Afro-Caribbean Cultural Contributions and their Influence in Canada

© @timothywilliamrose | Unsplash

From literature to music, as well as other cultural expressions, African-Caribbean culture has actively participated in making Canada the nation that it is today. As a country with a wide array of cultural backgrounds readily on display – but also one possessed of a complex history based on slavery, colonization, cultural genocide, famine, and civil war – Canada’s Afro-Caribbean influences speak at the same time to the things that the country likes to celebrate and the things that it might like to forget. EverythingisPRsonal has all the details.

Literature

© @tamarcusbrown | Unsplash

Are you familiar with African Canadian literature? it is a confluence of diversity provided by its alternately African and Canadian roots, and one that stretches back centuries. African-American exiles and refugees started writing the first African-Canadian literature as early as the mid-1700s. Their preferred topics included slavery and other injustices that they were suffering during that time.

Currently, their content continues to focus on their shared history based on slavery, colonization, cultural genocide, civil war, and famine. Among the most important Toronto-based Black Canadian writers have been George Elliot Clarke, and Lawrence Hill.

Music

Salome Bey| Spotify

One of the Afro-Caribbean Canadians most prominent cultural contributions is in music, with its mixture of sounds from a wide range of places such as the West Indies, Africa, the United States, South America, and the Maritimes. Their music genres range from hip hop to reggae, calypso to classical and so on.

Among famous Afro-Caribbean Canadian musicians that have gained worldwide recognition in distinct genres are Salome Bey and Ranee Lee.

Dance

The Black Stars.com | Videos | YouTube

During recent years more and more dance companies in which Afro-Caribbean Canadians feature prominently are emerging all throughout Toronto with the purpose of connecting people to their roots and history. Combined, they are contributing to making Black dance artists far more visible in this country.

For instance, the Black Stars are a coalition of Afro-influenced dancers committed to becoming today’s leaders in AfroFusion dance in Canada.

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