Rita Pemberton
On theme which needs to be re-examined with respect to resistance in Caribbean history is cultural resistance.
This is a platform for resistance which is laden with expressions of the inner sentiments of the African workers about the conditions under which they lived and worked.
Some aspects of culture never attracted the restrictive measures of the ruling class, simply because they were dismissed as harmless pleasure songs, their coded messages not being understood. For example, black folk were always called to dance to entertain planters and their guests at the banquets and parties which were often held at the great houses of the estates, without the slightest notion of the subliminal messages being expressed in these portrayals. While the ruling-class community viewed some of the cultural expressions of the Africans as diversionary, African culture was more than that. It should not be viewed as only a form of relaxation and entertainment, and an attempt should be made to dissect the culture in order to expose its true role in the fight against enslavement and oppression.
The pre- and post-emancipation periods in Tobago were marked by resistance strategies which have become embedded in the island's culture. One of the strategies of colonial rule was to disempower the ruled population by generating a sense of inferiority by according them subhuman status, both legally and socially. They were told Africans had no past, their religious beliefs and tales were mere superstitions and that exposure to the European world would help to make them civilised. In response, the enslaved Africans of Tobago and their descendants gave expression to their opposition to such a classification in several ways, one of which was in song - the folk songs of the island.
Folk songs provided a medium through which the Africans asserted their identity. The earliest songs, which were based on African religious music, expressed hostility to their white enslavers - the traders who uprooted them from Africa and the planters who inflicted brutality on them.
Out in the diaspora, the Africans relied on their traditional activities to preserve their African identity in face of a very hostile attempt to sever their connection with Africa. Hence the maintenance of their traditions, which were reflected in their activities from cradle to the grave, were strong indices of their own acknowledgement of their separate and distinct identity.
The nursery songs were sung to the children of the white employers by the African nannies who were employed to care for them both during and after enslavement. These songs express opposition to the prevailing social conditions and problems on the island and provide clues to black attitudes to the white ruling class.
The songs about Anansi, the West African superhero spider, reflect the reality of life for the African people of Tobago, the central issue of which is the confrontation between whites and blacks and the desire of the latter to escape from the oppressive plantation.
