The Caribbean: Making our own choices

8/7/2019 The Caribbean: Making our own choices

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THECARIBBEAN"MAKING-OUR-OWN-CHOICES"

NEILMacDONALD

ANOXFAMREPORT


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Front Cover painting by unknown Haitian artist

Reproducedbykind permission o f Frank Judd.

Back Cover photo by Philip W olm uth .

Published February 1990Oxfam 1990

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

MacDonald, Neil, 2950-The Caribbean: 'makingour own choices'1. Caribbean region. Social conditionsI. Title909'.09821

ISBN 085598 0869

Published by Oxfam, 274Banbury Road, OxfordOX27DZ.Printed by Tekprint Limited.

THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OUR O W N CHOICESThis book converted to digital file in 2010


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CONTENTSOxfam in the Caribbean vThe Caribbean at a glance vi

1. Birth of the modern Caribbean 1Discovery or desecration? 1Victory over slavery 2Sovereignty 4

2. Land, poverty and barriers to development 5Bananas - a fragile lifeline 6Haiti - the fate of peasant agriculture 8

Migration: the Caribbean diaspora 14

3. Community organization: in search of solutions 17"People becoming conscious together"- the animation movement in Haiti 17Community organization in the ghetto 20Working for health 21

4. Women in the Caribbean 23

Fighting the double burden 24

5. Culture of resistance 29Keeping alive the hopes of the poor 29Theatre in education 32The contradictory Caribbean identity 35Creole - the politics of language 36Voudou - the politics of religion 38Rastafarianism 40The fight to preserve culture - animation through art 41

6. Disasters - resourcefulness and cooperation 45

7. Conclusion 47

8. What you can do 49

9. A potted history 51

Index 55

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THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OU R O W N CHOICES


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OXFAM IN THECARIBBEAN

x 'x '. ou may be surprised to know that Oxfam works in the Caribbean. Or perhaps you already know something of ourL work from theTV and newspaper reports of the relief effort

after Hurricane Gilbert devastated Jamaica, Haiti and theDominican Republic in 1988.

However, this book is not primarily about relief work, which isonly one small part of what Oxfam does in the region. It is aboutdevelopment. That is to say it is about how communities of peoplework together to create a few more choices, to gain a little bit morecontrol over their lives. It is a book, not about Oxfam, but aboutCaribbean people, their efforts and their work. Itis about projectscreated and run by Caribbean people, which Oxfam supports.These projects and the people who run them - our project partners- are a source of hope and inspiration to their communities.

We have tried throughout this book to let our partners, past andpresent, tell their own stories.We hope that their energy and pridewill provide hope and inspiration to people here.

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\ \ xfam maintains a regional headquarters in the Dominicanj Republic, spending just under a million pounds a year in

support of Caribbean projects. Other staff in Haiti andJamaica help to keep us closely in touch with people's needs. Thepriority is given to Haiti, where need is greatest - it is not just thepoorest country in the Caribbean, but also the poorest in theAmericas. But poverty is not the only factor in deciding where togive support: support also goes to other communities where peopleare also trying to shape their own destinies. The neighbouringDominican Republic and nearby Jamaica also receive significantattention. In the eastern Caribbean, Oxfam works mainly in theWindward Islands: Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenada.

Plans are underway to start work in Guyana in the nearfuture. Oxfam hopes to help build links

between groups in the Caribbean andthe communities of Caribbean

people who have dispersedCUBA \V " " " ^ s ^ to the UK and around

the world.

JAMAICAHAITI

DOMINICANREPUBLIC


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THE CARIBBEAN AT A GLANCE

BARBADOSCUBA

DOMINICA

DOMINICANREPUBLIC

GRENADA

GUYANA

HAITI

JAMAICA

ST LUCIA

ST VINCEN T

SURINAM

TRINIDAD&TOBAGO

POPULATION

(millions)

0.254

10.2

0.080

6.7

0.100

0.797

6.1

2.4

0.142

0.120

0.420

1.2

AREA(miles')

430115000

750

49000

345

215000

28000

11000

616

388

163000

5000

GNP

1358.90

115.20

4891.00

134.00

310.83

2196.00

2256.00

198.80

120.00

953.40

6552.00

GNPpc

m

5350

1440

730

1340

390

360940

1400

1000

2270

5460

UFEEXPECTa

7575

74

66

69

66

55

74

70

69

67

70

LITERACY

99A

'80*

8SA

98*'

9 | A

37*

73A

80*

80*

' '80*

97A

MAINEXPORTS

sugar Isugar, nickel, tobacco

bananas,

coconut products

sugar, coffee, cocoa

bananas, nutmeg

bauxite, sugar, rice

coffee, sugar ;

alumina/bauxite

bananas, cocoa

bananas, arrowroot

bauxite, oil

oil

PUERTORICO

Source: W or ld Development Report 1989, W orl d Bank* = from G reen G old, Latin America BureauA = from InterAmerican Development Bank 1987pc = per capita

ST LUCIA iSTVINCENT |

GRENADA/o)

0

BARBADOS

TRINIDAD &TOBAGO

VII


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THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OU R O W N CHOICES


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BIRTH OF THE

MODERN CARIBBEAN

| , t was a clear October day in 1492 inI; the islands that would later be: i called the Bahamas. The Caribbeanwaters sparkled a translucent blue inthe sun. The air was clear and fresh.Brightly coloured humming birdswhirred through the woodedshoreline and the scarlet hibiscusflowers. The Am erindian islanderswere busy, as usual, fishing the deepwate rs offshore as well as theforeshores and reefs from canoesmade from logs. Inland, they farmedthe crops their ancestors had broughtfrom the mainland of South America:cocoa and corn, sweet potatoes andarrowroot, pineapple and citrus fruits,beans and pean uts, guava andpapaya, cotton and tobacco. Thesestill form most of the crops that areproduced today in the islands. Buttheir world was about to end forever.On that day they discoveredChristopher Columbu s, washed totheir shores by the Atlantic cu rrents

and still thinking he had discovered anew route to India. He was impressedby the gentleness of the islanders.

"Believe it Your Highness that in thewhole worldtherecannotbe abetter norgentler folk... of singular ways, loving andsweet-tongued."

Christopher Columbus to the King of Spain,24 December 1492

DISCOVERY OR

DESECRATION?

Their way of life d idn 't long survivethe arrival of the European colonists.Within a century the Tainu, thepeaceable Arawaks and the fierceCaribs were all but exterminated.Only a few isolated g roups of Caribsstill survive today in the small islandsof the eastern Caribbean. TheArawaks are still remembered in

Jamaica's coat of arm s. The Tainubequeathed to us the words'hammock' and 'maize'.



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VICTORY OVER SLAVERYThe Caribbean is often described as a'melting pot' of cultures, peoples andraces. But the fires tha t produced that

melting have been, at times, fierce andpainful: flames of war and conquest;of slavery and exploitation; of racialhatred and rebellion. They were thefires of the furnaces on the great sugarplantations, where slaves seized inchains from West Africa toiled in thefields to cut the cane , and in the m illsto crush and boil off the sugar. TheHaitian nation, the first black republicin the world , was born in 1804 in theflames of a slave uprising led by theslave Toussaint 'L'Ouverture' againstthe French colonists, and a 13-yearcivil war.

The Haitian slave rebellion soundedthe death knell for slavery throughoutthe Caribbean. In E nglandmanufacturing was replacing trade asthe engine of wealth. The newcaptains of industry, above all, wanted

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OXFAM PARTNER IEGBERTWATKINS,SMALL FARMER, JAMAICA

Egbert Wat kins, president of the Hillside Farmers' Association, scratches his greying beard with thehandle of his cutlass as he remembers the struggle that made farmers of cane cutters. 'The governmentsaid 'landto thelandless'.Buttie big men wanted the land."

The H illside Farmers' Association is made up of 54 families of po or farmers. The land where they g rowcane,sweet potatoes, corn and fruit is sandwiched between the bauxite plant of Clarendon AluminaProductions Lt d and the M onymusk refinery of th e Clarend on Sugar Company- symbols of Jamaica'snatural wealth past and present The Hillside farmers come fr om the Jamaica that has not gro wn richonthis wealth. They were granted 740 acres on a 49-year lease in 1975 through a government landprogramme. But the land did not come easily to these families who had been cane cutters on the sugarestate.

'Thebig menot Monymusk wontedit and we/"ought them bitterly. When they foundwehad the lond theyshut off the [irrigation] water. We sweatedWood.We ate poor. Sometimes you ate roots so hard on your jawsyou couldn't speak. We negotiated for10 years.Atfirst they gave us a little water. We went bockday after dayto the Monymusk office. We didn't just goonce.We went until theysaid 'notthemagain!give them what theywant!'.Sometimes theyused wordsI couldn'tunderstandwhat theysaid. But we keptgoingbock. From that timeweweregetting water."

The deal they struck with the Monymusk estate guarantees them water to irrigate their crops so longas they grow some sugar cane for the estate. They only break-even on this at best, butit keeps the wa terflowing and relations wi th the estate calm. Asked if they would go back to cutting cane on the plantation,one farmer replied "Our owncane,yes. Our own cane.But bock to the estate? There's nobody of us here thatiswillingto go back."

Monymusk Estates, owned at that time by the Tateand Lyle company, was not the only multinationalcompany that regrettedtanglingwit h the HillsideFarmers. The trains carrying alumina from the bauxiterefinery to the west passes across HFA land, and thealumina dust thrown off the wagons beganto corrodethe galvanized iron roof of the HFA office and meetinghouse.The refinery was owned at that time by the USmultinational, Alcoa. "We went to the A/coa officeandsaid Vhot recompense you going give us?"' remembers

Egbert Again, persistence wo n. The company finallyagreedto re-roof the office, andto help them dig asmall damto retain irrigation water.

The Hillside Farmers are proud of what they have achieved. In 1975 they were an anonymous group ofpoverty-stricken cane cutters, living, like many rural Jamaicans, scattered across the estate. Today theyhave laid the foundations of a hard-working commu nity of farmers, and are moving toward s settingthemselves up as a cooperative. Oxfam helped them , throu gh the local agency Projects fo r People.

The h istory o f the Caribbean, like the histor y of the Hillside Farmers, is inextricably linked wit h sugar.The archipelago's sugar plantations were the rich prizes over which Europe squabbled: the Spanishconquerors, the Dutch, English and French colonists and the North American companies who followedthem in the scramble. This history of war and conquest is seen very differently in the Caribbean thanit isin Europe. Francis Drake, for example, is honoured in Britain as Elizabethan swashbuckler and hero of thedefence against the Spanish Armada; in the Caribbean he is remembered as a pirate and plunderer.

"Sometimesyou ateroots so

hard onyour jawsyou couldn'tspeak."



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cheap food for their worke rs. Theydid not want the expense ofprotecting (militarily as well aseconomically) the 'inefficient'plantation agriculture of the

Caribbean. The advocates of free tr adefound common cause with reformers.Slavery was abolished in the Englishcolonies in 1833 and in the French in1848. Later still in parts of theCaribbean , after the slaves, cameAsian labourers, recruited in the near-slavery condition of 'indenture' (tiedlabour contracts) from India andChina to fill the labour deficit on theplanta tions. The abolition of slaveryhappened piecemeal in the ex-Spanishcolonies: 1822 in the Dom inicanRepublic, 1873 in Puerto Rico and1880 in Cuba.

SOVEREIGNTY

The sense of com mu nity is strong inthe friendly, small and intimatesocieties of the Caribbean. But it is anidentity forged against thebackground of strong pressure fromoutside.

Political independence has beenhard-won and economic sovereigntyremains elusive. The C omm onwealthCaribbean became indep enden t fromBritain only after 1962. Guadeloupeand Martinique remain Frenchterritories, while Holland still ownsthe four islands of the NetherlandsAntilles. And, even for thoseterritories which became ind epend entin the last century, the nearby UnitedStates has been a powerful, and attimes overbearing, neighbour.

Between 1915 and 1934, Haiti wasrun by the US marines as was theDominican Republic between 1916

and 1924. Even in the post-warperiod, US troops have been inoperation in the Dominican Republic(1965) and Grenada (1983).

Cuba and Puerto Rico which won

their freedom from Spain only in thecourse of the Spanish-American warof 1898-1901,then passed into theeffective control of theUS. PuertoRico remains closely associated w iththe US with the statu s of an"Associated Free State". This status,which prompted the United NationsDecolonization C ommittee to call (14

Au gust 1985) for the selfdetermination and independence ofthe island, is due to be re-examined ina forthcoming plebiscite.

"During[the earlydecades of the twentiethcentury]I spent most of mytime beinga high


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LAND,POVERTY

ANDBARRIERSTODEVELOPMENT

| he Caribb ean's struggle to- nationhood since 1804 hasL been dominated by the fact

that the islands originally entered theworld economy, not as ind epende ntcomm unities, but as plantationcolonies. Sugar was sown in the

seventeenth century to serve therapidly expanding European marketfor this new luxury commodity. Thisset the pattern for Caribbeandevelopment as single-cropeconomies. And it also created a sharpsocial divide between the rich, white,elite of planters and the poor, black,mass of slaves. The heritage of tha tdivide still bedevils the Caribbean.

This yearwe goin1 in celebrationFreedom fro m bondageand oppression.A hundredand fifty yearsof emancipation.To celebrateis to be misled.Becausemy peopleare stillunderfed.Night-soilmen arestill carryingthe filthinstead.And Antiguansare still carting wateron dey

head.

TTie Truth

The region today remains depe nden ton commodities whose prices it doesnot control. Sugar is still a majorexport, though declining inimportance. The banana industry,which developed in Jamaica and theeastern Caribbean in the nineteenth

century, produces another majorexport.' In the twentieth century, thediscovery of bauxite (from whichaluminium is made) in Jamaica,Guyana (previously British Guiana)and Surinam (previously DutchGuian a), as well as oil and aspha lt inTrinidad, have provided additionalsources of income. Yet poor peop lehave seen few of the benefits.



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"Banana iskillingus,not only

financiallybutsocially."

BANANAS-

A FRAGILE LIFELINE

In the Windward islands everything is

centred around the banana tradewhich is in the hands ofa foreign fruitcompany. The islands' economic lifecentres on the visit of the banana boatevery fortnight. In Dominica, forexample, where bananas make up60% of exports, the Banana Grower'sAssociation sell all the bananas to theBritish shipping firm Geest who

provide credit facilities and access tofertilisers and pesticides.Currently a special trading

relationship between Britain and itsformer Caribbean colonies means thatthere is a guaranteed market for thecrop produced in these islands. In1992 the introduction of the single

European Market may mean the endof the special trading agreement andthe Windward Islands will face stiffcompetition from other countrieswhere bananas can be produced much

more cheaply.This is one reason why Windward

islanders are beginning to rethinktheir dependence on bananas. EarleneHome, the good-humoured,bantering, and incredibly hardworking General Secretary of theNational Farmers' Union in StVincent, says there are environmental

reasons too:"Banana is killing us, notonly financially but socially.If you add it all up it's just not

profitable. Banana need a lot of land-the moreyou growit the moreyou needso fannersare cutting down the foreststo produce more. Bananas have broughtus a range of chemicals over the years

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that are killing us. The plastic used tocover the banana to protect them, do notrot easy and there's no way of gettingridof it.In our rivers there used to be fishbut they'veall gone, not justbecausethe

amount of plastic that has been washedinto them, but bananasare often grownon slopes near rivers and streams andchemicals sprayed onto the crop run intothe water.

"They tell usoverhead aerialsprayingis harmless but we're beginning to see anumber of our birds disappearing. If weweigh it all up werealise bananais

doing us a lot ofharm."A third reason for trying to end this

dependence is the vulnerability of thebanana crop to storm damage. It takeslittle more than a high wind to knockdown the almost rootless banana tree.

In September 1989,Hurricane Hugo,which, wreaked damage in thedependent territories of Puerto Rico,

Guadeloupe and Montserrat,destroyed 70%of Dominica's bananacrop.

Clement Nation is a Dominicanfarmer who has already taken thedecision to diversify his farming. Heis in his thirties, with nine children(six of whom live with him and work

on the farm) and five grandchildren.Hurricane Hugo hardly lefta mark onhis farm. Although he grows six acresof bananas to sell - most of which helost - Clement also grows pineapple,passion fruit, mangoes, oranges,limes, coconuts, and the root cropsdasheen and yam, as well as breedingrabbits, chickens, pigs, hens and

goats. The electricity which powers

"Inourrivers thereusedto be

fishbutthey'veallgone..."

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his home is supplied by Biogas-alternative technology, which Oxfamhelped to provide, that transformsmanure into gas- so nothing iswasted!

Some farmers in St Vincent are alsobeginning to grow different crops.But, without alternative markets, it isa difficult decision to make. EarleneHome explains:

"Wehave discussed thisproblem of aone-crop economy.But we haveto facereality. We have an establishedmarketfor bananas. We cangrowa lotof things

here. For example,ginger.It growshereand hurricanes don't damage it.Wecould bethe biggestproducer of gingeraround. But theproblemis the market.The market forgingeris sometimes thereand sometimes not. The same with yams,sweet potatoes.Hurricanes don't damagethem.Our membersare calling on theunion to dosomethingaboutmarketing

for non-bananacrops."She feels that 1992should be lookedon as the perfect opportunity to getrid of the reliance on bananas onceand for all. The St Vincent NationalFarmers Union has been talking tofarmers, government ministers andgrower's associations to look at waysof finding new markets and to look athow countries like Britain can help setup new markets in a less dependentcontext.

HAITI: THEFATEOF

PEASANT FARMING

Attempts to build a base for economicdevelopment have stressed export-earnings. In most cases this hasfavoured the big companies. Small-scale agriculture on which many poor

IN SEARCH OF A ROUTE T O DEVELOPMENT

DE VE LO PM EN T-W HO BENEFITS?Agricultural exportsThough some ter rito ries have managedto diversify, sugar, and in the easternCaribbean bananas, remain the main source of exp ort earningsfo r manyCaribbean countries. Sugar accountedfor 51%in Dominica, 49% in Guyana,9.5% in Jamaica and 1.7% in Trinidad in 1982. But world pricesfor sugar haveremained depressed since the late 1970s. Uncertainty about accessfor rum andbananasto the European market under the European Community's CommonAgricultu ral Policy has made the situation worse, especially w ith the impendicreation of the single European market in1992.

Minerals

The bauxiteinJamaica, Guyana and Surinam and the oil and asphalt in Trinidadhave not solved the development p roblem. They created isolated high-techenclaves in which foreign companies retained the whiphand.By1925,thelinked no rth American aluminium companies Alcan and Alcoa had securedvirtually total control over the bauxite deposits in Guyana and Surinam.In 1977Jamaica and Guyana toge ther supplied65%of the US's bauxite imports, withHaiti,Surinam and the Dominican Republic supplying a further25%.The foreigncompanies\>mostofthl

profits whileflpoor received\fewof the benefits.bauxite industry1

capital-intensive andprovides few jobs.US$300m investediiJamaica by the bauxiicompanies between19!and 1970 created only6,000permanentjobs.T;revenues dueto the govei

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the companies. Most of the smelting of the relatively cheap crude ore intohigh-value aluminium was done abroad. So while most of the value was added outsidethe Caribbean, the environment was pocked with the pollutionof red mud lakes.

TourismIn more recent years, tourism has become,for many, the main alternativesourceof hard currency earnings. Tourism started earlyinJamaica, in the 1960swhen rich Americans abandoned Cubaas their playground after Fidel Castro's1959 revolution. The industry has become the main sourceof hard currencyforJamaica, wi th to uri st spending mor e than doubling between 1979 and 1985toover US$400m. Other territories, with fewer natural resources than Jamaica,

have become evenmore dependent

almost half of thelabour force in theBahamas, and almost aquarter in Antigua-Barbuda are employedin tourism. TheDominican Republicismakingan energeticbid

fo ra greater share of the market, with tourist income more than doublingbetween 1979 and 1985to just under US$300m. Here again foreign, particularly

US,investment was dominant Ove r half the ho tel capacityinJamaica andBarbados is in foreign hands. And much tourist spending remains in the

North (paymentto tour operators etc), thus reducing the benefitsto the Caribbean. Tourism is also notoriously volatile,

depending on climate, fashion, economic conditionsinthe USand the fluctuating cost of air travel.A bad

season can havea devastating effect on asmall economy. Furthermore its social

effect isto create a luxury enclave,predominantly white, ina

backgroundof poverty,

predominantly black.

mm

families depend has languished.Haiti illustrates starkly what has

happened to peasant agriculture. Agulf grew after independence betweenthe countryside and the town,between the black peasants and themulatto elite who formed thecommercial, governing andprofessional strata. The two becamealmost separate nations- in colour, inlanguage, in religion, in economic andsocial relations. The black peasantsspoke Creole, practised voudou,farmed increasingly small and

subdivided parcels of land, andpractised common law marriage oroften polygamy. The elite spokeFrench, worshipped in Catholicchurches, did no manualwork, andpracticed legal, monogamousmarriage.

Pressure on the soil increased afterthe French left in1804.Some of the

land remained in the form of bigsugar estates. But some was dividedbetween the ex-slaves. Theirdescendants have become more andmore crowded onto smaller andsmaller subdivided plots. Notsurprisingly, yields have fallendramatically. Farmers cling, eking outa meagre living, to the mostastonishingly inhospitable spots.Throughout the mountainsides thatcover much of the country, lean goatsand cows graze at crazy angles on theslopes. So steep are the hillsides thatfarmers tilling their plots of maize,sorghum, beans, sugar cane and citrusfruit are tilted as if they were leaninginto a strong wind. Drought isfrequent. High taxes, land rents andgrasping middlemen further squeezethe pitifully tiny incomes of thefarmers.



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Nothing illustrates the precariousplight of the Haitian farmer so muchas the saga of the Creolepig. Haiti'spig population was wiped outbetween 1978and 1982,after a

massive outbreak of swine fever andthe slaughter of the survivinganimals. For poor peasants, many ofwhom had already lost their land, thiswas the last straw: their pigs were theonly source of income they had tomeet emergencies such as illness,deaths or debts.The governmentresponded by importing new

breeding pigs from the United States.But American pigs were very differentbeasts from Haitian pigs. The Creolepig was adapted to Haiti: it ate scraps,it walked itself long distances to

INDUSTRIALIZATION ANDTHENEGLECT OF AGRICULTURE

The model of development based on industrialization, export-orientedagriculture and enclave production, was intendedto improve exportearnings. In fact, it has had the reverse effect, by increasing balanceofpayments problems. Food imports have become a significant necessity- foodin 1982 represented around 10% of total imports in Trinidad and Tobago,8% in Guyana, 16%in Jamaica and 28% in Grenada. There are other 'knock-on' effects. InJamaica, for example, bauxite production aggravated an alreadyserious land shortage as mining companies bought up over 100,000 acresofland from peasant farmers. Agriculture languished and more and morepeople driftedto the cities in search of work.

Many Caribbean governments have established 'Free Trade Zones'toattract foreign investment and soak up a growing urban labour force. Thelure to the foreign companies is low wages and tax holidays. The DominicanRepublic heads the league table with no fewer than 19 free trade zones andafurther 11 under construction. Th e garment and 'assembly' industries which

have set up shop, however, create few jobs.InJamaica, for example,th e1960s was a decade of industrial growth, but this growth was paralleled byrising unemployment- from 13% in 1960to 26% by 1968.

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OXFAM PARTNER

JOSE RODRIGUEZ,

COFFEE FARMER,DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Jose Rodriguez sits perched ona sack of coffee beans.Heleans forwardearnestly as he explains:

"We work from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon. But coffee doesn'tbring thefarmermuch profitThe benefits of the coffeego to the middlemen. Theycheat on the value of the product Then thereare the tows.Ml they leavethe smallfarmer ishis work,his human sacrifice and that of hisfamily.We, thesmall coffee-powers, producethe notionalwealth, but where we are,we hove nothing which

permits us toIm Ike human beings.We don'thave medicalcentres, schools,roads,bridges, muchless a chemist's or a doctor. Andas for food, it is at pauper'slevel,even thoughwe producethe wealth.Of every 100 pesos, we arelosing the benefitof around 46.But here fat the cooperative] it's different Here the benefits gotothe former, not to enlarge thecapital of the merchant"

Jose is a member of the Nucleus of Coffee Farmers' Associationsof Bani -a market town in the south of the Dominican Republic.He is taking his turnworking for a year as warehouseman in the Nucleus, leaving his wife andbrother to tend the family plot in the hills. The small coffee producers havebegun to pool their resources in orderto reap more of the benefits of what

they sow. They are by-passing the big exporters who control the coffeetrade (the country's second biggest export crop), and tryingto do their ownmarketing.

In the first year in 1976/77, small farmers across the nation madea sort bycapturing over one anda half per centof the export trade. By 1988, they hadalmost a 10%slice of the mark et Over 98%of coffee in the DominicanRepublic is produced by small farmers.In many other parts of the Americas,coffee is grown on big estates. But in the Dominican Republic, about 69,000small growers work plotsof less than six hectares (aboutIS acres). Coffeewas first plantedin the eighteenth century by run-away slaves who hadescaped to the remote and inaccessible mountains. Most plots yield less than4,000 lbs of coffeea year - about one-twelfth of what they could producewith more investment. Here too is where the benefits of banding togethercome in, providing creditfor investment and channels for technical training.The small coffee producers beganto get together after Hurricane Davidin1979 destroyed much of the coffee crop.

They have formed into local associations, and the associations have joinedtogether into Nuclei. The Nuclei, inturn, have come together inaFederation. The Bani Nucleus serves around 900 members.It offerswarehousing, processing and cheap cre dit For Jose this isa step towardsmaking real his dreams of electricity, proper schooling for his children, and

health carefor the whole family.

"Smallcoffee-growers

producethenationalwealth, butwehavenothingwhichpermitsusto live likehumanbeings."



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market, it was tough and resistant. It's

distant northern cousin is a pampered

animal, fussy about its food,

unwilling to walk large distances and

lacking in resistance to Haitian

conditions. Expensive to keep anddifficult to adapt , the imported pigs

were ill-suited to the peasants' needs.

The government at first refused to

allow import of Creole pigs from

Jamaica and Martinique. Later in

selected areas throughout the country,

organizations like the National

Association of Haitian Agronomists

were able to help groups of farmers

establish a breeding stock of Creolepigs and give them training in

husbandry so that they could avoid a

new outbreak of disease. This work is

continuing.

THEENVIRONMENTAL THREAT

Two hours northwestof Port-au-Prince, eroded mountains thrus t up from the fertile rice plain likestripped giant carcasses- bare ribs of white rock ju tting through the tattered remains of greenery. Therivers run brown with more topsoil washed away in the lastrains.Beyond the riceplain,cactus and scrubtake over, harbingers o f the desert that threatensto engulf the northwest in ecological disaster.Once this wholeisland,that the French colonists used to call the "peorf ofthe Antilles",was heavilywooded.Then the trees were cut, the rare woods like mahogany for export and the rest for firewoodand for house-building, leaving the fragile soil exposed to wind andrain.There have been some attempts at refores tation. Furtherto the south,along the coast at St jean du Sud,the church-based group Haitian Christian Community Development (DCCH) is promoting conservatiIn an areaof 200 hectares, on which 600 families are dependent, training sessions and the establishmentof tree nurseries are helping to contain erosion.

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GROWING EXPECTATIONSAND THESEARCHFORALTERNATIVES

Responses to frustrated expectations of development have been most dramatic in the larger states. Inthe1970s nationalist governments in Guyana, and then Jamaica triedto take on the power of the bauxitemultinationals. The Guyanese governmentof Forbes Burnham in 1971, began a programmeofnationalization of key foreign-owned enterprises that brought 80% of the economy into state hands.Pressure by the multinationals and the US government eventually won agreement from Forbes Burnhamto pay compensationat higher than the book value of the expropriated enterprises.Jamaica,under thePeople's National Party governmentof Michael Manley, in 1974 took a51% share of the bauxite industry.But the PNP policyof 'democratic socialism', announced in late 1974, frightened investors. Capital beganto flow out of the country. Though Manley was re-elected in 1976, the economy rapidly worsened.Helost power in the 1980 pollsto Edward Seaga's conservative Jamaica Labour Party, amidst scenesofunprecedented violence between supporters of the two rival parties. Seaga's tenure, which was renewed

unopposed in 1983 when the PNP boycotted that year's election, was characterized by economicrecession which showed some signsof lifting in 1987, until the devastationof Hurricane Gilbert in1988delivered a hammer-blow to the island's hopes. Support for Seaga declinedas the state of the economyworsened and social services deteriorated. Manleywas returnedto power in the 1989 elections, andhis administration has been characterized by fence-mending with the US and international financialinstitutions.

But the economies of the smaller islands of theeastern Caribbean are even more vulnerable. Largely

dependent on sugar and/or bananas, with attemptsof varying degrees of successto develop a touristindustry, the basic viabilityof some is in question.Unemployment runs as high as 25-30%. Growingdiscontent among the poor is a social powderkeg.

The powderkeg exploded in Grenada in 1979.Abloodless coup by Maurice Bishop's New JewelMovement overthrew the conservativegovernmentof Eric Gairy. The NJM government'spolicy was oneof non-alignment internationally andpromotion ofa mixed economy at home. Theconservative governmentsof the eastern Caribbeanislands were alarmed and feared the spreadof'communism'. In a characteristically self-fulfillingprophecy, Grenada's requests for aid were turneddown by most traditional donors, pushing thecountry towards the eastern bloc.In 1983 Bishopwas murdered in a bitter faction fight withintheNJM.This murder afforded an opportunityfor theOrganizationof Eastern Caribbean Satesto inviteinUS military forces. After a week of fighting theUS

troops gained control of the island and put inacaretaker government

THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OUR O W N CHOICES 13


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MIGRATION: THE

CARIBBEAN DIASPORA

Family budgets in many territorieshave been hit hard in recent years.Falling prices for export commodities,the national debt burdens andausterity policies undertaken bygovernments have translated intounemployment, low wages andreduced social services. For manyfamilies trapped in this situation, ahidden support comes from the

money sent home by family membersliving and working abroad. Aseconomic problems have mounted,increasing numbers of people haveleft the Caribbean. After the SecondWorld War, Britain urgently neededworkers in the new national healthservice, in industry and in the public

system, and thousands of people fromthe English-speaking Caribbeananswered the call. As the social andeconomic climate in Britain becameless welcoming, the United Statesbecame an increasing magnet. Todayone person in five of Caribbean originlives permanently in theUnitedStates.The Caribbean peoples havebecome a world-wide diaspora. Thedollars and pounds sent back to theCaribbean are a vital part of thesurvival strategies of many families.

14 THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OUR O W N CHOIC


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DEBTAND THEBALANCEOFPAYMENTS CRISIS

In the 1980s Caribbean countries have faced mounting debt problems and have been forcedto trimsocial spending in line with the 'austerity' measures- known as structural adjustment- prescribed by theinternational lending institutions as the cure for economicills.These institutions like the InternationalMonetary Fund usually demand that governments cut budgetsfor public services like health and welfarebefore they will agreeto further loans.

A noted Caribbean economist, Richard Bernal of the Jamaican Workers' Bank told Oxfam in1987:"What we hove in the Coribbeon isa lot of people.W e don't hove much else. And developmentis aboutpeople.

Therefore cutting...services puts in questionthe bosis of development. When you hod thislevel of unemploymentin Europe youcalled itthe GreotDepression.But we live with theselevels of unemployment permanently.

The prevailing international financial institutions (the World Bonkand the International Monetary Fund) were setup to safeguard the world economy. But whotis good for world tradeis not necessarily goodfor a Third Worldcountry. They assume that adjustment means restoring the efficient functioning of the economicsystem, but it isthe structure whichis creatingthe deficits. For example, maintainingprimary producteconomies which keep

producing more physically but earningless from it Thediagnosisis that the problem ismisallocation of resources,whereas thereis also the problem of resource creation. The problemis not whether you canget shoes $1 cheaper,but whether you con put people to work... The International Monetary Fund asks for deregulation of wages so thatsupply and demand can come into equilibrium. Of coursesuppiy and demand can come intoequilibrium, butwill itbe at the level of a liveablewage?Idon't think so.

What we needis structural transformation, not structural adjustment. There must bea recognition that balanceof payments adjustment must besocially and politically viable-otherwise social upheaval undermines theadjustmentprocess. It must stress importsubstitutionas well as exportpromotion, and it must respect economicsovereignty.The IntemotionolMonetary fund andTheWoridBonk are service organizations. Nobody set them upas policemen. People forget that theyore UnitedNations organizations. They have managed tosever that

connection. But they ore responsibleo the UN. They must respect our economic sovereignty and notram theirprogrammes down our throats."

"Whenyouhad thislevelof '

unemploy-mentinEuropeyoucalledit theGreatDepression."



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TABLEI TO TAL EXTERNAL DEBT (PUBLIC AND PRIVATE) OSELECTED CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES (1987)

DOMINICANREPUBLIC

HAITI

|AMAICA

TRINIDAD&TOBAGO

Debt(US$m)

3071

674

3569

1635

Debt perperson (US$)

458

110

1487

1363

Debt as% ofGNP

66.3

30.2

141.2

39.3

Debtservice as

% of exports

21.7 (1986)

7.0

27.S

13.2(1986)

Source: World Development Report 1989, World Bank

16 THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OUR O WN CHOICES


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COMMUNITY

ORGANIZATION:IN SEARCH OFSOLUTIONS

; he organ ization of coffee, growers in the Dominican[ Republic, described in the last

chapter, illustrates an importantgeneral lesson that Caribbean peoplehave been learning aboutdevelopment: that if they wantchange in their lives, they need to relyon themselves and their communities.Solutions emerge when people gettogether.

"PEOPLE BECOMING

CONSCIOUS TOGETHER" -

THE ANIMATION

MOVEMENT IN HAITI

Father Yvon Joseph is a pries t, a smallman with a big laugh. But he becomesdeadly serious when he talks aboutthe poverty in Haiti. He says:

"In Europe and the United States,

peopleare suddenly talking aboutunemployment. Here, nobody talks aboutunemployment because there isno

e m p l o y m e n t .We have had thisbadsituation where people have to depend onothers for their food [interna tionalfoodaid]. Thereis a houseI used to go andvisit where they had put upa sign saying'Bread and m ore thanbread'. Peopledon't want to receive their bread fromothers. They want the conditions forearning their ownbread. So, it's 'breadand more thanbread'. To understandthese conditions- why people don't havebread, don't have work, don't haveschools or clinics- that is what takestime. That's the main starting point forour work."

Father Yvon works for IDEA(Diocesan Adult Education Institute),a Haitian organization that trains localcommunities in the north of thecountry to understand and deal withtheir prob lems. The aim is not somuch to provide technical solutions asto help people find their ownsolutions. This is what Haitians call"animation". Father Yvon calls it

"people becoming conscious together".This is at the core of the developmentprocess in Haiti.

Solutionsemergewhenpeopleget

together.

THECARIBBEAN: MAKINGO UR O W NCHOICES 17


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TheaverageHaitian

earns less

than 200peryear.

A good example of this process isprovided by the work of anotherorganization: the DevelopmentResearch Group(GRD), working inthe south of the country. A member of

GRD's staff explained:"It is easyto give aid and money.But

you have to ask whether that solves theproblem.A person may come and ask formoney today, and again tomorrow, andagain the next day.But the problem isn'tsolved.With education,peoplestart toask for other things.Peoplehave to wantto improve their lives so that theyare not

dependent on handouts.For example wehelped the landless farmershere[in thesoutheast] to starta toolbank.Manylandlesspeopledon't have tools.And ifthey work on someone's land withouttools, using the landlord's tools, their

Fok nou konprann ki jan peyi-a ap mache

in d-NAP REDI, MEN FO NOU KONNEN POUKISAPWOGRAM F6MA SYON SITWAVEN KRETYEN - EGLIZ METODIS DAYITI

wagesare cut inhalf. At first we ranthetoolbank.Within two years the toolshadall disappeared.Peopleborrowed themand never returned them. Now,instead,there is an association of landless

labourers. They run the tool bankthemselves, not us.It is their toolbank.Now, notools arestolen."

Father Yvon agrees that solutions, ifthey are to work, must come from thepeople themselves:

"Foryears the agronomists had beensaying thatpeopleshould store partoftheir grain, build silos to holdit

immediately after the harvest whenpricesare at the their lowest and sellitlater when pricesroseagain. There wasno response. Then we starteda smallcredit scheme to helppeopleimprovetheir marketing.As they increased thevolume of their trade, they themselvescame up with the need for storage silos."

"You see",he chuckled,"out of asmall programme which had nothing todo with silos came the suggestionofsilos."

At the heart of this developmentprocess are small mutual-aid groups-the animation groups. Starting in the1970s, Haitian peasant farmers beganto pool their resources in small groupsto try and find modest ways toimprove their standard of living.Some groups worked a common plotof land to supplement their diet andincomes. Others worked together onirrigation projects. And educationalcentres like IDEA, Papaye and ITEKA,as well as support organizations likeGRD,began to grow up, to providetechnical advice and training.

It is the training that makes the

difference between piece-meal aid anddevelopment. Animators, people fromthe communities trained by the

18 THECARIBBEAN: MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES


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centres, help communities to think

through their needs, to identify the

forces that constrain their possibilities,

and to widen their options for longer-

term development. This description

by an Oxfam visitor of the work of ananimation trainer gives an idea of the

technique:

"Itwas amazing how he encouragedthe participants to use their own

knowledge to make some sense of whatthey know and see and hear. Theydiscussed the value of developm ent in the

form of roads, dispensaries, churches,

schools and how all these things, becauseof the system of graft, workto

marginalize the peasant even further. He

used an analogy of a bottle with astopper - controlled by those in power.

The majority of Haitians are in the bottle

- poor, hungry, in misery. Under thebottle is a fire which makes life inthe

bottle just awful, pressure laden - this is

the lure of watches, fridges, urban life

etc. And then there is a valve,representing things like football, clairin

(cheap rum), voudou, drugs, which lets

out the steam just sometimes. Life seemssometimes confusing in the bottle

because just sometimes it seems asthough things get better, sometimes the

president comes and the road is done andthe school is painted. There is even

sometimes extra food to be given out. Atother times justice is particularlyarbitrary and for little reason one is introuble."

Jerome is a community educator,

and animator. He says that "without

education all is destined to perish". H ewas originally a small farmer, renting

a narrow strip of infertile land in the

central plateau of Haiti. A few yearsback, he got together with 12

neighbours to form a mutual-aid

HAITI- A TO UG H STRONG PEOPLE

In Port-au-Prince, capitalof Haiti,people are everywhere in the streets:shuffling, scuffling, scraping fora living. Life ishard.Shoe-shine boys, boys

selling cartons of contraband American cigarettes, women selling vegetablesfrom the countryside, children begging, men with rough wooden barrowsselling ices made by shavings offan ice block flavoured with syrupsofsuspiciously brilliant colour poured outof used coke bottles. The brightlypainted little buses known as 'tap-ops' bulge with passengersas they raceperilously thro ugh the bustling streets. Life is hard. And yet ther e is a pride.People walk tall and straight, almost dancing as they move . This is a tough,strong people. This is the people that freed itself by force of arms f romNapoleon's armies in 1804 and almost succeeded in uniting the whole islandof Hispaniola after forays across the border into Spanish Santo Domingo.This is the people wh ich provided a sourceof inspiration for Simon Bolivarand the Latin American freedom movement This is the people thatoverthrew the sinister dynasty of the Duvaliers in 1986.

And yet this myth of the wa rrio r people is a contradictory one.A nationproudof its fight against France, whose leaders lookto French cu ltureas amodelof civilization.Anation proudof its African heritage, where themulatto elite wears its lighter skin like a badgeof office.A nation thatcherished its independence andits national liberation struggle throughout thenineteenth century, only to bemilitarilyoccupied byUS marines from 1915to 1934. Yet, eventhen,Haiti did not surrender its independence easily.Charlemagne Peralte led the first guerrilla war faced bya US armyofoccupation- several years before the better-known guerrilla war ledbySandino against US troops in Nicaragua. Tragically, this, the first black nationto win its freedom from colonial powers, has also become the poorestnation in the Americas. The average Haitian earns less than 200 peryear.And most Haitians are not average- they earn much less.A landlesslabourer earns around one US dollara day (about 60p).



29/66

Almostthree people

in four areunemployed.

group to improve a common plot ofland. They found that there wereother groups organized similarly.Gradually, the groups began to cometogether for larger projects. Throughthe animation groups, poor farmershave gained confidence and greatercontrol over their lives. For exam plein Jerome's comm unity they had adiscussion about the taxes they areforced to pay when they take theirgoods to market. They decided theywould stop paying them until theauthorities gave them services inreturn , such as shelter from the rain.They carefully worked out in advancehow they were going to make theirprotest, by using role plays tounde rstand what the reactions of theauthorities would be. Jerome explains:" When people are organized it is not soeasy for those who live off them to getrich".

Though there is still a long way togo , the Haitian peasants are finallyfinding their voice. For so longconfined to the margins of society,

they are now building a movementwhich can reflect and represent theirinterests.

COMMUNITY

ORGANISATION

IN THE GHETTO

With things so difficult in thecountryside, more and m ore peopleare leaving the land, throughout theCaribbean, and crowding into thecities hoping for a better life. In thepoor areas of Jamaica's capital,Kingston, urban deprivation andviolence are the symptom s of years of

neglect and the current economiccrisis. Examples don't come muchstarker than Han nah Town, acommunity of 10,000 people. Housingconditions are appalling: mostfamilies live in a single room in wh atis known as a "yard", sharing toiletfacilities with others. Women form80% of the workforce and many areheads of families. Almost three peop lein four are unemployed. Crime is formany the only means of surviving,and conflicts between rival youthgangs is a growing problem. There ispolitical violence too, with clashesbetween rival supporters of the twomain political partie s, especially a telection times. People have looked topatronage from local politicians for

help. Many see their situation ashopeless.

"Even for p eople from Jamaica whocome here to see the ghetto, it is anexperience," says Ralph Hoyte ofHanna h Town's United Church. "Youcouldn't believe how de-motivated peoplecan become. N ot able to participate inyour ow nfuture and make yourow n

decisions. Tlwt's w hy the process ofhuman development is so critical and sodifficult."

20 THECARIBBEAN:MAKING OUR O W N CHOICES


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Ralph in 1978 helped to establishand was the coordinator of the MelNathan Institute, an attempt to givethe people of Hann ah Town a say intheir future. The Institute runs a

primary school, a community collegefor vocational training, and variousincome-generating workshops - inshoe-making, basket-weaving,carpentry and food-production. TheInstitute's work was badly hit byHurricane Gilbert, which devastatedmuch of Kingston in1988. Oxfam,which has supported the MNI since

1980 is helping to get its work re-established.

WORKINGFORHEALTHCasa Abierta (literally,"Open House")in the Dominican Republic is anotherexample. Bouncing and jolting yourway across the potholed roadways ofthe capital, Santo Domingo, your carducks and w eaves between thestream s of traffic that seem to be in aconstant state of rush-hour. Youscreech to a halt at a traffic light.Imm ediately the roadway is full ofchildren. One starts to wash yourwindscreen with a rag from a plasticbucket of dirty water. Another isselling newsp apers. A third holds out

one hand a nd, with the other,eloquently rubs the part of his grubbytee-shirt that conceals his belly, gazinginto the car with imploring brow neyes. These are the street k ids of SantoDom ingo. The small amo unts ofmoney they bring in can make thedifference between eating and noteating for their whole families. They

are around at all hours of the day ornight. Fun for them may meanhanging around petrol stations,

getting high on gasoline fumes, orsharing a plastic bag of glue.

"We find boys of eight years old or lesswho are using glue and gasoline," saysCasilda Ramos of the dru g project

Casa Abierta, "especially the street kidswho hang around and sleep in thestreets. Or kids whose parents have toleave them in the homeall day."

The street kids' solvent abuse is byno means the only or the major drugproblem in the Dominican Republic,which is increasingly being used bythe Colombian drug mafia as a way-

station in the shipm ent of cocaine tothe US. Marihuana, cocaine, andnewer drugs like 'crack' are finding agrowing m arket in the DominicanRepublic. Casa Abierta opened itsdoors in 1974. It is an 'open house' notonly because it provides walk-intreatment for young drug addicts, butalso because its 18-person team

"DruSaddictionisthe symptom

of a systemof problemswhich aresocial."

believes that the drug problem callsfor society to find alternativesolutions. "Drug addiction is thesymptom of a system of problems whichare social," says Casilda, "but itmanifests in the individual." So, the

Casa Abierta team focus mainly onpreventive educational campaignswith community organizations.

THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OU R O W N CHOICES 21


31/66

"Theonly

way you can

win your

rightsis onthe streets,not in thekitchen."

Further to the west, in the slumdistrictsof Santo Domingo,communitiesare trying to findalternatives totheir problems. In onecommunity of small box-like houses, a

group of 30 people meet in a smalldimly lit communityclinic, trying tohear themselves talk overa torrent ofnoise from car horns,ghetto blastersand people shouting toeach other inthe street outside. Theclinic is run byPROSAIN, the Project for IntegratedHealth. For three months thecommunity has been withoutapumped civic watersupply. Theyhave been relying insteadon theprivate cowboy water truckswhocharge exorbitant rates. PROSAINestimated in 1987 that each truckwasmaking over 1,500 profit eachmonth.The community representativesdebate what to do to get thewatercompany to comply with itsobligations and turn the water back

on. "The man from the water companyshouldbe lockedup," says one womanto general laughter.An earnest youngstudent, tired of the discussionbetween the women, harangues them:"Thisis a fight.It is betweenrich andpoor. Weshould strike.Tomorrow.Nomore talk. The only way you canwinyour rightsis on thestreets, not inthe

kitchen." A woman interrupts,tired ofbeing taught to suck eggs. "Neither inthe university," she retorts. Theotherwomen laugh. In the endthey agreeto canvas the support ofmorecommunity organizations for astrikeat the end of the month,closing downbusinessesand organizingmarches toshame the authorities.

This small incident illustrates thefact that lackof medical services areonly one of thehealth problems that

poverty and powerlessness create.Accordingly PROSAIN's communityclinics and the medicalcare they offerto the slum dwellers areonly one partof their work. They also stress

education with communitygroups,putting thehealth problemsof thepoor in a wider social context.

22 THE CARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES


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WOMEN IN

THECARIBBEAN

\ \ ' \ i i omen, in many families,- , _ have to shoulder anV V unequa l burden of the

work. As in Jamaica's Hannah Town,many households are headed bywom en, who have to bear the burden

of making a living alone for theirchildren. In many rural areas,marriage is too expensive andcohabitation is common. In manycases,absentee fathers are reluctantto pay child-support. In the canefields, women (who form one fifth ofthe labour force in the industry inJamaica) do the most m enial tasks forthe lowest wages.

Christina, mother of seven children,has been weeding on the BernardLodge sugar estate in Jamaica for thelast 30 years. Almost 12,000 womenfieldworkers are employed on theisland by the multi-million dollarsugar industry. Weeding andspreading fertilizer are carried outmainly by the women. They earn J$ll

(about 1.30) an acre. The higher-paying jobs go to the men - reaping,planting, spraying and loading.

Ll

"We bear

nuffa deburden andget the least

pay."



33/66

"We bear nuffa de burden and get theleast pay,"Christina says to the nodsof other members of the gang.

Many countries, includingespecially Jamaica and the Dominican

Republic, have established Free TradeZones in a bid to attract foreigninvestment. Companies such asgarment manufacturers producingdenim jeans for export to the USA

have been attracted to the Zones bytax holidays and, since unions areforbidden, low wage-bills. Many ofthe low-paid workers in these zones,are women, especially young women.

FIGHTING THE DOUBLE

BURDEN

Most farming women in theCaribbean bear a double burden. Upin the mountains in the east of theDominican Republic, the womenofthe small town ofSan Jose de Ocoacall it the doubleday. After back-breaking work in the fields picking

coffee or looking after the house, thesmall domestic vegetable plot and theanimals, wives are expectedto bathe,

feed and water their husbands, lookafter the children and, if they haven'tbeen at home during the day, cleanthe house as well. When they havepaid field work, women get a fraction

of the wages their husbands receivefor the samejob. Tomake mattersworse, wages are often paid directlyto the man of the household.

The Association for Women'sDevelopment in San Jose de Ocoahelps women understand and find away around their problems and helpsthem earn the money and respect they

deserve. Based in the town and run bya group of professional women, theAssociation caters for the needs of thesmall rural communities in thedistrict. Many of the problems don'tonly affect women, like illiteracywhich is currently running at about80%or lack of health care facilities.But,because women have to take onmost of the responsibilities ofbringing up children, they play a keyrole in the development of thecommunity.

The Association trains women fromthe town and surrounding ruralcommunities in basic health and inways to make a bit more money. Italso holds monthly meetings attendedby all the local peasant women'sassociations where problems can beshared and solved.

The village of El Naranjal in the SanJose de Ocoa region is typical of thework the Association fosters. It hashelped set up a sewing and a bee-keeping project, so the women canearn a bit of extra cash. But moreimportant than the money is the

power the women have gained sincethey started supporting and helpingeachother. Carmen Abreu who works

24 THE CARIBBEAN: MAKING OU R O W N CHOIC


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in the sewing cooperative put it likethis:

"Beforebeing organized life was muchharder.Now we have much moreprotection.Before,our husbandshadmuchmorecontrol over our timeandnow we havebecomecommunityleadersand wetackle allthe problemstogether."

And that means tackling problemsfaced by the whole community, notjust those of the women. A few yearsago the Dominican governmentdeclared that they were going to buildan enormous dam to provide waterfor the capital city.To get to the damthey were also going to build a majorroad that would plough through themiddle ofEl Naranjal, destroying thevillage.

With their new-found confidenceand abilities to organise, the womenof the village opposed the scheme.The protests they lead persuaded thegovernment to re-route the road away

from theirvillage.This won them therespect of the men as Carmenexplained:

"We've still gota long way togo.Butnow we've learnt to identify what ourneeds areand theneedsof thecommunity. Many women were verysuspicious of organizing at firstbecausewe didn'trealisehowoppressedwe were.Even when we knew we were not happywith our husbands they onlyhad to helpout one day in the kitchen and we wouldfeel extremely lucky and grateful. Andnow our husbandsare beginningtorecognisethe advantages of us beingorganizedbecauseweare bringinginextra money.Thereis stilla lot ofmachismo [sexism].But now the mencanseewhat wecan do,how we canorganize for everybody's sake and that wecan earn money and now they have gotmore respect for us."

Ironically, earning that respect andindependence involves the women ineven more work than the average"double day".Altagracia HaydeeCastillo described her typical day:

"I get up at 6 am, wash andput thecoalon the fire for the cooking whilemyhusbandis still sleeping. I put on the

THECARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES 25


35/66

Womenoften have

to shoulder

thewholefinancialburden of

childrearing.

OXFAM PARTNER 3CY NT HIA TAYLOR, 'HUCKSTER', DO MINICA

Roseau, capital of the tiny eastern Caribbean islandof Dominica swarms with activityat thebeginningofeveryweek.Bananas and citrus fruit, trucked down fromthe slopesand upland valleys of the island'sagricultural areasare unloaded, countedand packaged inthe narrow lanesand streets. By late eveningtherickety skiffs and ageing cargo boats inthe harbour are deep-laden with crates and boxes of produce. Thenaboard comesa procession of womenwho have spent the afternoon anxiouslyon thedockside, swearingfuriously at every mistakeof the loaders and crane operators withthe fragile loads. These arethe 'hucksters'of Dominica.

Small traders, they brave upto twodays journey in these uncertain craftto sellthe fruit in neighbouringislandsof Guadeloupe, Antigua, Trinidadand Barbados. Collectively they makea significant contribut ionto

the island'seconomy.In 1986oneton ofproducein every SOexportedwas throughthe hucksters.Cynthia Taylor isa huckster. Most hucksters, likeher, are women, often from farming families. This reflects

the traditional divisionof labour, wheremen do thefarming and womendo themarketing. Women oftenhaveto shoulder the whole financial burdenof childrearing. Cynthia says: "I have been in my trade over20years and IlikeA.I buyand I resd That's whatI'm doing for my livingand to raise up my family. Ihate a fanjefamily.My husband isnot employed.I can't depend onhim forwhatwe need.My husbanddoesgardening.He plantshisland. Then Isell what he producesto get what we need."

The Dominica Hucksters Association, formedin 1981 and ledby Cecil Josephand Dora O'Garo, attemptsto provide services and trainingto thehucksters. Today most of the island's40 0hucksters are members.This growthhas notbeen easy. Each huckster is an independent entrepreneur, living off her witsto make an



36/66

eastern Caribbean dollar. She is a trader, buying directly from the farmers, a packager, a shipper and amarketer rolled in to one. Com petition and rivalry are strong. But times are changing and hucksters haveto

change with them ifanyoneis to gain.The DMA managed to get a few membersto keep accounts to see how bad the situation was. Few

hucksters carry more than EC$2,000 worth of produce in one trip. The fare alone over to Guadeloupe isEC$200 and the boat owners overcharge for freight. On top of everythingelse,as much as30%of theproduce was getting damaged by being bruisedor crushed in transit."Boggingthe produce is nogood.It's likeyouwere throwing t/iem owoy," says Cynthia. Many were actually losing money on each trip. So the huckstersbeganto see the value of banding together to get improved marketing regulations from the government,to

negotiate lower freight costs from shippers,to operate a rotating loanfund.And one very simple concretestep - to use proper cartons (with start-up funding from Oxfam)to reduce damage to th e produce. AsCynth ia says: "We couldn'tdeal withJhese problemsos indiwduols. Asa group weare stronger. We con get moreattention."

Through these activities, the huckster trade is changing. Cecil Joseph points to Cynthia and her daughter,Marjorie, as an example. Marjorie became a huckster as soon as she left school. On her fir st t ripto

Guadeloupe she sold 10,000 grapefruit Cynthia has never handled that amount in her 20 yearsin

the trade. Now Marjorie doesn't bother with the market place atall.She sells directly to the tophotels in Barbados. Informal traders are becoming formal exporters.

THEHUCKSTER SONG

Life can be so hardLife can be so difficult

Struggling every dayAlways far awayNo rest, no sleep, no playThe traders are hereto stay

I want youto listen to the story of the island tradeWhere the work is so hardThey have to fight and struggleto make the gradeBuying, grading,clearing, crating, shippingand selling, that is what they doMoving through the Caribbean bringing good

food for me and youFrom far, far away, the trade is with us each day

"Asagroupwe are

stronger.Weanget moreattention."



37/66

coffeeand preparebreakfast formyhusband and children. When they'veallbeenfed,1 start the four kilometre climbup into the mountains to pick coffee.While I'm working in the fieldsmy

daughtersare doing the housework,putting on thebeansto soak,washingthe clothes, tending the hens, chickens,pigs,goats and the mule.I'vegot11children and sevenare married butI'vegot enough daughters at home to helpme.

"When 1 getbackhome at about3 pmmost of the houseworkhas beendone, so

1 wash and beginto preparethe supper.Then most eveningsthere's ameeting togo to - to talkabout thebee-keepingproject or the celebrations for our feastday. So often1 won't get home until 10o'clockat night and then1 might have todo abit of sewingor somethingbeforeIgo tobed.And myhusbandstillcomplains thatI'm lazy!

"On ThursdaysI leavethe fields anhourearlyand go and workon the bee-keepingprojectwhich the women'sdevelopment association helped us set

The honey they sell through the bee-keeping project, helps bring in vital

extra cash. Altagracia can earn 24pesos a day if she can collect her fullquota of coffee. But thatis onlypossible if she gets her children tohelp her. Without help she usually

only earns12 pesos.To feed herfamily Altagracia needs at least threepounds of rice a day - rice costs 2pesos and10 cents a pound. The large,green bananas called plantain, thatalso form a basic part of the diet, cost70 cents each. Beans are the mainsource of protein and they cost fiveand a half pesos a pound, so beforeshe's even paid for her eggs, oil, sugarand coffee, Altagracia has spent herwages. The money her husband earnsas a small farmer helps pay for therest.

Both Carmen and Altagracia areproud of what they have achieved sofar, and are determined to keep onconfronting the daily problems theyare faced with.

Mercedes Jimenez, a social workerfrom the Association whose wages arepaid by Oxfam, said:"Weconstantlyget moreand moredemands fromnewcommunities which we can'tignore andwe have tried to respond to all these, butour aim is to strengthen the currentprojects ratherthanform new ones.Eventually theolderprojectsbecomeself-sufficient and wecanmove ontonewones.But with major problems, liketheappallinglackofhealthfacilities andthe very high illiteracy rates, we canonly makea very small contribution."

28 THECARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES


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CULTUREOF

RESISTANCE

; N evelopment means more than| | ., earning a bit more money. Itl^y also means the capacityofpoor people to analyze their problemsand hopes, to express them, and totransmit them to others.

KEEPINGALIVE THE

HOPESOF THE POORSong and poetry have always carriedthe message and hopes of the poor inthe Caribbean. The topical Calypsosongs of the English-speakingCaribbean are a kind of oralnewspaper, spreading news and socialcomment through the islands. Oftenthey deal with subjects that areembarrassing for the official media,such as the Barbadian calypso, Boots.Dealing with military spending, itwas banned in1983by order of TomAdams (theTom of the song), the thenPrime Minister.

Other forms,like decima in theDominican Republic, and theperformance poetry of the eastern

BOOTSIs it necessaryto have so much soldiers in this small country![Chorus] N o, no, no,noIs it necessaryto shine soldiers boots \ t. /with taxpayers money![Chorus] N o, no, no,no

Well don't tell me. Tell Tommy.He put themin St Lucy*Unemploymenthighand the treasurylowAnd he buying bootsto cover soldierstoe[Chorus]I seethemboots,boots,boots and

more boots

On the feetof theyoung trigger-happy recruitsMarching, threatening army troo psTell TomIsay that wouldn 'tdoHe gotto see about me andyouAnd mostof all the childrenAnd stop them soldiers from marching... Can we affordto feed an armyWhenso many children naked

and hungry![Chorus] No , no, no,noTrieMighty Gabby

THE CARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWN CHOICES 29


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Caribbean, poetry for recitation,follow in this tradition.

... Mister, don' feel up de fishIf you not buying, leaveit!

No Sir, sea egg price gone up.No Sir,1 ain't putit up

Is de governmentWhat you say sir!

If you could take my picture?How much you paying!

We natives doesn't poseFor free again!

Alright But lemmeFix up face.

All you move,Move darlin', move little bit darlin'(Tim Tim)

Dxfam supports cultural projectsthroughout the Caribbean. Oneexample is the Movement for CulturalAwareness in Dominica, a group ofwriters, researchers, musicians and

actors - six men and two women -which aims to preserve and developnational cultural forms which canfoster cultural identity and providepeople with techniques for expressingand analyzing their problems.

The MCA say:"Folkloreand thelocalCreole language [are] being usedin aprocessofdiscovering more aboutoeople's concerns."

Theyaredetermined, not only that the cultureof Dominica should be Dominican,but that it should belong to everyonerather than to an elite of professional

"The spiritual or cultural fis also] the subject of Development When onespeaksofraising theIml of consciousness of apeople,one means widening theirs m t oftheir ownpossibilities.It means giving them hope that action, purposeful action, canresult inan advance over their existingstate.Without hope thBere may be change,but it willhardlyqualifyas development."Barry Chevanne,University of the W est Indies

performers. Oxfam is supporting anew MCA programme to pass ontheir skills by training a core ofgrassroots cultural workers.

Sometimes the hopes of poor peopleare driven underground, expressedonly secretly. When that happens,culture provides an all-importantmeans of keeping hope alive. Theoccupation of Haiti byUS marinesduring the early years of this century,for example, prompted Haitianintellectuals to search for their roots inAfrican culture.

During the military occupation,there was a questioning and a re-examination of Haitian identity. It was

at this time that African cultural rootsbegan to be recognized, researchedand valued. From this came anexplosion of cultural forms that was atonce energetic and romantic. Therewere the 'naive' Haitian paintings thathave become world-famous with their



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colour, their vibrancy and theirgeometric patterning that sharecommon roots with West African art.This cultural movement was anexpression of Haitians' rejection oftheir foreign oppressors. But at thesame time, this art betrays the myth-making ofa generation of intellectualsin the 1920s and 1930s whose ardent

nationalism still rested on a romanticand patronizing notion of the 'native',whose roots go back to thephilosopher Rousseau and the painterGaugin.

When the occupiers withdrew, theultimate inheritor of the culturalrenaissance, the self-questioning andthe new nationalism was a diminutiveshy black doctor and amateuranthropologist - Francois Duvalier.He won out in a three-way scramblefor the presidency in1957.Heappealed to the masses as a black, bypresenting himself as the triumph ofthe blacks over the mulatto elite,while skillfully appeasing, and at thesame time controlling, the army andthe business sector.

Under the terror imposed by theDuvalier dictatorship, culture againbecame important, as it had beenunder the marines. One Haitianobserved:

"In our country, songhas beenoneofthemeans most used by thepeasantsto

Songhasbeenoneofthe means

most usedbythepeasantstorecounttheir joys,their

disappoint-mentsandtheirhopes.

THECARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES 31


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"Menohaffi shame

fe talk."

recount their joys, their disappointmentsand their hopes, even though theyaredespised by exploiters of all colours.Intheprocessof deterioration of our culture... some animatorsare struggling to

preservethesesongs. Clotaire,a youngpeasant originally from the CentralPlateau, captured the attention of manypeople with his songs ofrevolt,songsinwhich he questions an existence which isbrutal and absurd- an existence whichdestroys physically and alienatesmentally thepeasant.Composer andsinger Clotaire Alexandreraises hisvoice against this situation."

An example of efforts to preservethis popular culture was a week-longworkshop held in1982by Clotaire,with over 30 peasants drawn from'animation' (communitydevelopment) groups in the region:

"The participants were so interestedinlearning the songs that they lost trackoftime. These songs which invite deepreflection were introduced by thecomposer and discussed by theparticipants. These membersof[animation] groups, on their returntotheir communities, had the task ofteaching others what they hadlearned.

THEATRE IN

EDUCATION

Theatre can be a powerful techniqueallowing communities to explore theirproblems. In Jamaica, the Sistrentheatre group and the GroundworkTheatre Company do just this.Sistren's drama-in-educationworkshops are aimed at working

women. Groundwork's programmefocusses on youth who make up over60% of Jamaica's population. More

than a quarter of young people arewithout regular jobs.

Sistren, which means"sisters",began in 1977,when ten unemployedwomen given temporary work as

street cleaners on a government jobcreation scheme approached adirector to help them put on a play.

Every mothera working motherWe innait up to ourneck.One lickle fallandwe wreck

They explored their own suffering to

put together their firstplay. PaulineCrawford, a founder memberexplains:

"We were invitedto do a piece for theMay workers' day.Weasked the dramatutor for help in doinga dramapieceonhow womensuffer.Wedid a piece on thestruggle ina garment factory.It waswellreceived.They said 'You shouldsticktogether'.This was the birthofSistren. We wanted to become moreprofessional.I wanted the play to showwhat forces causedmymother to treatme likethat.This was how 'BellyWomanBangarang'cameabout.Thenwe hadto dealwith the problems of ourmen at home and our children. You'relearning the skills, preparingaproduction, and at the same time youhave tolookafter your home life. Therewasa lot of energy among us women,but when you came homeit was'whyyou come homeso late? wheremydinner?'"

The Groundwork Theatre Companywas founded in1981 as an arm of theJamaica School of Drama, but it failedto secure the government funding it

had been promised and began to charta new path. Moving closer todevelopment work, it changed its

32 THECARIBBEAN: MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES


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original name - the Graduate TheatreCompany - to reflect its neworientation.

They tour the island's secondaryschools, using drama to help relatethe English curriculum, withstudents' lives. There is a further spin-off as a member of the Companyexplained:

"For us, the far greater value is foundin the connection which they [thestudents] make with the cultural formswhich we use inthe presence of theirteachers... [This] legitimises for them

their cultural forms and allows themtorecognise that there is value in what istheirs- their language, their songs, theirrhythms, their movement- thereforeencouraging recognition that there isvalue in themselves. Several studentscome to us after the sessions and say inone form or another 'I feel proud when Isee youin my school. 'Me no haffishame fe talk'."

The community drama/animationprogramme takes this conclusion to

its logical next stage: the use of dramato empower the participants. During1987,for example, the programmefocused on the coffee-farmingcommunity of Green Hill/Cascade

Hills in Portland. Most of the estatesare owned by Japanese firms,government farms or absenteelandlords. The coffee estates provideemployment but wages are low andservices like running water orelectricity are rare. GTC's work in thearea, using drama as a means ofexploring the community's problems

with young people, led to theformation of the 30-strong CascadeSupersonic Action Club. Theyidentified lack of health services asone of the community's mainproblems and worked up a play todramatize health conditions to thecommunity."At last westart todosomethingfor weself," saidone groupmember. In 1986,similar workshopsin the community of Jericho inHanover identified and then

Over theyearsSistren have

becomemore thanskilled

performers:they have

also

attemptedto usetheatreincommunitywork.

THE CARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES 33


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overcame a feeling of hopelessnessand led to the formation of theorganization Jericho SurvivalIncorporated which focused on thelack of water supplies. The popular

theatre programme now sustainseight community theatre groups indifferent parishes.

For Sistren too, professional theatreis not enough. They have become oneof the best known popular theatregroups in the Caribbean. But over theyears Sistren have become more thanskilled performers: they have also

attempted to use theatre incommunity work, as Paulineexplained:

"We weren't satisfied that we were justdoing professional theatre. There is onekind of theatre for upper class people.Wedidn't feel comfortableat all. We decidedwe wanted a more intimate kind oftheatre where women could cometogether, laugh, cry, and just feel goodabout it. So we started the workshops.Sometimes dramatic pieces came out ofthem,because, often, Jamaican womencan't tellyou something without actingit out."

Sistren too have helped the growthof community drama groups. Oneofthese is the cultural group of sugarworkers on the Frome estate, whereSistren provided training incollaboration with the Social ActionCentre (a Jamaican non-governmentalorganization) which stimulated theformation of the group.

The present day labour movementin Jamaica owes its origins to a strikein 1938by workers on the Fromeestate in Westmoreland, with women

in the forefront, demanding betterthan the 3d and 6d a day they werepaid. And it is particularly the women

34 THECARIBBEAN:MAKINGOUR OWNCHOICES


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sugar workers who are making acontribution to keeping their heritagealive. The Sugar Workers CulturalGroup was formed in1980 by workersfrom ten farms on the Frome Estatesat a time when the sugar estates werebriefly turned into cooperatives underthe Manley government. Throughpoems, songs and drama thepredominantly female groupcommunicated the experience of thesugar workers. Their performancesspeak to the workers in their ownidiom about the problems of the area.

Their activities provide one of the fewchannels for organization andexpression for the2,000 workers onthe estates- more isolated from eachother since the disbanding of thecooperatives in 1981.

One sugar worker said that thecultural group had given them morepride in themselves, showing them

that they should "not copy otherpeople's culture but should look into ourday to day work on the farms and athome and make use of them. This wasour first experience in writing our ownsong,bringing out the fact that weareone of the best set of workers in theJamaican society."

THE CONTRADICTORYCARIBBEAN IDENTITY

Cultural identity is not a luxury. It isalso a pressing need for a regionsearching fora united voice in theinternational game of trade andpower pacts. From sugar and slavery,bananas and bauxite, to finance and

free-trade zones: since1492 theCaribbean's wealth has enrichedothers.

"There hasalwaysbeen an external wew o f this region thot ithas no intemol Wewof tself.That is whyyoustill thinkthe firstworld wor had something to do with you.Butit hod nothing to do with you except for using youas connon fodder. There isamw thatthe egion should become axrits of service stations (fortourism,forbankingand soonj.We han to find thelanguageto put our people in a criticalrelation to these things."George Lamming,novelist, Barbados

For the Caribbean to negotiate abetter deal for itself, it must firstrecognize itself as a region. Forging acommon Caribbean purpose andidentity has not beeneasy. Attempts

at Caribbean unity, such as the short-lived Caribbean Federation (1958-1961) among the English-speakingterritories failed, though a CaribbeanEconomic Community (CARICOM)was set up in1973.The admission ofHaiti and the Dominican Republic to



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CARIBBEAN .contactDEVASTATION

^idrtaup^MtwULa Pumo'iin

u h u d I 'und Su m Vol.. ti)u4> >0

FORTY DEATHS IT ".: ?.:

the European Community's LomeConvention has tripled the Caribbeanpopulation eligible for benefits underthe scheme. This has been a source ofsome concern to English speakingCaribbean nations already m embersof the scheme. The Caribbean'sidentity is a contradictory one. It is aregion with common problems butdivided by barriers of language, ofpolitical and of cultural trad ition. TheEnglish-speaking islands tend to bedrawn into the cultural orbit of theUK or US; the French-speakingislands into that of France and so on.Even travel routes often link the

islands to the United States ratherthan to each other. To fly fromKingston, Jamaica to Santo Dom ingo

in the Dominican Republic mayinvolve flying first over theDominican Republic to US territory inMiami or Puerto Rico and then backagain.

Though many factors pull theCaribbean islands apart, they share, atthe same time , a common identity. It isan identity forged in common Africandescent and the suffering of slavery;an identity forged in a commonculture of labour between thedescendents of African slaves andAsian indentured workers.

Non-governmental organizationshave perhaps gone further thangovernmen ts in trying to shareexperiences and build links. Amongthose whom Oxfam has supp orted areCARIPEDA, a regional body ofdevelopment organizations, thePuerto Rico-based Caribbean Projectfor Justice and Peace, and the

Caribbean Conference of Churches(CCC). The CCC also helps to shareideas through a monthly newspaperCaribbean Contact, produced fromBa rbados . With a circulation of28,000, the newspaper is, for manypeople, the main source of Caribbean-wide new s seen through Caribbeaneyes. Sometimes it is the only source.True to its name, it relies on a networkof contacts throughout the islands.Though published mainly in English,it carries a few articles in Spanish andFrench.

CREOLE: THE POLITICS

OF LANGUAGE

Even the language problem is not asdifficult as it might seem. Haiti isoften thought of as a French-speaking

36 THE CARIBBEAN: MAKINGOUR OW NCHOICES


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OXFAM PARTNER 4DOMINIQUE LEBRUN, LITERACY WORKER, HAITI

Dominique Lebrun was partof the Misyon Alpha team.She explained: "(fyou don't know now toread and

write,you con't paro'dpote in local government People know thisis trie woythey can resolve their health problems,

their irrigation problems,their credit problems- in short, their development problems." Misyon Alpha wasa hugeundertaking,but the enthusiasm was tremendous.

In the winter months,the sun is already going dow nby 5.30 when the farmers comein from their fields.

There is no electricityin most of the isolated villages.An oil lamp to light a literacy centre w ould cost

almost a third of a year's incomefor an agricultural labourer, and more thanthe church can affordtoprovide. "Bu t" says Dominique,"I hove seen people comein with their own litt/e alcohollomps, costing about

30p, lighting the centres witha flicker of mony tiny flomes."

The literacy programme workedin a multiplier fashion, traininga group of 21 educateurs,who trained250 /brmoteurs,who in turn trained about 2,500 moniteursat the base. The dedication of the moniteurstoo

was tremendous. Themselves poor peoplewho earned onlya token paymentof around 1.60 a month

for their work, they oftenset out to teach at 4.00 in the afternoon w ithou t having eatena slice of bread

all day. They might walk upto five milesto reach the literacy centres where they taught

Th e campaign's pilot phase taught7,000people in 14 parishes between September1985 and June 1986.

The second phase lasted untilthe end of 1987andreached some 75,000of a planned 93,000 people,

with around 50%of participants reaching full literacy.

This is perhaps remarkable given Haiti's recent

upheavals:the overthrow of the Duvalier regimein1986 andthe violence leadingup to and

accompanying electionsin 1987 and early 1988.Inthe rapidly worsening situation leading upto two

military coupsin 1988,the project was suspended.

However, many moniteursare continuingthe workas

best they can in isolation, training more peoplein

their own areas.

territory, while Dominica and St Luciaare English-speaking. The elites, whousually speak only these Europeanlanguages, are not able tocommunicate directly with each other,or (increasingly) have all to speakEnglish. But some groups of ordinarypeople have an alternative. They, in

fact, sharea common language:Creole. Though in the past it wasdescribed as 'pidgin' rather than a

KONSTITISYON SA SA YE?

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ bezwen yon^^^^K konstitisyon?

I^^^V Kile yon^^^P\ konstitisyon bon?

Nan jw6t dominogenregjwetlafkipamenm ak jwfet kat

ouswa jwfet f outbdl).Pou'm jwe jwet

konstitisyon fo-mkonnen rfeg-li!

y a n se potom*an tout Iwa k 'apV'" a ' """or* fok mwen bay lide pa-m tou pou



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true language, Creole is in fact aunique language created by theslaves, a mixture of African andEuropean languages.

This has made it possible for groups

from different parts of the Caribbeanto get together and exchangeexperience. People from Dominicaand St Lucia for example have beenable to attend training courses inanimation in Haiti run in Creole.

Documents

The Caribbean: Making our own choices