Creolization in the French-Speaking Caribbean

Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of "My Music Blog" with Ches, your favorite blogger. Today we will be talking about more Creolization in the Caribbean but we're switching it up today and looking at the French-speaking Caribbean countries. 

In previous posts we established that creolization is the mixing of cultures whether its music, food, religion, dances, or festivals, you name it. 

And in the French-speaking Caribbean, Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe have the perfect examples.

According to 'Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean', Haiti has a syncretic religion called vodou, a blend of African spiritual traditions brought by slaves and Christian beliefs enforced by Roman Catholic missionaries. This religion is one of Haiti's two official religions and is widely practiced.

According to Britannica, vodou means "spirit" or "deity" and its primary goal is to offer prayers and perform various devotional rites directed at God and particular spirits in return for health, protection, and favour. 

Attached below is a picture of female priests dance, beckoning the Loas into the containers balanced on their heads. I chose this picture because according to Britannica,  spirit possession plays an important role in the vodou religion, as it does in many other world religions. During religious rituals, believers sometimes enter a trancelike state where the devotee eat and drink, perform stylized dances, give supernaturally inspired advice to people, perform medical cures or special physical feats.



Attached below is a video of drumming at a vodou ritual ceremony. I chose this video because it doesn't only show the drumming but a few other aspects of the ritual. 



A next example of creolization in a French-speaking Caribbean country from 'Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean" is the 'Beguine' musical style in Martinique. 

Beguine is a fusion of Bele, 19th century French ballroom dancing and African rhythms. It is a high spirit, yet slow, close dance that involves the rolling of some hips! (We love a good hip roll). Based on what I observed, the dance seems like the point is to be able to roll your hips while stepping and showing sensuality. Sounds easy but looks so hard. 

Attached is one of the many videos I watched that I feel best represents the beguine music/dance style. In this video I chose, there isn't any singing, just music and dancing. I was only able to hear a saxophone, piano and drums. Based on the quality of performance, both the dancers and musicians all look like professionals who are showcasing their culture and talent for an event. There wasn't any audience participation, only people sitting around enjoying the show and recording the experience. This style of music honestly reminds me of Jazz and calypso music. It has almost the same vybe but just not as slow nor as fast. Its as if Jazz and Calypso had a baby. The visual isn't all that clear seeing that it was recorded off of what looks like a cellphone, however the sound is great and you can see every dance move made.


Source: https://youtu.be/H2bGxWL_xsA?list=PL-pEMpYTxvXQaegrBG0_FLFQhobGGikf4

 

Attached below is a picture of people performing the beguine dance. I chose this picture because it's interactive. 



Source: https://azmartinique.com/en/all-to-know/studies-research/martinique-land-of-music

Another example of Creolization in the French-speaking Caribbean is Cod fritters of Martinique. Cod fritters also known as "accras", "achras", "acras", and "akras" are small fritters fried with cod, herbs and spices. This dish is of African origin with French and Spanish influences. 

Attached below is a picture of the cod fritters. I chose this picture because it actually looks a lot like the conch fritters we eat here in The Bahamas. This shows that though our cultures have significant differences there are still many similarities.


Source: https://www.ptitchef.com/recettes/entree/accras-de-morue-fid-1558089




Attached below is a video I found of the recipe and I chose it because it does not have any speaking and the instructions/ingredients are in English so the recipe is actually easy to follow.




References

Contributeurs aux projets Wikimedia. (2023, February 26). Acras de morue. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acras_de_morue

LeGrand, C.G. C. (2019). Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean. [VitalSource Bookshelf].

              Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9789769624900/ 

McAlister, E. A. (1998, July 20). Vodou | Definition, History, West African Vodun, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vodou 

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, May 24). Biguine. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biguine




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Creolization in Caribbean Music

Image
 Hey guys! Welcome to my music blog. It's Ches, your favorite blogger and today we are talking about creolization in Caribbean music.  According to the book 'Tour de Force, creolization is the process of exchanging culture that results in multiple cultures coming together and mixing. The resulting cultural products are unique, combining elements of the original cultures with new and distinct ones. This means elements of different cultures are blended together to create new ones. This is shown across the Caribbean in our food, language, religion and music.  Merengue is an example of creolization. According to 'Tour de Force, it is both a type of music and dance style that originated from the Dominican Republic and has become popular throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.  Picture of Merengue Dancers Retrieved from:  https://www.boardingpasstv.com/index.php/2020/11/21/el-merengue-ritmo-y-baile-de-resistencia-que-vencio-el-pensamiento-retrograda-de-la-intelectualidad-y-bu
Read more

Creolization in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean

Image
Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of "My Music Blog" with Ches, your favorite blogger. So far we discussed creolization of the English and French speaking Caribbean countries so today we will talk about the Dutch-speaking ones. Honestly, I didn't even know we had Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries, I just knew of the English, Spanish and French speaking ones. But now that I'm all caught up, we will look at two of these countries and how they are creolized in some way.  The two countries I chose are Sint Maarten and Aruba. According to Tour De Force, Sint Maarten has a national dance called "Ponum" or "Panam". It is a rhythmic and energetic dance emerged from celebrations of freedom of slaves. It was said that the ponum was danced under a poinciana tree with dancers waving its branches. This dance is a good example of creolization. I say this because it was performed by the enslaved and the book mentioned slaves being brought from Africa to
Read more