Caribbean Matters is a new series, launched as part of an effort to increase coverage of events, politics, and cultures of the Caribbean and the Caribbean basin. Read the first installment here.
When we talk about the Caribbean and its region, what countries are we talking about?
Posted below is a list with links where possible to the online World Culture Encyclopedia, which provides information on orientation (identification, location, demography, and linguistic affiliation), history and cultural relations, settlements, economy, kinship, marriage and family, sociopolitical organization, religion, and expressive culture. Several links for subpopulations on the mainland are to the Minority Rights Group.
There are 7,000 different islands in the Caribbean Sea; only about 100 are occupied. Thirteen are countries, while the others are territories or dependencies of other nations.
Caribbean countries:
Territories/dependencies:
When I speak of the region, I do not mean only the island nations, since many of the countries on the mainland of Central and South America are counted as being part of the Caribbean basin—and others, like Mexico, have coastal Afro-Caribbean cultural groups. Other countries are home to cultural groups like the Garifuna, who can be found in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize.
Caribbean Basin – mainland
Given the history of multiple European colonizations of the area, as well as the massive settlement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, the Caribbean is extremely diverse—“racially,” ethnically, culturally, and linguistically.
The Slavery and Remembrance website offers this historical overview:
As a result of colonization from multiple European nations, and the slave trade—which introduced enslaved Africans originating mostly from Central and West Africa—the Caribbean has wide linguistic diversity. Officially, there are six languages spoken in the Caribbean: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Haitian Creole, and Papiamento, which is a Portuguese and Spanish-based Creole that is the official language of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire.
Let’s take a fun break and listen to words used in a variety of Caribbean English-speaking countries in this video from the YouTube channel Extra Caribbean, presented by bloggers Britney-Lee and Gaurica Makhijani.
YouTube Video
Now it’s time for a fun pop quiz from the same pair.
YouTube Video
How did you do? (I only got two correct. Editor’s boast note: I got nine right.)
On a more serious political note, just as we are regularly exposed to happenings in the European Union (EU) by our mainstream news coverage, and to a lesser extent, to the goings-on of the Organization of American States (OAS), we should also familiarize ourselves with the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Here’s a brief history of CARICOM:
Who are the CARICOM member nations?
Bermuda, which is not actually in the Caribbean, became an associate member of CARICOM in 2003.
You can (and should!) follow CARICOM on Twitter.
In future installments of Caribbean Matters, I’ll be looking at CARICOM activities, as well as following up on the dire situation in Haiti, which is both undergoing a regime change and attempting to recover from the recent earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace. I’ll be suggesting books from a broad spectrum of Caribbean authors of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as exploring Caribbean contributions to global culture.
I look forward to hearing your suggestions and interests in the comments, and hope that this series will inspire some readers to write your own stories about the Caribbean.
When we talk about the Caribbean and its region, what countries are we talking about?
Posted below is a list with links where possible to the online World Culture Encyclopedia, which provides information on orientation (identification, location, demography, and linguistic affiliation), history and cultural relations, settlements, economy, kinship, marriage and family, sociopolitical organization, religion, and expressive culture. Several links for subpopulations on the mainland are to the Minority Rights Group.
There are 7,000 different islands in the Caribbean Sea; only about 100 are occupied. Thirteen are countries, while the others are territories or dependencies of other nations.
Caribbean countries:
Territories/dependencies:
When I speak of the region, I do not mean only the island nations, since many of the countries on the mainland of Central and South America are counted as being part of the Caribbean basin—and others, like Mexico, have coastal Afro-Caribbean cultural groups. Other countries are home to cultural groups like the Garifuna, who can be found in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize.
Caribbean Basin – mainland
Given the history of multiple European colonizations of the area, as well as the massive settlement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, the Caribbean is extremely diverse—“racially,” ethnically, culturally, and linguistically.
The Slavery and Remembrance website offers this historical overview:
As a result of colonization from multiple European nations, and the slave trade—which introduced enslaved Africans originating mostly from Central and West Africa—the Caribbean has wide linguistic diversity. Officially, there are six languages spoken in the Caribbean: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Haitian Creole, and Papiamento, which is a Portuguese and Spanish-based Creole that is the official language of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire.
Let’s take a fun break and listen to words used in a variety of Caribbean English-speaking countries in this video from the YouTube channel Extra Caribbean, presented by bloggers Britney-Lee and Gaurica Makhijani.
YouTube Video
Now it’s time for a fun pop quiz from the same pair.
YouTube Video
How did you do? (I only got two correct. Editor’s boast note: I got nine right.)
On a more serious political note, just as we are regularly exposed to happenings in the European Union (EU) by our mainstream news coverage, and to a lesser extent, to the goings-on of the Organization of American States (OAS), we should also familiarize ourselves with the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Here’s a brief history of CARICOM:
Who are the CARICOM member nations?
Bermuda, which is not actually in the Caribbean, became an associate member of CARICOM in 2003.
You can (and should!) follow CARICOM on Twitter.
In future installments of Caribbean Matters, I’ll be looking at CARICOM activities, as well as following up on the dire situation in Haiti, which is both undergoing a regime change and attempting to recover from the recent earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace. I’ll be suggesting books from a broad spectrum of Caribbean authors of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as exploring Caribbean contributions to global culture.
I look forward to hearing your suggestions and interests in the comments, and hope that this series will inspire some readers to write your own stories about the Caribbean.