Never Again slavery?

The Emancipation Day Mural Monument, as it says, is to act as a reminder that all human beings have “an inherent right to life and liberty”. One hundred and eighty six years after our enslaved people were freed, we need to broaden our concept of freedom.

Today for us in SVG and members of CARICOM, it is not a question of removing physical chains, but of realising that freedom we had fought for and continued to fight even after we achieved adult suffrage and independence from the colonial power. Slavery in the sense in which we knew it had ended, but colonialism continued. Religion and Education were to be used as instruments of continuing control. The messages the Christian religions brought to us were reinterpreted differently by us. To give more space and meaning to those religions, they banned the Shakers/Spiritual Baptists worshipping from 1912 to 1965. The purpose of education was to a large extent to provide obedient servants that would serve the interests of the British colonialists. It worked for a period for there were those who saw themselves as Black English men and women, separate and superior to those who were not schooled the English way. Education really does not work that way, for their education was used to overturn their goals. Education is a process and complex. Some were captured but others used that same education to question those who called themselves our masters.

Austin Clarke in his novel GROWING UP STUPID UNDER THE UNION JACK makes fun of the English education and the impact it was to have on us, the English colonials. The main character in the book said to his mother “I would prefer a cuppa toy, Ma,” “Boy, you gone mad?” “I preferred a cuppa toy, for I was a Combermere boy, trained to be a snob, trained to be discriminating. A cuppa toy was better than a cup of rich chocolate. England drank toy, and Little England should, too . . .”

“…In the classes at Combermere, we were taught that the best things were made by the English… the books we read; the pencils we wrote with; the Quink ink; the book bags; the combs made from tortoise shell, which were too fine-toothed for our thick brand of hair;…”

For me Ngugii Wa Thiongo puts it best. He refers to what he calls the “cultural bomb’. “But the biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against the collective defiance is the cultural bomb. The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately, in themselves. It makes them see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement, and it makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that which is decadent and reactionary…It even plants serious doubts about the moral rightness of struggle.”

But other things were happening, the former enslaved continued their struggles against their former plantation ‘masters’. They were told to expect freedom in 1834. They got something called Apprenticeship. Their struggle had to continue, strikes, fires on the estates, lampooning them in songs, where possible moving away from the estates. But of importance was that they began to build Villages from lands bought or rented from the estates. A few acquired lands in sizes that allowed them to qualify to become members of the Legislative Council. There was still a great demand for land, and with a declining sugar industry and opportunities available for small farmers/ peasants in producing cotton and arrowroot, the government fearing a revolution, made St. Vincent the first colony to introduce a Peasant Land Settlement Scheme as recommended by the 1897 West Indian Royal Commission. Fear, too, of having large numbers in the colonies achieving the qualification to be members of the Legislative Council led to the revocation of electoral representation and the introduction of Crown Colony government where the Governor, acting on behalf of the Colonial Office, selected those who were to sit on the Executive Council.

Crown Colony government after a while became a target, as the difficulties facing the people were blamed on that system and they began a struggle against it. By this time a middle class of coloured and black people was emerging and took over the struggle, calling for a reintroduction of elected representation. By the second decade of the twentieth century Crown Colony was no more. Elected representation was reintroduced but only a few could meet the qualification. The economic situation continued declining and deep dissatisfaction prevailed. St. Vincent was among the first three colonies to have started revolts in the 1930s. Ours of October 1935 resulted in the emergence of George McIntosh who, with his Workingmen’s Association, began to control the Legislative Council until 1951 when Joshua emerged as the leading figure. St. Vincent became an Associated Member in 1969 and gained Independence in 1979.

Independence, really Flag Independence!

Our people were supposed to be in control. We maintained the British monarch as our Head of State and the highest court in the Land remained with the Privy Council. The big question which has to occupy our attention as we reflect on Emancipation and later Independence is: What has changed? Who has control? To what extent are we as a people involved in the governing of our country? Are we only important every five years when elections are called? Is our Journey from 1838 continuing? To Where and for What?

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian