Abstract
Religions in the Caribbean are experienced as ways of reconstituting memory against the background of the slave trade. This is why there is an essential link between religion and generation in the region. Cults of the dead, dance and trance, and the representation of African deities reveal a permanent process of creating solidarity among the slaves (i.e of a new generation), but at the same time these cults offer the possibility of symbolizing the origins that were lost during the slave trade. With the new religious movements such as Mahikari and Rastafari, memory seems more important than history, as if the converts believe that they are contemporary with the slave trade, while considering themselves the last generation of history.