Music and the Performance of Identity on Marie-Galante, French Antilles

Marie-Galante is a small island situated in the Caribbean to the south of Guadeloupe and forms an official département of France. Marie-Galantais express sentiments of being 'deux fois colonisé', or twice colonized, concomitant with their sense of insularity from a global organization of place. Musical practices on the island provide Marie-Galantais with a means of re-connecting with other significant distant places. The focus of the book is upon kadril accordion dance and gwo ka drumming, two prevalent musical practices on the island with which Marie-Galantais construct unique perceptions of self in relation, specifically, to Africa and France. The book will be of interest not only to ethnomusicologists, but also to those interested in cultural and linguistic anthropology, postcolonial studies, performance studies, folklore and Caribbean studies.