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The African and Caribbean festival at Birkbeck College was a real eye-opener. Short films containing beautiful cinematography, exciting stories, non-conformist (not the usual cliché focused on the former and existing British Colonies cultural tropes: Coda Reggae, Calypso, Tourism and Poverty). Many of the films shown at the festival contained diverse mythologies and symbols.
The films counteracted the myth that the Caribbean cultures developed in isolation from each other. Thus, for example, one could argue that Cuban music influenced the music of the other islands and vice versa. Further, one can trace many of the islands’ influences back to Africa, Europe, The Far East, India, and the indigenous populations.
I was astonished to discover the diversity of ethnicity in the Caribbean. The Caribs, which I grew up believing that the colonialists had wiped out, are still there. They are stunning and striking looking. Also shown were people of Japanese descent (mixed with Blacks), the sizeable population of people of Chinese origin (I laughed at seeing a Caribbean Chinese man dancing to Soca music). It shows that, to some extent, multiculturalism does work despite what some commentators would have us believe.
