‘They Were Once So Innocent’: Post-Colonial Nationalism, Identity Transformation and Tradition in a Caribbean Context
(San José State University)
With independence from Britain in 1984, the Caribbean island of Nevis began the journey from depressed colonial agro-industrial outpost to developing nation. This paper examines the progression and impact of post-colonial identity as television, cell phones and the internet serve to increase the pace of transformation even as colonial heritage and, indeed, slavery, remain inextricable components of the present ideology. The revival of popular traditions and festivals helped awaken nationalist consciousness. Many of these customary festivals were rooted in Euro-colonial traditions centered on Christmas—a holdover from the pre-emancipation plantation era, such as Mas, Mumming, and oratory. Remaking these traditions from Afro-centric perspective, linking them to West African customs, and moving them in time to coincide with emancipation day on the calendar stimulated new identity conceptions that are still being shaped and defined. In deconstructing the shift we find the movement is traceable to “returnees&rdqup;—Nevisians educated abroad during the 1970s. The year 2007 marked the 200th anniversary of the ending of the slave trade and figured prominently in the annual festival. The author has conducted archaeology on Nevis annually since 1997. The analysis presented here is informed through observation, interviews, review of local media, and historical research.