Palikur, a Language between Two Worlds

Over the course of a long history stretching back to the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, via the arbitration in 1900 of the Franco-Brazilian border dispute, the Palikur (or Parikwene) have been divided between France and Brazil. This community, considered autochtonous in that it existed in the same place at the time of the Europeans’ arrival, now inhabits both Guyane and Brazil, living principally on the two banks of the Oyapock river. The transnational situation of the Palikur is reflected in all aspects of life in the community today, whether in terms of identity, of education, of citizenship or of language. The objective of this chapter is to present the dynamics of the Palikur’s linguistic situation in Guyane in all their complexity. It focuses on change over time across generations and on the questions of linguistic and cultural preservation currently being raised. The chapter is based on sociolinguistic research and lexicographical studies conducted in situ over the course of fifteen years.

Reclaiming Félix Éboué Departmentalization and the Politics of Commemoration in Guyane, 1944–2012

This chapter locates the figure of Félix Éboué in the cultural politics of commemoration in Guyane. It offers a cultural history of the production of memorials to Éboué in Guyane (his birthplace) and beyond, assessing the role of these markers of national power in the local landscape. The chapter focuses first on the monument located in central Cayenne, produced at the instigation of a local committee and inaugurated in 1957, towards the end of the Fourth Republic. It then addresses the revival of 'memory' of Éboué and the renewal of his presence in Guyane which occurred during the 2000s. Instigated in part by Christiane Taubira, this culminated in the renaming of the only international airport in the Département — the key point of arrival and departure between Paris and Cayenne. The chapter concludes by asking how the vision of Guyane asserted in the act of ‘remembering’ Éboué has changed or been adapted in the twenty-first century.

Frontier Politics French, Portuguese and Amerindian Alliances between the Amazon and Cayenne, 1680–1697

While the territory we know today as Guyane was in the end claimed by France, initial attempts to establish a colony there were unsuccessful for several reasons. Highly significant amongst these reasons were the attacks made by indigenous people on settlements which were already precarious. In interdisciplinary studies of the Guianese plateau, Neil Whitehead, Stéphen Rostain, Pierre Grenand and Françoise Grenand—amongst others—have discussed processes of tribalisation and the degree of influence that indigenous warfare had on the establishment and development of European enclaves in the region. Following and building on this existing research as well as drawing upon archival sources, this chapter addresses a small number of specific ‘frontier’ contacts, wars and alliances between different indigenous groups, the French and the Portuguese. By exploring these cases, the chapter sheds light on the negotiations of power that took place in the area over time. It addresses the question of how alliances changed over time depending on interests and circumstances. Rather than using these cases to define the ‘colonial frontier’ between Portugal and France in northeast South America, its aim is to focus on the degree and power of negotiation that the different indigenous groups had on territorial control.

Equality and Difference Queering Guyane?

This chapter begins by presenting the role of Christiane Taubira in defending and promoting the 'mariage pour tous' legislation in France, including the references made to the work of Léon Gontron-Damas. This is then linked to two conceptual signposts: firstly, Tzvetan Todrov's La Conquête de l’Amérique (1982) and his exploration of 'the two elementary figures of alterity'; and secondly, Didier Eribon's Une Morale du minoritaire (2001), which makes links between the social processes of inferiorisation inherent to class society, colonialism, and homophobia. This conceptual section will then be followed by an analysis of Caribbean sexualities, and their theorisations, in relation to the specificities of Guyane, including the racial and sexual inversions associated with the period of the penal colony. Positing an active queerING in this context – with the emphasis on the process - and its capacity creatively to build on the anomalies of Guyane's history and contemporary reality, the article ends by looking at recent fiction that exemplifies this process.

Producing the Periphery

This chapter discusses the impact that changes in the French national sugar market—caused by the introduction of French-grown beet sugar—made on the conceptualisation of Guyane between 1800 and 1860. It addresses a specific historical lacuna: the conjunction between the penal colony and other colonial activity such as the cane complex. The penal colony has too often been studied as a thing in isolation. More broadly, the chapter seeks to explain how Guyane can be used as a means to question the reification of ‘national’ territory. The chapter first outlines how, after being claimed as a colony by France in the early seventeenth century, Guyane came to differ from other locations in the French Antilles, although all Caribbean cane colonies were still perceived as external to the nation that built them. Secondly, the chapter focuses on the period between 1812 and 1860, which it defines as the sugar ‘conjunction’ and which is part of the reason why Guyane provides a prime illustrative case of colonial change.

Conclusion

This conclusion to the volume emphasises the importance of the ‘Locating Guyane’ project and asks whether, via the collection of chapters presented, this misunderstood, multi-positional space has, in fact, been in some sense ‘located’. It reflects on the various ‘use-values’ ascribed to the territory as a colonised space and the ways in which Guyane is currently being ‘located’ from within, by its own residents. It considers ongoing and future changes and challenges to Guyane’s identity, such as the opening of the bridge over the Oyapock River between Brazil and the Guyanais border town of Saint-Georges, and the implications of these changes for the DOM’s place as politically French and geographically South American. It concludes by noting that the chapters of this book reveal Guyane to be in a state of constant flux—whether in the present due to transnational flows, regarding the past via the questioning of historiography, or in the reimagining and reinventing of traditions.

Maroon Art in Guyane New Forms, New Discourses

This chapter looks at the way Maroons who enjoy either French citizenship or legal residence permits have responded to the rapidly changing opportunities, turning to the production of new art forms (essentially, painting rather than woodcarving). The chapter foregrounds the role of the cooperatives (often directed by Europeans rather than Maroons) that profit from their eligibility for government subsidies and ties with other financial supporters. And it shows how young Maroons, with help from the cooperatives, have created a new narrative of both the meaning and the history of Maroon art that sells well in the context of longstanding Western stereotypes. The greater part of the chapter, then, is concerned with delineating these changes in form and discourse. The final part develops a critique of imposed interpretations of the meanings of symbols. It debunks the claim (by men) that Maroon art transmits messages from the male artist to the female recipient of the finished product, showing how women have never participated in the promotion of this idea and that, in fact, they unanimously deny knowing what meaning any of the motifs might carry.

A School in Boniville? Political Skills and ‘Primitives’ in Guyane (1930–1969)

This chapter argues that debates over the construction or non-construction of a school at Boniville between 1930 and the end of the 1960s demonstrate the threefold originality of this colonial space. Guyane was at the same time peripheral, contested, and autonomous. It explores how, for the Boni, the school served as an instrument by which the educative norms of the coastal colonial society could be appropriated. The actions of Gran Man Difou, who initiated the school project in the 1930s, are considered in terms of strategic action and alliances. The chapter considers what material and symbolic advantages were at stake in the school’s construction—and for whom—particularly given the proximity of Dutch state actions across the river. By their support for the school project, I conclude, the Boni were able to reinforce their collective identity during a period marked by great social disruption, as they were gradually integrated into the French departmental system. The chapter, then, sheds light on a space of mediation at the heart of a territory which itself was marginal—even to the ‘peripheral’ colony of Guyane. Via the negotiations between centre and periphery taking place there during this period, this space became the terrain for the construction of both national and regional identities.

Kor and Karnival, the Carnal Road of Léon-Gontran Damas ‘Evidence of Things Not Seen’

While generally forgotten or sidelined in major publications on the movement known as Négritude, Léon-Gontran Damas was quoted to striking effect by the politician Christiane Taubira — herself also from Guyane — in the debate surrounding ‘gay marriage’ in France in February 2013. All of a sudden, the cofounder of the Négritude movement came out of the shadow of Senghor and Césaire and into the heart of French political discourse. This chapter offers literary context for this re-situation of Damas, arguing that his poetry is situated at the crossroad of modernism, anti-colonialism and queer writing. The chapter begins with a perspective on Christine Taubira and the rhetoric she has used in the French National Assembly. It then focuses on Damas himself. As research on Damas expands in the wake of his centenary in 2012, this study first discusses the paradoxes and problems of conducting scholarly work on this poet, as those holding the keys to his sources and his reputation tend increasingly to withdraw from participation in research. Secondly, it gives considers aspects of the biography of Damas as it is known and as it might be interpreted. Finally and most significantly, it turns to a literary critique of his poetry.

Introduction

In the introduction to the collection, we first discuss Guyane’s absence from Francophone and Anglophone discourse and argue that, rather than being the result of accident or oversight, the general ignorance in which Guyane is held has a historical production. From there, we underline the necessity of thinking about Guyane beyond binaries of centre and margins and beyond received ideas and categories. We state how this collection of essays aims to provoke debate and increased attention to Guyane and the Guianas from a broader range of disciplines and international perspectives. After outlining its conceptual justification, we explain the thematic ordering of the book with its juxtaposition of political geographies and cultural and historical analyses. By including contributions from both established scholars such as Bill Marshall, Richard Price and Sally Price, alongside those of up-and-coming scholars, we assemble a range of new perspectives on Guyane which is exemplary in its breadth but coheres in its aim to destabilise categories of thought which have long relegated this place to the margins.