Race, Class, and Nationalism in the Twenty-First-Century Caribbean

Shelene Gomes (Editor) SHELENE GOMES is a sociocultural anthropologist at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago and 2023–24 visiting scholar in residence in anthropology at the University of Cape Town. She is the author of Cosmopolitanism from the Global South.Scott Timcke (Editor) SCOTT TIMCKE is a senior research associate at Research ICT Africa. He is the author of Algorithms and The End of Politics: The Shaping of Technology in 21st Century American Life and The Political Economy of Fortune and Misfortune: Prospects for Prosperity in Our Times. He is a Research Associate at the Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg

Rooted in the political philosophy of C.L.R. James, the contributions to this volume engage the enduring Caribbean echoes of the original sins of European colonialism right into the twenty-first century. Dependent capitalism, slavery, and other forms of forced labour, class exploitation and racism still define the daily realities for millions. What has changed, however, are the vacuous claims of sovereignty and independence that are today enunciated by local politicians and spokespersons, who have replaced their now-departed colonial masters. Cloaked in the garb of ‘blackness,’ bourgeois ethnic and cultural nationalisms now serve to mask the sufferers’ struggle for genuine freedom. Indeed, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Or, as Scott Timcke has quoted C.L.R. James as saying, 'The fundamentals have not changed.'