This book brings together contributions from a broad spectrum of authors on the most challenging issue for the Caribbean - against the dominating efforts of European colonizers and their descendants, the long-standing struggle of Caribbean people to fashion a culture and society that would give full space to the African heritage of the majority while accommodating their new and evolving circumstances. The book presents contemporary readings that contestation in the areas of Caribbean religion, education, language, music, race, sexual behavior in a time of the AIDS pandemic, and the economy. It grew out of a conference held in 2006 in honor of the scholarship of internationally acclaimed Professor Alston Barrington Chevannes, professor of social anthropology at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. This book is unique, therefore, in both the breadth of its focus and range of topics as well as the specific issues considered, most essays being useful case studies in particular fields. The geographical span includes Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, indeed the Caribbean as a whole. There is perhaps no other publication with such an aim, range and relevance.
The theme of a Caribbean world view makes this book a pioneering contribution to Caribbean studies. The collection also contains an autobiographical essay by Professor Chevannes.