Becoming Each Other: Interculturalisms, Grassroots Resistance and Cultural Creativity in Post-Colonial Trinidad and Tobago

In addition to the overarching context or grand narrative of ethnic competition and contestation over cultural space, resources and recognition in multi-ethnic Trinidad and Tobago, there is also a little tradition of working class and grassroots interculturalisms and structural convergences taking place at the same time.  In this paper, I examine cases of subordinate level interculturalisms that occur below the surface, often with little conscious awareness by the majority of the society.  These include the often unnoticed adoption /adaption by all members of the society of common aspects of religious practice, language, food, music, styles of being, and celebration of special days.   I argue that Trinbagonians construct and perform the narrative of plurality as well as that of hybridity or creolisation accepting the dissonance and contradictions as part of the everyday complexity of life. So while a grand narrative of difference and ethnic completion prevails the two major competing collectivities - Afro and Indo-Trinidadians are becoming more and more like each other.