Geopolitics of Memory and Transnational Citizenship

Geopolitics of Memory and
Transnational Citizenship

Thinking Local Development in a Global South

Clara Rachel Eybalin Casséus

PETER LANG

Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017961055

Cover image: Zanglais Commune, 2014. Photograph taken by the author.

Cover design: Peter Lang Ltd.

ISSN 2235-2325

ISBN 978-1-78707-978-6 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78707-979-3 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-78707-980-9 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78707-981-6 (mobi)

© Peter Lang AG 2019

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,

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Clara Rachel Eybalin Casséus has asserted her right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.

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This publication has been peer reviewed.

About the author

Clara Rachel Eybalin Casséus is an independent researcher, formerly a Visiting Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London (2016–2017), and in the Faculty of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham (Autumn 2017–2018). She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Poitiers, an MPA in Strategic Public Policy (The American University of Paris) and an MA in International Affairs and Sociology (Institut Catholique de Paris). Her research lies at the intersection of diaspora and memory politics, critical migration and development studies.

About the book

This book offers new perspectives on transnational citizenship, memory and strategies of development. Beginning with an exploration of belonging and cultural memory, the book turns to a series of case studies in order to examine the ways in which citizens actively engage with their state of origin through narratives of remembrance. In the Haitian case, community engagement is primarily a grassroots movement in spite of the early creation of a Ministry of Haitians Abroad (MHAVE). The Jamaican case, however, differentiates itself by having a top–down structure promoted by an administration that actively seeks to engage Jamaicans abroad by way of solidarity funds. By treating simultaneously two geopolitical entities, Francophonie and the Commonwealth, this study offers a unique, comparative perspective on a complex web of family networks, spiritual bonds and entrepreneurial cross-border practices at the core of a common Caribbean culture of resilience and self-reliance. The findings on the relationship between memory, citizenship and the State challenge the existing assumption that communities abroad become increasingly assimilated into the new society, whereas, in fact, the idea of a transnational citizenship has become increasingly prevalent. This evolution is enhanced by memory, which acts as a powerful dynamic engine to deconstruct citizenship while connecting beyond borders.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

A geography of extra-territorial citizenship through memory

part 1 From the Caribbean migration space to the French-British context: Circularity, creolization and the spatial practices of belonging

Chapter 1

Encountering Caribbean memory in a pattern of dependency, independency and interdependency

Chapter 2

Decolonial mapping of Haiti and Jamaica: Memory, labour
and mobility

Chapter 3

Framing Jamaican ‘community’ in imperial landscapes: Citizenship, religious bonds and returns ←v | vi→

Chapter 4

Beyond French Republicanism? Locating in/visible Haitian spaces

part ii The making of a transnational citizenship: A new dialectic between memory and civic engagement

Chapter 5

Imagining associative spaces in the French-British setting

Chapter 6

Community engagements, solidarity funds and politics
of memory

Chapter 7

Rearranging the past to present: The spatial dimension of development

Chapter 8

Narratives of remembrance and Caribbean lessons in post-earthquake Haiti

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index ←vi | vii→

Illustrations

Figures

1.1 Zanglais in Cromwell Bay (1655). Source: Joseph Vladimir Casséus.

1.2 Intangible Heritage: Roche à l’Inde, Limbé, Haiti.
Photo by author: Limbé, Haiti (October 2012).

1.3 Red and blue Toussaint Louverture. Photo by author.

3.1 Exhibit ‘Connected Histories’.
Photo by author: Birmingham Centre (September 2010).

6.1 Maroon land and green of Deeside. Photo by author: Deeside, Parish of Trelawny (Jamaica, June 2011).

8.1 Recollection of the Kingdom of the North.
Source: Author’s family collection.

8.2 Capella San Donnino, Pisa. Photo by author: Pisa, Italy (2016).

8.3 Faithful gatekeeper. Photo by author: Pisa, Italy (2016).

8.4 Tracing Queen Marie-Louise. Photo by author: Pisa, Italy (2016).

8.5 Habitation Bédou in Ouanaminthe.
Source: Joseph Vladimir Casséus. ←vii | viii→

1.1 Conflicting memory: La Rochelle and Haiti

2.1 The human capital haemorrhage in the Jamaican healthcare sector