Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events

[Poitier]

The neighborhood itself is cool. You meet a lot of cool people that come through here; they move here from wherever they were from and add their culture. But it's definitely changed and gentrified. And I don't think that's a one-hundred percent 'bad' thing — there's pluses and negatives to everything. My roots are in the Caribbean and in Africa, more so than they are here, so I got to represent that. I embrace it, I love it. I'm always playing reggae. I have to force the employees to mix it up whenever I'm in the shop. If I don't, they'll just stick to hip-hop, but when I'm working, reggae is playing, since day one. [Customers] come in and get to feel that. It puts them in a Caribbean atmosphere, even for a few minutes.

People think, "How do you do this stuff?" With a calm head, you can do anything and this is no different. I'm a mental chemist, I guess. Fruits and everything is just trial-and-error, and then after that, it's movement, then you get the feel. Also because I drink the shyt everyday, I want to make it the way I would want to drink it myself. Nothing satisfies me more than making a drink for someone not used to this and just watching them enjoy it. If I can help someone enjoy something that's good for you and tastes good at the same time — that's my goal.


We're on pace with social media. There's always room for improvement: more advertising, more products, branding and building. The health consciousness in the world, the fact that people are going to want this, as opposed to the garbage they sell out there. Since I've been here, I've really noticed what I eat. I'm definitely not going to be here forever. I wouldn't mind opening up one of these wherever I go. And wherever I go, this is in my back pocket. I can do this anywhere because it's the same vibe I'm bringing to wherever it's at.

3. Peppa's Jerk Chicken
738 Flatbush Avenue, East Flatbush

JASON HUSSEY: Peppa's is a family business. When you're young, you start coming around. After a while, you start to work — that's if you want to work, it's totally your choice. And we just started to work, then started to work every other day, and then it became our job. The restaurant was opened in '94; it was called Danny & Peppa's at first. My uncle and his friend started it, and then they parted ways early 2004, then we moved down here and opened this one. I learned different things from different people. [My uncle] Garvin taught me the business, the groundwork; he taught you to be family. Everybody teaches you something different. Peppa himself laid the groundwork, but we always learn from each other.

JESSICA HUSSEY: The majority of Brooklyn has a Caribbean culture, from East Flatbush to Crown Heights to Canarsie. Caribbean culture is all over Brooklyn. Brooklyn is probably the capital of Caribbean culture. It makes you feel like you're a part of the community. That's who we associate with. We are Caribbean people. Our cultures are very similar, whether you're Jamaican, Bajan, Guyanese — we all came from an island with a sense of a better life. The area is predominantly Caribbean but now it's changing. It's okay, it's just a different variety of people living here, but they all coming here for food.

JASON:When people come here and eat a piece of our jerk chicken they get a piece of our culture, our upbringing, where we come from — St. Andrews, Jamaica. I want them to understand that we didn't grow up rich — we wasn't poor, but we're a strong group of people. That's still home for us. The community we came from, we still know the people. Some of our family is still there.

We appreciate all of Brooklyn and everyone who comes to our restaurant. Sometimes we have people who say they're coming from Pennsylvania, from Jersey, Connecticut, just to try our foods. I love all the customers, the customers is what keeps us open. We have some familiar faces. After years and years, it's like, Wow.

We have a new restaurant opening on Prospect Avenue and Nostrand. That's the second location in New York. We're just trying to grow. We're trying to expand the media advertising and social media. We'll be delivering on Grubhub and Seamless soon. It's different time that we live in. Before, you had to have a restaurant on the front page. Now you can have a restaurant in a corner, in a hole that nobody knows, but because of social media people will find you.

How Three Caribbean Restaurants Help Keep Brooklyn’s Island Pride Strong

 

[Poitier]

Why Soca Is Poised To Go Mainstream, According To Machel Montano
The soca legend discusses his new film Bazodee, Caribbean unity, and Trinidad’s racial politics.
By DEIDRE DYER


Bazodee
Machel Montano has devoted his life to the cause of soca music. At age 41, and having been in the limelight since he began singing as a precocious 7 year old, his talents have long outgrown the island’s stage. He has sold out shows the world over, collaborated with artists from Nigeria to Norway, and, most recently, brought a little bit ofwining to the White House. Montano has also sought to import Caribbean vibes to the west coast, spearheading L.A.’s annualHollywood Carnival. This summer, seeking a new vehicle to bring soca music to the mainstream, Montano is making his U.S. cinematic with Bazodee, a feature film that's in theaters now.

Written by Claire Ince and directed by Todd Kessler, Bazodeeborrows from the cinematic schools of romantic comedies and Bollywood musicals; the result is a Trinidadian stew of forbidden love. Set during the climax of carnival — Trinidad’s annual pre-Lenten festival of fêtes, music, and pageantry — the film follows the star-crossed paths of Lee de Leon, a down-on-his-luck Afro-Caribbean soca musician, and, Anita Panchouri, a well-off bride-to-be of Indian origin. Through its saccharine-sweet storyline, the film peels back the layers of carnival’s light-hearted revelries and digs into the some of the deeper social issues that boil beneath the nation’s surface — namely how tensions of race and class divide the island’s cosmopolitan society, issues that also came to a head during Trinidad’s 2015 election season. The FADER spoke with Montano about his acting debut and why he thinks soca can help to bridge the schisms in society.









The premise of Bazodee is pretty close to your real life. In what ways did you prepare for your acting debut?

When I first got the call and I met the producer and writer Claire and Ansel, they were really excited, so immediately I was happy. I was really inspired that they chose to write such a great story with my music. But when they left, I went into this state of dread where I was like, I have to act? Can I do this? I kind of doubted myself and I decided that I was going to need to prepare. I'm always the kind of person that does extra preparation, so I went and got an acting coach. I remember him coming over to my house. We had one beautiful session where he explained how to get into a character. I had that basic knowledge after one or two sessions. Then I didn't see him again because I had to go on tour.


A few years later, we found the director Todd Kessler, who directedBlues Clues and Keith. I said to him, “Look Todd, I'm excited to work with you. I want to take more acting classes. Can you suggest another coach?” And he was like, “You're a musician and this story is really close to your life. I don't think you'll need classes. Just understand the story and relate it to your life.” So I really started digging into it the storyline about this artist, Lee De Leo, who tried to make it in London, didn't succeed, and came home despondent. Eventually he got back into carnival and was re-inspired to make music because it made people happy — somebody rejuvenated his passion. This is my story.

Did you have a similar lull in your career?

Many. Maybe four. Especially coming out of London. I was signed [to a major label] in New York City by Ahmet Ertegun, who had signed Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles under Atlantic Records. They sent me to London to produce my album. I was working with producers who were really fast-paced. They were trying to find the 2-step sound or this next sound. They would say to me, “You're a mixture of Sisqo, Sean Paul, and the Caribbean Michael Jackson. Let's cook it up.” I always wanted to take it slow and explain what soca was.

For me, it just wasn't reflecting who I was. I couldn't get everybody to slow down and focus on where soca was, where I thought it needed to be, and what we needed to do together. So I went back home to Trinidad during a carnival when I really didn't want to perform. Somehow, I found deeper meaning in that return, in not being successful on my mission, but I found a way to kind of transform soca music, change the industry, and produce some of the best records of my career. So I was really able to tap into it and live that story.

Bazodee has some of the cinematic motifs of Bollywood films. Can you tell us about the importance of Indian cinema to Trinidadian television?

Well, it’s the importance of Indian culture first of all. Trinidad is 50% Indian. East Indians and Africans form the majority of people in Trinidad and Tobago, it’s pretty much the fabric of who we are. Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, we have been challenged by unity. For me in 2000, I addressed that with the my song “Real Unity.” It's one of the songs that inspired Claire to write the story. We revamped it for the movie. In the film, I performed this famous old Indian song, “Aap Jaisa Koi.” For “Real Unity,” I took that original song and blended it with a little bit of soca music and dancehall and recorded it with Drupatee, who is a famous Chutney singer.

East Indians have clung to their traditions, their weddings, their Bollywood films. There are shows like Mastana Bahar that we grew up watching every Sunday. It's all of the real hardcore Indian influence and programming that Trinidad got directly from India. Trinidadians understand what it means when a guy is running down the girl, through the trees and gardens, and they're falling and rolling. We quickly learned that it wasn't a Bollywood film that we were making with Bazodee — it was a Triniwood film. We definitely want to tell this story on a large scale to Africans and Indians, but really project it beyond that to be about the Chinese, Syrians, and other races in Trinidad. Bazodee is about true love going beyond the boundaries of race.

Bazodee
Typically in mainstream Hollywood, anything dealing with the Caribbean usually refers to Jamaica. If there's someone with a West Indian accent, it is most likely a fake Jamaican one. Given the work that you're doing with Hollywood Carnival and this film, do you think that Trinidad is ready for its close-up? Is the island finally ready for the spotlight?

I think Trinidad is making steps toward that. I remember the whole emergence of reggae music with films like The Harder They Comeand Country Man. I remember being really excited watching how reggae music functioned in these films. Toots & The Maytals, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley — these are people that really put reggae music out there at that time when Jamaica was really putting out films. It became popular to musicians like Eric Clapton, Sting, the Rolling Stones, and the Clash. Everyone was influenced by reggae.


I think right now we Trinidadians are getting a chance. Soca music is showing up in afrobeats in West Africa, in Indian music, and it's showing up in the EDM world. The beats and melodies are showing up in Drake's “One Dance,” in Rihanna and Drake's “Too Good,” in Justin Bieber's “Sorry.” The music is starting to come to the forefront. We saw Trinidad and Tobago on the map back in the days with Calypso with Harry Belafonte. Trinidad had its day with the creation of the steelpan. Now we're seeing soca music as the gel that's uniting different people and sounds.

I think the debut for soca and Trinidad culture is, by extension, that of Caribbean unity. Soca is not just Trinidad anymore. The word soca is an acronym of the term “soul of calypso” but now I think it's changing to the emerging “sound of the Caribbean.” Now the world is slowly being introduced to another side of the Caribbean via carnival and soca. What we stress to do with Hollywood Carnival is to not make it just about Trinidad. We include Jamaica and Belize. I feel that this is the next step. It's not important for us not to fight for our flags, but to fight to hold each others' flags and create something that's multicultural. Soca is a music that can embrace that type of vision.

Trinidad’s need for unity is something that you addressed in your song in 2000, yet recently there was a falling out over a black man taking office. The 2015 election in Trinidad caused a social schism between African and Indian populations with Keith Rowley’s arrival and the departure of previous Prime Minister Kamla Bissessar. Can you tell me your thoughts on that? Do you feel that Bazodee speaks to that?

I have lived through a couple elections. I have seen that movie before and I know that there are alternate endings. As a society, we have been going back and forth: government dominated by East Indians and government dominated by Africans. There's always a time when one government is in power and one is on the rise. Similarly, the election that's going on in America is causing a lot of racial division. The point I'm making is: the closer we come to unity, the more we'll see division. Every time we get closer and closer to the point where we have to unite, there will be a greater force trying to separate us.

It's like my understanding of the Hindu book, Bhagavad Gita. [The prince] Arjuna says sometimes it takes war to bring peace. So I think that situation in Trinidad is one that has happened before. We've had the same fight on the other side when the Indian government was going into power. I really think that we have greater opportunities today. We have greater tools, such as social media, where we can hear different voices and put our fingers on the feeling of the nation in an instant by watching social media and seeing how people react to certain situations. I think that closer we come to solving it, the greater the force will be to pulling us apart.

In the film, Lee and Anita’s forbidden passion climaxes in a pivotal scene that’s set during the J’ouvert of carnival. What is the spiritual significance of J’ouvert?

J’ouvert is one of the festivals like Dia De Los Muertos, or Halloween, where people dress up like the dead or they dress up in darkness. J'ouvert is a time for darkness to reign. It's a time for people to play a devil or jab jab mas, something that would seem to be scary, but it's really about you facing those demons. That was the scene that I mentioned to you earlier, where the darkness actually comes to light. The scene that caused love to take action and save the lives of the characters. It was really synonymous with what J’ouvert means, you go there to wash away your darkness.

It's also a bringing together of the classes and races, because rich or poor everyone is covered in paint, powder, and mud.

Ideally.





Bazodee is now playing in over 50 theaters across the U.S.



August 08, 2016
CARIBBEAN,DEIDRE DYER,FILM/TV,MACHEL MONTANO

Sculptures From Kanye’s “Famous” Video Selling For $4 Million

 

[Poitier]

How The Language Of Jamaica Became Mainstream
Dancehall and reggae music helped bring patois to the world, but it’s more than just slang — it’s a language of freedom.
By ETERNITY MARTIS


Alberto Porto
As a Torontonian, it’s not unusual to see white guys shake hands while greeting each other with a, wa gwaan? I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoy witnessing this — actually, it can feel quite painful — and it’s even worse when they point to the man dem over there, or unfurl several bombaclat’s. I wanted to crawl into a hole that time I encountered a bunch of dudes shouting “Gaza mi seh!” Over the past few years, most certainly because of Drake, these instances of public patois faux pas have increased. It seems like everyone has a take on what they perceive as Drake-cabulary — phrases like come throughor ting or from time — without realizing Drizzy slang is Toronto slang, which, in turn, is adapted from Jamaican patois. So does anyone actually know what the hell they’re saying?

Patois, as well as its hybridized diasporic slang, is a language used by fluent, native-speaking migrants, second and third-generation Jamaicans, along with non-Jamaicans across the US, Canada, the UK — even Japan. But its cultural prevalence can’t solely be attributed to migration: dancehall and reggae, musical genres thick with patois, have had a presence in the mainstream since as early as the ’70s, and continue, in waves, to engage the pop charts. In the last year alone, Jamaican musicians like Sean Paul, Spice, Popcaan, and Mavado have worked on high profile collaborations with pop artists.



Part of understanding Jamaican patois absorption into mass culture involves understanding its synthesis; and scholarship suggests it might not have even originated in Jamaica. Hubert Devonish is a linguistics professor at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. He told me that while no one can be sure, some linguists believe patois began as an Afro-English language, either in Saint Kitts or Barbados, the first permanent British colonies that were founded in 1624 and 1627, respectively. A true hybrid language was formed as a result of European and West African contact due to the transatlantic slave trade. “The critical thing about these creole languages is that they tend to borrow most of the vocabulary from the European language,” he said, “but that the pronunciation patterns and grammatical structures are West African.

Between 1700 and 1834, West African slaves, including those already in Saint Kitts and Barbados, were sent to Jamaica to work on profitable sugar plantations. Colonizers and slave masters forced these people to speak English to prevent clandestine talk of slave rebellion or other communication in their native tongue. This mash-up of literal ‘broken’ English combined with fragments of West African languages became ‘pidgin’ — meaning it wasn’t a native language but rather, a mix of dialects. And as generations passed pidgin became a stabilized, natural language, thus forming the Jamaican creole that is referred to as ‘patwah or patois, meaning ‘rough speech’ in French.



It seems like everyone has a take on what they perceive as Drake-cabulary without realizing Drizzy slang is Toronto slang, which, in turn, is adapted from Jamaican patois. So does anyone actually know what the hell they’re saying?
En masse migration from Jamaica to the UK, US, and Canada began in swift succession, with the post-war Windrush of West Indian immigrants arriving to Britain in 1948. Jamaican music became popular overseas starting with ska and rocksteady in the ’50s and ’60s. Reggae emerged in the 1970s and Bob Marley was the genre’s central figure. White people liked Marley but they couldn’t understand him, and neither could journalists. In order to target that audience, Christopher Blackwell — founder of Island Records, responsible for Bob Marley and The Wailers’s mainstream success — added more rock n’ roll elements to Marley’s songs and, as his fame grew, the patois lyrics were swapped for Standard English.


But a new wave of Jamaican music emerged around then that was anti-Standard English: dancehall. “The general view of music aficionados in Jamaica was that [dancehall] would never sell internationally because nobody understood it,” Devonish said. “But because Jamaican culture had become so central to the world of international popular music, the continual use of the Jamaican language became all the rage.” Emerging in the late ’80s, artists likeShabba Ranks, Patra, and Chaka Demus and Pliers gave dancehall some of it first major hits in the US, and abroad, followed by Buju Banton, Spragga Benz, Bounty Killer, and Beenie Man through the ’90s. In 1991, Jon Pareles noted the global influence of dancehall in the New York Times. “Reggae reached out to the world in the 1970's and 1980's, while dancehall, with its limited melodic vocabulary and thick accent, seems determined to exclude outsiders,” Pareles wrote. “But it is now the musical language of Jamaican youth on the island and around the world.”

 

[Poitier]

Sonjah Stanley Niaah, author of DanceHall: From Slave Ship to Ghetto and director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies and Reggae Studies at the University of West Indies at Mona Jamaica, links global fascination with patois to the music. “Jamaica is the only country in the latter half of the 20th century to have given the world seven distinct [musical] genres,” she said. “[Listeners] are attracted to the rhythm first, then realize they don’t understand the words so they look them up.” The digital era has compounded music fans’s ‘access’ to patois, but pre-internet curiosity necessitated interacting with Jamaicans or other West Indians to understand, or you’d rewind your cassette or hit repeat on a CD player dozens of times.

Despite the proliferation of patois beyond native speakers, the belief that it is uncivilized or an improper way of speaking’ is still prevalent. This is due to the negative image of Jamaica and dancehall music as being too sexist, sexual, violent, homophobic, andmisogynistic. Dancehall can cause a “moral panic” for non-Jamaicans, said Niaah, but she doesn’t think there’s malice in the criticism. “In some ways, that’s how humans respond to difference,” she said. Still, we can’t overlook the fact that dancehall’s success has given Jamaicans — especially women — at home and in the diaspora the confidence to express their culture instead of rejecting it or assimilating. And patois is such a strong part of identity that diasporic West Indians are taking to social media, blogs, and publications, questioning whether the mainstream adoption of dancehall, and subsequently patois, is an indicator of success for Jamaican artists, or whether it’s appropriation or exploitation.


When it comes to Rihanna’s “Work,” featuring Drake and created with the help of Jamaican-Canadian producer Boi-1da, Niaah actually defends the critiques of its “gibberish” lyrics, which are rooted in loose Bajan and Jamaican patois. She describes it as a unique incident: Rihanna is a mainstream pop star who suddenly presented fans with a heavily-influenced Caribbean single. “It sounded like gibberish to me,” she said, laughing. “I’m a native speaker and I still don’t know what she’s saying.”

This sentiment is corroborated, for a slightly different reason, by Sean Paul who still lives in Jamaica. “They’re bumping [“Work”] on the radio, it’s playing in the dances. People love it, but a lot of people in Jamaica will say they don’t understand what she’s saying becausethe patois she’s talking is more Bajan. Her accent is different,” he told The FADER in July. “[At times] I didn’t know what she was saying, but it’s funny [to us] because it’s our own own talk.”

Funny, but not always offensive. Native speakers like Niaah and Devonish are thrilled people outside Jamaica want to learn and adopt the language. Devonish helped design a Jamaican patois creole course for students at York University in Toronto. Course director Clive Forrester said it was developed after students suggested adding a Caribbean creole course, specifically Jamaican patois, to the linguistics department. Enrollment has been near or at capacity since it launched three years ago. “Students from all ethnicities do the courses,” Forrester said, “Jamaicans, Canadians, Eastern European, South Asian… you name it.

Harvard also offers a patois course among other Caribbean creoles, and Jamaican culture is so popular in Japan that a language scholar developed the “Jumiekan Langwij Song and Project” in 2008 to help teach people patois. In the UK, Jamaican patois along with other Caribbean and African creoles, is one of the languages that comprises'Multicultural London English' sometimes to the disdain of white, middle-class parents. “There’s an anxiety about Jamaicans in the UK,” said Niaah. “The Jamaican language has so infected the society with the number of Jamaican immigrants there that there isintervention at the level of research to understand this Multicultural London and Youth English.”



Patois is more than just an island ting: it’s a language holding Jamaicans around the world together.
Tension surrounding patois isn’t just an overseas thing; it also existsin Jamaica. According to the 2005 Language Attitude Survey of Jamaica (the first official survey done in Jamaica on the perception of language) over 50 percent of people believed those who speak patois are less educated, less intelligent, and made less money than Standard English speakers (although 40 percent did admit to thinking patois-speaking people are more friendly).

Not much has changed today. Speaking in patois is relegated to informal interactions — conversations with friends and family — while Jamaican Standard English is the country’s only official language and used in formal settings like government, work, school, and with strangers. There are massive public debates about making both English and patois official languages, and many activists and scholars are trying to reclaim patois, rooted in trauma and resistance, by calling it ‘Jamaican.’ This is because the word patois suggests a non-standard dialect of French and not a distinct language. “We do this to make it clear to both Jamaicans and overseas people that this is a language associated with a nation,” said Devonish.

Patois is more than just an island ting: it’s a language holding Jamaicans around the world together, and this is why its transformation into slang used casually by outsiders is troubling. Mainstream pop has found a way to capitalize on dancehall, a sound predicated on patois, without putting much effort into creating sustainable relationships with the Jamaican music industry or eradicating racist stereotypes about its origins. But patois is a language built through exploitation, death, and enslavement as much as it’s now a permanent symbol of community, healing, and resistance — and it should be spoken with the understanding that it’s a language of freedom.

A Complete History Of Drake’s Surprise Billboards

 

[BigMan]

batty dem skrong

 

[BigMan]

but yeah the issue of language in the Caribbean, and particularly Jamaica is complex

in my fam, patois, while spoken, was considered bad English

 

[Yehuda]

For a true autonomy for the Afro-descendant population

Carmen Herrera
8/11/2016

For Shakira Simmons, a social worker and feminist activist, the Afro-descendant population lives under a racist state apparatus. / Personal archive

Creoles, Garifunas and indigenous people of the Caribbean Coast are demanding respect for their territory, languages and customs.

“For me, the autonomy process of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua never went farther than being an illusion for the population of the region. In theory this process was to make other things possible: bigger and better planning of programs and projects directed to and from the ethnic communities; the right and power to administer [financial and natural] resources; autonomy and diligence in managing the budget allocated to the autonomous regions; power to propose laws and their amendments to the National Assembly; greater independence in public administration; the possibility of a regional vision. But none of this has been possible. It has all been the complete opposite,” black feminist activist Shakira Simmons said to Latinamerica Press.

To speak in Nicaragua about the black population for a country of a Spanish-speaking, mestizo and Catholic majority, is a reminder that there is a presence in over half of its territory, in the Caribbean, of other populations who, along with Afro-descendants, were colonized by the British and not by the Spaniards, as is the case of the Pacific Coast, and also that it was a territory annexed by the liberal government of President José Santos Zelaya (1893-1909) in 1894 through a process known as the “reincorporation of the Mosquitia” — territory of the Miskito indigenous people — without taking into account the cultural, economic and linguistic diversity of the populations, which were imposed Spanish as the official language and a governance structure based on the western scheme left by the Spanish colony and which took their resources to be administered by the state.

Furthermore, one cannot make reference to the black, or Creole population, as it is also identified, without separating it from the indigenous populations like the Mayagna, Miskito, Garifuna, Rama indigenous peoples and coastal Mestizos, with whom they not only share a history, but also a “coastal” identity despite the enormous differences that separate them from one another. They do not speak the same language, share cultural expressions or social organization, but what they do have in common is a strength as populations to confront the systematic measures of the mestizo Pacific state and its racist practices, full of prejudices, the product of ignorance and lack of information from a formal education imposed by governments since its “reincorporation” in the late 19th century, a situation that led them in the 80s to fight for the approval of Law 28, the “Statute of Autonomy for the Atlantic Coast Regions of Nicaragua.”

Very little has been “reincorporated” since the “reincorporation of the Mosquitia,” according to coinciding opinions of inhabitants of the Caribbean Coast, with a land area of 60,366 square kilometers, accounting for more than half of the national territory of about 125,000 square kilometers.

Failed inclusion

In 1987, during the Sandinista Popular Revolution (1979-1989), the population of the Caribbean Coast demanded a true political and economic inclusion with the rest of the country, with autonomy and respect for their differences. Faced with the rejection of the way the revolution had tried to annex that region of the country, which was based on the principles of a process and a struggle created mostly by mestizos from the Pacific region and center of the country, the revolutionary government, with the support of the coastal population in general and the systematic drive of the creoles in particular, approved the “Statute of Autonomy for the Atlantic Coast Regions of Nicaragua.”

Since the adoption of this law, in what at the time was the department of Zelaya — name the Mosquitia received after its “reincorporation” —, a geographical division took place and the old department was split in two; they were designated special areas known until today as the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) and South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). It should be noted that to date, the coastal population has pushed for these names to be changed using Caribbean, instead of Atlantic, given that these regions are part of that basin.

In recital VII, Law 28 states that “the new constitutional order of Nicaragua establishes that the Nicaraguan people are multi-ethnic; it recognizes the rights of the communities of the Atlantic Coast to preserve their languages, religions, art and culture; the enjoyment, use and benefit of waters, forests and communal lands; the creation of special programs that contribute to its development and guarantees the right of these communities to organize themselves and live in a way corresponding to their legitimate traditions.”

However, at nearly 30 years since its enactment, it can be observed that the Caribbean population has preserved their languages, religions, art and culture, but is not the case for their resources, which are managed to this day by the central government.

“Since the Caribbean coast was annexed to the Republic of Nicaragua in 1894, it has been a real ‘colony’ of the Pacific. Their natural resources (gold, fishing, timber, among others) have been extracted, but without sufficient resources having been channeled for the benefit of the Atlantic territory,” the Episcopal Conference said in a statement published in May 2014 referring to the problems occurring in the Caribbean territory following the invasion of Pacific settlers into indigenous lands.

The black population of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua is known as Creole, a term coined by historians to refer to Afro-descendants who were not slaves and went on to mix with other ethnic groups, mainly with their British conquerors. They live mainly in the RAAS, in the cities of Bluefields, Rama Cay and Corn Island. Their main language is Standard English, known as Kriol, and they speak Spanish as a second language. They are perceived as people who are proud of their identity, culture and language.

Divisions and protagonisms

Although it is one of the smallest populations, the Creole lead the RAAS politically and culturally and represent the most educated of the six groups that inhabit the region, reaching schooling levels similar to those of the mestizo majority and they were once the most militant in the process that led to the adoption of Law 28 during the 80s.

“The Afro-descendant population of that time believed in the illusion on the autonomy law and the benefits it would bring to them. But, the state has everything at their disposal, and I am talking about a state that has historically excluded the populations in both regions, a state that uses members of other ethnic populations to work in their favor,” reflects Simmons. “It is possible that the Afro-descendant population is in everyone’s mind at this time in regards to decision making, but there are still indigenous and ‘coastal mestizo’ populations who have gone along with the power games and the interests of the government to give the illusion that autonomy is a reality.”

Some Afro-descendants who were consulted agree that another element that makes it difficult to achieve autonomy is the hierarchy of the ethnic groups, which has always existed, in which there are groups that believe to be more valuable than others. They claim that internalized racism, discrimination and inequality, even done unconsciously, of the populations sometimes give way to divisions and grandstanding that are causing so much damage to the region.

An Afro-descendant, who asked not to be named, told Latinamerica Press that many Creoles who promoted the enforcement of the autonomy law during the neoliberal governments (1990-2006), are the same ones who currently hold positions of power alongside the current Sandinista government presided by Daniel Ortega since 2007.

“They have stopped defending, have changed their rhetoric, have stopped questioning and even stopped proposing changes, now they are more noticeable because of their silence or simply for echoing the government rhetoric,” he said.

Although the Nicaraguan state has very good laws and has signed and ratified international declarations and instruments in recognition and respect for “minority” populations, including those of African descent, Simmons believes the government has done little or nothing to adhere to and enforce them.

“The economic interests have prevailed over the ancestral rights and human rights of the Creole and Garifuna indigenous population. The right to the land, enjoyment and management of the natural resources in their territories, the preservation of the language and customs, access to health services and quality education, the right to a life free of violence, the right to employment and a decent life are just some examples of the rights that remain violated on a daily basis in the region. Not to mention those associated with political participation. Personally I feel that instead of living in the autonomy process, as it was conceived for the people of African descent, we live under a racist, adultist, misogynist, expeller and capitalist state apparatus,” he said.

Regardless, as it is clear from documented information made available by Margarita Antonio, an anthropologist and communicator of the Caribbean Coast, to Latinamerica Press, some of the achievements that stand out from the autonomy process for the populations of the Caribbean Coast are: intercultural bilingual education at the primary and secondary level; the establishment and operation of Caribbean universities; the recognition of the territorial rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in the Caribbean made possible by the allocation of title for collective ownership of 22 territories; and the significant growth in regards to the presence of men and women from the Caribbean coast in the national government.

According to the document “Costa Caribe, pueblos y territorios” (Caribbean Coast, towns and territories) of Antonio, the legal recognition of territories, strengthening of the Indigenous Territorial Governments, controlling deforestation, greater real autonomy in decision-making related to the Caribbean Coast issues, promotion of genuine intercultural dialogue and denominate the territory of Bluefields as Creole Black Government, plus three complementary areas, are still pending. —Latinamerica Press.

For a true autonomy for the Afro-descendant population

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Its about to be dark days ahead for Afro-Brazilians.

God damn...

 

[Yehuda]

IS BLAC CHYNA DOMINICAN?

BY LATINA STAFF • SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 • 12:40PM

Getty Images

It's that million dollar question...

Earlier this year, People released an article about Blac Chyna's mother Shalana Jones-Hunter, aka Tokyo Toni, in which they shared Jones-Hunter having been from the Dominican Republic, a fact they seemed to have uncovered via a FB page reportedly belonging to Tokyo Toni. After checking out the FB profile, it appears the pregnant model's mother did indeed spend time living in Santo Domingo.

This quickly became a topic of conversation among us here at Latina. One can live anywhere, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're from there or that it's their nationality. Even more, Tokyo Toni has never actually said she's Dominican. And we have never once heard the Washington, D.C.-born 28-year-old mention being Dominican, or any type of Latina. So we took next steps and reached out to several people in Chyna's camp to confirm and help us get the answer. But it was to no avail. We received complete radio silence.

The topic recently came up, once again, after ELLE published a profile on Ms. Chyna. They referred to her mother as "a Dominican beauty who goes by the name Tokyo Toni," but again, there was no direct quote from Chyna stating her Latinidad. Did ELLE see the same People story and FB page that we came across? It appears so. And again, we're left wondering: Is Blac Chyna Latina?

Girl, if you Dominican, let us know! We'll be waiting...

Is Blac Chyna Dominican?

 

[Bawon Samedi]

 

[Yehuda]

Why Booking Now for Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize Is a Good Idea

August 29, 2016 | 12:13

by Geeks News Desk

Garifuna Settlement Day, an annual event eagerly awaited by many people in Belize and the Caribbean, is gaining popularity with travellers the world over who are looking for unique, enthusiastic cultural experiences, and a new tour package offered by The Lodge at Chaa Creek is making early bookings for the November 19 event essential, the Belizean eco-resort reports.

“Garifuna Settlement Day is one of those unique celebrations that many people find fascinating and seasoned travellers in particular go out of their way to experience,” Chaa Creek’s general manager Bryony Fleming Bradley explained.

“The Garifuna are such a dynamic, rich culture with a such a fascinating history, language, music and cuisine that we invariably hear our guests say, ‘Why haven’t I heard of them before?’

“Now, with our Cultural Grand Tour, visitors not only get to experience the people, culture, cuisine and vibrant music first-hand; they can participate in Garifuna Settlement Day celebrations in a traditional seacoast village while enjoying a luxurious vacation,” Ms Bradley said, adding, “It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences people talk about forever.”

Ms Bradley said that by taking Chaa Creek’s Cultural Grand Tour, visitors get a rare insight into Garifuna culture, as well as the other ethnic groups that make up Belize’s harmonious multicultural society.

The Garifuna are descendants of the survivors of African slaves who swam ashore to the Caribbean Island of St Vincent’s after the slave ship carrying them was wrecked in a storm in the 1600s. Originally welcomed by the indigenous Arawak inhabitants, the Africans intermarried to produce a distinct culture with its own language, customs, music and arts.

First the French, and then English colonial governments tried to subdue the Garifuna, or Garinagu, as they also refer to themselves, and after a series of battles the British finally managed to exile the people to the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras.

According to Garifuna legend, the people, now numbering less than 5,000, were able to survive largely due to cassava rootstock the women concealed in their clothing, and eventually made it to the Central American coast, along which they spread, establishing villages from Nicaragua to Honduras, Guatemala and, in 1832, to Belize. At first keeping largely to themselves and surviving with subsistence agriculture and fishing, the Garifuna eventually become important, prominent members of Belizean society, distinguishing themselves in positions such as teachers, police officers, public servants and, especially important to Belizeans, as musicians, developing distinctive forms such as Punta, Paranda and Punta Rock that has become a force regionally and on the World Music scene.

In 2001 UNESCO decreed Garifuna language, dance and music in Belize to be a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” in 2001.

Today some 600,000 Garifuna live in Central and North America, primarily in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize with large diaspora populations in New York and Los Angeles. Garifuna Settlement Day, November 19, is a national bank holiday in Belize, with re-enactments of the first landing celebrated in Dangriga, Punta Gorda and Hopkins.

Ms Bradley said that by taking Chaa Creek’s Cultural Grand Tour, travellers receive and in-depth introduction to the Garifuna as well as Belize’s other cultures including Maya, Mestizo, Creole, European, Mennonite, and others. One aspect of the tour is to show how these groups retained their cultural integrity while at the same time assimilating into a society characterised by harmony and tolerance.

“It’s often said that Belize is a model of how multiculturalism really works,” she said.

The tour, which begins at Chaa Creek with visits to Mestizo and Maya communities before travelling on to a German-speaking Mennonite community, finishes up in Hopkins village on Belize’s Caribbean coast at the Villa Verano Luxury Resort, where guests spend three days in Garifuna cultural immersion.

Ms Bradley also pointed out that visitors need not embark upon the complete tour to enjoy Garifuna Settlement Day, which, as a celebration, actually runs for a few consecutive days.

“The days before and after are filled with excitement, music and feasting, so visitors can plan on setting aside a few days to really get into the swing of things. The drumming alone, which creates this hypnotic effect throughout the nights, makes it worthwhile,” Ms Bradley said.

She said that Chaa Creek can organise stand-alone tours which allow guests a “surf and turf” option to learn about the culture in the Cayo District before travelling on to the coast for the celebrations, which centre around re-enactments of the landing of the first Garifuna settlers.

“It’s combination Belize vacation and cultural experience with sumptuous food, music and eco-luxe lodgings combined. Guest will have the opportunity to see Garifuna drummers in action, purchase handmade drums and learn how Garifuna cuisine, which incorporates cassava bread, coconut milk and seafood dishes and plantain is made.

“This is a rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most fascinating cultures in comfort and luxury, and I guarantee people will come away richer for the experience,” Ms Bradley said.

The Lodge at Chaa Creek is a multi award winning eco resort set within a 400-acre private nature reserve along the banks of the Macal River in Belize.

Why Booking Now for Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize Is a Good Idea

 

[Yehuda]

Want to See Venezuela’s Diversity in Action? Check Out the Dance Floor

Translation posted 5 September 2016 14:19 GMT

Scenes from a Venezuelan folk dance class shared by Camerino Company. Screenshot from the video distributed online.

On World Folklore Day, celebrated on August 22, Venezuelans took to the web to highlight some of the country's cultural expressions that they identify most with. Among these were dances rooted in African cultures that today occupy a special role as they have a large influence on Venezuelan identity.

One example was a video published by dance studio Camerino Company (via Drone Venezuela), which has nearly 300,000 views and numerous comments full of nostalgia from users who are a part of the recent Venezuelan diaspora.



The video features a so-called drum dance, which originated on the northern coast of Venezuela, and is possibly the most popular Afro-Venezuelan cultural art form among young people. Both on the coasts and in the rest of the country, it is common for parties to dedicate spaces for listening and dancing to the music of drums.

The choreography seen in the video above shows influence from a variety of styles that combine the traditional with the modern, a mix that may motivate a wider public to enjoy and even participate. Camerino Company's video is a strong example of how a cultural expression can have a place in dance academies while at the same time maintaining a link with popular celebrations.

‘Africa returns to the Caribbean’

Northern Venezuela is dominated from one end to the other by the presence of the Caribbean Sea. This fact has had very important cultural implications for the country.

Even before Spanish conquest, the vast coast was the scene of migration among indigenous peoples of the region, driven from one side of the continent to the other by powerful commercial and sociocultural dynamics. Since then, that flow has not stopped.

In 1498, during his third voyage, Christopher Columbus arrived at the Tierra de Gracia, or the “Land of Grace,” which was controlled by an indigenous people known as the Caribs. Thirty years later, Europeans began to bring over the first African slaves, who – along with the indigenous population – were used to construct colonial settlements in this part of the “New World.”

In this British map from 1736, one can see the territory known as the West Indies: the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Also, below, is visible the mainland territory of today's Venezuela.

Even today, after all these centuries, the Venezuelan coasts remain a quiet testimony to the course of history. The significant number of Afro-Venezuelans who live there represent both the past left behind and the richness of their present. The cultural heritage that this community has preserved from generation to generation is incalculable. From the countless prohibitions in the time of slavery, a metaphorical language was born that hid the pain of forced uprooting within sad love songs. Work songs, on the other hand, helped ease the load of endless labor, and lullabies helped children go to sleep.

Both music and dance were a means of communicating with several gods of the religions that Africans had brought to the West Indies, gods who eventually would become a part of mestizo religious rituals as well as influence secular celebrations.



Instruments like the quitiplás (a percussion instrument), the marímbula (a plucked box instrument), or the arpa tuyera (a type of harp) are a few examples of the variety of the musical heritage that Venezuelans inherited from Africa and have occasionally transformed to make their own. In many parts of the country, these instruments continue to be played; the music, danced to; and the techniques, taught.



The dancers featured in Camerino Company's video are surely not alone in their admiration for the drums and dances of Venezuela's coast. They and others like them are continuing a tradition that unites Venezuela in all its diversity with the rest of the Caribbean, but at the same time doesn't forget the wounds of a painful past that time and memory are still trying to heal.

Want to See Venezuela’s Diversity in Action? Check Out the Dance Floor

 

[Yehuda]

Mercosur, geopolitics and ethnoexclusion (international analysis)

Jesús Chucho García

02/09/2016

The former president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias, undoubtedly was an architect in regional geopolitics, in order to deconstruct forms of integration dictated from Washington by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and 120 monopolistic companies of the United States, under the umbrella of the Washington consensus.

The governments of both President Bill Clinton and George Bush had raised the proposal of neoliberal integration in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), with the purpose of controlling markets and the riches of the Americas and the Caribbean.

Chávez succeeded in changing the rules of the game of this type of integration, proposing as a starting point the Bolivarian Alternative of the Peoples, integrated by Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica with a total of 76.381.000 inhabitants.

Later, he created Petrocaribe integrated by Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Grenada, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and Surinam, serving a total benefited population of 111.557.000.

Afterwards, Chávez would express that our "North is the South", beginning his long road towards integration with this strategic regional block (Mercosur), which Venezuela entered on June 29, 2012. At that moment president Chávez expressed: "You must remember - because they will decontextualize it - Venezuela asked to enter Mercosur when I had not assumed the Presidency in 99, and then several years went by: Lula comes to the Presidency of Brazil and Néstor Kirchner to that of Argentina, and it is when they started taking this request formally". "Our entry had not been possible in spite of Venezuela having signed the protocol of adhesion, in Caracas, on July 4 2006". But then we found an impedimient in the Paraguayan congress, this same one that made the coup d'état against Lugo. That same congress, furious against Venezuela, accusing me and causing harm to Mercosur and to Paraguay itself."

Paraguay was left high and dry in the face of Chavez’ position to denounce the new strategy of the regional and international extreme right of trying to bring down the progressive governments in Latin America, as was successfully achieved with the Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo and Manuel Zelaya (Honduras), and now they have repeated it with Dilma Rousseff (Brazil). Today, that same Paraguayan extreme right, in its return to power, together with the interim president of Brazil, Michel Temer and the neoliberal president Macri, of Argentina, are attempting to deny the presidency of Venezuela in this important regional block (Mercosur) that has nearly three hundred million people, a GDP of almost 5 trillion dollars, representing 83% of the economy in South America. That is to say, it is a prize that the empire cannot lose.

Radicalization of etnoexclusion

The three opposition men who deny the pro tempore presidency that rightfully belongs to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, have exacerbated exclusion in their countries, starting with Paraguay, which denies the Afro Paraguayan enclave known as the Kambakua, the recovery of a hundred hectares that since colonial times they had ceded to General Artigas. At the time of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), the dictator snatched fifty hectares of the hundred they had, and today its direct descendant, the current president of Paraguay and his Ministry of the Interior continue plunging the Kambakua population into poverty in a seven hectares apartheid zone.

Meanwhile the Argentine Macri, in his address on reaching the presidency, said Argentina had been founded by European immigrants, and failed to mentioned all the afros, who have joined the million poor that this neoliberal President has left in the Mar del Plata region.

President Temer in Brazil has reversed the progress that Afro-Brazilians had achieved with the Quilombolas, affirmative actions and the inclusion in public policies. Finally, the efforts for opening a process of integration and equality among Afrodescendant peoples of Mercosur, launched in March 2015 at a meeting of ministers and senior officials on the rights of Afrodescendants people known as RAFRO, will surely be thrown into the cesspool of racial discrimination.

Mercosur, geopolitics and ethnoexclusion (international analysis)

 

[Yehuda]

Jamaica can have Developed Economy by 2030 – US Ambassador

By Latonya Linton September 9, 2016

Photo: Rudranath FraserPrime Minister, the Most. Hon. Andrew Holness (left), exchanges greetings with United States (US) Ambassador to Jamaica, Luis G. Moreno, just before the start of the Jamaica-US Bilateral Relations Forum at the Regional Headquarters of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Wednesday, September 7. Looking on is Co-Executive Director, Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), Dr. Damien King.

United States (US) Ambassador to Jamaica, Luis G. Moreno, says he believes that by 2030, Jamaica can have a fully developed economy that provides prosperity for all its citizens.

Vision 2030, Jamaica’s long-term development plan, aims to put the country on a path to realising its potential of becoming fully developed over the next 14 years, making the country the “place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business”.

“The foundation is already here – a well-integrated service sector with a well-educated and industrious workforce,” Mr. Moreno said.

“Reducing the burden of security and corruption, which experts estimate eat up almost 20 per cent of businesses’ budgets, will unleash the capital for investment and higher wages,” he added.

Ambassador Moreno was speaking at the Jamaica-US Bilateral Relations Forum held at the Regional Headquarters of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Wednesday, September 7.

The forum focused on a report from the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) entitled ‘Dialogues between Democracies: The Future of US-Jamaica Bilateral Relations’.

The US Ambassador, in his presentation, reiterated his intention to “work tirelessly” to increase American private-sector investment in Jamaica.

He said he hopes to bring in US$1-billion worth of investment to the island by the end of his tenure.

“I want to leave being known as the billion-dollar Ambassador. We’ve already brought hundreds of millions of dollars in new US investment in the energy, business process outsourcing (BPO), and tourism sectors,” Mr. Moreno noted.

“If the Government of Jamaica holds another bigger round of renewable energy bids, the US Government’s OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) could help finance over a billion dollars in that sector alone,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister, the Most. Hon. Andrew Holness, said the country should serve as an example for the rest of the region by investing more in renewable sources of energy.

He said directives have been given to Minister of Energy, Science and Technology, Dr. Andrew Wheatley, to look at exploring “how we can get more renewables into our mix”.

The report from CaPRI focused on areas such as enhancing security; emboldening democratic governance; increasing trade and investment; enabling health and prosperity; endorsing full and equal citizenship; and strengthening partnerships.

 

[BigMan]

Not happening