The Kalinago: African Cultural Exchange in Dominica’s Kwéyòl Language and Material Culture

This chapter delves deeply into the rich and convoluted linguistic and cultural heritage of Dominica to reveal influences of African, Carib, French, and English languages and cultures on Kwéyòl. Focus is on the cultural exchange between Kalinagos and West Africans in Dominica even before formal European colonization. With the commencement of plantation slavery in the early eighteenth century, Africans who were already in Dominica, passed on language and culture to the ever-increasing number of new arrivals coming off the slave ships. Unlike the other island states in the Lesser Antilles, Creole culture of Dominica remains extremely strong. Traces of African languages, such as Yoruba, Twi, Ewe, Fon, Ibo, Ibibo, Nembe, Ashanti, Kru, Wolof, survived. Similar interweaving exists in botanical knowledge, use of medicinal plants, music, song, instruments, food, architecture, plant use, agriculture, and other forms of material culture. The chapter reviews these culture exchanges and identifies the results in contemporary creole culture.