Name: Tyrick Minott

Grade: 13-UPPER SIXTH FORM

Subject: Caribbean Studies

Date: September 6-10, 2021

Topic: Caribbean Society & Culture

Subtopic: The Caribbean Diaspora

Instruction: Complete the activity below.

Describe what is meant by having a ‘Caribbean identity’ and show how and why that concept

varies from place to place within the Caribbean and its diaspora.

(20 marks)

Caribbean identity can be defined as how Caribbean immigrants (people that leaves to go live, work,visits

etc. at places outside the Caribbean territory) maintain and express their cultural practices despite living a

long way from the homeland (place of origin). Though the Caribbean diaspora may be vast the concept of

Caribbean Identity varies from place to place. This is because the Caribbean is an area populated by

diverse polyglot of people.

There are whites, blacks, browns, yellows, reds and an assortment of shades in-betweens. There are

Europeans, Africans, Asians, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Indians and many other races. There are

Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Rastafarians, Vudun etc. They speak in multiple languages such as:

Spanish, English, French, Dutch and a diverse number of creoles such as: Papiamento, Sranan Tongo,

Urdu etc. All of these factors contribute to the uniqueness of everybody culture, which contribute to the

variety of cultural identity within the diaspora because there are people from different part of the

Caribbean within the diaspora.

That’s why maintaining Caribbean cultural practices aboard is significant so that the following

generations can identify with their roots. Not transmitting culture to the future generations can lead to can

lead to identity crisis in near future. By transmitting cultural practices, parents or guardians are providing

their children with a sense of belonging to cultural group. In the occasion that parents fail to transmit
cultural practices and traditions to their children, the children will have a feeling isolation from bother

their family’s cultural and social group and also that of their peers.