By Dr. Antonio Carmona Báez
“For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.” – Franz Fanon.
Can we divorce the tangible from intangible culture? I would like to argue that we can, but that the consequences will not be favorable, as traditional knowledge and practices (not to mention values) could easily be thrown into the world of commodification, sold to the first bidder while alienating the heirs of Caribbean history.
Ironically, the recent turn to making inventories and (digital) archiving intangible culture across the world and here in our region, was done with the intention of preserving artifacts of knowledge, talent and word. A noble venture indeed, as we see more of our linguistic dialects, music and oral histories continuously disappear with those of our elderly relatives who join the ancestors. However, the very need to rescue intangible culture stems from the fact that through the process of modernization (whether it be industrialization or tourism-based economic development), the Caribbean woman and man have been violently separated from their land, forced to eat imported and processed foods, and educated to not to produce but to consume whatever is trending on the market.
Intangible culture, unlike the tangible (museums, physical artifacts, monuments, etc.) is constantly changing; that is true. At the same time, oral histories, music and traditional practices become void of purpose and meaning when the context is forgotten. For what use is there to transmit knowledge on something like agricultural practices when society is shaped in order to delete our connection to the land? Our songs, our bush tea and even jollification become meaningless if the commons have become privatized and taken out of the hands of the community.
Let’s consider a couple of scenarios.
Puerto Rico, a country with a rich history of coffee production, now has most of its commercial brands roasted and sold by the Coca-Cola Company. Even Alto Grande, which was once hailed as “the coffee of popes and kings”, has a reputation that now serves large multinational corporations. Through the commercialization of the coffee industry in agribusiness, unsustainable practices in the cultivation of the coffee plant, like growing it directly under the sun, are now the order of the day. Now none of the profits that the large coffee companies under Coca Cola make, actually stays in Puerto Rico. Some local organic farmers dedicated to the intelligent use of land are now advocating for a return to cultivating the bean in the shadow, using traditional knowledge. Here, we see that the push for sustainable coffee production must go hand-in-hand with a re-thinking of how we treat our land and a discussion on not only how we can protect local knowledge but how and where we can implement it as well.
On St. Martin, one of the most vibrant cultural events of late is the Emancipation Day Diamond Estate 26 Run for Freedom, initiated and organized by Head of the Department of Culture Ms. Clara Reyes. The stories told, the music and dance, food and drink, and the run through the bush at midnight is a master class for Soualigans young and old; a way to honor and keep the memory of our enslaved ancestors alive. However, due to land property rights, the continuity of the tradition at the Estate is not guaranteed. Where are the public grounds for such a tradition to flourish? What can we do with the knowledge of our forefathers? What did our ancestors eat after reaching freedom in the French territory? Who is dancing the ponum and where?
In order to make the projects of preserving intangible culture heritage relevant to our existence, we need to relink traditional knowledge and practices to the life of struggle against the displacement and appropriation that has plagued our people for generations. If we were to rescue and rediscover our intangible cultural heritage, it should be done with the purpose of answering questions that are relevant to our struggles as a people today, accompanied with a project for social transformation that guarantees our existence in harmony with nature (our land) and human dignity.
ACB
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