Introduction
The clash of civilizations and cultures always results in certain tensions that arise not only between people who belong to different traditions but also within each individual involved. Throughout history, people have exchanged their values, beliefs, and customs with their neighbors through trade, the establishment of close near-border ties, and immigration or with conquerors and conquered nations. In this regard, the cases when minority groups find themselves surrounded by the dominant culture due to subjugation or immigration are of special interest among social scientists. As such, this condition is characterized by potentially colossal conflicts due to existing coercive elements. For instance, as for the U.S., Anzaldúa notes that she experienced great pressure from the educational establishment to teach solely American literature to Chicano students and avoid mentioning the Chicano authors (60). In a similar vein, the people of African descendants who were brought to the Western Hemisphere as slaves experience identical issues.
After some time, the minority groups partly (forced to) assimilate with the dominant culture and somewhat maintain their original views on the world. As a consequence, such an existence in two distinctly different cultures may lead to problems related to self-identification (Mushtaq 631). To conceptualize this phenomenon, William Du Bois suggests the framework of dual consciousness based on his experience as an African-American in the U.S. As an extension of Du Bois’ theory, Paul Gilroy discusses why the black community in the Western Hemisphere (Black Atlantic) struggles to harmonize their African and European backgrounds (1). However, although this framework was developed to refer to all the people of African descendants who ‘immigrated’ to the West as slaves, most of the literature investigates the experiences of African-Americans. Conversely, the experiences of black people in Latin America and the Caribbean, which can be very different from those in the U.S., are mostly left uncovered. Therefore, to partly address this gap, the current paper seeks to investigate the identity issues in the latter regions by taking Cuba as an example.
Literature Review
Du Bois’ Concept of Double Consciousness
In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois describes the phenomenon of double consciousness in people of African origin. The author argues that the person’s understanding of oneself is grounded in the dialogue with others which is always governed by the implicit relations of power (Meer 52). In essence, this approach provides quite a different perspective on identity construction than previous sociological theories such as symbolic interactionism. It switches the emphasis from equal exchange to interaction based on dominance. As a result, the double consciousness means that black people sometimes see and evaluate themselves from the standpoint of white individuals (Brand 3). On the contrary, they can also assess the dominant culture from the perspective of subjugated aliens.
Gilroy’s ‘Black Atlantic’
Gilroy extends the argument made by Du Bois and maintains that modernity is characterized by considering various cultures as mutually exclusive to each other, which creates the problems with reconciliation of double consciousness. As a consequence, such a view on race and ethnicity fails to recognize the appearance of the new forms of identity throughout the 18th and 19th centuries (Gilroy 2). Moreover, the scholar mentions that the prevailing view in the literature on racial and cultural studies is that, for instance, African-American identity is quite different from African-Cuban. However, Gilroy maintains that throughout history, black intellectuals traveled across the Atlantic, which created the transnational black diaspora. Additionally, the author argues that all the people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere share the experience of slavery, music, and religious traditions, which further proves his position concerning the transnational black diaspora.
Research Question and Study Design
As mentioned above, the current study aims to analyze black identity issues in Cuba. In this regard, the paper’s research question is: “How have black people in Cuba reconciled or rejected the three main identities present in the country, including white, African, and Cuban identities?” To successfully answer this question, the qualitative content analysis method will be used to examine one of the documentary movies from the series Black in Latin America devoted to Cuba. As such, the results will be interpreted using Du Bois’ and Gilroy’s frameworks as guidance.
Black People and Their Identities in Cuba
Black vs. National Identity
One of the first themes that the analysis revealed is the different interplay of identities in the U.S. than in Cuba. As Henry Gates Jr. – the host of the show – notices that in the U.S., black people would say something similar to ‘I am black and I am American’ On the contrary, in Cuba, individuals of African origin would rather say ‘I am Cuban, and I am black’. Such a difference may exist since the race in the U.S. is quite “politicized that no one is complete without one” (Wade 13). Moreover, the increasing tensions between various races have led to an increased separation between people and the phenomenon that Americans mostly identify with their ethnic groups rather than with common nationality (Hazony). Contrariwise, in Cuba, the efforts of Fidel Castro have made people more concerned with their national unity than racial division. Therefore, dual consciousness may be associated with less internal conflict in Cuba.
Dynamic Double Consciousness
The second theme identified from the documentary about Cuba concerns the dynamic nature of double consciousness throughout history. For instance, from the 1890s to 1925 there was a colossal attempt to erase the black identity as it was associated with something “immoral” and “ugly” (Black in Latin America 00:22:21-00:22:25). Conversely, after the revolution of the 1950s, black identity lost its negative connotation, at least in official public discourse. Thus, the double consciousness can evolve and change over time which may, in theory, lead to additional self-identification difficulties among black people in this country.
‘Black Atlantic’ Identity in Cuba
Finally, the qualitative content analysis revealed that there is indeed a base for the ‘Black Atlantic’ identity in Cuba. In this respect, Gates Jr. analyzes some of the religious traditions and music common across the black communities in the Western Hemisphere. For instance, the host argues that the African called Eleguá in Cuba can be found in many other Latin American countries. Moreover, he discusses the slavery legacy in Cuba, which is also quite similar to those in other Latin American countries and the U.S. Therefore, it can be argued that there is strong evidence that ‘Black Atlantic’ can be the identity that transcends national borders.
Conclusion
Overall, the current paper examined the issues related to black identity in Latina America by conducting a qualitative content analysis of one of the chapters of Black in Latin America dedicated to Cuba. The investigation applied the two frameworks, including Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness and Gilroy’s ‘Black Atlantic’. It was found that compared to the U.S., the national identity among Cuban black individuals prevails over the racial identity. Additionally, it was determined that from the historical perspective, Cuban dual consciousness is very dynamic as the perceptions towards ‘blackness’ varied significantly. Lastly, it was found that there is indeed a strong base for a common ‘Black Atlantic’ identity among people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere. Therefore, it can be concluded that the identity phenomenon in Latin America can significantly differ from the one in the U.S.
Works Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 1987.
Black in Latin America. Produced and hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., PBS, 2011.
Brand, Anna Livia. “The Duality of Space: The Built World of Du Bois’ Double-Consciousness.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 36, no.1, 2018, pp. 3-22.
Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Verso, 1993.
Hazony, Yoram. “How Americans Lost Their National Identity.” Time, 2018, Web.
Kwakkel, Erik. “The Beauty of the Injured Book.” Medieval Fragments, 2014, Web.
Meer, Nasar. “WEB Du Bois, Double Consciousness and the ‘Spirit’of Recognition.” The Sociological Review, vol. 67, no. 1, 2019, pp. 47-62.
Mushtaq, Amber. “Afro-American Socio-Psycho Resistance Against Oppression of Identity.” Philosophy, vol. 9, no. 1, 2019, pp. 631-639.