New Caribbean Thought

The dawn of the twenty-first century is an opportune time for the people of the Caribbean to take stock of the entire experience of the past forty years since the ending of direct colonialism. The authors believe it is now time to chart our future by carefully learning the lessons of the recent past. This interdisciplinary collection is the first to cross traditionally restrictive disciplinary barriers to address the tough questions that face the Caribbean today. What went wrong with the nationalist project? What, if any, are the realistic options for a more prosperous Caribbean? What are to be the roles of race, gender and class in a more global, less national world? Meeks and Lindahl include thought-provoking articles from twenty-one respected thinkers in diverse fields of study. The groundbreaking articles include critiques of existing bodies of thought, reformulations of general theoretical approaches, policy-oriented alternatives for future development, and more. This book is a must for statesmen, academics and students of political theory, social theory, Caribbean studies, comparative gender studies, post-colonial studies, Marxism and Caribbean history and anyone interested

"In June 2005 the fourth Caribbean Reasonings Conference was held in Kingston, Jamaica, under the theme 'The thought of New World: the quest for decolonisation' ... hosted by Centre for Caribbean Thought."--Introd.

Bringing together three generations of scholars, thinkers and activists, this book is the first to trace a genealogy of the specific contributions Indo-Caribbean women have made to Caribbean feminist epistemology and knowledge production. Challenging the centrality of India in considerations of the forms that Indo-Caribbean feminist thought and praxis have taken, the authors turn instead to the terrain of gender negotiations among Caribbean men and women within and across racial, class, religious, and political affiliations. Addressing the specific conditions which emerged within the region and highlighting the cross-racial solidarities and the challenges to narratives of purity that have been constitutive of Indo-Caribbean feminist thought, this collection connects to the broader indentureship diaspora and what can be considered post-indentureship feminist thought. Through examinations of literature, activism, art, biography, scholarship and public sphere practices, the collection highlights the complexity and richness of Indo-Caribbean engagements with feminism and social justice.

Main Currents in Caribbean Thought probes deeply into the multicultural origins of Caribbean society, defining and tracing the evolution of the distinctive ideology that has arisen from the region’s unique historical mixture of peoples and beliefs. Among the topics that noted scholar Gordon K. Lewis covers are the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century beginnings of Caribbean thought, pro- and antislavery ideologies, the growth of Antillean nationalist and anticolonialist thought during the nineteenth century, and the development of the region’s characteristic secret religious cults from imported religions and European thought. Since its original publication in 1983, Main Currents in Caribbean Thought has remained one of the most ambitious works to date by a leader in modern Caribbean scholarship. By looking into the “Caribbean mind,” Lewis shows how European, African, and Asian ideas became creolized and Americanized, creating an entirely new ideology that continues to shape Caribbean thought and society today.

"Stuart Hall, in whose honour this volume is compiled, has made significant contributions to contemporary social and political discourse. Constantly praised for his scholarly prescience, he was at the helm of the forging and definition of the discipline of Cultural Studies and nurtured an entire cadre of young intellectuals who continue to make remarkable contributions in the fields of Cultural Studies and Social Criticism. The essays that constitute this collection, all, in different ways, contend with Hall's methodology, his philosophy, as well as many other dimensions of his rich and textured intellectual career. More importantly however, they serve to reconnect his work to the social context of his island of birth, Jamaica, and the wider Caribbean. "

Through a collection of critical essays, this work explores twelve keywords central in Latin American and Caribbean Studies: indigenismo, Americanism, colonialism, criollismo, race, transculturation, modernity, nation, gender, sexuality, testimonio, and popular culture. The central question motivating this work is how to think—epistemologically and pedagogically—about Latin American and Caribbean Studies as fields that have had different historical and institutional trajectories across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States.

"For over 20 years, the developing world has been adjusting to the agendas of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In the 1990s, Structural Adjustment Programmes were repackaged and marketed as the coming of the golden age of globalisation, promising benefits to countries that adopt neo-liberal policies. Whether by convention or apparent absence of viable alternatives, Caribbean governments have been quick to implement policies of deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation. In this they have been supported by their intellectuals who have been equally quick in embracing globalisation and too ready to concede the end of national sovereignty. Kari Levitt argues that it is time to reclaim the right to development and the right of nations to engage in the international economy on their own terms. She advocates an international rule-based order which permits space for member countries to follow divergent paths to development according to their own philosophies, institutions, cultures and societal priorities. This book represents a historic sweep of Caribbean thought and personalities over the past 30 years drawn against the background of the changes in the international political economy. Whether in her collaboration with Lloyd Best on the Plantation Economy Model, her analyses of Debt and Adjustment, or her insistence on the right of sovereign nations to pursue their own development path, Kari Levitt remains consistent in her conviction that development, whether of individuals or nations, must be rooted in time and place and cannot be imposed by external prescription. "