Two UCF professors discussed their new books about the oppression and exploitation of culture that still affects Caribbean countries, especially those under European rule today.
UCF French assistant professor Marie Léticée, author of Education, Assimilation and Identity: The Literary Journey of the French Caribbean, and English associate professor Kevin Meehan, author of People Get Ready: African-American and Caribbean Cultural Exchange, met with a small group of students and guests in the UCF Library for a book signing that included lunch and discussion Wednesday, Nov. 18 at noon.
Audience members who turned up delved deeper into the problems and benefits of living with a spliced sense of identity.
“The way we are educated as children really has an impact on who we are going to be,” Léticée said.
Léticée, who is from the French island of Guadeloupe in the West Indies, told anecdotes about her experiences with differing types of education. In one such experience, Léticée talked about how she had asked for current children’s textbooks from Guadeloupe and found that the books were exactly the same since she was a child. No efforts had been made to add native culture to them.
Language also came into the discussion, as both speakers are language professors at UCF. Creole was suppressed when the French sought to spread their influence and their language, and so were many other aspects of Creole culture, said Léticée, in what she has coined in her books as the “zombification” of Caribbean people.
She also used the term “the gulwa syndrome” to describe the condition of the natives who feel they must “act French, eat French, be French and kill the Caribbean spirit” so that their national identity will be more respected and acknowledged among dominant nations.
“I’m not sure people are ready to fight for [their independence],” Léticée said. “If a chicken knew why it was being fattened up with that much food, do you think the chicken would eat?”
Economic advantages, such as beautiful French infrastructures and higher standards of living, were examined as causes for why islands such as Martinique and Guadeloupe have not sought their independence yet.
“People ask me if I feel more French or more Guadeloupian,” Léticée said. “I tell them it depends on what day it is.”
The “cruise” mentality, or the idea that the Caribbean islands are a vacation destination rather than a bona fide nation, and the African-American experience were cited as influences on Caribbean culture, Meehan said.
“You end up having a divided personality,” said Meehan, referring to those who are a part of both native and imposing cultures. “[You are] almost psychotic in a way, because you are not yourself.”
Reggae musicians like Bob Marley and the Wailers, influenced by American R&B artists such as Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield, subverted European control by inspiring the development of the Rastafarian counterculture. This, Meehan said, is an example of how two formerly colonized groups shared their similar experiences to seek solutions.
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