Why, Why,Why? Ingratitude to the Martyrs of 1935

I begin my column this week by remembering these lines from one of our calypso greats, Lord Hawke: “It does really hurt me as man, when ah hear dem calling Paul’s Lot de slum”.

I am no historian, but I try to be an avid student of history with the hope of learning from the painful lessons of our colonial experience so that we can avoid their repetition. I must confess, however, that it is often a most frustrating task.

So let me jump right back to the colonial, poverty-stricken Caribbean of the 1930s, when ‘Backra’ was king, literally, and the bulk of Caribbean people wallowed in poverty and ignorance. Several of our students of history, nationalists and anti-colonial fighters including one of the four local authors of OUR STORY,

Dr Adrian Fraser, and our own Prime Minister Gonsalves have written and lectured on this topic as far as local conditions were concerned. Permit me therefore to quote from the outstanding Jamaican trade unionist, author, intellectual and Caribbean nationalist, Richard Hart, in his book, “Labour rebellions in the 1930s in the

British Caribbean colonies”.

“In the !930s, although legislatures existed in these colonies,few if any workers enjoyed the right to vote in elections. The franchise was available only to persons who possessed the property-earning or income qualifications which limited the size of the electorate to approximately 10% of the adult population”.

So, there was no political democracy for our fore parents. Given the abject poverty and suffering of most people throughout the region, there was bound to be a region-wide social explosion. It came in the 1930s, from

Guyana in the south to Jamaica in the north. This is what Hart had to say about it.

“The principal causes of working-class unrest and dissatisfaction were the same throughout the region: low wages; high unemployment and under-employment; arrogant racist attitudes of the colonial administrators and employers in their relations with black workers….”

It is difficult for people of today to visualise the living conditions of our people, no electricity, no running water, unhealthy living conditions, high child mortality with diseases like yaws and tobo, prevalent. This was the

Caribbean 100 years after Emancipation. Britain was then the ruler of the world, boasting that its empire was so big that “the sun never sets on the British empire”.

And remember, that you could not challenge the colonial Administrator or Governor, neither the white estate owner nor merchant. What were people supposed to do to bring about positive change?

They rebelled. Not the products of the Grammar schools and High Schools, not those lucky enough to get a job in the civil service or teaching. Apparently leaderless where social status was concerned, they had to make do with their own limitations, their barefooted leaders, man and woman alike. As happened here when they wanted to march to the Legislative Council (Parliament), they tried to get”respectable spokesmen” to put their case before the Governor, in our case imploring George McIntosh, the”tribune of the people” as he was dubbed. Why was that so? One of the leaders of the local protest, Donald “Poorfellow” Romeo, gave the answer when he was brought before the courts. “People of my type have obstacles put in the way. My class is too poor”.

It is a statement that I have not forgotten since I heard it. (When I was a member of the anti-colonial organisation, YULIMO, the late local trade unionist and anti-colonial fighter, Caspar London, arranged for us to spend an evening talking to Poorfellow, the leader of the spontaneous rebellion, Samuel “Sheriff” Lewis, and a couple others who all were jailed for the October 21 rebellion. Up to this day, I give eternal credit to Caspar for that initiative and eye-opener. But today, I am in no mood to give history lessons. I am ashamed that all over the Caribbean, in Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica etc, the rebellions of the thirties are proudly remembered and commemorated. It was those rebellions, the spontaneous eruption of estate workers in Byera, Stubbs, Questelles, Campden Park etc which forced the mighty colonial government to make significant changes. Just as in India, the barefooted Mahatma Gandhi brought British colonial rule to an end, so too did the working-class leaders in the Caribbean and those, like “Sheriff” and company, considered as mere riffraff and treated as such with long jail sentences, sacrificed for us all. Their actions on October 21, 1935, set in motion the train which led to Adult Suffrage in 1951, profound legislative and social changes, and set the seal for the eventual end of plantation slavery here, our constitutional advancement and in 1979, political independence.

Maybe you can understand why I quoted Lord Hawke in the beginning, why I referred to Poorfellow’s “My class is too poor”. Those who suffered and were jailed for the 1935 rebellion, were no intellectuals, not Uriah Butler or Alexander Bustamante, nor Clement Payne of Barbados.

But they had the sense and courage to oppose oppression and to make a sacrifice for our people. Why do we continue to ignore October 21, 1935, to

refuse to acknowledge the sacrifice of “Sheriff” Lewis and the others and to let our children know the truth?

Their class was too poor, they were too “uneducated”, yet it is they who stood on the front line.

Yuh see why it continues to hurt me! Ah shame at our ingratitude, and late as it may be, call on the government for some form of recognition for those who confronted British colonialism and plantation slavery.

Better late than never!

• Renwick Rose is a Social and Political commentator.