Commentary on FROM WHENCE WE CAME

By chance I came across a reference to a number of articles I did for the News Newspaper when I was ending the “From Whence We Came” series. It was from a PhD thesis by Paul Twinn for the University College, London. The title of the thesis is HEGEMONY, CARIB HISTORY AND HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ST.VINCENT.

It is from a chapter entitled “Historical Consciousness and the Political Process.” I will comment on it in my next column.

The “Discovery Day” celebration and its critique were central to this process as it offered both an opportunity to critique received European wisdom, and to reconstruct a new vision of history from a local perspective that was pertinent to the needs of the local population. This view was eloquently argued by Fraser in a series of articles entitled “From Whence We Came: About recovering a people’s history”. Fraser himself gave an overview of the reasons behind the series in the final article.

The series under the above name comes to an end today. It got started on November 2nd 1987, a week after the eighth anniversary of independence. It ends as we prepare to celebrate ten years of independence. I make this point because the programme arose out of an awareness of the need for more information about our past The move to independence should have sent us searching for our roots, as it has in most former colonial countries that had moved to nationhood. That ‘soul-searching’ was not entirely absent in St. Vincent. In fact, the Black Power Movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s stimulated the quest to discover more about themselves as a majority black people who were often depicted as unfortunate victims of history.

There are those who argue that the past has passed and our attention should now be focussed on the road ahead. The only problem with such a position is that the road ahead is inextricably linked with our past, with our roots, so to speak.

One thing which we must never forget is that we have come out of a past of colonialism and slavery, for that in itself says much. Colonialism and slavery could not have survived by force alone. A key weapon, so far as it was possible, was the suppression of aspects of the culture of the people. It included convincing the colonized of their inferiority. They were taught that they had no history, at least none that was worthwhile. Everything they had achieved that was worthwhile had supposedly come from their contact with Europeans. So it was that we were even led to believe that our history started with the arrival of Columbus. There was, one had to assume, a void before 1492. Those of us who are descendants of African slaves are told that slavery served a useful purpose in removing us from the barbarism and primitivism of Africa to the enlightenment and civilization of Europe.

What has this brainwashing done to our people? It has, to a good extent, destroyed confidence in ourselves as a people. There are those of us who still believe that we are dependant on Europe for any forward march. Independence is today largely accepted, although there are occasional rumblings about life having been better under colonial rule. We still maintain contact with the colonial mother through the monarchy and the belief is quite common that there is some magic about it and that to remove it is to threaten stability and order.

Afro-American historian, John Henrik Clarke in a recent article captioned “In Our Image” argues along the same lines about methods of colonial and neo[1]colonial control. He writes “Because what we see about ourselves often influences what we do about ourselves, the role of images and the question of how they control our minds are more important now, in our media saturated society, than ever before. For the last 500 years, the history of African people throughout the world has been told through the slavery experience — only a short period in our life, considering that we are the oldest of the world’s peoples”.

He then went on to address the issue of the use of the media as a form of mind control in their colonization of people and information.

Recovering our history, clearing up the misconceptions and distortions of the past, is a necessary aspect of the forward movement of the people. It is important to know that our forefathers had never fully accepted slavery and colonialism, but had struggled against them and that their survival was to a large extent a result of a life of struggle and accommodation.

There is also little information about our past that is readily available to the general public. What there is, is largely stacked away in university libraries and, in any event, has been written by academics for academics. So there is virtually nothing in St, Vincent. Even Ebenezer Duncan’s Brief History has disappeared. “From Whence We Came” was meant to address some of the above concerns.

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian