‘Creolization’ refers to how prior and incoming cultures connect and overlap. In some cases new languages – creoles – develop. But creolization refers to much more – to blended expressions of art, literature, food, music and dance, and to new patterns of social behaviour.
In September 2013, Robin Cohen undertook fieldwork in Louisiana for the ‘Diaspora and creolization: diverging, converging’ project that is part of the Oxford Diasporas Programme. This photo essay introduces many of the people he met and places he visited as part of this fieldwork, and brings to light aspects of creolization in Louisiana.