NDP reiterates offer of honorary citizenship to all Garifuna

The New Democratic Party (NDP) has reiterated that their offer of honorary citizenship is open to all Garifuna.

In a release issued Wednesday, the NDP said the party will grant honorary citizenship to all Garifuna and the form which this honorary citizenship will take will be determined through consultation.{{more}}

“…the form which this honorary citizenship will take will be determined in consultation with the Garifuna, the NDP and the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the upcoming weeks. The process will require constant consultation, and we are committed to the process,” the release said.

“…the NDP will work along with the Garifuna to inculcate in our national cultural education and Vincentian product, aspects of Garifuna culture, including the history and language, which reconnects them with us as a nation. This includes some form of permanent national monument to the Garifuna, to be located at Balliceaux.”

Last Sunday, at a Town Hall meeting at the Friends of Crown Heights Centre in Brooklyn, New York, Leader of the Opposition and President of the NDP Arnhim Eustace declared that immediately upon assuming office, an NDP administration will make all Garifuna in the diaspora honorary citizens of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Eustace said he had given much thought to the matter and the granting of honorary citizenship to the estimated 700,000 Garifuna now in the diaspora is “just the first step.”

He said in recent times, as he has deepened his knowledge of the Garifuna, he has become more and more convinced that SVG cannot ignore or take the Garifuna for granted.

“I declare here tonight that having won, I will take the first step by making all the Garifuna honorary citizens of St Vincent and the Grenadines!” he declared.

“I will say this,… While we reach out to the Garifuna today, it could turn out that they make the most marvellous contribution to the development of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ economy.”

Eustace said with the Garifuna population being far greater than the population of SVG and that of Vincentians in the United States, “there is no way that they can pull us down; they can only build us up!”