Of patriotism, national pride and resilience

On Sunday, October 27, the tiny nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), will observe its 45th anniversary of the reclamation of its independence. Various activities have been planned to mark the occasion over the weekend, including the public holiday declared for Monday 28, both under the official Independence activities as well as localised ones.

Forty-five years ago, there were all the trappings of new nationhood – the swearing in of the first Prime Minister, Robert Milton Cato, the adoption of the national anthem, and a new flag for the just-born nation was raised for the first time with much acclamation. Sadly, its life span did not last a decade, as it became one of the earliest victims of our tribal politics and was replaced in somewhat controversial style under the auspices of our second Prime Minister, Sir James Mitchell. There is much speculation whether the current anthem will suffer the same fate as the first flag since its lyrics have been questioned in the context of the times. It is a reminder that there is more, much more to being a patriotic Vincentian than the trappings of the occasion.

In the less than half a century of our reclaimed independence we have endured turbulent times – from nature, economically and especially politically. Indeed, we would be hard-pressed to find another stretch of time during which our people have had to endure so much. It has been particularly hard with natural disasters; thus, the Soufriere volcano alone has erupted three times between 1971 and 2021, in fact threatening our passage to independence in 1979.

We have had massive political, industrial and social battles in the period, giving birth to a thriving civil society and demonstrating the determined nature of the Vincentian people. We are noble heirs of the legacy of those led by Paramount Chief, the Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer, who so valiantly fought to protect the independence of Yourumein, to ward off colonialism and the full introduction of slavery.

And of course, drawn forcibly into the global net of colonialism, we too suffered from the vicissitudes of global capitalism, from the two World Wars and the catastrophic financial crashes of the 1930s and latterly just under two decades ago. We have endured virtual plantation slavery, hunger, poverty and disease and from copying a political system completely unsuited to our needs, political instability was our constant companion.

Despite all this, and in spite of immigration- waves of significant numbers of our labour force to Britain, Trinidad and Tobago, the USA and Canada, any objective observer can only conclude that we have made real progress. In spite of the utterings of the myopia naysayers, we have withstood the times and made progress. Not as much as we could, and should have, but we have advanced. Ironically, many who claim otherwise are those who cannot separate their political affiliation from national aspirations.

As we embark on our Independence celebrations, we must hold our nationalism high, not petty divisive nationalism, but a nationalism rooted in our cultural experiences which single us out as part and parcel of the Caribbean Civilisation, and part of the global movement of peoples who have suffered tremendously from foreign domination and are now demanding restitution and reparatory justice.

Happy Independence anniversary to Vincies at home and abroad.