Dis a fi mi History Podcast

Unraveling the Intricacies of Racial Passing in Jamaican Colonial Society

In this captivating episode of the Dis a fi mi History Podcast, host Wendy Aris engages in a stimulating conversation with legal historian Dr. Justine K. Collins. They highlight a fascinating aspect of Jamaican colonial history: the concept of racial passing and its complex interplay with legal proceedings. Significantly, Dr. Collins delivers an into deep analysis of the Jamaican plantocracy's crafty usage of private bills to seize and secure power, contributing to the eventful assertion of white dominion.
Dr. Collins’ scholarly exploration unearths the profound influence such private bills had on altering class and racial perspectives within Jamaican society. These bills had the profound effect of elevating the status of mixed-race children, effectively showcasing racial passing in a society where skin color and lineage were paramount. A key part of their dialogue surrounds the convoluted process of racial identification during this historical period, exploring the variety of terms that meticulously detailed differing levels of blackness or whiteness.
Their conversation holds relevance beyond history, as it uncovers a purposely built social hierarchy and the normative implications such classifications carried on facets like property ownership, political inclusion, and communal rank. Gain a deeper understanding of these complexities, enriched by Dr. Collins’ extensive research on these private bills and her valuable use of first-hand records from the National Archives in Kew, London.
Dive into the lesser-discussed nuances of Caribbean history, moving beyond the typical discourse surrounding slavery and tourism. Recognize the enduring theme of division and control manifesting from the concept of race as stipulated in these bills, extending to the division within the 'free people of color'. Discover how these narratives were manipulated to emphasize social difference and preserve the status quo, illustrating the law's role not merely as a tool for maintaining order, but a weapon wielded for societal manipulation.
This riveting episode provides invaluable insight for those interested in family history or broader societal dynamics. It offers a glimpse into a societal framework moulded over time, some elements of which still echo in today's structures. Join this academic journey through documented laws and their far-reaching implications on both individuals and society at large.
BIO:
Dr. Collins is a legal historian and specialises in the intersection of law and society particularly within colonial slavery laws of the Atlantic World. She completed her doctoral studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt in conjunction with the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt, Germany. Her thesis engaged legal comparative analysis to trace the origins and influences of the British Caribbean slavery codes. This thesis research - Tracing British West Indian Slavery: An Analysis of Legal Transplants - was published by Routledge in 2021.
Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Justine-K-Collins/dp/1032122994
Follow: Twitter: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Morning Journal Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXMTL3NV 
Genealogy Workbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NRHG3M3
 
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
 #history #jamaicanhistory #jamaicapodcast #History #BritishAtlanticHistory #Slavecode #CaribbeanHistory #SlaveHistroy #JamaicaHistory
 

A Conversation with Professor Josiana Arroyo-Martinez

In our latest episode of the Disafemi History Podcast, we host an enriching conversation with esteemed scholar Professor Josiana Arroyo-Martinez from the University of Texas, Austin. This episode delves deep into death rituals and their sociocultural implications in Caribbean communities, offering listeners a fresh perspective on a seldom-explored subject.
Professor Arroyo-Martinez brings insights into the intriguing topic "Cities of the Dead, Performing Life in the Caribbean", discussing how Afro and European traditions blend, and how the memory of those enslaved from Africa deeply roots funerary practices. She also engages us with the narrative of the Atlantic Ocean as the first burial site for the Caribbean people, a chilling reminder of the brutal transatlantic slave trade.
Discussing the importance of narrative and its relation to life, death, and performance in Caribbean societies, the professor utilizes intriguing cultural artifacts. Through the film 'Juan de los Muertos,' Eduardo Lalo's documentary 'La Ciudad Perdida,' and the performative funerals of Funeral Marin, she showcases the unique ways these communities engage with life, death, and performance.
Interrogating societal narratives around life, loss, and violence, the discussion explores themes of gender, race, and power structures. Professor Arroyo-Martinez illuminates cultural underpinnings of our relationship to death and survival, and questions the role of death images in re-traumatizing communities or aiding in their healing.
Join us to understand the intricate dance of life, death, and identity in Caribbean societies, as we delve into performative mourning, funeral rituals, and photographic documentation of death. This episode further highlights the symbolism and significance of life-death rituals as symbols of societal resilience and discusses the future of research in this captivating field.
Bio: Born in Puerto Rico Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez (BA, University of Puerto Rico, 1989, PhD University of California at Berkeley, 1998) is a literary and cultural studies scholar who specializes in the analysis of Afro-Diasporic literatures and cultures in the Americas, critical race studies, queer studies, and media studies. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The University of Austin, Texas. She also holds an appointment at the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. She is the author of Travestismos culturales: literatura y etnografía en Cuba y Brasil (Iberoamericana, 2003) a critique of cultural racism in the work of Gilberto Freyre and Fernando Ortiz, and several Cuban and Brazilian novels, and Writing Secrecy in Caribbean Freemasonry (Palgrave, 2013), an analysis of transnational, racial and colonial dimensions of Masonic encounters in the circum-Caribbean and the United States (1850-1898). She has contributing essays on Brazilian and Caribbean Literatures at Lusosex Sexualities in the Portuguese Speaking World (2002); Technofuturos (2008). She has published at Encuentro de la cultura cubana, La Habana Elegante, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Latino Studies, and CENTRO Journal for Puerto Rican Studies, among many other national and international publications. Her new research project entitled Mediascapes is an analysis of local and transnational Caribbean cultures in new media and their ways of representing race, ethnicity and culture in neoliberal times.
Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Caribes-2-0-Globalization-Afterlives-Disaster/dp/1978819749
Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569325.2018.1485559
Workbook https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy...
FeedSpot https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbe...
Morning Journal: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXMTL3NV
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #death #spanishhispanola #african #africandiaspora

Dr. Mary Njeri Kinyanjui - African Markets and the Utu-Ubuntu Business Model

This episode I speak with Dr. Mary Njeri Kinyanjui discussing her book African Markets and the Utu-Ubuntu Business Model. 
Where UTU (SWAHILI) meaning humanity, human nature
Ubuntu (ZULU) is an ancient African word meaning 'humanity to others.
Bio:
Dr. Mary Njeri Kinyanjui is a retired researcher at the Institute for Development studies, University of Nairobi. She holds a PhD in Geography from Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, and an MA from Kenyatta University, Kenya. She has a wide experience in the study of women and livelihoods. She has published many articles and books on the subject. She has also been involved in gender activism in her country Kenya. 
Book Link:
https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Mary-Njeri-Kinyanjui/dp/1013293525
 
Workbook https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy...
FeedSpot https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbe...
Morning Journal: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXMTL3NV
 
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #UTU #UBANTU #african #africandiaspora
 

Braided Archives - Océane Nyela

In this episode I speak with Phd Candidate Océane Nyela about black hair using the basis of the discussion her masters paper Braided Archives. Bio Phd candidate in communication culture studying hair braiding as (pre)/nonfigurative media in the Black diaspora Link
Website https://www.oceanenyela.ca/
Follow: Twitter/X: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Workbook https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy...
FeedSpot https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbe...
 
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) #caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #braided #hair #african #africandiaspora

Dr Jean Small - AFRICAN RETENTIONS IN FUNERAL RITES IN THE CARIBBEAN

In this episode I discuss the funeral rites with Dr Jean Small.
 
Bio:
JEAN SMALL is a Guyanese Jamaican living in Jamaica since 1954. She graduated from the University of the West Indies in Foreign Languages,–French, Spanish and Latin and her profession all her life has been as an educator. She has worked in Guyana, Trinidad, Nigeria, Australia and here in Jamaica as a teacher of French at both Secondary and University levels. In 2010 Dr Small was awarded the BRONZE MUSGRAVE MEDAL by the Institute of Jamaica for excellence in theatre. In that same year she received the LIFE AWARD from the Jamaica Association of Dramatic Artists for over fifty years of contribution to theatre in the Caribbean as well as a plaque from the Republic of Guyana for her outstanding contribution to theatre. In 2011 Dr. Small was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy for her thesis on CREATIVTY AND THE USE OF THEATRE TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Dr. Small is divorced and has one son, Seretse Small, who is a guitarist and CEO of his own company GRIOT MUSIC.
 
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Twitter/X: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Workbook https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy...
FeedSpot https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbe...
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #death #funeral #african 

Revealing the Hidden meaning of Hair in African Literature - Professor Joseph Fashola

In this episode I speak with Professor Joseph Fashola
Bio:
Joseph Fashola holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria with special interest in Social Philosophy, African Philosophy, Metaphysics and Logic. He is currently a lecturer in Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria.
Book: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks...
 
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Twitter/X: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Workbook https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy...
FeedSpot https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbe...
 
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
 
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #hairstyle #hair #africanhair #africanhairstyle

Dr. Sonia Peter - Caribbean Teas

In this episode I speak with Dr Sonia Peter about Caribbean Teas.
Bio:
Dr Sonia Peter is a Natural Product Chemist with interests in ethnomedicine, ethnobotany and plant conservation. She founded the non-profit organization to engage the public within a science engagement platform to promote the value of the plant resource for food security and wellness. She is published in scientific journals on natural product discovery and has penned the plant heritage book entitled ‘Seed Under the Leaf’. The company owner of Heritage Teas.
Heritage Teas Website:
https://worldteaexpo.vporoom.com/HeritageTeas/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HeritageTeasBarbados/
Bio-Education Website:
https://biocultural-education-berp.squarespace.com/meet-the-team
Book Link:
https://www-origin.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31401508467&tab=1&searchurl=
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedUnderTheLeaf2014/
 
Follow:
X: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Workbook
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy-aris/genealogy-workbook/paperback/product-88wyv4.html?page=1&pageSize=4
FeedSpot
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbean_history_podcasts/
 
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #caribbeanteas #barbados #bushtea

Dr Maria del Pilar Kaladeen - A Daughter's Journey from Indenture to Windrush

In this episode I speak with Dr Maria del Pilar Kaladeen about her journey through family history which is based on the article that she wrote "A Daughter's Journey from Indenture to Windrush". This journey of self discovery comes with many turns and viewpoints, and connection to self.
Bio:
María del Pilar Kaladeen is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Her work considers issues of memory, cultural identity, and Empire. She is the editor of the anthologies We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture (University of London Press, 2018) and The Other Windrush: Legacies of Indenture in Britain’s Caribbean Empire (Pluto Press, 2021). María is also one of the co-editors of the new Journal for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies.
Article Link: https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0218/ch17.xhtml
Website:
https://mariadelpilarkaladeen.com/
Social Media
X @MariaKaladeen
Instagram @MariaKaladeen
 
Follow:
Twitter/X: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Workbook
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy-aris/genealogy-workbook/paperback/product-88wyv4.html?page=1&pageSize=4
FeedSpot
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbean_history_podcasts/
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
 
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #indenture #guyana

Glenda -Rose Layne - Honouring Caribbean Folk Cultures: A Personal Reflection

In this episode I speak with Ms. Glenda-Rose Layne on the importance of retaining cultural identity. With a concentration on the paper titled Honouring Caribbean Folk Cultures: A Personal Reflection.
Bio:
Glenda-Rose Layne is a professional Storyteller, actress, director, playwright and a performing artist, a Cultural Researcher, and an Academic; she holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts and Cultural Enterprise Management, a Master of Arts in Carnival Studies and is presently a PhD Candidate at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), Ms Layne is a Certified Theatre in Education Drama in Education Practitioner and a Researcher with a specific focus on the indigenous and Traditional Arts of the Caribbean. She is the holder of three Gold Medals, one Bronze, one Industry award for Acting and Spokes model at the World Championship of the Performing Arts Hollywood California. In her capacity as a Researcher and Academic; she has presented at various international conferences and has published works; she is presently the National Ambassador for Trinidad and Tobago for the European Association of Social Anthropology - Applied Anthropology Network (EASA-AAN)
Article: https://doi.org/10.18733/cpi29506
Links: https://www.feelingdigital.org/layne
 
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Twitter: @eppinghall
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Workbook
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy-aris/genealogy-workbook/paperback/product-88wyv4.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Blank Cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096M1LC92
 
 
#caribbean #caribbeanculture #history
 

Chef Keisha Griggs - Caribbean Cuisine

In this episode I speak with Chef Keisha Griggs where we discuss foods from the Caribbean and how it represents the history of family and Caribbean people.
Bio:
Chef Keisha Griggs realized her love for cooking at an early age. Within her Trinidadian heritage, good food always came with a great memory. After 13 years as an interactive marketing executive, Chef Keisha followed her passion and lifelong love of cooking to pursue a career in the culinary industry. After graduating from the Arts Institute honored Culinary Arts program, she has had the opportunity to work alongside some of Houston's most prestigious chefs and restaurants, crafting techniques in classical French, Asian, Vegetarian, Vegan, New American, and fine dining cuisines.
Restaurant & Catering
https://www.bocagecatering.com/our-vision
Article:
https://www.cuisinenoirmag.com/chef-keisha-griggs-houston/
TikTock
https://www.tiktok.com/@chefkeishagriggs
Follow:
Twitter: @eppinghall
Instagram: @berkshirehalleppingpress
Workbook
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy-aris/genealogy-workbook/paperback/product-88wyv4.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Blank Cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096M1LC92
 
 
#foodways #caribbeanfoodways #foodhistory