Creole Economics - Katherine Brown

6631 ETHNOHISTORY 49:2 / sheet 153 of 256
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard:

From Slave-Based Adaptations to the
Informal Economy in Martinique
Katherine E. Browne, Colorado State University
Abstract. This article introduces the concept of creole economics, a culturally in-
formed view of the informal economy in Martinique, French West Indies. Local
actors engaged in this economic practice are commonly known as débrouillards.
Drawing on studies of French slavery and folklore, literary works by Caribbean
authors, archival materials from Martinique, and the author’s own ethnographic
fieldwork, this argument suggests that cultural history and creole identities play a
significant role in shaping local patterns of illicit earning. By extending the notion
of creole adaptations to the economic domain, this work builds on the efforts of
Caribbean scholars who have clarified the influence of creole adaptations in other
areas, such as language, performance aesthetics, and belief systems.
A débrouillard is the most intelligent person who succeeds in solving a problem

first. He will take one underpaid job and then a second underpaid job to compensate
for it. If he still needs more money, he will be forced to do something that doesn’t
correspond to his training. It is degrading to not be able to use your intellectual
capacities. This is why many people do work on the side that they like.
Forty-year-old male Martiniquais banker who maintains a profitable but un-
declared farm on the side
Prologue
Like volcanic eruptions that form brand-new earth, creole societies of the
Caribbean were fundamentally new constructions spewed from both re-
sistance and accommodation to alien pressures from which there was no
ready escape. In the context of the longest-running and most brutal labor
system in human history, New World slaves produced and reproduced
Ethnohistory : (spring )

Copyright © by the American Society for Ethnohistory.
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 Katherine E. Browne
adaptations to endure and resist their shrunken humanity. For nearly two
centuries of slavery, these creole adaptations were forged from a unique
collision of African cultural systems and New World impositions. These
new constructions of creole thought and practice permeated every aspect
of life. Today, despite fundamental changes in the economic and politi-
cal structures of Caribbean societies and despite important differences in
island social structure, large numbers of Caribbean people continue to re-
produce long-standing creole adaptations in their practice of creole lan-
guages, creole belief systems, creole status indicators, and creole perfor-
mance aesthetics.
In this article, I argue that economic behavior, assumed to follow uni-
versal principles of rationality, can also be shown to exhibit cultural values,
which stem from resilient creole adaptations. I am calling the set of eco-
nomic practices that draws on creole values ‘‘creole economics.’’ In this
necessarily compacted reconstruction of cultural history, I will limit my dis-
cussion to the clearest and most relevant links between the value systems
animating economic practice today and those that guided earlier genera-
tions. My goal is to use this argument, supported by both historical records
and by the voices and practices of contemporary informants, to open a
new cross-Caribbean dialogue about the creole forms of contemporary eco-
nomic behavior. Against the Martiniquais particulars of creole economics,
others can test the salience and specificities that obtain in other island soci-
eties. Ultimately, we can sharpen our understanding of the reach and depth
of those creole-derived values that remain adaptive today.
In the last fifty years, scholars have advanced the understanding of the
role of African influences in contemporary Caribbean societies. Where
once the scholarly perception of these complex societies volleyed between
Herskovits ( []) and Frazier (), who argued, respectively, that
African survivals did or did not exist, we now admit a more nuanced reality.
As Mintz and Price ( []) suggest, the evidence for African influ-
ences need not be reduced to concrete survivals, such as food and music.
Their more robust approach recognizes the continuity of African-based
‘‘cognitive orientations’’ that have contributed form and meaning to creole
adaptations.
Perhaps the most striking cognitive map presents itself in the rich
variety but underlying similarity of Caribbean creole languages (English,
French, Dutch). All are anchored to African rhythms and syntax, which
comprise the invisible substrate, while the more visible superstrate is domi-
nated by European vocabulary. Another cognitive continuity from Africa
appears in contemporary belief systems such as Santería, Candomblé, and
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
Vodou, which reveal creole syncretisms of African and European con-

tent. In addition to languages and systems of belief, African-inspired in-
fluences appear in the local aesthetics of performance: in the domains
of music, dance, and storytelling, the traditions of African drumming,
rhythms, and interactive call-and-response voicings are strongly apparent
(Abrahams ).
Even where the African content of a creole adaptation is less clear
than it is with language, belief, and aesthetics, it is evident that creole pat-
terns contrast fundamentally with the patterns inherited from European
colonization. For example, in the areas of family life, kinship networks,
and ‘‘reputation,’’ slaves shaped a distinctly creole culture (Craton :
). In the area of prestige, for example, Peter Wilson ( []) and
his contemporaries argue that there are two coexisting systems of status
to which peoples of the Caribbean aspire: European ‘‘respectability’’ and
creole ‘‘reputation.’’ The European system of respectability, which stresses
clean, responsible living and loyalty to family and church, is internalized
in varying degrees by different segments of Caribbean populations. The
creole-based prestige system promotes different means to status, such as
public performance and verbal and sexual prowess (ibid.; Burton ).
My goal here is to demonstrate how the creole adaptations that ani-
mate local language, belief, status markers, and the aesthetics of public
performance also remain important in the area of work. Creole economics
reveals itself most clearly in Martinique’s widespread, cross-class infor-
mal economy, which defies explanation by conventional economic models.
Economists and development planners generally explain informal econo-
mies as survival strategies of the poor, perversions of economic systems
that are characterized by overly heavy labor legislation and weak law en-
forcement. Yet, as my cross-class anthropological investigation reveals, the
high levels of middle- and upper-class involvement in undeclared economic
activity represent much more an accumulation strategy than a survival
strategy. Moreover, despite the different forms that creole economics takes
among people of different socioeconomic means, a commonly held, under-
lying ethic consistent with slave-based adaptations and values binds these
disparate economic activities to each other in a single cognitive system. For
this and other reasons that I will elaborate in the course of this essay, I am
suggesting that the informal economy in Martinique represents an idiom
through which cultural history and creole adaptations are expressed and
reconstituted, just as the creole language is itself reconstituted each time it
is spoken.
At the heart of creole economics in Martinique is the local débroui-
llard. Here, people aspire to be good débrouillards, and those who self-
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
identify as débrouillards are likely to perform economic activities outside

of the law. Thus, a cognitive system of débrouillardism shapes the form of
much informal economic activity today. I will discuss the meaning that
Martiniquais associate with débrouillardism, how these meanings are used
to explain one’s undeclared economic activity, how the attributes of dé-
brouillardism are adaptive in today’s economic context, and how these
values can be traced to slave-based adaptations from the early construction
of creole society.
The Research Setting
Martinique is a French overseas department in the West Indies, politically

analogous to Hawaii and the continental United States. The standard of
living in Martinique remains well above that of most Caribbean countries
because of heavy French subsidies of imports and price guarantees for ex-
ports, the introduction of substantial social welfare payments, and support
for a large government bureaucracy, which compensates its functionaries
 percent more than their counterparts in metropolitan France (
: ; de Miras ; Crusol ). The welfare state that now exists
means that Martinique is today incapable of sustaining its own standard
of living. Economic dependency is deep and wide, and unemployment is
high (officially estimated at  percent), yet there is a feverish demand for
consumer goods (Armet ).
Based on census figures for , there are more than , resi-
dents of Martinique. Of this total, nearly  percent and half of all island
households are situated in the general urban area of Fort-de-France (
). Immediately surrounding this center of commerce and government
are the original residential neighborhoods of the town, most of which
are low income. Beyond this arc of lower-income residential neighbor-
hoods within the city’s central zone lie many moderate-, middle-, and high-
income urban neighborhoods.
My fieldwork in Martinique took place over a fifteen-month period,
including two summers and a year of research during –. I have since
done follow-up fieldwork in the summers of , , , and .
The data I collected come from three neighborhoods in the capital city of
Fort-de-France: a low-to-moderate-income neighborhood that, like others
at this socioeconomic level, lies outside of the city’s central zone of com-
merce and government; a middle-income neighborhood; and a wealthy
neighborhood. Both the middle- and upper-income neighborhoods lie up
a morne, beyond the innermost, lower-income residential areas of town
located in the valleys below. Officials at the local bureau of France’s Insti-
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Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
tut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques () were a

crucial aid in helping guide my selection of these neighborhoods as rep-
resentative of the broad range of socioeconomic standards that obtain in
the urban context. The research involved census interviews with house-
holders selected randomly from each of the neighborhoods and follow-up
structured interviews with more than seventy households. The total sample
includes nearly  households,  individuals, and approximately 
undeclared activities.
The Actor in Creole Economics: The Débrouillard
Discovering the Débrouillard

Anyone who presumes to knock on doors to ask residents to please detail
the ways they earn illegal money is, well, ambitious. But on a prefieldwork
site visit to Martinique, something happened that convinced me that this
research topic was not only timely, but possible. I had arrived late one eve-
ning, so the following morning was my first real look at the place I had
chosen for my fieldwork. I ventured out from the modest, parkfront hotel
that I had found through a guidebook. Not knowing a soul in Fort-de-
France or anywhere else on the island, I knew it would be up to me to strike
up conversations and get myself around during this quick ten-day visit. I
set out to explore the area around the hotel: the famous Park Savane, the
waterfront and dock for small boats, and the cluster of small boutiques that
shared streets with the grand old post office and town library, banks, and
movie houses. But, the streets were still, and the shops, offices, and news-
stands were all closed. Downtown Fort-de-France on a Sunday morning
was all but empty.
I decided not to worry about what a deserted-looking town meant
to my first day and to focus instead on making a call home. I had come
equipped with French coins, but the public street phones had no slots to
receive them. The longer I poked the odd-looking machine for hidden slots,
the more anxious I grew. Frustrated by my annoying ignorance of how to
use a French public phone, I began to worry about bigger issues: where
would I eat? how would I meet people? what was I doing here? I fought
self-doubt as I poked at the contraption again and again, hoping for a reve-
lation to strike me.
Suddenly, a man sped up in a four-door blue Peugeot, exited, and
strode with confidence to the trio of French phone booths. He smiled, in-
stantly grasping my state of need. ‘‘Can I help you? Are you trying to make a
call? Where are you calling? International?’’ He had his calling card ready,
slid it into the only mouth the machine offered, and handed me the receiver.
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
‘‘Tell the operator the number you want and it will go through.’’ Thank
god, I thought. Things are not so bad. If a complete stranger is willing to
lend me his card for an international call, this place must be okay.
But the encounter was not over. The young man made his call and wan-
dered off. After I hung up, I looked around. There he was, strolling down a
side street toward me. I noticed this time his golden-brown skin, designer
jeans, and smart leather jacket. He was in his early thirties, I guessed. He
asked if everything worked out all right with my call. Yes, yes, I answered
gratefully. ‘‘So, what will you do today?’’ he asked, perhaps sensing my
indirection. Of course, the deserted streets made me wonder what was pos-
sible to do today. ‘‘Would you like to come to lunch at my house? I know
my mother would be pleased to meet an American girl. I can show you a
bit of the countryside. We live in Carbet, near St. Pierre. There’s not much
to do on Sundays in town. It’s dead.’’
I was aware that he might have more than lunch on his mind, but
having no other prospects for the day, I decided to take my chances. What
other options did I have, I rationalized. As it turned out, the adventure was
exactly what I needed to convince myself that the study I was contemplat-
ing doing—how the informal economy works across classes—was a very
good idea.
Patrick preferred to drive fast, testing his control on each winding
curve as we hurtled our way up the dramatic northern coastline to Car-
bet. When we arrived in the small fishing town, he announced that there
would be a few quick stops before we got to his house. Oh, god, I thought, I
should have known. But the stops had nothing to do with me. ‘‘Come,’’ he
said, after parking on a hill clustered with brightly painted and carefully
tended wood-frame homes. He popped the trunk lid and pulled out three
large suitcases. I was mystified. What was he up to? He rang the doorbell. A
young woman with a handsome amber face answered. She went to call the
others. We were invited to sit in the upright chairs of the foyer as Patrick
laid each suitcase on the floor. He unzipped each of them before folding
back the covers. After the ritual presentation to the three teenage daugh-
ters of the household, I was eager to see the contents. He pulled things out
on hangers, a few at a time: sexy two-piece bathing suits, very much à la
mode. He later explained to me that he had just returned from a trip to Bra-
zil where he had loaded up his suitcases with bathing suits. Now he would
visit as many of his contacts as he needed to in order to sell the two hun-
dred or more suits with which he had returned. The girls in this household
sighed quietly as the father sat in judgment over each suit they modeled.
With his blessing, the three girls decided on five suits among them. I did
not ask how much they paid, but Patrick said they were less than half the
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Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
cost that they would have paid to buy such fashionable suits here. ‘‘We all
win this way,’’ he said, noting that the profits to him were also substantial.
‘‘I can pay for the trip and make good money too by selling to my friends.’’
I asked him if he always purchases bathing suits. ‘‘No, sometimes jeans or
other clothes. And sometimes I go to Venezuela.’’
The other stops were not as lucky for Patrick. One household was
empty; one said he would have to come back next month when there was
more money. But he was undeterred. ‘‘I have friends everywhere: Fort-de-
France, St. Pierre, in the south.’’ He has been clandestinely importing and
selling clothes for many years. ‘‘It pays the rent for my apartment in town
[Fort-de-France] and for nice clothes when I want them. I’m a débroui-
llard.’’ Patrick earns his ‘‘regular’’ income from a formal sector job as a
wholesaler of fish to local fish retailers.
The experience with Patrick convinced me that I was on the right track
with my research plans. Clearly, in Martinique, the poor were not alone in
working off the books. And if Patrick were any indication of how others
felt, work on the side was a source of pride, perhaps even a source of pres-
tige. This seemed to bode well for data collecting. I returned to Martinique
the following summer to begin my long-term fieldwork.
Key Insights about Creole Economics

As I have detailed elsewhere (Browne ), the findings from the research
sample yield data that show the importance of undeclared income for a high
proportion of people in Martinique. In low-income households, where the
greatest numbers of people depend on undeclared income, half the money
produced is generated from such illicit activity. But even among high-
income households, where the smallest number of people in my sample
routinely earn undeclared income, people still generate  percent of their
average household income through undeclared means (ibid.). These sur-
prisingly high proportions of middle- and upper-income people involved in
the informal economy may be the result of a variety of factors, including
rampant consumerism, a weak enforcement system, and heavy tax burdens
on employees.
Martinique is an intensely consumerist society. Since France initiated
rapid modernization efforts in the s, living standards increased dra-
matically in less than fifteen years. A number of local economic studies indi-
cate that levels of household indebtedness since the mid-s have soared.
People are keen to drive the newest model cars, wear the latest fashions, and
own the latest appliances, including cell phones and laptops. Spurred by the
rapid acquisition of services such as electricity, plumbing, and telephone,
combined with increases in income (minimum wages rose seven times in
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 Katherine E. Browne
this fifteen-year period) and subsidies to income, people have become fran-
tic consumers, spending money that they do not have. In this kind of social
environment, already known for the unusually high value placed on one’s
clothing and appearance, earning on the side can supply a critical source
of spending power.
Another possible explanation for the strong proportion of affluent
people operating in the informal economy involves the fact that there is no
serious enforcement system against such activity, except among those in-
volved in major smuggling or drug-dealing operations. Local police, work
inspectors, and judicial authorities all concurred in separate interviews that
containing the undeclared activity in this society was hopeless. However, it
was interesting that most of these official informants seemed to agree with
economists that the majority of people who operate informally are poor
and, therefore, pitiable and harmless. Of course, the poor are certainly the
most visible since they do not have access to the offices, shops, and homes
where the better-off are able to carry on their side affairs out of sight.
Ultimately, perhaps the most important explanation for the high num-
bers of informal operators in all classes relates to the high cost of doing
work legally. For an employer to be within the law, she must declare all
employees. In so doing, she must indicate the full number of hours an
employee works and pay approximately  percent of the income of that
person to have him covered by social security and protected with state-
mandated medical coverage. Thus, by avoiding declaring an employee, an
employer stands to save a great deal of money. For the price of five declared
employees, an informal employer can hire ten at the same rate of pay.
Clearly, there are important economic and political reasons that the in-
formal economy in Martinique operates on the scale that it does. However,
while the desire to earn informally may be driven by economic self-interest
and the recognition that penalties for such behavior are unlikely, my re-
search suggests that, in Martinique, the logic of economic gain is condi-
tioned by cultural history and the ethic of débrouillardism. In other words,
both in the form of Martinique’s informal economy and in the way people
justify their involvement as actors, one can see that a particular cognitive
map influences local economic behavior.
During fieldwork research about work and income strategies, two
findings emerged as the most basic among people in my cross-class sample:
() irrespective of socioeconomic status, many people readily admit to un-
declared earning strategies to enhance their income; and () a person who
follows such strategies routinely, like Patrick, typically calls himself a dé-
brouillard, a term signaling one’s economic cleverness, intelligence, and
success.
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Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
Is a Débrouillard a Débrouillard a Débrouillard?

Informants emphasized to me that in adapting to the demands of slavery,
the Martiniquais bent many French words and phrases to make them fit
the circumstances with which they were confronted. Thus, while to be
a débrouillard in Martinique generally includes the metropolitan mean-
ings of being dynamic, smart, self-reliant, and resourceful, it is also asso-
ciated with the qualities of slyness and cunning. The overwhelming pattern
I found in fifteen months of fieldwork was that people who self-identify as
débrouillards in Martinique are people who are likely to use unorthodox or
illegal strategies to get ahead economically.
A multilayered meaning for débrouillard specific to the Martinique
context is apparent from comparisons of the term in standard French ver-
sus local creole dictionaries. Débrouillard is, of course, a French word, but
in Martinique the word (spelled débouya in creole) carries additional mean-
ing. Consistent with informant accounts, dictionaries of standard French
indicate narrower and more straightforward meanings for this term than
those specified by dictionaries of French Creole. In the Larousse Diction-
naire de Français (: –), for example, the term débrouillard is de-
fined as ‘‘ingénieux, astucieux’’ (ingenious, astute) and illustrated with the
following phrase: ils sont assez débrouillards pour y arriver (they are re-
sourceful enough to make it). In Harrap’s French/English dictionary (:
), débrouillard is simply defined as a ‘‘resourceful person.’’ In the French
Creole dictionary (Ludwig et al. : ), however, the creole term dé-
bouya is defined as ‘‘malin, habile, roublard,’’ terms that mean, respectively,
crafty, clever or skilled, and wily or cunning. In a second usage, débouya
is defined as ‘‘débrouillardise, roublardise’’ and is illustrated in usage with
the decidedly nonmetropolitan phrase débouya pa péché (it is not a sin to
be a débrouillard ). This entirely local proverb reveals the morally complex
character of the creole term. It is a saying that, in the semantic context of
the standard French term, is barely intelligible.
Although the etiology of the creole usage of the term is not clear, dé-
brouillard (débouya) in the local setting has long carried a more shaded,
layered meaning than its counterpart in standard French. In considering the
origin of the creole usage, it is possible to assume that the positive conno-
tations of resourcefulness and ingenuity inherent in the metropolitan term
were strategically coopted by slaves to express their own ideas about re-
sourcefulness. For them, the term could have doubled as a reference to ini-
tiative and hard work in the eyes of the master, while a subversive meaning
might simultaneously be communicated to fellow slaves. The term might
well have acted as a code for the unscrupulous but allowable breaches of
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 Katherine E. Browne
morality (stealing tools, stealing time, and so on) required to negotiate a

labor system virtually void of direct opportunities for advancement or free-
dom.
Informants, too, emphatically distinguish local from French metro-
politan usage of the débrouillard concept, in both its noun and verb form,
se débrouiller. A sixty-year-old, retired, middle-income woman with three
grown children operates a small, undeclared cosmetology practice out of
her home, where she lives alone. According to Maryse, se débrouiller in the
creole sense is not at all the same thing as in the French sense of the word.
Here, there is something dishonest implied. You must be a little dis-
honest to make ends meet. The real [French] sense of the word is that
you must do things. You must not wait with your arms folded for
things to happen.
Jean Paul, a young married man who works in construction manage-
ment and teaches judo on the side, views the localized meaning of débroui-
llard as a cultural adaptation to hardship.
It is a way of thinking that we brought to French civilization and their
religion at the time of slavery. A débrouillard is someone who is always
looking for solutions for personal profit on every plane: physically,
financially. They try to be more cunning than others. In the end, dé-
brouiller means to be selfish. You do things uniquely for yourself.
Louise, a single mother of two high schoolers, owns her own retail
boutique in town selling high-end, gourmet foods. Her estranged husband
helps support the children so that the family continues to live a comfort-
able, middle-class life. Louise imports undeclared goods for resale rou-
tinely and is proud to call herself a débrouillard:
A débrouillard is someone who does not follow the same rules as every-
one else. He has his own means to obtain satisfaction. Not everyone is
a débrouillard. It is not given to everyone. Not everyone wants to use
this type of forbidden means. The person who is the most débrouillard
will find the candy on the table the fastest. He has more courage. He
has more nerve. Not just anyone is brave enough to do these forbidden
things. It is also someone who has more imagination, someone who is
very intelligent. His mind works even if he has not had a lot of educa-
tion or classes. There is some form of dishonesty in every débrouillard
because they do things that are not legal.
Metropolitan French living in Martinique are also quick to point out
the different meaning assigned to débrouillardism locally. Jannick has a den-
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Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
tal practice in Fort-de-France. He is metropolitan French but has lived in

Martinique for eighteen years and is married to a Martiniquaise woman.
They have two children. In his view, it is not only clear that there is a differ-
ent local meaning of débrouillard but it is a meaning that he finds shameful.
Here in Martinique, a débrouillard is someone who is more cunning
than others. In France, being known as a débrouillard simply means
that you are clever enough to find the best deal for something—that’s
clever. But here, it’s something different. It’s all a question of mentality
and state of mind. All over Martinique, there is a lot of underground
work. In France, it is to find the best deal—that is not a hindrance to
others. You can be a débrouillard legally. Here it is something else. Not
only is it illegal, but it is immoral. People who have a job and who
leave a few afternoons to do undeclared jobs are even more wretched.
In France, débrouillard is not a term associated with someone who per-
forms illegal activity. Moreover, metropolitans who do routinely defraud
the government are not accorded prestige for their accomplishments. Still,
as my metropolitan informants indicated, the underreporting of income in
continental France is considered a national sport, just as the rather open
practice of ‘‘system D’’ (D for débrouillard ) legitimizes the act of plying
one’s personal networks to effect a desired outcome, often the granting of
administrative favors (Wylie : ).
These metropolitan versions of economic self-interest may well reveal
a low regard for the authority of the state, but they are not strategies that
respond to the kinds of needs I heard so often voiced by Martiniquais: per-
sonal autonomy, for freedom from an employer’s rules, for the satisfaction
of having an activity of one’s own. Thus the distinctively ‘‘productive’’ form
of informal economic involvement in Martinique appears to be linked to
cognitive-level orientations that channel economic self-interest in locally
prescribed ways.1
In Martinique, people who self-identify as débrouillards place a high
value on personal liberté, autonomie, and strategies that demonstrate intelli-
gence, all qualities that were denied slaves and the majority of freed blacks
even after abolition. It is not likely a coincidence, then, that among people
in my sample who were situated in low-, moderate-, or middle-income
households, self-proclaimed débrouillards tended to pursue entrepreneu-
rial, income-generating activities alongside their formal sector work. This
kind of side work is highly valued, even by many in comfortable, profes-
sional jobs, because of its association with personal freedom and the intel-
ligence required to make such activity profitable.2
Unlike metropolitan French, then, Martiniquais tend to accumulate
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 Katherine E. Browne
extra, undeclared income by engaging in productive activity. The exchange

of the goods or services created occurs generally in buyer/seller dyads
that frequently involve cross-class, patron/client relationships (see Browne
). When people simply underreport their earnings or use contacts to
effect an administrative outcome, as in metropolitan France, there is no
productive activity.
In short, the débrouillard in Martinique models a creole kind of suc-
cess, a success not reducible to income alone. As I will elaborate later, many
of my wealthiest informants do not identify with the qualities attributed
to the débrouillard. This elite sample of Martiniquais were all educated in
France and currently own their own companies or hold important positions
in major private companies. For them, the ethic of débrouillardism is unap-
pealing precisely because it is not based on metropolitan values.
I will return in the final section of this article to specify how people
across classes practice débrouillardism in contemporary Martinique. It is
appropriate now to travel back in time to consider the roots of débroui-
llardism and how this cognitive orientation has proved adaptive over the
generations. As we will see, the ethic of opportunism in the form of dé-
brouillardism has been reproduced not in spite of, but rather, alongside and
sometimes in reaction to, a host of massive structural-level changes in the
society.
The Birth of Creole Economics:

Slave Strategies of Resistance
The French slave system in the New World was a construction of colonists
who shared a cultural identity, a language, and common economic inter-
ests. In contrast, the slaves whose labor enabled colonists to realize their
fortunes from sugar had been ripped from many areas of Africa and trans-
ported to the New World with their various native languages and cultural
traditions. These natural divisions among their slaves served the interests
of colonists, who attempted to preclude revolt by minimizing communica-
tion within and across plantations. Such controls were especially impor-
tant in plantation society as the proportion of slaves increased to more than
eight times the number of whites. In , for example,  years after
the first slaves had arrived in Martinique, the local population included
, slaves, , whites, and , free people of color (Blackburn
: –).
Slaves did not passively accept their drastically shrunken, alienated
new lives on sugar plantations an ocean away from home. But because of
their separation by language and the brutal consequences for resisters, the
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
forms of opposition that slaves displayed rarely interfered with the power
structure of the plantation. For all the slave revolts that occurred on Carib-
bean islands throughout slavery, only in Haiti was the white planter class
overthrown and kicked out (Blackburn : ; Burton : ).
Apart from the sporadic occasions of violent revolt, slave resistance
took on the form of hidden acts of defiance, which coexisted with apparent
acts of compliance. Thus, the highly supervised, compliant work of slaves
enabled the white planters to accumulate handsome profits from the sale
of sugar in Europe, while slaves found discrete ways to resist their exploi-
tation by plotting sabotage and scheming to serve their own self-interests.
The everyday tactics that slaves used to oppose the system included ‘‘work
stops,’’ disorganization in the fields, stealing farm tools, supplies, and food,
lying, mocking those in control, pretending to be sick, and serving poi-
soned food (Lazarus-Black : ; Roberts : ). In addition, com-
mon incidents of infanticide and abortion may suggest that slaves withheld
their reproductive potential from a system that would only imprison new
life (Craton : ; Burton : ). Over time, slaves became increas-
ingly adept at exploiting weaknesses in the plantation system and added
‘‘industrial sabotage’’ to their repertoire of resistance tactics. These strate-
gies included, for example, setting fires in the cane fields, killing cattle for
meat, and destroying carts, machines, and tools (Craton : ).
Such acts of resistance by slaves represented a crucial assertion of self
in the midst of negated personhood. Yet because resistance always occurred
in the context of slaves’ accommodation to the system, slaves were required
to embrace duplicity. Thus, the morality of duplicitous behavior, involv-
ing simultaneous accommodation and resistance, afforded the only path to
dignity: by feigning compliance, slaves could cope and also remain human.
‘‘The whole point of ‘psychological resistance’ was to show and not show
nonacceptance of the system and above all not to be caught in the act of
maneuver, deception, or defiance’’ (Burton : ).
The Material Basis for Creole Economics

The material basis for creole economics began with the small garden plots
situated on the margins of the estate given by masters to their slaves for
the purpose of providing for themselves. Generally, slaves were allowed
as much land as they were able to work. This practice, which began with
slavery itself in the French colonies, included a custom of ‘‘free’’ Saturdays
for the slaves to cultivate their food.
Although the French Code Noir was enacted in  to require the
slave owners in the French Antilles to provide their slaves with a certain
level of food, shelter, and clothing, the law was poorly enforced. And de-
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
spite various subsequent attempts to require planters to provide rations for

their slaves, slave gardening for subsistence came to be established practice
in French colonial life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through
abolition in  (Tomich : ).
For the already overworked slaves, gardening on the side meant more
work, and it also saved slave owners the costs of purchasing and distribut-
ing rations (Tomich : ). But cultivating small provision plots gave
slaves a way to realize the fruits of their labor and to do so without super-
vision by the master. Moreover, various accounts suggest that the slaves
regarded their individual plots as unique spaces of autonomy and free-
dom, dignities they were denied in the primary work of their lives (Diman-
Antenor : ; Tomich : ). Scholars note that these protopeasant
activities offered a space for slave initiative and self-assertion that simply
cannot be deduced from their economic form. Through them, the slaves
organized and controlled a secondary economic network, which allowed
them to begin to construct an alternative way of life that went beyond the
plantation (Tomich : ).
Historical accounts indicate that slave gardens were well-kept, boun-
tiful, and often quite profitable. The staple crop was manioc supplemented
by vegetables, potatoes, yams, and bananas. By selling manioc flour and
other surplus produce to plantations and at Sunday markets in the towns,
slaves were able to realize a source of income. This income or barter power
allowed them to obtain manufactured goods, including clothing, shoes,
jewelry, furniture, and other dry goods. For the industrious slave, the
ability to acquire material goods, especially high-quality clothing, helped
signal his economic independence and, consequently, his status among
other slaves (Tomich : –).
Thus although the provision plot comprised a relatively small propor-
tion of a slave’s working life, it was steeped in significance for the devel-
opment of creole economics. To a slave, his private garden represented an
opportunity to earn a profit and to realize the product of his own labor.
This side economic activity also offered a unique source of autonomy and
the individual status that such buying power made possible (Curtin :
). As Roger Bastide () and others argue, these provision grounds
permitted slaves to carve a niche in which creole culture could take shape
(Craton : ).
Individual gardens constituted an entirely productive locus for self-
gain, but slaves found many other opportunities to profit. For example,
Mintz and Price ( []: ) recount a typical episode from a Jamai-
can slave owner’s diary. When a slave was caught stealing sugar, he replied
that he had not stolen it at all; he had merely ‘‘taken’’ the sugar:
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
‘As sugar belongs to massa, and myself belongs to massa, it all de same
ting—dat make me tell massa me don’t tief; me only take it!’
The master replies, ‘What do you call thieving then?’ ‘When me broke
into broder house and grond, and take away him ting, den me tief,
massa.’
A second story recounted in the slave owner’s diary (Mintz and Price
 []: ) relates how a slave mother beat her child for showing an
overseer in which direction an escaped slave had run: ‘‘Next time buckra
ax you which side neger run, you tell him me no know, massa.’’
Stealing food or tools from the master was not considered immoral or
wrong by slaves; to the contrary, it was smart survival behavior (Patterson
: ). Any strategies that exploited the system to one’s own advan-
tage were admired, so long as one could avoid being caught. In his historical
novel Texaco, the renowned author from Martinique Patrick Chamoiseau
(: ) recounts how clever slaves could also disappear from the planta-
tions without being noticed. One example occurs when a field slave during
broad daylight secretly visits a slave laundress washing at the river:
[He] blew her a few words then came back the following day, then
another, then a whole day, careless of the overseer’s eye. ‘‘So how is it
you don’t work?’’ [she] asked all astonished. . . . ‘‘I haven’t left work,’’
he would answer opening his eyelids wide around his eyes. And when
[she] asked around, no one had ever seen him leave his post or sabo-
tage his cutting. The overseer who accounted for the number of slaves
at work never fell upon his missing backside.
Stealing, lying, and other forms of exploiting the system were common
tactics among slaves at all levels, from the mass of field slaves performing
the most undesirable work to the small minority of ‘‘higher’’ slaves with
less odious jobs and better chances for favors. These latter slaves consisted
of artisans, including carpenters, mechanics, and masons; drivers and field
supervisors; and domestic slaves who worked inside the great house. But
despite the relative advantages of higher slaves, they too used their respec-
tive positions to advance their individual interests in whatever ways pos-
sible, winning for themselves better food and shelter, occasional holidays,
and gifts of cloth (Burton : ).
Female slaves sometimes sought the advantages of concubinage with
their master. One advantage to such a relationship involved the potential to
‘‘whiten’’ themselves through light-skinned children and thereby improve
their own social standing (Wilson  []: ). Moreover, their mu-
latto children, especially males, would typically inherit special privileges
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
and often win their freedom in the slave-based economy (Mintz and Price
 []: ).
The Ideological Component of Creole Economics

The pleasures of music and storytelling occurred in the interstices of plan-
tation work: at nights and on Sundays. During these times, slaves could
exercise control over their lives and demonstrate individual prowess, all the
while helping to humanize a painful, shared existence. The cracks of op-
portunity for such self-expression provided key avenues for reproducing
the survival values coded in folktales. Folklorist Roger Abrahams (:
xvi) notes that the power of words conveyed through public performances
in oral cultures is not appropriately valued by people in literate societies. In
oral cultures, he further argues, storytelling is a fundamental way of codi-
fying hard-won truths and dramatizing the rationale behind traditions.
Ultimately, these survival values would have far-reaching impact on
the cognitive orientations slaves took with them after abolition. In a collec-
tion of contemporary creole folktales, Chamoiseau (: xii) introduces
their historical context: ‘‘At the foot of the hill, in the slave quarters, some-
one emerges from one of the huts. The slaves are waiting for him, expec-
tantly, beneath an ancient tree. . . . By day, he is merely a field hand who
works, suffers, and sweats, living in fear and in stifled rebellion. At night,
however, . . . he will become the Master of Words . . . the Storyteller.’’
According to an analysis of creole folktales by Maryse Conde, promi-
nent Guadeloupean writer, more than  percent of these tales involve the
use of trickery to escape conditions of ‘‘grinding misery’’ (Arnold :
). Chamoiseau (: xii) explains that these stories reinforce the value
of cunning as indirect resistance in a system that virtually precluded direct
resistance:
The Creole tale reveals that overt force guarantees eventual defeat and
punishment, and that through cunning, patience, nerve, and resource-
fulness (which is never a sin), the weak may vanquish the strong or
seize power by the scruff of the neck.
Whites were aware of these storytelling rituals but were not generally able
or willing to recognize that the tales, filled with ‘‘exaggerated deference,
disguised satire, and outright cunning, duplicity, and mendacity,’’ were not
harmless banter but fodder for the subterfuge of everyday life (Craton :
). The folk hero in these trickster tales was Anansi the spider or Brer
Rabbit.
In their new creole language, storytellers rewove their African folk-
tales to fit the terrible new plantation environment (Arnold : ).
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
Whereas in Africa the tales emphasized the importance of collective out-

comes, in the New World, the self-interest of the individual came to jus-
tify the means to accomplish this end (Dramé : ; Roberts : ,
). Chamoiseau (: xiii) echoes this point as he cautions that the tales,
though they involve trickery and deceit, do not incite group revolution. On
the contrary, they prescribe individualistic solutions: ‘‘The hero is alone,
and selfishly preoccupied with saving his own skin.’’ Other folktale schol-
ars have noted that the creole trickster strategies ‘‘involve the maximization
of short-term (economic) gain at the expense of long-term social cohesion’’
(Dramé : ).
In the French Caribbean, the most enduring and popular trickster
character is the rabbit, Compère Lapin, or Brer Rabbit (as he is known in
the British Caribbean and American South), a direct ancestor of our own
Bugs Bunny (Laurent and Césaire : ; Joyner ; Arnold : ).
When stories recount Rabbit outwitting an animal more powerful than
himself, such as Lion, the test of his superior intelligence frees him from
the imposition of Lion’s will (Goldenberg : ). Rabbit is known for
his cleverness at outsmarting bigger and stronger animals in order to turn
impossible odds to his favor; his powerful intellect more than compensates
for his small size.
One tale, from Martinique, recounts how Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Tiger
out of his dinner. The story begins with Tiger cheating Firefly out of the fish
they both caught. Firefly complains to Rabbit, who decides to outwit Tiger
himself. Rabbit tempts Tiger with the promise of a big pig dinner, but when
Tiger comes to collect his meal, Rabbit sneaks out, steals Tiger’s basket
of fish, and returns home before Tiger knocks on the door. Rabbit greets
Tiger with tears in his eyes. ‘‘My pig’s been stolen, my pig’s been stolen,’’
he cries. Disgusted, Tiger sighs and returns home. That night, Rabbit fries
the big fish and enjoys a tasty dinner (Weiss : –).
In effect, Rabbit represents a folktale archetype of cunning and ma-
neuverability. His superiority lies not only in his ability to spot opportunity
but also in his ability to avoid getting caught (Burton : ). The sur-
vival lesson of duplicity was thus codified in creole folktales, replete with
hidden meanings. Even today, Compère Lapin remains the central charac-
ter of creole folktales taught in school and retold to children at home.
Rabbit’s success provides a model for behavior that emphasizes the
use of intelligence and alertness to find opportunities for gain where others
see none (Confiant : ). John Roberts’s (: ) analysis of trickster
tales among African descendants in the New World states that these tales
involve ‘‘the use of wit, guile and deception to acquire material rewards.
[The trickster’s] actions became the model for getting what they needed
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
with minimal risk.’’ Others agree that the stories became models for living:
‘‘These tales provide a practical education, an apprenticeship in life—a life
of survival in a colonized land’’ (Chamoiseau : xii).
Local scholars are quick to point to the fact that the human débroui-
llard in Martinique is modeled on the character of Compère Lapin (Césaire
; Confiant ; Suvélor ). Like Rabbit, the débrouillard embodies
the ‘‘strength of the weak’’ by using his superior intelligence to trick the
dominant system and turn it to his own purpose (Burton : ).
The Opportunism of Creole Economics after Abolition
For the majority of freed men and women, abolition () changed little of
the structural arrangements of life (Brereton : ). Most former slaves
remained poor while the white planters, who continued to control arable
land and the resources needed to make it profitable, also controlled wages
and migration (Craton : ). As a result, from abolition through the
next hundred years, both those who left the plantation to become inde-
pendent peasants and those who stayed on as wage workers could not sur-
vive without pursuing multiple occupations. Creole economics thus con-
tinued to offer culturally validated ways to profit by finding opportunities
and turning them to one’s advantage.
Many slaves left the plantations for land in the hills where their subsis-
tence gardening skills and market networks enabled them to become small-
scale peasants. However, most were forced to return to plantations regu-
larly to supplement their subsistence gardens with additional wage earnings
for the purchase of staples. Some slaves chose to remain on the plantation
in order to earn a sure income. As wage workers, these former slaves con-
tinued to cultivate provision gardens on the side. Thus, whether the freed
slaves opted to escape the plantation or to use it to enhance their own secu-
rity, they all invested in other economic activities.
The plantation economy continued to flourish and dominate local pro-
duction into the s, when the new supply of sugar produced by India
and Africa added to Europe’s own beet sugar industries. The competition
began to threaten the price expectation for Caribbean sugar. The depres-
sion of the s led to a further drop in the demand for sugar. Although
these crises spurred updates in the technology and organization of planta-
tions, the poor living standards of the plantation workers did not improve.
Both for workers who remained on the plantations and for the emerging
peasantry beyond, the reliance on multiple forms of work remained the
only way to survive.
Although the freedmen constituted the overwhelming majority of the
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
island population and their lack of economic mobility contrasted with the
riches of the dominant white minority, the intermediately positioned mu-
lattos pressed for new economic and political advantages. This third seg-
ment of society was composed of the children of liaisons between masters
and slaves. During slavery, most had been freed from bondage, and males
were frequently sent to Paris by their white fathers to pursue an education.
In exploiting the unique opportunities available to them, the mulatto
class cut a new facet into the structural pattern of creole economics. As
individuals, mulattos carried their creole attitudes of opportunism to the
new professional arenas they entered: law, medicine, and commerce. In the
first place, their slave mothers had taught this new class of creole citizens
that the fastest way up was not out of but through the great house. As early
as the nineteenth century, métis men who had completed studies in Paris
returned home to become local doctors, lawyers, and government admin-
istrators. Many went into commerce, a niche not yet filled by the békés (the
white plantation owners and former slave owners) (Aldrich and Connell
: ). The small mulatto class, with mixed blood and light skin, thus
occupied a middle-class position, a status inaccessible to darker-skinned
descendants of pure African heritage. As a group, they cast their futures
with the French state that, since the revolution, had promoted a new ‘‘re-
publican’’ ethic of universalism and a defense of the ‘‘rights of man.’’ Mu-
lattos came to claim new rights for themselves based on these republican
principles, as ways both ‘‘to take revenge on history and to struggle against
the békés and their hegemony’’ (Daniel : ). To realize the possibility
of upward mobility, mulattos jockeyed for administrative, teaching, and
political positions in the colonies.
The mulatto class also lobbied hard for Martinique’s political and eco-
nomic assimilation to France and, in so doing, appeared to many to have
shunned their creole roots. But, however much this in-between popula-
tion attempted to look and behave like white Europeans, there would have
been real advantages for those who practiced an invisible ethic of cunning
and duplicity. In fact, such an orientation offered adaptive value since the
opportunities to exploit new paths to status required a flexible toolkit of
strategies, licit or not. After the installation in  of the Third Empire,
for example, which granted greater political latitude to such creoles, many
mulattos exploited both the decline of the sugar industry and the  vol-
canic eruption that leveled St. Pierre, the island’s primary commercial cen-
ter, to wedge open a number of top administrative and professional posi-
tions. Because the eruption killed the town’s thirty thousand inhabitants,
including many of the whites who had held such top posts, these middle-
stratum creoles seized the newly available roles, thus laying the ground-
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
work for what later became creole-dominated political power on the island
(Brereton : ). Thus, mulattos relied on familiar, creole-based tactics
of ‘‘payback’’ to claim new economic and political rights for themselves,
all the while imitating the best European manners and dress possible (Bur-
ton ).
Eventually as political, if not economic, elites in Martinique, mulattos
as a class had an important influence on the shape of France’s assimilation-
oriented policy toward its colonies. They increasingly insisted on achieving
for Martinique equal living standards as well as levels of development equal
with those of metropolitan France. This political pressure to gain what
they viewed as their economic due ultimately led to the present transfer-
based economy (Daniel : ; de Miras ). Clearly, mulatto atti-
tudes about what was due them by the French state helped to model new
ways of thinking about payback.
Recalling the strategies of higher slaves, whose opportunities for self-
gain on the plantation were of a different variety from those available to
field slaves, mulattos mined the veins of French guilt by pressing the state
for political favors at the same time that they used it to enhance their own
economic standing. Mulatto boys and young men commonly spent years
abroad in Paris in order to return home with the respectability of Euro-
pean educations, languages, and material trappings. Mulattos wore Euro-
pean clothing, bought European furniture, practiced orthodox Catholi-
cism, and entertained in styles consistent with European decorum. Their
European sophistication and success helped translate the allure of French
values to the majority black population and reinforced to them the eco-
nomic potential of becoming ‘‘respectable’’ by becoming French. Demon-
strating their commitment to status based on the European system, mulat-
tos abandoned all visible manifestations of creole culture in favor of French
attitudes, French products, and French language. As a result, their darker-
skinned kin also learned to display European standards of behavior, dress,
and language in public and to reserve expressions of creole culture for home
(Aldrich and Connell : ).
Although many aspects of creole culture involving language, dress,
and food were submitted to intense stigmatization during this time, there
was always a space for creole expression. Scholars argue that, in Marti-
nique, creole culture evolved in a fashion parallel to European French cul-
ture, similar in concept to the parallel evolution of French Creole and stan-
dard French (Burton ). Rather than assimilating fully to the European
system of respectability or asserting the supremacy of the creole system
through political independence, most of the freed population embraced co-
existing value orientations. Not only were these cognitive systems not seen
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
to be mutually exclusive, they might best be conceived as constituting a cul-

tural continuum along which people were drawn, at different moments and
in different degrees, to one pole of values or another (see Drummond ).
The long-standing creole orientation to enlightened duplicity, the
simultaneous embrace of at least two distinct meanings of practice, thus
continued to be reproduced. Specifically, each system took on primacy
at times when it was perceived that key social or economic benefits were
involved. In public forums, the need to make an impression about one’s
Frenchness might lead a person to attempt a European standard in the area
of language, dress, church-going behavior, and eating out. Meanwhile, in
those areas of life that were closer to home, creole language, attitudes, be-
liefs, and food might instead dominate (Burton ).
Coexisting belief systems (rather than syncretic blends or full assimi-
lation to one system) also suggest the salience of multiple strategies for con-
ceiving life itself. In Martinique today, the strong orientation to Catholi-
cism or to newer evangelical religions has not diminished local belief in
sorcery. The quimboiseur is still a powerful local force, endowed with the
supernatural ability to change the course of events (Méssegué and Poiret
). Sorcerers (who frequently advertise in local newspapers) are hired
by people in all social classes, and people everywhere feel vulnerable to
the machinations of these (primarily) evildoers. Although outsiders often
view these beliefs as inherently incompatible, the Martiniquais I inter-
viewed make no attempt to reconcile the fundamentally distinct supernatu-
ral forces of Christianity and sorcery.
In like manner, Martiniquais feel no pressure to abandon their creole
economic values in their quest for assimilation and upward mobility in the
French system. On the contrary, the general involvement of middle- and
upper-class people in the local informal economy testifies to the continu-
ing value of such creole-oriented behavior alongside legitimate economic
activity.
As a logical conclusion of historical patterns and strong popular move-
ments for assimilation to France, in  the islands of Martinique and
Guadeloupe, as well as the South American colony of French Guiana, be-
came fully incorporated into France as overseas departments. In pressing
for this outcome, the mulattos operated out of the same understanding that
their slave ancestors had: to move up in the world, one had to move into
the white man’s household where respectability and, therefore, power lies.
The only avenue to true political power and social mobility at that time lay
in Martinique’s full assimilation to France as an overseas department or
 (département d’outre mer). Neither independence nor status as a ter-
ritory could offer the same benefits. By referencing the highest ideals of the
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
French Republic—liberté, égalité, fraternité—to serve their own ends, the

mulattos demonstrated the recognizable cunning of Compère Lapin.
In fact, Compère Lapin, a model of débrouillardism, remained much
in evidence during the twentieth century as creole folktales were not only
reproduced orally by traditional storytellers but also published and circu-
lated in schools and in homes. These creole tales, still replete with the devi-
ous plots and generally victorious outcomes of Compère Lapin, were com-
monly associated with the local débrouillard, as Martinique-born Frantz
Fanon ( []: ) noted: ‘‘These stories belong to the oral tradition
of the plantation Negroes. Therefore it is relatively easy to recognize the
Negro in his remarkably ironic and wry disguise as a rabbit.’’
Débrouillardism, the Vichy Period, and  Status
The distinctive path that Martiniquais chose for their future reflects the de-
gree to which they believed in the French promise of assimilation (Mitchell
: ). Departmentalization offered an invitation to continue the pro-
cess of assimilation in the form of a more formal relationship with France.
The most immediate implications of the new status were political and eco-
nomic: Martinique would elect local people to represent the island in the
national government, and the new  status promised the same gov-
ernment services and social security provisions as any department in the
metropole (Aldrich and Connell : ).
These political and economic protections presented new sources of
opportunity for the creole débrouillard. With  status and full French
citizenship, islanders were now eligible for good jobs in the metropole.
In the forty years following departmentalization, the search for work in
the metropole became a pronounced strategy, and by , there were ap-
proximately , Martiniquais and Gaudeloupeans living in mainland
France, a figure that equals nearly one Antilles person in the metropole for
every two persons in the Caribbean (Marie : ).
Although one outcome of full political assimilation was the increased
stigmatization of creole language, dress, and diet, the underlying cogni-
tive orientations of creole culture were being actively reproduced in the
economic sphere. During World War II, for example, just before depart-
mentalization, the world system that had linked sugar produced in the
French islands to France for three hundred years came to an abrupt halt.
The four-year Vichy occupation of France led Allied forces to blockade
France’s Caribbean islands. No imports could be received and no exports
could leave the dock; the lifeline was severed. Isolation from France, the
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
single source of economic connection and the hope for assimilation, left
Martinique alone in the world (Aldrich and Connell ).
These years tested the Martiniquais ability to mine their own cultural
resources to survive the difficult circumstances. They found a way during
the Vichy years to make salt, leather, glasses, baskets, and various foods.
People still remember vividly those years of ingenuity in the face of aus-
terity. Today, the Vichy period is commonly referred to as a triumph of
self-reliance and, for that reason, is a period that evokes great nostalgia.
Together, the struggles of slavery, postabolition subsistence, and the
Vichy period required the still-poor masses of Martiniquais to adapt and
learn to exploit a system they did not control. Modeled after the individu-
alistic rabbit of folklore, the survivor is one who identifies opportunity and
exploits it to maximize his own chances of success.
Contemporary Realities and Débrouillardism
The side provision plots during slavery, the continuation of multiple eco-
nomic strategies during abolition, and the entrepreneurial inventiveness
during the Vichy period—all signal profoundly consistent opportunistic
adaptations to hardship that have made their way to the present day. But
many question whether economic hardship remains a reality today. If not,
is there still a role for creole economics and the local débrouillard?
In the s and s, a sweeping modernization effort brought sig-
nificant economic change: the island that had once specialized in produc-
tion for export became transformed into an island importing and consum-
ing eight times more than it produced. The metropolitan investment in the
local economy brought new infrastructure, better systems of education,
higher salaries, comprehensive social security protections, and vastly im-
proved overall standards of living (Aldrich and Connell : ).
In terms of socioeconomic stratification, French demographic and
labor specialists indicate three tiers of household income in Martinique
based on the occupation of the household head. At the high end, repre-
senting  percent of urban household heads, are the professionals, pub-
lic administrators, and employers, most of whom officially earn more than
,.. annually. The middle group of income earners represents
nearly  percent of Fort-de-France household heads and includes employ-
ees in private businesses and skilled workers in factories or small manu-
facturing shops. The incomes of these workers vary considerably, but in
 they averaged between minimum wage (about ... an hour or
, per year) and ,.. per year. The group earning the lowest
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
incomes represents approximately  percent of all households in Fort-de-

France and includes agricultural workers, artisans, the self-employed, mar-
ket sellers, and retired workers who earn a pension. The vast majority of
people in these positions earn less than minimum wage ( ).
What employment tables do not reveal, however, is the complex social
structure of urban Martinique, which involves a combination of factors:
income, occupation, education, skin color, language, family organization,
and religion. Nor do they account for income earned informally, money
that significantly changes an individual’s total income picture and prestige.
Martiniquais today live relatively affluent, consumer-oriented lives
compared to their counterparts on other Caribbean islands. Through
France’s welfare-styled development efforts, for example, Martiniquais
have enjoyed a constant rise in income and associated standards of living
( : ). However, because this rapid growth and moderniza-
tion is derived from transfers and subsidies and is not tied to productive
growth in business and industry, the level of unemployment has exploded
since . Today,  percent of the potential workforce is unemployed
(Armet ; Diman-Antenor : ). In short, the artificial economy that
France has constructed in Martinique since  has had the effect of sus-
taining high standards of living alongside record levels of personal debt and
intractably high levels of unemployment (Laferte : ).
In this economic environment with an expanding urban population,
stagnant levels of local production, and rising demand for imports, the
capacity of Fort-de-France’s formal economic sector to absorb available
labor has decreased, giving rise to high levels of official unemployment and,
consequently, undeclared, informal work (Domenach ; Audric ;
Chénard : –). In addition, as discussed previously, there are other
factors that fuel the engine of the local informal economy: a weak enforce-
ment system, high costs associated with legal labor, and soaring levels of
household indebtedness locked to a fierce consumerist mentality.
The economic struggles faced by many low- and moderate-income
islanders have recently also pinched the pockets of middle-income resi-
dents, who have endured unfamiliar retail competition from business-savvy
Europeans drawn by Martinique’s membership in the European Union. In
the context of these varied economic pressures, the Martinique débrouillard
is an energetic force who operates with a penchant for action designed to
ensure self-interest. How these strategies are realized varies by class.
Among informants in low- and moderate-income households, people
follow a variety of strategies for earning undeclared income. As often as
not, this undeclared income represents primary rather than secondary in-
come. Construction and auto repair are the largest domains of work for
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
men, while women are commonly employed in low-end, undeclared clerical

positions or in households as domestic servants (see Browne , ).
Informants with limited resources also cite other strategies. Several
told me, for example, that they secretly leave a regular job every two or
three weeks in order to work at another job. These informants said that a
workmate would cover for them so that the boss never learns of their half-
day or even full-day absences. Recall the creole tale in which the overseer’s
glance ‘‘never fell upon his missing backside’’ (Chamoiseau : ). In
some cases, informants reported that the system of secret absences rotates
so that each worker in a small group gets a chance to take a day off to earn
elsewhere. The point is that at least some people make a habit of earning
two incomes simultaneously.
Another kind of strategy involves the use of employers’ supplies or
tools. One young man named Olivier delivers concrete to city job sites.
‘‘Occasionally,’’ he said, ‘‘I profit by selling a dump load of concrete to a
personal contact before delivering the rest of the load [to the legitimate job
site].’’ Skilled city or school district workers in vehicle or furniture repair,
welding, or general maintenance reported to me that they find opportuni-
ties to ‘‘borrow’’ tools, supplies, or equipment in order to capitalize their
personal repair businesses. Skilled workers with private sector employers,
such as auto repair shops, plumbing and electrical firms, and construction
companies, may apply their skills to building a private clientele, which they
service in the evenings and on the weekends.
Charlotte, a moderate-income, thirty-two-year-old dressmaker and
single mother, is slowly increasing her profits as she accumulates more re-
sources and reinvests them in her work. She strongly self-identifies as a dé-
brouillard and is pleased with the way she has mapped her own success.
She is now able to earn more than minimum wage each month from her
undeclared microenterprise. At the same time, she is officially unemployed
and has for more than two years illegally collected substantial unemploy-
ment and housing subsidies as a result. Charlotte has a clear conscience and
keeps her eye on the future she desires for herself. According to her,
Life goes to the most clever, you know. Even if what they do is not
within the norms or the law. The more one is clever, the more they
know how to spot opportunities and the more they can turn a profit
for themselves.
Compared to households that largely generate only informal income,
like those profiled above, more affluent islanders do not practice débroui-
llardism to survive but rather to improve their living standards. A highly
paid insurance executive remarks on the fact that, like him, many people
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
with his socioeconomic standing pursue an undeclared side business of

their own:
Generally, in Martinique, you have a principal activity and then a lot
of other activities, extra professional activities. People look for some-
thing to complement their salary. It happens at every level:  percent
of people have activities outside their [regular] work.
A local accountant echoes this sentiment. After more than twenty
years of servicing a private clientele for his accounting work on the side,
Jannick reports that the habit of doing so is what débrouillardism is all
about. The extra income has enabled him to make substantial home im-
provements, buy up-to-date cars, and keep the house stocked with modern
appliances. According to Jannick,
Most functionaries have something going on the side to earn extra
money. Some do professional work like I do, some grow crops on
family land for resale, some own a business they register in some-
one else’s name, and some exercise a combination of these strategies.
Those who do not supplement their official income with something
are just plain lazy, not débrouillards at all.
The evidence that débrouillard behavior is much admired appears not
only in the words of practitioners but also in the words of those without
the skill. A high school teacher confessed her disappointment to me that
she is not herself a débrouillard. She explained that she did not feel she was
clever enough: ‘‘When you are called a débrouillard it is a quality. It is a
plus to be one. It is like they are taking charge of their own destiny of being
autonomous. People who don’t do it are a little bit stupid.’’
This alternative system of status in the economic realm reveals an un-
examined facet in the multidimensional creole-based prestige system of
reputation, a finding I will not explore here. However, as these snapshots
reveal, the débrouillard in Martinique models many qualities of the beloved
trickster rabbit of creole folklore, whose schemes are not bound by con-
ventional law.
Although the débrouillard’s schemes may show little respect for state
law, there are nonetheless moral limits to what one is willing to call dé-
brouillard behavior. Since being a débrouillard is a source of local status, it is
no surprise that there are limits to what a proper débrouillard may do. And
while these limits may surpass the law, they remain well within accepted
social norms. People who try to pass off reprehensible behavior as débroui-
llardism are judged severely. For example, practitioners of creole economics
do not hesitate to express their disgust with activities such as prostitution,
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 
drug dealing, and contraband smuggling. These inherently illegal activities

are seen to contribute to serious social problems.
Conclusion
Débrouillardism is a mentality here. You explain it from slavery. Work

was imposed. The débrouillard found liberty. It shows that he is free
and more intelligent than other people. That is the character of the
Antilles. They se débrouiller, in every situation.
Spoken by a retired schoolteacher, these words echo those of others who
readily attest to the continuing importance of débrouillardism. Her words
also demonstrate the subtle irony of creole economics: in perfect French,
she hails the creole way of thinking. Within a definitively French legal and
economic system, creole culture survives and creole economics remains not
only viable but desirable.
There is perhaps no way to establish with certainty that the habits
of resistance shaped by slavery have survived the historic upheavals of
abolition, departmentalization, and the European Union. However, the
links presented here connecting historic and contemporary ethics of op-
portunism possess a compelling logic. Cunning, the central attribute of dé-
brouillardism, thrives in adverse environments where it is tested and gains
strength. Since abolition, Martiniquais have continued to face profound ad-
versity despite changes in economic and political systems over time. Not
only do they struggle to ensure their own economic success, they also
struggle against a nation that promised status and assimilation through
French citizenship but that continues to deny them the dignity of being con-
sidered truly French. Thus, in the face of multiple kinds of adversity, the
practice of creole economics has given Martiniquais what political assimi-
lation could not: autonomy, knowledge of their own intelligence, and suc-
cess. Meanwhile, the imaginary rabbit continues to buttress débrouillard-
ism. Creole tales, in strong evidence still today, continue to map the triumph
of the weak over those who are more powerful, and in so doing, they cap-
tivate both schoolchildren and their parents. In like manner the local say-
ing ‘‘débouya pa péché ’’ continues to reassure débrouillards that their creole
version of enlightened self-interest is certainly no sin.
Notes
 I am defining productive according to economists, who distinguish undeclared

‘‘productive’’ work from undeclared ‘‘rent’’ income. Undeclared productive work
is activity in which a good or service is created and exchanged but is simply not
Tseng 2002.5.16 16:06
 Katherine E. Browne
taxed according to law: this kind of economic activity contributes to economic

productivity. By contrast, income generated from tax evasion, fraud, or transfer
payments constitutes rent income, which makes no contribution to the produc-
tive base of the economy (see Osterfeld ).
 In my sample, those who reject the moral justifications of débrouillardism are
likely to be religiously heterodox, metropolitan French, békés, and very-high-
income Martiniquais.
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6631 ETHNOHISTORY 49:2 / sheet 153 of 256

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard:

Katherine E. Browne, Colorado State University

A débrouillard is the most intelligent person who succeeds in solving a problem

Ethnohistory : (spring )

 Katherine E. Browne

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

Vodou, which reveal creole syncretisms of African and European con-

 Katherine E. Browne

identify as débrouillards are likely to perform economic activities outside

The Research Setting

Martinique is a French overseas department in the West Indies, politically

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

tut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques () were a

The Actor in Creole Economics: The Débrouillard

Discovering the Débrouillard

 Katherine E. Browne

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

Key Insights about Creole Economics

 Katherine E. Browne

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

Is a Débrouillard a Débrouillard a Débrouillard?

 Katherine E. Browne

morality (stealing tools, stealing time, and so on) required to negotiate a

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

tal practice in Fort-de-France. He is metropolitan French but has lived in

 Katherine E. Browne

extra, undeclared income by engaging in productive activity. The exchange

The Birth of Creole Economics:

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

The Material Basis for Creole Economics

 Katherine E. Browne

spite various subsequent attempts to require planters to provide rations for

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

 Katherine E. Browne

The Ideological Component of Creole Economics

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

Whereas in Africa the tales emphasized the importance of collective out-

 Katherine E. Browne

The Opportunism of Creole Economics after Abolition

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

 Katherine E. Browne

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

to be mutually exclusive, they might best be conceived as constituting a cul-

 Katherine E. Browne

French Republic—liberté, égalité, fraternité—to serve their own ends, the

Débrouillardism, the Vichy Period, and  Status

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

Contemporary Realities and Débrouillardism

 Katherine E. Browne

incomes represents approximately  percent of all households in Fort-de-

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

men, while women are commonly employed in low-end, undeclared clerical

 Katherine E. Browne

with his socioeconomic standing pursue an undeclared side business of

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

drug dealing, and contraband smuggling. These inherently illegal activities

Débrouillardism is a mentality here. You explain it from slavery. Work

 I am deﬁning productive according to economists, who distinguish undeclared

 Katherine E. Browne

taxed according to law: this kind of economic activity contributes to economic

Creole Economics and the Débrouillard 

 Katherine E. Browne