This book report is based upon the book The Haunted Tropics: Caribbean Ghost Stories edited by Martin Munro. Martin Munro is a professor of French and Francophone studies at the Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. Other literatures written by Munro include Shaping and Reshaping the Caribbean: the Work of Aimé Césaire and René Depestre and Reinterpreting the Haitian Revolution and its Cultural Aftershocks. This book was published by The University of the West Indies Press in 2015.
The Haunted Tropics: Caribbean Ghost Stories is a collection of short stories from the region’s leading authors who use the supernatural genre to reveal about the Caribbean’s history and its effect on us now. Obeahman,, Obehaed as told by Maryse Conde,
Obeahism as portrayed in The Obeahman, Obeahed was practiced by men in high and low ranks. “…Ali Samba from Senegal…” was an obeahman who “…dealt with the womanizers… [and was paid] …thousands of euros… [for help, from locals]” (Conde 4). Carmelien had inherited it from his father, Nolencia, who during his tenure “…earned a good living” from this practice (Conde 4). The Rastafarian religion was evident in Dawn of the Dread, where Don-Don and his friends turned to this means as guidance. Even though he was a “…Chinee dread…” Don-Don was convinced “…that we are all from Africa” (Philp 12). In the Ghost Children, Deena was encountering “…ghosts…”, with a mention of it, her mother said, “In our church, we don’t believe in ghosts” (Klonaris 42). The church played a role in their lives, as the “… Bible…” and its teachings were apart of Deena’s mom daily life ( (Klonaris 45). Christianity was also significantly involved in the lives of Ginette and her children when growing up. Ginette took to heart the saying in the Bible and would repeat to her children, “I lost two… If they hadn’t decided to go straight to Heaven, you would have been ten” (Pineau
The region we call Caribbean today was formed through the process of colonialism, not to create a community but to use enslaved, indentured and bonded workers to feed their homeland. Thus, people from all walks of life, who spoke different languages, and practiced different customs were brought together to achieve one purpose. These customs were seen as a threat to the Europeans, and so they implemented “… imperial order through its institutions (legislature, police, courts and jails), the churches, [and] schools [in order to cajole] the people to renounce their “heathen” beliefs and practices…” (Moore and Johnson 46). The result of that period forms our now Caribbean, involving globalization and creolization, the remnants that haunts us today. “According to Edward Kamau Brathwaite, the term creole… was used with different nuances throughout the Americas to refer to locally born persons, regardless of racial or cultural origin” to refer “… to their descendants, and to the hybrid language and culture they generated in the region…” (Taylor 74, 3). These descendants would form the native language, food and music that we practice today. “Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the peoples … and governments of different nations, a process driven by