As an overseas department of France, Martinique's culture is French and Caribbean. Its former capital, Saint-Pierre (destroyed by a volcanic eruption), was often referred to as the Paris of the Lesser Antilles. The official language is French, although many Martinicans speak a Creole patois. Based in French, Martinique's Creole also incorporates elements of English, Spanish, Portuguese, and African languages. Originally passed down through oral storytelling traditions, it continues to be used more often in speech than in writing.
Most of Martinique's population is descended from African slaves brought to work on
Today, the island enjoys a higher standard of living than most other Caribbean countries.[citation needed] French products are easily available. Following French custom, many businesses close at midday, then reopen later in the afternoon. Among young people, studying in France is common. For the French, Martinique has been a vacation hotspot for many years, attracting both the upper class and more budget-conscious travelers.
Music contributes a great deal to Martinique's culture. The most popular style is
zouk, which originated in Martinique and Guadeloupe by combining elements of a number of musical styles from the Caribbean and United States. Its biggest influence was biguine
, which was popular dance orchestra music from the 1930s to 1950s. Zouk today has evolved from big band ensembles to smaller, electronically peppered bands. Musicians use synthesizers, DIGITAL samplers, and drum machines, which they program to sound like native percussion instruments.
Another favorite musical genre,
bèlè is an early form of biguine which incorporates group dance and song accompanied by drumming, often led in a call and response style. For most of the year, local music dominates. But during Carnival, other music like calypso and soca
can be heard as well.
Festivals
Martinique's version of
Carnival, is a four-day event beginning just before Lent and ending on its first day, with the burning of Vaval, a papier-mâché
figure symbolizing Carnival. Businesses close during Carnival.
Like other Caribbean Carnivals, Martinique's is a high-energy event with parades, singing, drums, and other festivities. People dress up in costumes, with devils and she-devils being especially popular. During Carnival in Martinique, many men parade in drag queen costume, sometimes with very elaborate and provocative outfits, with no obvious hint at alternative sexuality. It must be mentioned that traditionally, some women dressed as men for burlesque weddings on Monday. The high presence of men in drag is a reference to the central role of women in Martinique's society and family structure.
Towns throughout Martinique elect their own Carnival Queen, Mini-Queen, and Queen Mother.
Halfway through Lent, Martinicans take a break from abstinence with the one-day holiday Micarême. The one-day mini-Carnival features dances, parties, and similar activities. Afterward, people return to their repentance until Easter begins.
Just as in France, every year on November 21, Martinique celebrates the release of the year's Beaujolais nouveau. In odd-numbered years in early December, the island hosts its prestigious Jazz à la Martinique. Both top local talent and internationally known musicians like Branford Marsalis perform at this jazz festival. Jazz Festivals all over the Caribbean are very enjoyable.
, and restaurants featuring cuisine from various French regions can be found all over Martinique.
History of French Antilles culture
Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. Belain sailed to the Caribbean in 1625, hoping to establish a French settlement on the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts). In 1626 he returned to France, where he won the support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region. Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, created to accomplish this with d'Esnambuc at its head. The company was not particularly successful and Richelieu had it reorganized as the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. In 1635 d'Esnambuc sailed to Martinique with one hundred French settlers to clear land for sugarcane plantations.
After six months on Martinique, d'Esnambuc returned to
St. Christopher, where he soon died prematurely in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, Du Parquet. His nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet
, inherited d'Esnambuc's authority over the French settlements in the Caribbean. In 1637, his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, became governor of the island. He remained in Martinique and did not concern himself with the other islands.
The French permanently settled on Martinique and Guadeloupe after being driven off
Island Caribs, or Kalinago people, and over time more settled there after being driven from surrounding islands, as European powers entered the region. In 1690, French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe begin to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood and gradually become permanent settlers. France had a colony for several years, they imported slaves from West Africa, Martinique and Guadeloupe to work on its plantations. In this period, the Antillean Creole language developed. France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. Great Britain established a small colony on the island in 1805. As a result, Dominica speak English
as an official language while Antillean creole is spoken as a secondary language and is well maintained due to its location between the French-speaking departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
In
Trinidadians, creating the creole identity; Spanish, French, and Patois were the languages spoken. The Spanish also gave many incentives to lure settlers to the island, including exemption from taxes for ten years and land grants in accordance to the terms set out in the Cedula. These new immigrants establishing local communities of Blanchisseuse, Champs Fleurs, Paramin, Cascade, Carenage and Laventille. Trinidad's population jumped to over 15,000 by the end of 1789, from just under 1,400 in 1777. In 1797, Trinidad became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking population. This exodus was encouraged due to the French Revolution
.
Stick fighting and African percussion music in 1881. They were replaced by bamboo "Bamboo-Tamboo" sticks beaten together, which were themselves banned in turn. In 1937 they reappeared, transformed as an orchestra of frying pans, dustbin lids and oil drums. These steelpans
or pans are now a major part of the Trinidadian music scene.
Calypso's early rise was closely connected with the adoption of Carnival by Trinidadian slaves, including canboulay drumming and the music masquerade processions. The French brought Carnival to Trinidad, and calypso competitions at Carnival grew in popularity, especially after the abolition of slavery in 1834. From Trinidad, the carnival, calypso and steel pan spread to the entire English speaking Caribbean islands. Calypso in the Caribbean includes a range of genres, including: the Benna genre of Antiguan and Barbudan music; Mento, a style of Jamaicanfolk music that greatly influenced ska and reggae; Ska, the precursor to rocksteady and reggae; Spouge, a style of Barbadian popular music.
In Dominica, the
lapo kabwit
tradition started to become dominated by imported calypso and steel pan music in the early 1960s. After a fire in 1963, the traditional carnival was banned, though calypso and steelpan continued to grow in popularity. Calypso appealed to Carnival-partygoers because the lyrical focus on local news and gossip was similar to that of chanté mas, despite a rhythmic pattern and instrumentation which contrast sharply with traditional Dominican "Mas Domnik" music. Many of the traditional chanté mas (masquerade song) were performed to the calypso beat and later the new reggae beat coming out of Jamaica.
Calypsonians and
The Gaylords
, De Boys an Dem, Los Caballeros and Swinging Busters surfaced and began to cut records. The emergence of radio, first WIDBS and later Radio Dominica helped to spread the music.
In the 1960s, a number of
kadans (another word named for the genre "compas"), a sophisticated form of music that quickly swept the island and helped unite all the former French colonies of the Caribbean by combining their cultural influences. Webert Sicot, the originator of cadence recorded three LPs albums with French Antilles producers: two with "Celini disques" in Guadeloupe and one with "Balthazar" in Martinique. Haitian compas or cadence bands were asked to integrate Antillean musicians. Consequently, the leading "Les Guais troubadours", with influential singer "Louis Lahens" along other bands, played a very important role in the schooling of Antilleans to the méringue compas or kadans music style. Almost all existing Haitian compas bands have toured these Islands that have since adopted the music and the dance of the meringue. These were followed by French Antillean mini-jazz
artists like Les Gentlemen, Les Leopards, and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe.
In 1969,
Kassav' co-founder Pierre-Eduard Decimus was a member. At some point he felt that he should start his own group and asked a former school friend Fitzroy Williams to recruit a few Dominicans to complete those he had already selected. The group was named Exile One. The band added various Caribbean styles to their musical identity such as reggae, calypso and mostly cadence or compas as the band moved to Guadeloupe. In 1973, Exile One (based on the island of Guadeloupe) initiated a fusion of cadence and calypso "Cadence-lypso" that would later influence the creation of soca music. The Trinidadian Calypso and Haitian kadans or méringue
were the two dominants music styles of Dominica so Exile One, that featured calypso, reggae and mostly kadans or compas, called its music Cadence-lypso however, most of the band's repertoire was kadans.
Later in 1975,
kwéyòl
lyrics. Soon after Shorty released a song, "Ou Petit", with words like "Ou dee moin ou petit Shorty" (meaning "you told me you are small Shorty"), a combination of calypso, cadence and kwéyòl. Soca's development includes its fusion of calypso, cadence, and Indian musical instruments—particularly the dholak, tabla and dhantal—as demonstrated in Shorty's classic compositions "Ïndrani" and "Shanti Om".
Due to the popularity of Exile One, There was a virtual explosion of kadans bands from Dominica -
Grammacks
, Liquid Ice, Midnight Groovers, Black Affairs, Black Machine, Mantra, Belles Combo, Milestone, Wafrikai, Black roots, Black Blood, Naked Feet and Mammouth among others. Leading vocalists of the period include Gordon Henderson, Jeff Joseph, Marcel "Chubby" Marc, Anthony Gussie, Mike Moreau, Tony Valmond, Linford John, Bill Thomas, SinkyRabess and Janet Azouz among others. Dominican kadans bands became popular in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and other islands in the Caribbean and Africa.
The full-
Grammacks, Experience 7, among others. Drawing on these influences, the supergroup Kassav'
invented zouk and popularized it in the 1980s.
Kassav' was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Décimus and
Caribbean music to another level by recording in the new digital format. The style lost ground in the late 1980s due to the strong presence of cadence or compas
. The lyrics of the songs often speak of love and sentimental problems.
The music
cabo love from Cape Verde are derivatives of this French Antillean compas music style, which sounds basically the same, although there are notable differences once you become more familiar with these genres. A main exponent of this subgenre is Ophelia Marie
of Dominica. Other Zouk Love artists come from the French West Indies, the Netherlands, and Africa.
In Brazil, the zouk rhythm is used to dance the Brazilian Lambada. Since adding many new steps and changing the characteristics from Lambada, a new name was given to this dance "Zouk-lambada", with was originally 'zouk Love', later just called 'zouk'. Today, the Brazilian Zouk has changed and thus, the name 'Traditional Zouk' has been given to the dance that was first taught by Adilio and Renata in the beginning of the 90's, which is now didactically used all over the world.
In the late 80's, the WCK or
Grammacks. While the Cadence-Lypso sound is based on the creative use of acoustic drums, an aggressive up-tempo guitar beat and strong social commentary in the native Creole language
, the new sound created by WCK, focused more on the use of technology with a strong emphasis on keyboard rhythmic patterns.
The band played a blend of the local Cadence-lypso and traditional Jing ping,
Kwéyòl
.
Bouyon music is popular across the Caribbean, and is known as "bouyon gwada" or jump up music in Guadeloupe and Martinique. A popular offshoot within the bouyon gwada is called "bouyon hardcore", a style characterized by its lewd and violent lyrics. This musical style is characterized by texts "slackness" sexually explicit. It is a form of radicalized bouyon of Dominica. Some call it bouyon gwada (Guadeloupe bouyon) to mark its difference and its themes are often the same.
