stinking juice. We must cultivate that healthy progressive national outlook, which alone can lead to our salvation. . . . In South Africa it is criminal to identify ourselves as Kholvadians [an Indian community in South Africa in which he lived] only; we belong to and are part of the great South African Indian community and nationally oppressed Non-European people” (p. 36).
Selwyn R. Cudjoe, “Cultural Policy and National Development,” Ref. WI 308, Cudjoe (Trinidad Collection), January 11, 1983. p. 1.
Ibid., p. 8.
Quoted in Williams, History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago, p. 97.
Ibid., p. 97.
Apart from its fifty ethnic groups, there are about 35 languages spoken in Ghana. Nine are government-sponsored languages. They are written languages and are taught in Ghanaian schools. There are 26 non-government sponsored languages all of which are spoken languages. English, the official language of Ghana, is used to unify the country.
David Rooney, Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy (Legon, Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2007), p. 15.
Ibid., p. 153. The reference here is to Dr. Williams’ description of certain elements in the Indian community that he called a “recalcitrant and hostile minority” to which Kamla Persad-Bissessar referred to in her “Indian Arrival Day Speech,” 2011 in Indian Time Ah Come, pp. 112–16.
See Selwyn R. Cudjoe, “Mother Trinidad and Tobago,” Trinidad Guardian, January 20, 2011.
The Cultural Policy of Ghana, National Commission on Culture, 2004, p. 2.
Ibid., p. 9.
Although I disagree with Prime Minister David Cameron’s denunciation of multiculturalism—it seems to be more a condemnation of “Islamic extremism”—there is some merit to the claim that under some circumstances “state multiculturalism tends to divide a population.”
Kaufman, “In Trinidad, an Ascendant Hindu Paradise Flourishes During Divali.”
Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 351.
Charles Taylor, Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994) p. 111.
Jurgen Habermas identifies two challenges that immigration presents to the host country, a) “assimilation to the way in which the autonomy of the citizens is institutionalized in the recipient society and the way the ‘public use of reason’ is practiced there” and a desire for an assimilation “that penetrates to the level of ethical-cultural integration and thereby has a deeper impact on the collective identity of the immigrants’ culture of origin than the political socialization required under (a) above.” (Taylor, Multiculturalism, p. 138).
Quoted in Rooney, Kwame Nkrumah, p. 110.
See William H. Gamble, Trinidad: Historical and Descriptive Being a Narrative of Nine Years Residence in the Island (London: Yates and Alexander, 1866), p. 42. See also Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Beyond Boundaries (Wellesley, MA: Calaloux Publications, 2003) for a discussion of Gamble’s life.
“Fact Sheet 6: “The Evolution of Australia’s Multicultural Policy,” Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2007.
The four principles that underpin Australia’s multicultural policy are: a) Responsibilities of all; 2)Respect for each person; 3) Fairness for each person; 4) Benefits for all.
Albert Gomes, Through a Maze of Colour (Port of Spain: Key Caribbean Publications, 1974), p. 166.
Ibid., pp. 166–68.
See Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Indian Time Ah Come in Trinidad and Tobago (Wellesley, MA: Calaloux Publications, 2010), p. 16.
Ibid., p. 17.
Eric Williams, Forged from the Love of Liberty: Selected Speeches of Dr. Eric Williams, compiled by Paul K. Sutton (Port of Spain: Longman Caribbean, 1981), p. 156.
Raffique Shah, “Rally, rally ‘round T&T,” Express, January 18, 2009.
Williams, Forged from the Love of Liberty, p. 233.
We ought to look at a work such as Kofi Asare Opoku, West African Traditional Religion (FEP International Private Limited, 1978) to get a better understanding of traditional African religion. Opoku begins his book by noting that “a close observation of Africa and its societies will reveal that religion is at the root of African culture and is the determining principle of African life. It is not exaggeration, therefore, to say that in traditional Africa, religion is life and life, religion” (p. 1). He goes on to demolish all the derogatory terms such as animism, fetishism, and paganism that are used to define African religion and then cautions his readers: “[These] misconceptions were all based on the assumption that the mind of the African was so different from that of the European that special words were needed to describe his religious ideas. It needs to be emphasized, however, that religion in Africa is part of the religious heritage of mankind, and as such, it needs to be looked at from the same perspective as other religions” (p. 6).
Taylor, Multiculturalism, p. 125.
Sebastien Syme, “Don’t Take Ethnic Conflicts for Granted,” Daily Graphic, January 22, 2011.
January 23, 2011.
Taylor, Multiculturalism, p. 8.
Ibid., p. 9.
Ibid., p. xi.
Noor Kumar Mahabir, The Still Cry (Tacarigua: Calaloux Publications, 1985), p. 10.
Derek Walcott, The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Imagination (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1993).
Quoted in Cajee, Timol, p. 18.
Taylor, Multiculturalism, p. 117.
David Brooks, “Huntington’s Clash Revisited,” New York Times, March 4, 2011.
Taylor, Multiculturalism, ., p. 130
Ibid., pp. 121–2.
Further Reading
Brooks, D. 2011. Huntington’s Clash Revisited. New York Times, March 4.
Cajee, I. 2005. Timol: A quest for justice. Johannesburg: STE.
Cudjoe, S. R. 1983. Cultural Policy and National Development. Ref. WI 308, Cudjoe (Trinidad Collection), January 11.
Cudjoe, S. R. 2010. Indian Time Ah Come in Trinidad and Tobago. Wellesley: Calaloux.
Cudjoe, S. R. 2011. Mother Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad Guardian. January 20.
Daly, M. 2011. Equal to Pythagoras. Trinidad Express, January 13, 2011.
Fact Sheet6. 2007. The Evolution of Australia’s Multicultural Policy. Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Gamble, W. H. 1866. Trinidad: Historical and descriptive being a narrative of nine years residence in the island. London: Yates and Alexander.
Gomes, A. 1974. Through a maze of colour. Port of Spain: Key Caribbean Publications.
Grant, L. 2011. Knife-and-fork dining on golden memories. Trinidad Express, January 13.
Kaufman, J. E. 2010. In Trinidad, an Ascendant Hindu Paradise Flourishes During Divali. Artifino, November 17.
Mahabir, N. K. 1985. The still cry: Personal accounts of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago (1845–1917). Tacarigua: Calaloux.
Marx, K. 1964. Early writings. Trans. and edited by T. B. Bottomore. New York: McGraw Hill.
McLean, I., & McMillan, A. 2003. The concise Oxford Dictionary of politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Opoku, K. A. 1978. West African traditional religion. Accra: FEP International Private Limited.
Peters, W. 2010. Towards a multiculturalism policy. Macoya, Trinidad: Center of Excellence.
Rooney, D. 2007. Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and tragedy. Legon: Sub-Saharan Publishers.
Shah, R. 2009. Rally, rally ‘round T&T. Trinidad Express, January 18.
Syme, S. 2011. Don’t take ethnic conflicts for granted. Daily Graphic, January 22.
Taylor, C. 1994. Multiculturalism: Examining the politics of recognition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The Cultural Policy of Ghana. 2004. National Commission on Culture.
Walcott, D. 1993. The Antilles: Fragments of epic memory: The nobel lecture. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
William, E. 1962. History of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Port of Spain: PNM Publishing Company.
William, E. 1981. Forged from the love of liberty: Selected speeches of Dr. Eric Williams, compiled by Paul K. Sutton. Port of Spain: Longman Caribbean.
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Cudjoe, S.R. Multiculturalism and Its Challenges in Trinidad and Tobago. Soc 48, 330–341 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-011-9446-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-011-9446-3