Resistance In Jamaica

It is no secret that the people of the Caribbean are resilient. Caribbean countries have had to deal with hurricanes, earthquakes, epidemics and scores ailments that could break any society. We have, however, persevered and often times the world questions how we are able to experience atrocities and perilous times so severe and still survive as a region. Perhaps the answer to this question can be found in the pages of our history books and the oral reports passed down from our ancestors of the unshakable resilience of our people. The truth is, with research, one would find that, despite various efforts to restrain enslaved blacks, the Africans resisted slavery. Resistance of slavery found itself in many different forms. There was resistance …show more content…
Slaves would mix parts of their culture into the culture forced onto the by the Europeans in an effort to subtly resist. For example, Africans were forced to learn the language of the Europeans but still mixed in their own languages to create the unique creole that still survives today (Sweet, 2015). Actually, words like “unna” can still be heard in countries like Jamaica today. Another outlet of the cultural resistance of the Africans was music and dance. The Africans’ native music was heavily laden with drums and their dance was “wild” and more about feeling than structure, unlike the Europeans. Slaves incorporated this into their everyday leisure time and often would be heard beating drums and dancing in the way that they were culturally accustomed to. This resistance, like the language, survived for centuries and is still in existence in the music that will be found frequenting the homes and businesses of the Caribbean, as well as the dance moves. Calypso, dub, Reggae, Spouge and more are all forms of the African sound mixed with influences from the West. Dances like what the Barbadians call “wukking up” can also be seen as a variant of the daces that the Africans brought to the Caribbean as resistance of the imposition of European culture on them. Another pertinent example of the resistance of the slave can be found in the religions that existed then and still exist today. For example, religious beliefs like Vodun and Obeah are obvious examples of slave resistance. When the slaves were brought to the Americas, they were forced to accept the religion of the Europeans: Christianity. According to Alexander Giraldo, “Obeah men were important in the rousing, organization, and execution of slave revolts and slave resistance in general. Whites feared their power to invoke a rebellion and enslaved blacks were petrified at the