Reclamation of Independence 45 years ago

Independence Day Message 2024, from Dr The Honourable Ralph E. Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines

Forty-five years ago, on October 27, 1979, St. Vincent and the Grenadines reclaimed its independence after 216 years of Britain’s initial forced occupation, colonial hegemony, and fascist overrule of our country, which commenced thus in 1763. During the period 1763 to 1795, colonial Britain pursued policies of native genocide against the indigenous Callinago and Garifuna people; the enslavement of African bodies forcibly transported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and elsewhere; the robbing of the indigenous folks of their land and other natural resources; the establishment of a socio-economic order steeped in overt racism; the enmeshing of our country, and others in the Caribbean, into an exploitative global political economy of mercantile and industrial capitalism; and the enthronement of a system of governance in which the British monarch, colonial mandarins, and an imported British planter-merchant elite ruled the political roost without any responsiveness and responsibility to the indigenous people or the enslaved Africans.

In the aftermath of the emancipation of the enslaved on August 1, 1838, 0Britain altered somewhat its colonial enterprise and governance, but did so only in accord with its imperial interests and those of the plantocratic and commercial elites locally. In a quest to bolster a flagging domestic economy, and its wider industrial capitalism, Britain imported indentured labourers first from Madeira (1845-1850) and then from India (1861 –1881). Around 1881, Britain and other European powers were carving up Africa and consolidating colonial rule in Asia and the Pacific. The dawn of modern imperialism worldwide, grounded in monopoly capitalism, was emerging; the United States of America, after convulsing itself in a brutal civil war entered robustly this age of imperialism and evolved triumphantly in dominance in the 20th century.

Between 1763 and 1881, Britain had completely remade, forever, our country. In the process of colonisation, Britain subverted our country’s independence; threw aside forcibly the right of the indigenous people, the enslaved, and the indentured to self-determination; and ripped apart the traditional governance arrangements of the Callinago and Garifuna people.

On October 27, 1979, our national leaders, representing our national community, reclaimed our country’s independence and sovereignty after negotiating Britain’s colonial departure.
At the same time, the descendants of the indigenous people, the enslaved Africans, the indentured from Madeira and India, and the white planter-merchant elite shaped and fashioned, in the ensuing years, an integrated creolised society and a Caribbean civilisation of quality and nobility out of the absolute barbarism of British colonisation. This exemplary accomplishment remains a testimony to the genius, goodness, tolerance, perseverance, and essential humanity of the overwhelming majority of our people. Undoubtedly, too, biology played an important role.

Our Strengths and Weaknesses, possibilities and Limitations

Out of the fever of our history, we are coming home, more and more, to ourselves. Despite the scars and pain of our colonial history, increasingly we have been seeing ourselves, our past, our present, and our future through the prism of our own eyes. We reclaimed our sovereignty and independence; we are in the throes of reclaiming our history after more than two centuries of its erasure and mutilation by colonial, neo-colonial; and imperial forces. Books, the classrooms, the science laboratories, the pulpit, the mass media, our communities, our voices, the state institutions, and more, are the instruments through which to facilitate the reclamation of our history, and the building of a consciousness of being, thinking, and acting in the pursuance of better lives, living, and production for ourselves and all humanity. We are on this great cause of building peace, justice, and prosperity in faith, hope, and love. And we are succeeding despite the awesome challenges which face us.
In the process, we recognise our strengths and weakness, possibilities and limitations. Our principal strengths and possibilities are resident in our people; our landscape and seascape which are the bases of our material resources; our unity and solidarity; our quest for an enhanced social cohesion and inclusion; our democratic institutions; our systems of good governance; our creative and uplifting ideas, building an enduring empire of our own minds; our historic capacity of adaption and innovation; our hard and smart work; our strong, visionary leadership in communion with an increasingly informed people; our growing consciousness that although we are not better than anyone no one is better than us; our friendship and alliances regionally and globally; and our determination not to desecrate our future.

Our limitations and weaknesses emerge largely from the inherent vulnerabilities of our small island developing state; the existential threat of climate change; the unfair and unequal global political economy dominated by monopoly capitalism; the knock-on effects of wars and conflicts globally; the historical legacies of underdevelopment; the infantile and senseless tendency towards disunity based on political and allied grounds; the trend among too many of naked selfishness and an atomised individualism; and the danger of violent crime, particularly from a small minority of young males.

The mission of every generation is to enlarge our strengths and possibilities and to reduce as far as is humanly practicable our limitations and weaknesses, in our own interests. This mission is what we are currently pursuing with vigour through our democratically-elected government in concert with our people.

Lift SVG Higher

Undoubtedly, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is in a far better place today than ever before in every material particular, save and except in the behavioural tendency of a small minority of young males towards violent criminality. In all the material indices of livelihoods, prosperity, job and wealth creation, inequality, inclusion, governance, freedom and democracy, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is advancing rapidly. All this is evident all around us. And there is an established trajectory for further development, sustainably despite the external threats, inclusive of climate change, and self-inflicted wounds internally. But continued progress is not inevitable; there are still immense challenges arising from our weaknesses and limitations and the lacking possibility of our collective failure to take advantage optimally, or even sufficiently, of our strengths and possibilities.

We must thus avoid unnecessary risks; and we must not take silly chances, including those regarding political choices, with our future. Let’s continue to lift SVG higher, together!
Happy 45th Anniversary of Independence, SVG!