Rézonans : Guadeloupean Dance as Fugitive History in the French Capital

In France and its territories, there is a strange tension regarding colonial history. On the one hand there are the openings of museums dedicated to the slave trade, like the Memorial ACTe in Guadeloupe. On the other are the greatly muted discussions of French colonialism in the curriculum. There is a proliferation of days commemorating the victims and abolitions of slavery.1 And yet there is a persistent refusal to engage with the legacy of racial discrimination born alongside and within colonial plantations. As Ann Laura Stoler points out, the French seem to suffer from collective colonial aphasia.2 More than amnesia, they struggle to build a consistent vocabulary with which to address the nation's colonial history and its persistent effects on the contemporary nation.This article presents one small, yet significant, response to the muffled treatment of colonialism and slavery and its aftermath in the school curriculum. I have been conducting ethnographic fieldwork in and around Guadeloupean gwoka dance classes in Paris and Guadeloupe since 2019. Gwoka is a secular drum and dance tradition that originated on the margins of colonial plantations in Guadeloupe. For reasons that I will detail later, since the late twentieth century, gwoka has generally been regarded as the strongest musical expression of Guadeloupean identity. In Paris, gwoka classes are attended mostly by amateur dancers who are second- or third-generation Antillean migrants to Metropolitan France.3 Many of them have parents who are Guadeloupean, Martiniquean, and French, or various combinations of these three origins. Some of them have lived in the French Antilles at some point. Others have only visited briefly. I propose that traditional dance workshops like these offer a fugitive pedagogy that allows Antilleans in Metropolitan France to experience an affective connection to a history and a culture that is, otherwise, largely absent from their lives. I argue that dance participates in what the Guadeloupean historian and political activist Raymond Gama calls rézonans (Creole for “resonance”), both a form of historical consciousness based on a “culture of vibration” and a mode of construction of an individual Creole subjectivity.4This article is part of a broader project in which I investigate postcolonial citizenship as an embodied practice by dancing alongside Guadeloupeans as they negotiate their positions as français à part entière (fully recognized French citizens) and français entièrement à part (fully marginalized citizens), to echo Césaire's witty formulation.5 In the process, I sketch an ethnography of Relation critically inspired by the work of Edouard Glissant, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Audre Lorde, and other Black feminist scholars. Moreover, this research takes my interlocutors seriously as theorists. Although I invoke other thinkers, here I mostly mix Glissant's and Wynter's voices with that of Gama. Whereas Glissant largely relied on visual metaphors (such as “opacity”), Gama's rézonans brings sound and sonic epistemologies back into the theoretical mix.My positionality shapes this research in complex ways. I am a white, male French national who migrated to the United States to study music performance, musicology, and ethnomusicology. In Guadeloupe as in Paris, I am as likely to be identified as an American academic as a French citizen. Yet I am a product of France's colonial history and a firsthand witness to its colonial aphasia. I have also been studying gwoka for more than fifteen years as a researcher, musician, and dancer. During this time, I have stayed in Guadeloupe more times than I can recall. There, I have had the privilege of learning from some of gwoka's most acclaimed artists and have been invited to share the stage with a few of them. Importantly, I have come to experience gwoka's culture at its root, attending (and occasionally joining in) numerous swaré léwòz, the traditional all-night gwoka performances. I've made it a point to attend Akiyo Ka's weekly koutanbou (drumming performances) in Pointe-à-Pitre, a now forty-year-old sonic reclaiming of the urban environment. There, I have on occasion been invited to play the saxophone or surprise some onlookers by entering the ring to dance. In many ways, my participation as a musician and dancer has opened me up to gwoka's rézonans. One of only four people who have written PhD dissertations on gwoka, I am a recognized interlocutor in gwoka circles on both sides of the Atlantic.6Thus, I enter dance studios in Paris with a multifaceted position. While my skin color sets me apart from the majority of dancers who are issued from the Caribbean diaspora, this fact is rarely commented upon. Instead, because men are a very small minority in these workshops, people are far more likely to comment on my gender. Yet these comments are generally positive, celebrating the added diversity. Conversely, I have spent more time in Guadeloupe than most of the dancers I meet. Unlike many of them, I speak Creole. Even if I am far from the most accomplished dancer in these spaces, I bring into the studio a complex—if academic—knowledge of gwoka's history and culture informed by my many years of research. In short, I am now positioned as something of a “halfie” anthropologist, with no pretension to be a full insider, but with a deep and sincere commitment to be a respectful member of gwoka's community of practice.7Part of this commitment spills over into my research with a parallel commitment to theorizing from the Caribbean. My conceptual framework and my ethnographic practice are profoundly shaped by Edouard Glissant's poetics of Relation, which I regard as one of the most stimulating philosophies of postcoloniality but also as an injunction to embrace Relation as an ethic.8 While detailing the ethics of a poetic of Relation would fall outside the purview of this article, let me quickly outline three main commitments. First comes a recognition of the Middle Passage as a foundational and generative act of modernity that has entangled Europe, Africa, and the Americas, (re)shaping economies, epistemologies, geographies, communities, and “culture” on both sides of the Atlantic.9 Europe—or the “West”—is a project that cannot be understood without its American colonies, their plantations, and the epistemologies and ontologies they have generated. Second, there is the realization that identities are unstable, in becoming, and always already shaped by the process of creolization—a process set in motion by the transatlantic slave trade and shaped by the power structure of the plantation. Thus, any knowledge we have of ourselves or others in Relation is always partial. This relates to my third point: an ethnography of Relation abides by Glissant's demands “for all to a right to opacity.”10 For the purposes of ethnography, embracing opacity means refusing to see individuals as exemplars of preexisting categories but rather as themselves the expression of complex, or dense, assemblages. It means reimagining understanding (in French, comprendre, literally “to take with”) not as grasping, but as a reciprocal engagement, “to give-on-and-with” (French donner avec, as translated by Betsy Wang).11 I propose Gama's rézonans as a counterpoint to opacity in the construction of an (inter)subjectivity in Relation.To understand what rézonans does, I will first show how slavery and colonization in the Antilles to form an and in we will to gwoka as a historical practice of that has a for the of a This will take to the dance studios that to as what Sylvia calls that the of Antillean history and I argue for a the dance an embodied and affective connection to Antillean history and I by that this connection is made has been part of France since the the century, Guadeloupe and the of the French colonial to the of and their plantations in the Caribbean the of the French in Guadeloupe. first time in the French the of slavery in Guadeloupe in an there that what in in with the of the Guadeloupean men French This citizenship and Guadeloupe a French for one like the other of an to in the twentieth than full from and other and that their be into the French in the French to the as a time French national by and had that France would to its its and the effects of a quickly that As the of in the Antilles from the the and in traditional as a of national in the the French both the of and a in its to both the for the of for to from and by them positions within French and as the the national or For the the of Antilleans and to the as many people and Antillean in France the to in the its the of from no as the French to its for with migrants from its the time, it that would the in the dancers I in Paris and in Guadeloupe this are the and of the As the activist one of in in of Antilleans in France are a of a for postcolonial as the in the United but a of the trade, in As they dance gwoka, Antilleans this colonial and a process that an if not a in the France's history of colonization of the Caribbean or the more history of the are largely Antilleans to means of with in that with their Even Antillean the in parents their with their as they to the a and which many would rather not In many dancers I with commented on their struggle to the history and culture of the French a In had dancing I to gwoka to with Antillean a culture that had born in France from a Guadeloupean who born in France and a born in parents and only to Antillean culture with many of the dancers I have and which Antillean as rather than traditional attended school the French a in the French who the to the national recognized slavery as a as a national for the slave trade and its and treatment of the slave trade in school Yet the not in for how slavery be in the curriculum. French are the slave trade in the and in a that from the French to the First to who with what many regard as a and to it slavery and colonialism largely absent from the school that had to be and to the history of the it to me as to written and that it more for me I because had to had to had to them. There a the at the and I there for Guadeloupe and there a And it Guadeloupe and There and the a are to if we from we are American more than Antillean I a to to the history of the and the slave There that that French national not for or the Caribbean. I that had slavery in the only of the not if I that I would have I would have been in the I a that we it at colonization and that now we are we at what my not over are the that France that to Antillean history and In a of colonial French have in the to for and far for the Antilles fall In the Caribbean as the of French years later, the the of on the if the French Antilles muted within historical they are not absent from I would like to in which French has the history of slavery and the if to gwoka's the historical to gwoka's first is the of museums dedicated to the transatlantic slave a French opened its slavery in In of France the Memorial ACTe in Guadeloupe. of part and as a for expression and of slavery and the slave the is a complex and project that more than I can it For I will that the its has been the of and generally for its both and of the history of France's in this the history of slavery and and the of in the of the plantation. of the of by colonial the that it to the to be an act of it a to the of the the history of the the only history which has been to Sylvia the history in the not with many It is largely to in the them to for to with their construction of various of points to an with the legacy of if this historical these of would not have been without the work of the a of Antillean who have to both and to the legacy of slavery in takes its from a that it in Paris in in a the of Paris, Black French of them with to the French and themselves as from On an they that France slavery as a and a national to the of the victims to largely to the of quickly to these there has been a proliferation of national with slavery and its abolitions that have into what Antilleans to as its the has research as an for to engage with the of slavery and affective connection with their on the of than not been without It not that the and of the have the of French in the process of and This of and has made a which to engage the legacy of colonialism and As a set of and political largely from around the these have to not only how the and the broader engage with the history of slavery and but they have also come to affective that is to that they largely how people and how they this history. For these and one to and to a and history. allows and this of for It also affective Glissant would the of both of and is in this in which to colonial that I to gwoka and its historical as a fugitive practice in Guadeloupe and postcolonial migrants from the or at Caribbean the Caribbean and Caribbean from the and over the the and generative of postcolonial Relation by is a around a refusal to the of and of the and that have the not outside to which it offer an the is the product of and it all that colonialism has in I understand the as a in which a means to rather than from as I propose gwoka as a fugitive I to that I not see it as a or an from colonial and of As is not or not be understood as a form of a rather than with of In its most and it is a form of a of from the an to at the of (and rather than by colonial that at the of I the as a by affective with the power to a from the of what Glissant calls the of Caribbean plantations to the of be the most of the generative and fugitive of from the by French that has been in Guadeloupe since As I argue in my on the of the and dancing of of that to their within the ring of drum in to the plantation. from the at the of the and that in Wynter's for the of a of to the Wynter's of the it is to see drum and in the colonial that the of a historical or which as a counterpoint to history of the the history of the as has its history. history in Guadeloupeans with and communities, a more of as a fugitive practice in colonial an that Wynter's For drum made it for to people not to has since been a of a fugitive history. In one of many that the of It is parallel because there is a history that is not that in the and that is the history of gwoka, in the of this gwoka to a connection to a a of that has its on the margins of the we will understand as a “culture of to be with and in Guadeloupe not be to the of it to play an There are and political at play as In the and in Guadeloupe to on the the Guadeloupean its political it had a For one the of gwoka swaré in the century, small of who music and on their been and to the that they are of swaré are now all-night that take on or in swaré are and the of the which has its musical Paris, most of them take the the is to a will from to a few people who form a ring in around a of three who the and a or who based on the of the dancer in of more are a and a of a other into the one at a they engage in an and with the gwoka into not only a national but also an it with of the French Some gwoka as is or are more likely to to their and with the gwoka is likely to as it in of the main at the of the the French in Even as demands for from France have many Guadeloupeans to see gwoka as a practice in the of the the of the It is no that Antilleans an a (in the of the many Antilleans to gwoka to with their history and I have been in gwoka dance classes and workshops in and around There, my main interlocutor and has been a I around I this music as a is an In a up in Guadeloupe in the the a of Guadeloupean Guadeloupeans to with culture and quickly by the of gwoka and is the who to the music and dance Guadeloupeans now to as the and who around and in traditional music and on to a in which to to Metropolitan France in the has been and there Paris, in three main weekly classes for in of and most and weekly classes for in also workshops in the right in the of the I have attended classes and workshops as as I have been and it is on that I will now classes in some ways, are the only for people who to take as within the with the of the have in an urban that postcolonial they come from France's the or at the of most of the that offer gwoka classes around Paris are the that the While some offer weekly most of them on And because around Paris is to people from the into the and it most for people to into the for an than to as on the of Caribbean plantations, gwoka classes at the of the French Even if within the There, at the Paris a by the on of the of in the of the an complex that many migrants from and and a of postcolonial and of many Yet it also with these of some like the of or the of and some in the form of or as or the of the as a of In with most other around Paris, from to what they of the and what they would like to see in an of workshops, and that to the demands of the people from the for this is part of a it as part of the to what calls or as and to French the or gwoka is with the as the of and This has and the at to the of for its to the to into the or to classes like the gwoka if they not their of at the of the take in a small on the of the studio or and its is with a and the because the to the dance to as the This the and more studios in the as of within the French point to many in Guadeloupean history and culture how to or dance On a because many not speak or understand Creole takes time to and them, their For the of the one of the time to in Guadeloupean they and these to broader historical as of a to how who had been that French or in to For the in Guadeloupe comes from would like to here on a that how by and embodied in a fugitive that to the history of colonialism and I and build around the by that dance the of a a and of and that dancers into a tradition and its In dedicated part of to the one of the of is and many with it both a in the to the point of and more work than is in other As the to is the of the In to in the to work on plantations. In a Creole they in for the a that in studio to Guadeloupe to This is a embodied of that and both and from the comments of the who how to dance and who themselves a back into Guadeloupean these to in the by they in their they them, them into their and into a of a in the that the Caribbean back to It is to that this not only of but also like with in In this fugitive pedagogy all within the is to with a or in dancers to the dancers on both sides of the have with me how they experience dance as an affective that them to slavery and the a dancer I in that the made a of historical connection to the historical of as a dancer I in Paris, that dancing to the a connection to the as an affective and historical of me I And to the slave trade, experience a of I am the of all this As I I to let all of that an more of dance as an affective and dancer I in Paris who to with me that had dancing gwoka to from a that dance it is to me to can I It is as of the There are of the that we For all is And the will or other the will come that there is a in that part of There is For gwoka that part of the And it is as This part I can I can And in the to a There is in And at the not a this allows for to come can For they themselves in There is this this something that that sets in and the the and of gwoka a of the dancer to an affective which dancers themselves within the transatlantic of Caribbean is a for to experience something in the of the dance a of opacity and the is invited to to this affective to be by During one of with I we the with a to practice dancing to the is one of the of It is rather with an that is a and that and the This calls for a it takes the In an gwoka in Guadeloupe in a as a I have been in the on the as a to it to the we the ring that a the who because of the slave and In the I my I to the and I my to these not my but it their and their that made my and my affective its me to not a of but an of As the and the of the my I invited to and the dance or rather affective only Caribbean As dance in and are many of the to at one with the that the the that the the and of over time the dancing community form and and dancing a that the of the the a point that has a for French these à part entière and entièrement à dancing cannot it commitment to the of and within the dancing propose that gwoka's fugitive and its to the is made its rézonans. I the rézonans from Raymond Gama. historian and activist born in a community that the late largely around and in Gama has what calls a “culture of an for has from the voices of the sound of the and the of in like are in a of the what I Gama For the culture of is rézonans. It Gama the of what calls Creole back to experience of in on the a and of the for an all-night their collective and and the of these made a on Gama and like to a community with its has Gama or that the of Caribbean for the of embodied for Caribbean one to dance or play the not the it not to take a or a it like the of a it and it the And that its the I to that its more on This to It to suffer It dance. It It a can it a form of rézonans the of in up a in of first is on the visual of and on a and their of This is most by this with of as the process which one sets in as a sets in In also as to the of knowledge and the experience of In the twentieth century, the to of of the and the the and the Although this and is it brings to a tension on one a that the and on the a that and the of the and Moreover, is to point that and in fact and at times of the One of is in the century, comes to the and rézonans as a of that musical with affective and to the of by and to this that the we experience have been by others in the and that this history of gwoka's It from and Antillean at the of the French in the Caribbean or the of its the of the allows the dancers I to the history of and them within embodied affective national historical the of by dancers within the of racial and rézonans the with their the in the postcolonial In short, gwoka and its rézonans dancers in