Title: Slave Trade, Plantation Life and the Presence of African Languages in the Caribbean
1Slave Trade, Plantation Life and the Presence of
African Languages in the Caribbean
2Preliminaries
- The rise of plantation moved from the
cultivation of crops like ginger, cotton, tobacco
to the labour intensive sugar. - Shortage of labour.
- The need to have labour unrewarded to increase
profits for plantation owners.
3Preliminaries
- The supply of a source of labour coerced and
free. - Increasingly a reliance on African slavery.
- Portuguese trading slaves from as early as 1479
- Spanish started in 1503
4Preliminaries
- Dutch started in 1630s.
- English and French started in the 1640s.
- Trading was mainly done by private trading
companies (along the West Coast). For e.g. Royal
African Companys trading post was established in
modern day Ghana at Elmina.
5Preliminaries
- Slaves were -
- Prisoners of war
- Criminal offenders
- Debtors
- Abductees
6Principal Regions of African Origin
- West Africa
- area bounded by Senegal River in the North to
contemporary Angola in the South - Includes countries such as Senegambia (Senegal
and Gambia), Sierra Leone, Windward Coast, Gold
Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, West
Central Africa.
7Map of West Africa
8Principal Regions of Origin
- Senegambia
- Modern Senegal and Gambia
- Largely dominated by the French after the 1600s.
- Groups came from inland territories (around upper
Niger River).
9Principal Regions of Origin Senegambia contd
- Groups spoke mostly Bambara, Wolof
- Mandingo slave traders brought them down to ports
and outposts - Slaves from interior preferred as they were less
likely to try to escape
10Principal Regions of Origin Senegambia contd
- General linguistic category Mande
- Very heterogeneous
- Mostly Muslims and Animists
-
11Principal Regions of Origin
- Windward Coast
- Trade along this part of the coast was haphazard
- The dominant languages in the area are those of
the Kru group.
12Principal Region of Origin
- Gold Coast
- Modern day Ghana
- Trading post dominated by Royal African Company.
The largest trading post was Elmina - Dutch expelled the Portuguese in 1642.
- Lexical items of Portuguese origin survive in
languages spoken there.
13Principal Region of OriginGold Coast contd
- Main language groups Ashanti, Fante, Agni (all
subsumed under the name Akan) - Enslaved Africans from this area would be more
likely to form an ethnolinguistic grouping.
14Principal Region of Origin
- Slave Coast
- Area particularly important in early slave trade,
especially 1700s - Area dominated by French by 1730s
- Africans sold to mostly British and French
traders.
15Principal Regions of Origin Slave Coast contd
- Language groupsEwe, Ga
- Dominance of this area in Atlantic Slave Trade
waned in 1790 - A relatively homogeneous culture (the Ewe) the
main variety of which is Fon but the languages
are closely related to Akan languages in
Morpho-syntactic structure.
16Principal Regions of Origin
- Bight of Biafra
- Bight of Benin
- Collectively form the Niger Delta area
- Modern day Benin and SE coast of Nigeria
respectively. - Main languages Yoruba, Ijo, Ibo, Efik (to a
lesser extent Hausa, Fulani)
17Principal Regions of Origin Biafra and Benin
contd
- Area dominated by the Yoruba in 17th Century
- LePage argues that this is an area of fair
linguistic diversity - Area became more important in the latter part of
the slave trade.
18Principal Regions of Origin
- West Central Africa
- Modern day Cameroon
- Main language Kongo
- Angola
- Became important to the Caribbean in the latter
part of trading.
19Principal Regions of African OriginLanguages
- By even conservative estimates, there are more
than 800 distinct languages in Africa. - The largest, most far-flung family is
Niger-Kordofanian. - Kordofanian includes pockets of little studied
languages in Sudan - Niger-Congo includes all the West African Coastal
Languages as well as the Bantu subgroup.
20Principal Region of African Origin--Languages
- There are at least 300 Bantu languages (covering
much of the continent from Cameroon in the west
to the tip of South Africa). - There are several different subgroups of Bantu
languages.
21Niger Congo Language Family
- Niger Congo
- Bantu Kwa Mande W/Atlantic
- Kikongo Akan(Twi) Mandingo Wolof
- Luba Anyi Bambara Serer
- Lingala Ewe Mande Fulani
- Kimbundu Yoruba
- Ibo
22Principal Region of Origin
- West Africa is the most populous area and it also
has the most languages. - Nigeria alone is estimated to have over 300
languages
23Cultural and Linguistic Implications of Regional
Differentiation
- The enslaved people were a heterogeneous group.
- Could linguistic dominance have been established
in spite of heterogeneity?
24Cultural and Linguistic Implications of Regional
Differentiation
- People were not homogenous in terms of nation but
were they culturally and/or linguistically
homogenous?
25Culturally Homogeneous Areas
- Gold Coast Akan (Twi)
- Slave Coast Ewe (Fon)
- Niger Delta Yoruba until 17th C.
26Linguistic Homogeneity
- Niger-Congo Languages have common features -
- Morpho-Syntax
- Copula, Serial Verbs, Negative concord,
Isolating, Predicate Adjectives, Plurals,
Reduplication.
27Linguistic Homogeneity contd
- Phonology
- Open syllables, especially the inhibition of
consonant clusters for e.g. JC wa what, simit
smith - Tone languages
- Palatalization
28Linguistic Homogeneity
- Lexicon/Semantics
- Calques
- Loan words
- Semantic field (wood can refer to many things in
JC etc.)
29Cultural and Linguistic Implications of Different
areas of Origin
- Cultural --Upon arriving in the Caribbean they
would still be enemies. Negated many efforts to
overcome oppressors by joining forces. - Linguistic some languages were more closely
related than others
30Linguistic implications of different regions of
origin
- There could have been
- Lingua Franca at the trading posts.
- Pidgin on Middle Passage
31Social Context of African Language Survival in
the Caribbean
- Retentions (full sentences) found mostly in the
African rituals/religious practices. In Jamaica
for example the Maroons use(d) Kromanti to
communicate with ancestors (see also Aub-Buscher
pg7-8). - Dishes, amusements and customs. (ibid)
32Social Context of African Language Retention
- Past times. In TFC ninnin riddle could have
come from Bambara nyini to look for, (Bazin
1906470-1). Bèlè a dance with drums and
singing from Nde, mbelése I dance. - Customs relating to economic life
- Carrying load on head JC Kata. Kata in Twi means
to cover. - Pathner (Savings) TFC susu in Igbo is esusu
33Social context of African Language survival contd
- Intimate, possibly taboo subjects such as certain
parts of the body TFC tutun, JC tuntun, in
Bambaa tununin which means private parts - Designations of people and their characteristics.
TFC béké white man. This form is used in this
sense in Igbo today.
34Social contexts of African Survival contd
- A few terms designating creatures.
35Survival contd
- Lexical items taken as they are or with slight
phonological changes. - Calques (loan translations)
- JC for e.g. Gad Aas (the preying mantis) can be
found in Hausa Dokim (horse) Allah (God). Yai
waata tears - TFC dlo zyé tears, zo tèt skull
- Berbice Dutch.
36Survival contd
- Morphological features maintained morphological
features but lexical items were not retained for
e.g. in Berbice Dutch Creole the demonstrative is
formed by post posing the definite article to the
noun as in Nembe (Ijo). - Nembe mi wari mi
- BDC di wari di
- the house the
- this house
37Survival contd
- Morphological features contd
- Reduplication (lexical and/or morphological) eg
in JC poto-poto muddy, miry, etc TFC toupatou
everywhere but toupatou-toupatou JC aalbout
aalbout Dou sweet, doudou - sweetheart - Compounding JC kis-tiit, bata-bruuz
38Socio-historic Context of Creole Genesis
- Life in plantation societies
- The impact of the Caribbean plantation context on
language - - Nature of crops (labour intensive vs tobacco,
coffee, cocoa, annatto) - Black to White ratio
- Presence of European indentured labourers working
alongside enslaved Africans (compare Barbados
with Jamaica)
39Socio-historic context of Creole Genesis contd
- Nature of European presence (compare absentee
planters in the société de plantation with
homesteads in the société de habitation) - Size of holdings (acreage under cultivation and
the slave population required to maintain that
size holding) (related to types of crops). - Stratification within the slave population (again
compare sugar with other crops)
40Socio-historic Context of Creole Genesis
- Ethnic and linguistic diversity (vs. homogeneity)
within slave population. - Extent of networking between slave populations of
different plantations. - Geography of the plantationsphysical separation
of Europeans and Africans. - Geography of the wider terrainphysical
separation of plantations. -
41Socio-historic Context of Creole Genesis
- Demographics
- Origins of enslaved Africans over different
periods of the slave trade - Origins of enslaved Africans from different ports
- Differences between slave-trading nations
42Socio-historic Context of Creole Genesis
- Direct arrivals vs transshipments of enslaved
Africans - Life expectancy/rate of renewal of the enslaved
population - Birth rate and child mortality
- Out-migration
- Internal population shifts (e.g. from plantations
to maroon communities) - Origins of European population.
43Conclusion
- The presence of the Africans in the Caribbean
increased the number of languages present in the
region. They brought new languages and coined
new ones (Creoles). Issues relating to the
formation of Creoles must necessarily the
sociohistoric context of the genesis, both life
in plantation societies and the demographics of
the population in each territory.