Opacity, Rézonans, Biguidi: Music and Dance as Decolonial Praxis in the French Caribbean

To what extent can music and dance support decolonial transformation in the face of ongoing (post)colonial duress? Born from the French Caribbean crucible, Guadeloupean gwoka has always-already been a music and dance practice both of and against colonialism. In the 20th century, gwoka became the cultural weapon of anticolonial activists. Today, even as dreams of independence recede in the collective political imaginary, gwoka continues to provide an embodied practice through which many Guadeloupeans confront their position as postcolonial, non-sovereign, citizens of the French imperial state. Based on over a decade of dancing and playing music alongside Guadeloupeans on both sides of the Atlantic, this presentation outlines the potential and limits of gwoka as an embodied, decolonial, epistemology. Foregrounding the importance of technique, Jérôme Camal asks, What kind of knowledge does music carry? Can this knowledge counteract centuries of colonial assimilation? How do structures of power shape who has access to this knowledge and, importantly, what are the implications for a decolonial anthropology?