There is no meaning to independence when all we ever did was move back to the Colonialist home base to use his resources and work for him. It is easy to change that argument and say “well he owe us” for all the free slave labor we generation gave him. But that is not good enough anymore. Our new younger generation is demanding better of us. WestIndian ‘togetherness’ cannot happen until each island know what made us what we are today. And each island is unique and the same in many ways. It is offensive to think that each island should give us its unique cultural development for the sake of some fake idea of all ah we is the same. We are not. And that is NOT to say we should use those differences in a divisive way.
The Afro people of Trinidad are who they are today because of events that happened in Grenada and the Grenadines 300 years ago. But you would never know that today based on the disdain they were allowed to develop towards Grenadians. Whose fault is that? Ours. Not Massa’s. If you use the WWW and do a simple research on Trinidad’s most notable leaders and movers - past and present, you would see a connection to Grenada. A very rich culture they have inherited from us. After reading chapter 3 of the Second Part of Gerard A. Besson book “The Cult of the Will”, it was no surprise that he showed the connection between Eric Williams and Domingo Comissong, the Genoan sail maker and a African woman around 1799. All the D’Arceuil in Trinidad today can trace their connection to our Clozier D’Arceuil from Gouyave. Trinidad’s Charles Preudhomme David K.C, can trace his origins to the Preudhommes of Gouyave. All the well-known Philips – to include Michel Maxwell Philip- in the history of Trinidad can trace their beginnings to Petite Martinique and Gouyave. And they were Afro-French Creoles. All the Dolabaille of Trinidad started in Grenada and in the village of Gouyave. To include Danielle Dolabaille Miss T&T and Miss Earth. That is a tremendous untapped resource that we can develop. People are curious about where they came from. Gouyave should be a place too to accommodate this desire to know from where has thou comest. It could be the Mecca of all Gouyavians regardless of if there are a composite of Massa, or what seems to be pure European or African Element of the community. There is little to be gained today by encouraging the sanctity of the suffering while we stay divided and still live in the shadows of Massa’s house as we hang on to the scars we bear from Massa as we go about living in his world.
We need to bring the business and celebrations back to Gouyave! Create a revenue stream and local sustainable businesses around this celebration. Reclaim the names of the streets of Gouyave! Be truly proud of your Afro-French Creole heritage by doing something locally about it. Encouraging togetherness and not scaring people away with guilt and blame because of their genetic makeup they had no control over.
