Interculturalism revisited: identity construction in African and African-Caribbean performance

This chapter examines the enduring influence of Africa on African-Caribbean culture and performance traditions, underscoring the need to recognize African-Caribbean culture as a unique cultural manifestation by drawing on Joseph Roach’s concept of the circum-Atlantic. It revisits intercultural theory, especially with regard to the cultural exchange between Africa and the Caribbean. At the same time, it examines how African-Caribbean performances challenge the notion of African authenticity, while retaining a genealogical link to the African past. It attempts to clarify the treatment of the term intercultural, particularly ways in which transnational dispersions of African forms have taken them in new directions through the discussion of African dance in a transnational context. The chapter underlines the compelling link between African and African-Caribbean performance aesthetics, but also presents a situation in which notions of own and foreign are both dispelled in performance. It also attempts to develop Osita Okagbue’s vision of a new intercultural critical terminology that will be useful in describing the unique interaction between African and African-Caribbean performance cultures through a proposed notion of interactional diffusion.