This document provides an overview of the history and literature of several Caribbean islands including Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad, Saint Lucia, and the wider Caribbean region. It discusses the indigenous peoples, European colonization, the slave trade and its abolition, independence movements, and important post-colonial writers from each island such as George Lamming of Barbados, Merle Hodge of Trinidad, and Roderick Walcott of Saint Lucia. The document examines how these writers addressed themes of identity, racism, and the Caribbean experience under colonial rule in their works.

1. International Islamic University Islamabad
Subject: Post-Colonial Literature
Assignment Topic: Caribbean History
Submitted to: Mam Saiyma Aslam
Submitted by: Shamsa Noreen
Mobeen Jamshaid
Bushra Aftab
Haseema Zafar
Sonia Sana
Sana Safeer
Date of submission: 26.04.2013

2. The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the
surrounding coasts. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700
islands, islets, reefs, and cays. The region takes its name from that of the Carib, an ethnic
group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the first
European contact. The word "Caribbean" has multiple uses. Its principal ones are geographical
and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and
historical connections to slavery, European colonization, and the plantation system. Jamaica,
Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad, Saint Lucia and Martinique are its islands. Following description
of the regions contains introduction to these regions of Caribbean and their some literary works.
Jamaica:
Jamaica is an island nation and the third-largest island of the of the Greater Antilles, 234
kilometers (146 mi) in length and as much as 80 kilometers (50 mi) in width situated in the
Caribbean Sea as its fifth-largest island country.It is about 145 kilometers (90 mi) south of Cuba,
190 kilometers (120 mi) west of the island of Hispaniola. When the English captured Jamaica,
the Spanish colonists fled after freeing their slaves. Those slaves fled into the mountains and
lived with the Tainos. Those runaway slaves became known as the Jamaican Maroons. By 1660,
the population of Jamaica was about 4,500 whites and some 1,500 blacks, and in a few short
years blacks formed a majority of the population. Although Britain verbally abolished the slave
trade in 1807, they continued to import Chinese and Indian workers into their colonies as
indentured servants to supplement worn out work force. Descendants of those workers continue
to reside in Jamaica today. During its first 200 years of British rule, on the backs of slaves,
Jamaica became one of the world's leading sugar-exporting nations. Like other islands in the
Caribbean, Jamaica had its share of slave rebellions. Eventually, this forced Britain to formally
abolished slavery in 1834. It finally gained its full independence in 1962 from United Kingdom.
Through the 1970s and 1980s governments came and went, debt levels increased and the
economy all but cratered and some major industries closed. Jamaica remains an important force
in the tourism economy and politics of the Caribbean. Jamaica is known for many things like
numerous idyllic beach resorts, white-sand beaches, local pirate history, Reggae music, culture
and food, and delicious Blue Mountain Coffee.

3. Carlton Lindsay Barrett born and raised in Jamaica, worked as a journalist in Europe and
Africa, eventually settled in Nigeria. During the 1960s and 1970s, Barrett was well-known as an
experimental and progressive essayist, poet, novelist, and playwright. His work revolved around
issues of black identity and dispossession, the African Diaspora, and the survival of descendants
of black Africans. Barrett is a poet whose early poems dealt with racial and emotional conflict
and exile, as evidenced in his collection, The Conflicting Eye, published under the pseudonym
"Eseoghene" in 1973. He became a major theorist of the literature of the African diaspora.
Brrett's first book, The State of Black Desire, was published privately in Paris in 1966. It
included three poems and three essays focusing on black alienation, exile, and black art. The
essays were characteristic of the black aesthetic movement of the 1960s, which argued that black
art, particularly jazz and other black music, contained the basis for building a black movement in
the western world. Barrett went on to discuss black jazz as a metaphor for blacks in a white
world. He said in one of his essay “The Tide Inside, It Rages!” from the above described book
that “The situation of the black man in the western world today, is that of a man in the midst of
an open war without the benefit of a complete knowledge of the weapons he holds."
Dominica:
Dominica is a mountainous island of volcanic origin of the Lesser Antilles in the
Caribbean, south of Guadeloupe and north of Martinique. It was Explored by Columbus in
1493.Dominica was claimed by Britain and France until 1763, when it was formally ceded to
Britain. Along with other Windward Isles, it became a self-governing member of the West Indies
Associated States in free association with Britain in 1967. Before the arrival of Christopher
Columbus the Kalinagos (Caribs) were self-reliant people. The kalinagos (Caribs) survived
mainly by fishing, hunting, and farming. They were skilled craft people and made canoes (hew
from huge trees and dug out) which were used to travel to and from the neighboring islands. The
Caribs also weaved baskets and were famous for their herbal medicine. They spoke their own
language and worshipped the sprit of their ancestors. Although the island is poorer than some of
its Caribbean neighbors, Dominica has a relatively low crime rate and does not have the
extremes of wealth and poverty evident on other islands. Economic austerity measures, including
higher taxes, were introduced in 2002.

4. There were different writers who belong to Dominica and wrote about the circumstances
faced by Caribbean people in their writings for example Andrew lrving, Lazare Alick and Pascal
Elsa are the famous writers of Dominica. Alick Lazare was born in Dominica in October, 1934.
Alick Lazare is best known as a public servant and recently as a regional consultant in public
sector finance and management. He has written and published several short stories, including
Carib, and is the author of Nature Island Verses, a volume of poems published by The Writers
Showcase in 2001.The first novel written by lazare is Pharcel: runaway slave. Pharcel looks at
the other side of history, from the African perspective, and tells of the motives and aspirations of
the runaway slaves in Dominica about the turn of the nineteenth century, and their constant battle
against the oppression and greed of white colonial society. it is a historical novel that brings into
play the politics of slavery, revolutionary fervour, sexual exploitation, inter-racial love, personal
loyalty and betrayal, brought together in a gripping tale that will hold the reader’s attention and
interest.
Barbados:
Barbados was inhabited by Arawaks and Caribs at the time of European colonization in
the 16th century. Barbados is the eastern-most Caribbean island. The island, which is less then
one million year old, was created by the crash of the Atlantic crustal and Caribbean plates, along
with a volcanic eruption. The first indigenous people were Amerindians who arrived here from
Venezuela. They came down through Canada and the Americas to the South.
They made their new home in Barbados along the coast, leaving behind hardly a trace,
only a hint of evidence for the archeologist to date and dream about. The Arawaks were short,
olive-skinned people who bound their foreheads during infancy to slope it into a point. They
considered this along with black and white body painting to be attractive. In 1200s, the Arawaks
were conquered by the Caribs. The Caribs were a taller and stronger Amerindian tribe than the
Arawaks. They were incredibly accurate bowmen and used a powerful poison to paralyze their
prey. The culture has almost vanished from Barbados. The Portuguese came to Barbados en
route to Brazil. It was at this time that the island was named Los Barbados by the Portuguese
explorer Pedro a Campos.

5. Despite the Caribs' ruthless warlike abilities, the island was taken over by the Spanish in
1492. The Spanish imposed slavery on the Caribs. The first English ship touched the island on
May 14th 1625 under the command of Captain John Powell. On February 17th 1627, Captain
Henry Powell landed with a party of 80 settlers and 10 slaves to occupy and settle the island.
This expedition landed in Whole town formerly known as Jamestown. The colonists established
a House of Assembly in 1639. It was the 3rd ever Parliamentary Democracy in the world.
People with good financial backgrounds and social connections with England were
allocated land. Within a few years much of the land had been deforested to make way for
tobacco and cotton plantations. During the 1630s, sugar cane was introduced to the agriculture.
The production of sugar, tobacco and cotton was heavily reliant on the indenture of servants. The
Barbadians dominated the Caribbean Sugar Industry in these early years. The sugar plantation
owners were powerful and successful businessmen who had arrived in Barbados in the early
years. Many natural disasters occurred in the late 1600s, such as the locust plague, the
Bridgetown fire and a major storm in 1667. By 1720 Barbadians were no longer a dominant
force within the sugar industry. They had been surpassed by the Leeward Islands and the
Jamaica.
After slavery was abolished in 1834, many of the new citizens of Barbados took
advantage of the superb education available on the island. After these citizens had been educated,
they wanted something more than working in the cane fields. Some of them gained prominent
offices in Barbados. Others worked in common jobs, and still others stayed in the cane fields.
Barbados was first occupied by the British and remained a British colony until internal autonomy
was granted in 1961. The Island gained full independence in 1966, and maintains ties to the
Britain monarch represented in Barbados by the Governor General. It is a member of the
Commonwealth.
The most famous Barbadian writer is poet and playwright Derek Walcott. He won the
1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other well-known writers include essayist John Wickham,
novelist George Lamming, and poet Edward Kamau Braithwaite. The Pleasures of Exile, In the
Castle of My Skin, and The Emigrants are important works by George Lamming.

6. The Pleasures of Exile, In the Castle of My Skin, and The Emigrants are important works
by George Lamming. George Lamming (born 8 June 1927) is a novelist, essayist and poet, he is
the most famous writer to emerge from Barbados and one of the Caribbean's most important
novelists. The Pleasures of Exile is a post-colonialist, post-realist and post-nationalist counter-
discourse because it gives us George Lamming's glimpse of the complex issues of identity
contained within the Caribbean island-states that were largely shaped by European colonial
discourse and practice from the late fifteenth century until the late twentieth century.
Colonialism and British-colonization are the important themes discussed by George
Lamming in novel, In the Castle of My Skin. It is a semi-autobiographical story of the artist-as-a-
young-man/child sort but it is also much more than that. It is the story of a small island country
(Barbados) becoming aware of itself, its colonized identies and the desire to cling to tradition
while feeling pulled into change. George Lamming's first novel was an immediate success in the
Anglophone West Indian literary communities of London and the Caribbean. The novel was
hailed as an important statement of the growing anti-colonial movement in France and England.
However, many critics also noted its skillful technique and elegant use of language.
Trinidad:
The first inhabitants of this island were Amerindians from South America who traveled
there hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean. With the arrival
of settlers from Europe, foreign diseases greatly reduced the native population, and today few
full-blooded descendants remain. The European influence on the culture of Trinidad primarily
comes from Spain, France, and Britain. Spanish rule began when Columbus "discovered"
Trinidad and lasted for nearly three hundred years. During the latter part of Spain’s occupation,
French immigrants moved into political offices; in addition to African and Spanish influences,
Trinidadian culture began to adopt French traits, language, and customs.
In 1797, Trinidad came under British control. In 1802 Trinidad became British colonies
under the Treaty of Amiens. Under colonial rule, slaves were shipped from Africa to work in the
sugar fields and plantations. When the African slave trade was abolished officially in 1834, East
Indian and Chinese peasants were hired as indentured servants to work the fields. Many chose to
stay and live in Trinidad, even after the practice of indentured servitude ended in 1917.In 1958,

7. the Federation of the West Indies was formed. Trinidad became an independent member of the
Commonwealth of Nations in 1962, and in 1967 joined the Organization of American States. On
August 1, 1976, the island became the Republic of Trinidad. Although there were different
writers who belong to Trinidad for example Kirk.A.Inniss,Earl Lovlice and Merle Hodge. All of
them wrote about the lives of people who live in Trinidad and face circumstances under British
rule. We will discuss Merle Hodge with her writings.
Merle Hodge was born in Curupe, Trinidad, in 1944. She studied in Trinidad until
1962 then in University of London till 1965,she also received her Ph.D. Hodge has published a
number of freelance articles, mostly about Caribbean social issues, a nonfiction piece in 1981
about the new government in Grenada, and two novels. For the Life of Laetitia is her newest
novel, published in 1993. She currently lectures at the University of the West Indies, St.
Augustine, and continues to write. Merle Hodge wrote different books and Crick Crack, Monkey
is one of them. The world of Crick Crack, Monkey is a dual one. The main theme of this novel
is childhood in west indies. by writing this book Merle has shown that how color is consider as
base of everything. People became separated just on basis of color. On the base of color we
judge others. Even now people have lemmatized their standards on which they evaluate others.
Her famous novel is For The Life Of Laetitia. This novel by Hodge is a novel with an
authentic but complex taste of Caribbean culture and several serious themes. She has shown a
powerful picture of a resilient young woman, in her novel, who must challenge both racism and
sexism in order to get the education that will allow her to escape both. Although Merle Hodge
has mostly discussed the problems of identity, economical issues, racism and sexism in her
writings. The main feature of her novels challenges the assumption that modernism and
modernization necessarily liberate the Caribbean subject from the tyranny of tradition.
Saint Lucia:
Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary
with the Atlantic Ocean. One of the Windward Islands, Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy
of Syracuse by the French, the island's first European colonizers. Later, England took control of
the island. England was at war with France and rule of the island changed frequently (it was
seven times each ruled the island). Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West

8. Indies".
On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth
of Nations associated with the United Kingdom. Now, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State of
Saint Lucia, represented on the island by a Governor-General. Executive power, however, is in
the hands of the Prime Minister and his cabinet while the judiciary is independent and conducts
generally fair public trials.
Roderick "Roddy" Walcott, born in Castries (St Lucia), the twin brother of Derek
Walcott, was a St Lucian playwright, screenwriter, painter, theatre director, costume and set
designer, lyricist and literary editor. As a dramatist he "has been recognized as one of the most
committed figures in the effort to develop a distinctive Caribbean theatre in the region".
Osita Okagbue, in his book, Culture and Identity in African and Caribbean Theatre,
says: “Because of the shared experience of trans-Atlantic slavery and European colonialism,
issues of culture and identity are major concerns for African and Caribbean playwrights…Both
experiences brought intense cultural and psychic dislocations which still impact in various ways
on the lives of Africans and peoples of African descent around the world. African and Caribbean
playwrights try to help their peoples regain their dignities by affirming their cultures, histories
and identities.
Like his brother Derek Walcott, Roderick Walcott also immortalized the people of his
homeland in his work as he captured their speech patterns, jokes, idiosyncrasies, superstitions,
joie de vive and daily struggles against the backdrop of their beautiful island. Roderick
Walcott’s work help Saint Lucians appreciate their heritage not only as Caribbean people but as
people who have a rightful place in the world that they should enjoy to the fullest. He gained the
attention of the people through theatre, hence founded Saint Lucia Arts Guild. His works
represent a unique and important component of Saint Lucian and Caribbean culture which would
otherwise be lost to posterity.
Roderick Walcott is best known for his musicals which were always based on Saint
Lucian’s colorful French Creole culture. He also represented St Lucia at international cultural
conferences and headed delegations to Carifesta in Guyana (1972) and Cuba (1979). His play

9. The Harrowing of Benjy is still the most produced play in the English-speaking Caribbean. His
now-famous musical The Banjo Man was staged by Saint Lucia for the first Carifesta in Guyana
in 1972, and was part of a trilogy that included Chanson Marianne (1974) and Romiel et Violette
(1979).
In a document “Thirty years of the St. Lucia Creative Writing 1950-1980” Roderick
writes: “there were the scoffers and the hard-line traditionalists who still believed in “pure”
English drama as the only worthwhile Standard for our theatre, but the new wave of enthusiasm
overpowered them and today dialect in drama is no longer a burning issues.”
In short, Post colonial writers recognize plurality between colonizers and colonized. All
these islands were under British rule and had to face brutal slave trade. Later on, these islands
played a significant part in their rebellion to British supremacy and got independence. Still they
are ruled by indentured slavery and are confronted number of social and economic crisis. The
history of Caribbean from the time of Columbus arrival was regarded as the history of genocide,
poverty, economic exploitation and racism. Due to rise in awareness of national identity and
national culture in post colonial age, issues of exile, racism, language and history are very
important to Caribbean writers.

10. References:
ww.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/jm.htm
www.caribbean-on-line.com/jm/jmmap.shtml
travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/jamaica-map/ -