Reading the Dougla Body: Mixed-race, Post-race, and Other Narratives of What it Means to be Mixed in Trinidad

Abstract

In recent years there has been a great deal of scholarship addressing the ‘mixed-race’ question in the Americas. Much of this literature is concerned with documenting the experiences of mixed-race peoples and exploring how their existence alters racial ideologies and racial formations in their respective societies. This essay contributes to that literature through an analysis of the experience of mixed-race peoples in Trinidad and Tobago. Through interviews with people of Indo-Trinidadian and Afro-Trinidadian parentage (douglas) I show how the dougla experience both challenges traditional ways that race is understood ontologically, and is shaped by those same ideologies. I further examine the place that douglas see themselves as occupying in a society where racial mixing is both heralded as the essence of the national character and seen as threatening to the traditional division between Indo-Trinidadians and Afro-Trinidadians.

Keywords:

• Trinidad
• dougla
• race mixing
• multiracial
• cultural pluralism
• Indo-Trinidadian; Afro-Trinidadian

Notes

Notes

[1] Indo-Trinidadians are the descendents of indentured laborers brought to Trinidad from India in the 1800s. In popular speech and in the literature they are often referred to as ‘East Indians’ or simply as ‘Indians’, both of which are problematic. One of the reasons they are problematic is that both emphasize the group's links to India over that to Trinidad. At the same time both terms can be confusing because ‘Indian’ is also used to refer to Native Americans and ‘East Indian’ problematizes their belonging in the Caribbean where people refer to themselves as ‘West Indians’, making the two categories seem mutually exclusive. For these reasons I will use the term ‘Indo-Trinidadian’ and its corollary ‘Afro-Trinidadian’ except in direct quotes that use some other term.

[2] According to the 2000 census, Indo-Trinidadians make up 40 per cent of the population, 37.5 per cent are Afro-Trinidadian, 20.5 per cent are ‘mixed,’ and 1.2 per cent are ‘other,’ which would probably include white, Carib, Chinese, Syrian, and Portuguese. These census data include the populations of both Trinidad and Tobago. The interviews for this paper, however, all come from Trinidad.

[3] All three of these terms are very complex and can be used to imply biological and/or cultural mixing depending on the historical period and group referred to. I do not mean to imply a monolithic usage of these terms, but rather suggest that at certain moments they can be used to connote a never-ending process of mixing that erases racial and cultural boundaries.

[4] For example, according to Clarke (1993), by 1984 whites had the highest indices of residential segregation in San Fernando, the second largest city in Trinidad located in the ‘south’. It is so uncommon to see Trinidadian whites that they are often asked what country they are from even by local Trinidadians who assume they must be tourists.

[5] Finer distinctions were made even within the category of ‘white creole’. For example, ‘English Creole’ was assumed to constitute the purest category of white and the group with the most power due to their links with the colonial administration. ‘French’ and ‘Spanish’ Creole, on the other hand, were suspect because both had a longer history in Trinidad (and therefore more time to mix with the locals), and French Creoles in particular came from plantation islands such as Martinique in which even the purity of the planter class was suspect. Therefore to call someone a ‘French Creole’ (or a ‘Trini white’) is to already suggest that their whiteness is suspect (Brereton, 1979).

[6] There is, however, a term to refer to people of mixed Chinese and African parentage–haquay–which also has the negative connotation of being impure, a bastard, an unnatural production. Segal (1993) suggests that the lack of marker for ‘white’ and ‘Indian’ can be explained by the fact that both whites and Indians were seen as ‘culturally saturated,’ as opposed to the ‘culturally naked’ African. Therefore someone could not be one-half Indian and one-half European but would probably have been absorbed into one or the other category depending on the circumstances. It could, however, also be read to suggest that Indians did not mind mixing with whites due to the class/color system, and therefore would feel no need to lexically mark it.

[7] This practice is beautifully captured by the calypsonian Chalkdust in his song ‘Can’t see African at all,’ in which a mother remarks on the European and Chinese features of the child while ignoring that in all other respects the child is ‘Black as tulum’ (a dark candy made of molasses) and should thereby recognize and be proud of its African ancestry.

[8] The remaining 23 per cent consisted of dougla men with either Indian or Black women.

[9] Jahiji Bhai is a 1996 song by Calypsonian Brother Marvin, a dougla (although more on the African side) who is married to an Indo-Trinidadian. In the song he talks about the experience of coming from both the descendents of the slave ship and the ship that brought indentured laborers from India (Jahaji Bhai means brotherhood of the boat). It was essentially a plea for racial unity by pointing out a similar context of marginalization and cultural fusion. It was very popular but also created a great deal of controversy. For the full lyrics and analysis see Reddock (1999).