The indispensability of former West African people to the Caribbean culture

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature Works grade: 10 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz language: English abstract: A central theme in Caribbean literature is the absence of regional or national identity (Povey 275). Also Edward Kamau Brathwaite one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon focuses on transcending and healing the fragmented culture of the dispossessed people mainly the descendants of West African slaves living in the Caribbean region. In his poetry he reexamines the history of the black diaspora in search for cultural wholeness in present-day Caribbean life. Brathwaite's aim thereby is to offer a corrective to these people's problems of dispossession of history and of language. In his first major work The Arrivants Brathwaite's overall goal is to enact a trajectory from the slave experience in the Caribbean colonies to Africa and back again to the islands and thereby explore the African roots as well as the contemporary situation of the African diaspora in the Caribbean. Thus he is able to illustrate some important African values considered to be long-lost in today's Caribbean society and moreover he is able to portray the affiliation of these black people to the Caribbean culture.Accordingly based on Edward Brathwaite's poetry volume The Arrivants the importance of West African people to the Caribbean culture and especially their imported African elements such as language dance song and ritual-artistic expressions will be outlined in this paper to depict their strong influence in the Caribbean and to support their strong survival identities. Therefore first of all the social and cultural history as well as the languages of the Caribbean are described to help the reader better understand the contemporary historical background to which Brathwaite's poetry refers. Subsequently a brief overview of The Arrivants is given to later on go into more detail b