Will we achieve Chatoyer’s dream?

21.AUG.09

We are almost three weeks into Emancipation month, although you would scarcely know it based on the paucity of related activities happening here, or the lack of attention given to the observance in the media, Searchlight not excluded.

There has been at least one bright spark, however. Just in time for emancipation month, Searchlight’s newest columnist made her debut. Writing under the nom de plume Ava Browne, this gifted young writer has, for the last four weeks, been producing some delightful, thought-provoking features in her series “Heritage and Vision”.{{more}}

The theme for this year’s Emancipation activities begins like this: “Understanding our past, shaping our future…”. Miss Browne’s pieces also seem to have that theme. In each, she reflects on some aspect of our history and links it with our future.

The series starts with Chatoyer standing on a mountain top here in Hairoun, dreaming of what the future will be like for his people in generations to come. He has a vision of a united, confident, independent and prosperous nation.

In another article, Browne gives a brief snapshot of what the life of a typical Ciboney, Arawak or Carib woman might have been like centuries ago. In doing so, she prompts us to reclaim some of the self-sufficiency and community spiritedness our ancestors had, and reminds us of the way they used nature’s gifts in a manner which was sustainable and respectful of the environment.

Her nudges to reflection are not all of the uplifting, “feel good” type. Last week, she looked at the senselessness of violence and animosity in our communities and asks “Why?”. Are the gang war fare, domestic violence, police brutality, rape and political tribalism just a perpetuation, generations later, of the violence perpetuated by one group of indigenous people on another, by Europeans on the people they met here, by slave owners on the enslaved? She asks: Why do we act this way towards each other?

In this week’s piece Ms Browne looks at the vexed issue of men who do not acknowledge their offspring.

All these are themes and sub-themes worthy of reflection in this our Emancipation month and as we head into our 30th anniversary of Independence. Will any hope of achieving Chatoyer’s dream be put asunder because of everything that is happening in our world? Do we, the inhabitants of this rock, have any hope of being able to survive the new trade regimes, the “regulations” designed by the powerful nations of the world to keep us underdeveloped, the ripple effect of the reckless financial behavior of some in the world’s financial centres and the limitations imposed on us by our sheer “smallness”?

Will the messed up values system, which so many people seem to have acquired in recent years, the greed and self-centredness of others, the senseless violence in our homes and communities and the political tribalism which is part of our daily lives wipe away the gains made over the decades in education, infrastructure, health care, agriculture, fisheries?

Now is as good a time as any to ponder on these things. Let us free Chatoyer from the pages of a history book.