Hosay Trinidad: Muḥarram Performances in an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora
Frank J. Korom
University of Pennsylvania Press
The multivocalic rite known as Hosay in the Caribbean developed out of 
earlier practices originating in Iraq and Iran which diffused to 
Trinidad by way of South Asian indentured laborers brought to the 
Caribbean by the British from the mid-1800s to the early decades of the 
twentieth century. The rituals are important as a Shi'i religious 
observance, but they also are emblems of ethnic and national identity 
for Indo-Trinidadians. Frank Korom investigates the essential role of 
Hosay in the performance of multiple identities by historically and 
ethnographically situating the event in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and
 Caribbean contexts. <i>Hosay Trinidad: Muharram Performances in an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora</i> is the first detailed historical and ethnographic study of Islamic muharram rituals performed on the island of Trinidad.<br><br>Korom's
 central argument is that the annual rite is a polyphonic discourse that
 is best understood by employing multiple levels of interpretation. On 
the symbolic level the observance provides esoteric meaning to a small 
community of Indo-Trinidadian Muslims. On another level, it is perceived
 to be representative of "transplanted" Indian culture as a whole. 
Finally, the rituals are becoming emblematic of Trinidad's polyethnic 
population. Addressing strategies used to resist integration and 
assimilation, <i>Hosay Trinidad</i> is engaged with theories concerning 
the notion of cultural creolization in the Caribbean as well as in the 
general study of global diasporas.