Presentation

This is an introductory course to the history and anthropology of the Caribbean and the “black Americas”, for first-year students in the dual French-Caribbean program.

It will provide students with the keys to the socio-cultural worlds of the Caribbean archipelago and more broadly to the so-called "Black Americas",  which have been strongly  conditioned by their historical circumstances. This introductory phase will enable students to acquire the basic knowledge necessary before proceeding to the second phase, during which they will gain a more in-depth understanding of the region and prepare for immersion into the Caribbean world. The themes addressed are: the slave trade as a founding event, dispersion across an impossible elsewhere, the second stratum of the diaspora (contemporary migration and restoration of old relations), and three theories about the black cultural world of the Americas. A multiple perspective research question? The course is based on the example of the family institution examined through the prism of the three theories on the African-American world.

Bibliography

• BASTIDE R., 1996 [1967], Les Amériques noires, Paris, L’Harmattan.
• CHIVALLON C., 2004, La diaspora noire des Amériques. Expériences et théories à partir de la Caraïbe, Paris, CNRS-Éditions.
• THOMAS H, 1997, The Slave Trade. The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, New York, Touchstone Rockefeller Center.

Educational formula

In this particular course, the students are invited to exchange, and to participate actively…The final sessions will be devoted to group presentations, to help students to better understand a number of questions and issues related to the Caribbean history.