Caribbean Centricity is a term coined in relation to the work of choreographer Thomas Talawa Prestø and is linked to the presentation of The Talawa Technique in 2004. Prestø describes the technique to be both African- Centered and Caribbean- Centered. Prestø elaborates that Afrocentricity is not all-encompassing and that the theory has challenges about both anti-queerness and patriarchy. He nods to Africentricity or African Centricity which centres the experiences on the African continent more so than the North American experience. Here is an excerpt of Prestø’s speech:
“Having had an extended stay Trinidad & Tobago, it became clear to me that Afrocentricity did not have within it the complexity of the dynamic Caribbean identity. The Caribbean identity is often one where being mixed, of multiple heritages, is often the norm. Unlike America with its one-drop rule, hybridity is more the norm in some parts of the Caribbean, and where it is more typical to lay claim to both African, East Indian, Chinese and European heritage.
From this perspective, I found a need for a centricity that did not look romantically at returning to a form or culture which would be pre-colonial, as this would only be possible through the erasure of who we have become. Caribbean Centricity is a space which fuses African Centricity (continental) Afrocentricity (diaspora) with Latinx centricity, Asian Centricity, and Arab centricities and futurism. This an acknowledgement if European turbidity within these forms again. Caribbean Centricity is by nature liminal, fluid and dynamic. Like calypso music, it prefers double entendre and Anansi- tricksterism to monotonic representation. It refutes respectability politics and the idea of the private like Dancehall, yet embraces “the right to opacity” in the spirit of Edouard Glissant. Caribbean Centricity embraces both the conflict and the paradox of it’s own impossibly possible existence.”
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