LITERARY HISTORY OF THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

This paper is a culminating effort to illuminate the contributions made by the progenies of Indian and African indenture to the history of literature in the Caribbean. These writers of the Indian and African descent bring to bear on the most salient issues of physical toil, economic hardship, pain, frustration, uncertainty and entrapment encountered by their forefathers. Their works procure the history and construction of racial inequality in Caribbean colonization. According to the Britannica, “the literature of Caribbean has no indigenous tradition”. Initially the Caribbean had ‘oral tradition’ which gradually faded away. Later the African who were brought as slaves also had the same tradition of ‘orality’. Even they could not add to the Caribbean tradition as they suffered in bondage. The Indians who replaced the Africans in 1930s brought their rich culture and tradition with them. The Africans passed on their culture of orality and Indians passed on their rich culture and tradition. These together with the conventions of the European colonizers comprised the Caribbean literature.