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Truth, Talk and History in the Non-Nation: Gwo Ka's Place on Marie-Galante, French Antilles1

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17411910802283850

1741-1920

Ron Emoff,

African history and culture studies

On Marie-Galante, a small island in the French Antilles, histories emerge not decidedly as texts that fix incontrovertible data in place. Rather, truths about what came before, and indeed what can viably perdure from the present, commonly take the form of contested and divergent narratives. While currently practised among Marie-Galantais, gwo ka drumming and its place on Marie-Galante form one such ground of truthful contention. Differing gazes upon the past then arise within another field of contestation: Marie-Galante, as a département of France, occupies a tenuous and peculiar place in the world, one informed by absent autonomy and processes of global dislocation. This article explores particular ways of recollecting slavery, of connecting with (or disconnecting from) France and of keeping and transmitting histories, all on an out-of-the-way island.