Creolisation as a Recipe for Conviviality

Abstract

This chapter argues that the historical and contemporary experiences of the Creole world have created a set of possible social and cultural configurations which encompass cosmopolitanism, create conditions for conviviality and expand the project of living together by engaging the arts and music, language and food, as well as transgressing social boundaries. The miracle of creolisation can be described as an enormous output of cultural creativity growing out of a history of suffering, displacement and oppression. However, the social effects of creolisation are perhaps more important, leading to the emergence of social identities which are unbounded, exogamous as well as endogamous, internally diverse and striking a balance between group and individual which is simultaneously flexible and robust, an inoculation against divisive identity politics.