Dangerous Creole Liaisons Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Chercher la femme: Traces of an Ever-Present Absence
- 1 The (White) Female Creole Body: Bearer of Culture and Cultural Signifier
- 2 Falling from Grace: Creole Gothic, Flawed Femininity, and the Collapse of Civilization
- Coda I (Re)writing History: Revival of the Declining Creole Nation and Transatlantic Ties
- 3 Sexualizing and Darkening Black Female Bodies: Whose Imagined Community?
- 4 Colonial Democracy and Fin-de-Siècle.artinique: The Third Republic and White Creole Dissent
- Coda II Heritage and Legacies
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction Chercher la femme: Traces of an Ever-Present Absence
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Chercher la femme: Traces of an Ever-Present Absence
- 1 The (White) Female Creole Body: Bearer of Culture and Cultural Signifier
- 2 Falling from Grace: Creole Gothic, Flawed Femininity, and the Collapse of Civilization
- Coda I (Re)writing History: Revival of the Declining Creole Nation and Transatlantic Ties
- 3 Sexualizing and Darkening Black Female Bodies: Whose Imagined Community?
- 4 Colonial Democracy and Fin-de-Siècle.artinique: The Third Republic and White Creole Dissent
- Coda II Heritage and Legacies
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
From January 20 to March 5, 2009, Guadeloupe's political, cultural, and labor collective LKP, Lyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (United Against Profiteering), fought to change the socioeconomic landscape of the French Antilles. Disgruntled Martinicans who shared the same grievances as Guadeloupean protesters joined the LKP's efforts on February 5, and the ensuing general strike soon paralyzed the two islands. This virulent movement against European-style profiteers targeted powerful businessmen and company owners: white Creoles known as békés. These individuals reside mostly in Martinique and are often descendants of the first white settlers or later colonists—fortune-seekers, aristocrats, and indentured servants who became wealthy plantation owners, forming a plantocracy; and wealthy business owners, forming a commercial aristocracy. The Creole term béké.r béqué. which in the past denoted the local white oppressor, now also encompasses non-Caribbean white individuals.
The social unrest of 2009 puzzled many non-Caribbean French nationals and forced them to confront an unknown history as well as a centuriesold animosity that many Antilleans still harbor against white Creoles and French exploiters. The demonstrators’ stance also brought to light a national division. Presenting the LKP's grievances, Elie Domota, the Guadeloupean spokesman and the pro-independence leader for the collective, offered the following historical synthesis:
Quand on regarde bien dans l'histoire, la Guadeloupe, la Martinique et même la Guyane sont des poudrières tout simplement parce que, je crois que les comptes n'ont pas été réglés. Les comptes entre guillemets; il n'y a pas de compte à régler mais les comptes n'ont pas été réglés. La société guadeloupéenne demeure construite sur les mêmes bases que l'habitationplantation d'il y a 400 ans, sur des rapports de classe et de race.
(When we closely examine history, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and even French Guiana are volatile places simply because, I believe, old scores remain to be settled. The term scores should be between quotation marks; there are no scores to settle but the scores have not been settled. Guadeloupean society rests on the same foundations of the habitationplantation of four hundred years ago: on class and race dynamics.)
Domota's remarks on the plantation system particularly apply to Guadeloupe and Martinique…
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- Information
- Dangerous Creole LiaisonsSexuality and Nationalism in French Caribbean Discourses from 1806 to 1897, pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2016