Current Projects

In Pre-Production

Article

"The Canadian Dimension of the West Indian Diaspora: 1900-1945" (working title) This article seeks shed light on early West Indian immigration to Canada. Support for this project comes from a Lakehead University Senate Research Committee Research Projects Grant.

In Production

Manuscripts

"The West Indian Experience in Middle America" (working title) This project is ongoing and is in the research and writing stage. Recent funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and a time-release stipend from the International Development Research Centre have enabled me to concentrate on this project. The research will produce a history of the largest immigrant group to settle in Middle America since colonial times. Between 1850 and 1950, approximately 400,000 British West Indians went to Middle America and Panama in search of economic security and opportunity. During the course of this long migration, West Indians established vibrant communities along the Atlantic coasts of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The history of these communities as an extension of the British West Indies has yet to be told. Although a small number of country or community specific studies have been written, a regional analysis is necessary to demonstrate the full scope and significance of this forgotten side of West Indian Diaspora.

My project builds on my study of West Indians in Costa Rica to examine the process of migration and adaptation to life in the Hispanic countries of Middle America. The object is to expand on my observations in Costa Rica in order to expose the complexity of the West Indian Diaspora in the region. The research examines the social, economic and cultural connections between the various communities of the region and the ways in which West Indians adapted to life in a foreign cultural and linguistic setting. This study focuses on the West Indian communities and their relations with the corporations and governments of the region. The effort is to show the similarities and differences that existed among the West Indian communities along the Atlantic coast of Middle America.

The West Indian experience in Middle America is important because it is a modern example of the social integration of an immigrant group in Latin America. West Indian immigrants, who were a different colour, went to Protestant churches and who spoke a foreign language, were not a welcome immigrant group. They struggled to preserve their cultural heritage as well as retain the right to remain in the countries of the region. Some communities proved more capable of resisting the forces of integration and assimilation than others and this research will examine the reasons for differences in the rate and extent of assimilation.

The research will result in a manuscript of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers such as Caribbeanists, labour historians and immigration specialists. The research will also make a significant contribution to the growing literature on the West Indian Diaspora and will offer insights into the Diaspora in Canada, the United States and Britain. This is a unique study that will enhance our understanding of one of the most important human migrations in our hemisphere at a time when our hemisphere is becoming increasingly integrated as a result of economic and cultural forces

Support for this project comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the International Development Research Centre.

"Sources on the West Indian Diaspora in Middle America" (working title) The guide to sources on the West Indian diaspora will be an expanded version of the "Electronic Guide" listed below. As a research tool the guide will group references by the country or countries to which they refer, and list them in chronological order. In addition to the references to documents I have already made available to researchers via the internet, the printed version will include several hundred documents relevant to Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association in the circum-Caribbean region, and an expanded list of holdings in the Public Record Office in London. This guide will also contain a bilbiographical section and introductory essays on the history of West Indian immigration and settlement in the Hispanic republics of the region. Completion is expected in 2002.

Documentary Film

"Banana Split" is a one hour documentary about the banana industry and the lives of people who produce, market and consume the fruit. The focus is educational and the format consists of interviews mixed with contemporary images and archival footage. The film is in production with shooting completed in Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles and Honduras. The film is co-directed by Ronald Harpelle and Kelly Saxberg. Visit http://shebafilms.com/main.html for more information about this and other film projects.

Film Restoration Project

"The Fatal Flower" is an unfinished dramatic film made in 1930 by the Amateur Cinema Society of Thunder Bay. It was shot in and around Port Arthur, (now Thunder Bay) in 1930 but was not finished because the Depression bankrupted the Cinema Society. "The Fatal Flower" was one of three films produced by the Cinema Society. "A Race for Ties," finished in 1929, was the first feature length amateur film ever made in Canada. I, along with a group of local filmmakers, have come together to form the Lakehead Cinema Society and we have undertaken the task of finishing "The Fatal Flower." The goal is to make a 35 mm final print of the newly edited and refurbished silent movie. Along with Kelly Saxberg, I am one of the originators of the initiative and serve as the project manager. This is a team effort much needed for the Thunder Bay area and also for the history of film in Canada.

In The Can

Articles

"Imperialism in the Kitchen: ‘Company Wives’ and Domestic Servants in Latin America" (working title) This is an article stemming from recent research in Honduras. Although this article is still being constructed, its purpose is to examine the social and cultural distance that existed between company wives and their servants. The article uses travelogues, government documents and a massive database from the 1927 population census in Costa Rica.

"Marcus Garvey and Garveyism in Central America and Panama" (working title) This article offers a history of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association among the West Indian sojourners who were living and working in the region between 1910-1930.

In Post Production

Central America
(click on the map to enlarge it)

Electronic Media

With support from an IDRC/SSHRC Canada and World Grant I have developed an Electronic Guide to the West Indian Diaspora to Middle America. The guide contains approximately 1,200 references to documents I have found archives in several countries. The objective is to provide information for academics and others who are interested in the spread of West Indian culture along the mainland shores of the Caribbean. Visit this indexed guide if you are interested in research resources on the West Indian diaspora.

Book

The West Indians of Costa Rica: Race, Class, and the Integration of and Ethnic Minority

The West Indians of Costa Rica is published in hard cover by McGill-Queen's University Press as part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History Series and will be published in 2002 by Ian Randle Publishers of Kingston, Jamaica. The book frames the Caribbean immigrant experience in Costa Rica within the histories of both the West Indian diaspora and the political and economic struggles of one Central American republic. The Jamaicans, Barbadians and other West Indians who migrated to Costa Rica at the turn of the twentieth-century found themselves in a country that prides itself on its Spanish and "white settler" origins. According to popular belief, the lack of a sizable indigenous population resulted in the development of a more egalitarian society in Costa Rica. The West Indians of Costa Rica is about one of the several "Other" Costa Ricas that challenge the country's self-perception as a European enclave in Central America. This book examines the ways in which people of African descent came together and were divided over key issues of community and cultural survival during the decades between 1900 and 1950. The emphasis is on Caribbean migrants and their adaptation to life in an Hispanic society. The focus is on a region of Costa Rica where cultures and economies clashed. The themes include, the business of bananas, Garveyism, Afro-Christian religious beliefs and class divisions within the West Indian community.