The spread of Caribbean Culture

Culture can be defined as the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society,

group, place, or time.

The term Caribbean culture summarizes the artistic, musical, literary, culinary,

political and social elements that are representative of Caribbean people all over
the world.

Today our Caribbean culture can be found all over the world. The spread of
Caribbean culture is done in different ways such as migration, trade, social media,
cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion. In this presentation I will focus on
Migration.

Migration is the movement of people to a new area or country in order to find

work or better living conditions.

It is due to Migration that we have such a diverse culture across the Caribbean .
Whether by force or choice people from different nations migrated to the
Caribbean from places such as England, Spain , Africa, Indian and China. This
accounts for different aspects of our culture such as language. Most of the
language in the Caribbean is predominantly English and African words brought
here by African slaves and English Slave owners. But you will also find islands
that were heavily settled by Spaniards speaking Spanish and several Spanish names
such as Rio Grande exists across the region. Several Food dishes are too be found
from Indians who came (Roti and use of Curry) Chinese (rice and Patty), English
accounts for tea drinking and sweets and savory.

Economic conditions and Job opportunities have forced many Caribbean natives to
migrate all over the world. Caribbean people can be found living in various parts of
the world. Canada, England, United states and even as far as Germany or Japan.
This map gives an indication of how far we have spread.

With various aspects of Caribbean culture embedded in these migrants, they

continue to practice them wherever they go. Hence it is not strange to see
celebration of Reggae Festivals in Japan
Reggae Festival in Japan
Or a Soca Carnival in Canada.
Caribbean Restaurants or Food stores are found all over the world as they adapt to
Caribbean cuisine brought there by migrants from the region
By and by other nationals have adapted to and celebrate aspects of our Caribbean
culture that they have been exposed to from persons who have migrated there.

Usain Bolt Statue in Germany

Reggae been idolized by Germans
Rastafarianism is Celebrated in USA
Internal migration has also caused aspects of the culture of one Caribbean Island
been spread to another island. For example we see :

Trinidad Soca Carnival happening in Jamaica.

 Reggae from Jamaica are been promoted in Grenada.

Use of Latin instruments from Cuba’s Salsa music bands are found in Jamaica’s
mento band.
So we can conclude that migration has indeed been largely responsible for the
spread of Caribbean culture regionally and globally