Slave Trade, Plantation Life and the Presence of African Languages in the Caribbean

1
Slave Trade, Plantation Life and the Presence of
African Languages in the Caribbean

• Nicole Scott

2
Questions

• What are the principal regions of origin of
  Africans in the Caribbean?
• What are the cultural and linguistic implications
  of the different regions of origin?

3
Questions contd

• What are the social contexts of African language
  survival in the Caribbean?
• What are the factors which contributed to the
  emergence of Creole languages in most, but not
  all Caribbean societies?

4
References

• Eltis, David David Richardson (1997) West
  Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade New
  Evidence of Long-run Trends in Routes to
  Slavery Direction, Ethnicity, and Mortality in
  the Transatlantic Slave Trade. David Eltis
  David Richardson (eds.) London Frank Cass,
  16-35. 2 O/S 1WIC

5
References contd

• Thornton, John (2000) The Birth of an Atlantic
  World in Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic
  Word A Student Reader. Verene Shepherd and
  Hilary McD Beckles (eds.) Kingston Ian Randale
  Publishers, 55-73. First published in Thornton,
  John (1992) in Africa and Africans in the Making
  of the Atlantic World 1400-1680 Cambridge CUP,
  13- 42. 6 RBC

6
Preliminaries

• 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.

7
Preliminaries

• 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

8
Preliminaries

• 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.

9
Preliminaries

• Slaves were -
• Prisoners of war
• Criminal offenders
• Debtors
• Abductees

10
Principal 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.

11
Map of West Africa
12
Note

• Historians do not have all the answers but the
  hope is that in this course we will be able
  assess patterns of cultural and linguistic
  retention and adaptation. The idea is for us to
  understand the ways in which Africans shaped the
  Atlantic world through agricultural innovations,
  belief systems and cultural practices. Language
  is very important to all these areas.

13
Principal 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).

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Principal 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

15
Principal Regions of Origin Senegambia contd

• General linguistic category Mande
• Very heterogeneous
• Mostly Muslims and Animists

16
Principal 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.

17
Principal 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.

18
Principal 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 ethno linguistic grouping.

19
Principal 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.

20
Principal Regions of Origin Slave Coast contd

• Language groupsEwe, Ga (subsumed under Kwa)
• 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.

21
Principal 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 -Kwa
  languages (to a lesser extent Hausa, Fulani
  West Atlantic language)

22
Principal Regions of Origin Biafra and Benin
contd

• Area dominated by the Yoruba in 17th Century
• Le Page argues that this is an area of fair
  linguistic diversity
• Area became more important in the latter part of
  the slave trade.

23
Principal Regions of Origin

• West Central Africa
• Modern day Cameroon
• Main language Kongo
• Mostly Bantu languages. There are at least 300
  Bantu languages (covering much of the continent
  from Cameroon in the west to the tip of South
  Africa).
• Angola
• Became important to the Caribbean in the latter
  part of trading.

24
Principal 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.

25
Niger 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
• Ga

26
Principal 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

27
Regions of Origin contd

• The Transatlantic Slave Trade largest long
  distance coerced migration in history. As it
  relates to the Caribbean, three regions
  dominated.
• The Gold Coast
• The Bight of Benin
• The Bight of Biafra

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Regions of origin contd

• These areas tend to be seen as the centre of
  gravity of traffic not just from West Africa but
  from the whole Sub-Saharan Africa.
• These areas had the largest population densities
  on the sub continent.

29
Regions of Origin contd

• Greatest urban development.
• Most sophisticated state structures (Gold Coast
  and Bight of Benin)
• Reasonably exclusive ethno-linguistic homogeneity
  within their hinterlands.

30
Regions of Origin contd

• Portuguese based in Brazil dominated trade in the
  Bight of Benin
• British were dominant in Gold coast and Bight of
  Biafra
• Dutch second largest number of voyages to the
  Gold Coast.

31
Regions of Origin contd

• French second largest group in Bight of Biafra
• After 1808 Cuban based Spanish slave traders
  became the largest group in the Bight of Biafra.

32
A Look at the Gold Coast

• The pattern of West African arrival in the
  Americas was far from random.
• The major single destination of Gold Coast slaves
  was Jamaica 36 of the arrivals. Many however
  went to other parts of British Americas

33
Gold Coast contd

• Two thirds of all slaves leaving the Gold Coast
  went to the English speaking new world.
• Barbados major 17th cent. destination
• Jamaica dominated the 18th cent.

34
Gold Coast contd

• Akan cultural prominence in Jamaica (Ahanta,
  Fanti, Akim and Asante peoples among others) is
  well noted in the slave trade.
• Spanish America second most important
  destination for Gold Coast slaves after Jamaica

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Contd

• Most from Bight of Benin went to Brazil (6/10)
• French Americas (2/10)
• British Caribbean (1/10)

36
Gold Coast Languages

• Kwa
• Akan - (Akwapem, Akim, Asante,Fante)
• Anyi
• Ewe
• Yoruba
• Ibo
• Ga
• (to name a few were spoken from the Ivory Coast
  to Nigeria)

37
Cultural and Linguistic Implications of Regional
Differentiation

• The enslaved people were a heterogeneous group.
• Could linguistic dominance have been established
  in spite of heterogeneity?

38
Cultural and Linguistic Implications of Regional
Differentiation

• The people were not homogenous in terms of nation
  but were they culturally and/or linguistically
  homogenous?

39
Culturally Homogeneous Areas

• Gold Coast Akan (Twi)
• Slave Coast Ewe (Fon)
• Niger Delta Yoruba until 17th C.

40
Linguistic Homogeneity

• Niger-Congo Languages have common features -
• Morpho-Syntax
• Copula, Serial Verbs, Negative concord,
  Isolating, Predicate Adjectives, Plurals,
  Reduplication.

41
Linguistic Homogeneity contd

• Phonology
• Open syllables, especially the inhibition of
  consonant clusters for e.g. JC wa what, simit
  smith
• Tone languages
• Palatalization

42
Linguistic Homogeneity

• Lexicon/Semantics
• Calques
• Loan words
• Semantic field (wood can refer to many things in
  JC etc.)

43
Cultural 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

44
Linguistic implications of different regions of
origin

• There could have been
• Lingua Franca at the trading posts.
• Pidgin on Middle Passage

45
Social 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)

46
Social 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

47
Social 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.

48
Social contexts of African Survival contd

• A few terms designating creatures.

49
Survival 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.

50
Survival 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

51
Survival 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

52
Socio-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)

53
Socio-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)

54
Socio-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.

55
Socio-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

56
Socio-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.

57
Conclusion

• 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 examine the
  sociohistoric context of the genesis, both life
  in plantation societies and the demographics of
  the population in each territory.