In this lecture, we will consider the decolonisation of the Caribbean region, particularly in terms of the multiple forms it has taken and why this is so. Throughout, we will reflect on whether the notion of ‘neo-colonialism’ is useful for understanding this process.

Suggested Reading

Aub-Buscher, Gertrud and Noakes, Beverly Ormerod (Eds), The Francophone Caribbean Today: Literature, Language, Culture (Kingston, Jamaica, 2003).

Bishop, Matthew Louis, The Political Economy of Caribbean Development (Basingstoke, 2013).

Burton, Richard D.E. and Reno, Fred (eds), French and West Indian: Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana Today (London, 1995).

García Muñiz, Humberto, ‘The Colonial Persuasion: Puerto Rico and Dutch and French Antilles’ in Stephan Palmié and Francisco A. Scarano (eds), The Caribbean: A History of the Region and its Peoples (Chicago, 2011), pp. 537-551.

Knight, Franklin W. & Colin Palmer (eds), The Modern Caribbean (Chapel Hill, 1989)

Knight, Franklin W., The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism (2nd edition, Oxford, 1990), pp. 257-331.

Macpherson, Anne S., ‘Toward Decolonization’ in Stephan Palmié and Francisco A. Scarano (eds), The Caribbean: A History of the Region and its Peoples (Chicago, 2011), pp. 475-489.

Maingot, Anthony P., ‘Independence and its Aftermath: Suriname, Trinidad, and Jamaica’ in Stephan Palmié and Francisco A. Scarano (eds), The Caribbean: A History of the Region and its Peoples (Chicago, 2011), pp. 523-537.

Mawby, Spencer, Ordering Independence: The End of Empire in the Anglophone Caribbean, 1947-69 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Millette, J., ‘Decolonization, populist movements and the formation of new nations, 1945-1970’, in Brereton, B. (ed.) The Caribbean in the Twentieth Century (London: UNESCO Publishing, 2004), pp. 174-223.

Nicholls, David, From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti (Cambridge, 1980).

Potter, R., Barker, D., Conway, D. and Klak, T., ‘Political realities in the Caribbean’ in The Contemporary Caribbean (Harlow: Pearson, 2004), pp. 444-479.

Wallace, Elisabeth, The British Caribbean: From the Decline of Colonialism to the End of Federation (1977)

Wallace, Elizabeth, ‘The Break-up of the British West Indies Federation’ in Hilary Beckles and Verene Shepherd (eds), Caribbean Freedom: Economy and Society from Emancipation to the Present: A Student Reader (London, 1993), pp. 455-475.

Videos

Dr Lennox Honychurch's lecture on the West Indian Federation and the implications for the present, delivered at UWI, St Augustine on 5 November 2012:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOunU3nE11E&list=UUOOMVB_QC9vzRe_sswDUqbg&index=1