Creole Against Creolization

Abstract:The meanings of "creole" and "creolization" metamorphose as they traverse centuries, oceans and archipelagos, muddying theoretical waters. Whose interests are served, and what forms of relationality forged, in deployments of "creole" and "creolization"? What is the relationship of creolization to antiracism and decolonization? What histories and political claims do creolized identities elide in the interests of nationalism or unity? This essay tangles with these theoretical knots as it juxtaposes three different visions of Caribbean creolization. The first, subtitled "The View from Land," offers an historical case study of the racism inherent in claims to white creole identity in eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue (now Haiti)—an analysis rooted in an archive of correspondence among colons, military decrees, colonial law, and records of state. The second, "The View from Sea," follows recent remappings of history as they emerge in diaspora. Here, the voices of contemporary scholars and poets converge in creative renderings of history that extend beyond the colonial archive. The third, "Indigeneity and Creolization" searches for the watermarks of indigeneity in diasporic cultural memory in the Caribbean.