TY - JOUR
KW - Caribbean
KW - France
KW - UNESCO
KW - heritage
KW - Music
KW - Postcolonialism
AU - Jerome Camal
AB - Since 2004, Felix Cotellon, the president of the centre for traditional music and dance on the island of Guadeloupe, has spearheaded a grass roots campaign to see gwoka inscribed on the UNESCOs list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanities. The move has been surprising, even controversial. Gwoka, a drum-based music and dance, has been used as a symbol of Guadeloupean cultural identity and resistance against French colonialism since the late 1960s. Moreover, Cotellon has had a long association with separatist activism. However, because Guadeloupe remains a French overseas department without a seat at the UN, the petition to add gwoka to the ICH list had to be sponsored by the French state. Following a successful bid, gwoka is now listed as representative of the culture of a French region. In this article, I draw from my ethnographic work as well as my own involvement in the committee that drafted Guadeloupes application to trace the complex network of individuals, who are shaping gwokas transformation from weapon of national resistance to symbol of humanitys cultural diversity. I argue that these individuals shape and operate within a zone of awkward engagement that allows for the emergence and expression of a postnationalist political subjectivity.
DO - 10.1080/13527258.2015.1028959
M1 - 5
N1 - Publisher: Routledge
N2 - Since 2004, Felix Cotellon, the president of the centre for traditional music and dance on the island of Guadeloupe, has spearheaded a grass roots campaign to see gwoka inscribed on the UNESCOs list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanities. The move has been surprising, even controversial. Gwoka, a drum-based music and dance, has been used as a symbol of Guadeloupean cultural identity and resistance against French colonialism since the late 1960s. Moreover, Cotellon has had a long association with separatist activism. However, because Guadeloupe remains a French overseas department without a seat at the UN, the petition to add gwoka to the ICH list had to be sponsored by the French state. Following a successful bid, gwoka is now listed as representative of the culture of a French region. In this article, I draw from my ethnographic work as well as my own involvement in the committee that drafted Guadeloupes application to trace the complex network of individuals, who are shaping gwokas transformation from weapon of national resistance to symbol of humanitys cultural diversity. I argue that these individuals shape and operate within a zone of awkward engagement that allows for the emergence and expression of a postnationalist political subjectivity.
SP - 395
EP - 410
TI - Putting the drum in conundrum: Guadeloupean gwoka, intangible cultural heritage and postnationalism
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84928409818&doi=10.1080%2f13527258.2015.1028959&partnerID=40&md5=c93fa98ccc866ca91376fe74387ba670
VL - 22
SN - 13527258 (ISSN)
ER -