By Denys Springer
When the prime minister of Saint Lucia who thinks and acts aristocratic, says openly to a population, 97 percent black and of mixed race that “colonialism has a conscience” it telegraphs his understanding about colonialism, slavery and a British constitution that contributed to control and manipulate the slavish mentality “building a new Saint Lucia.” Marcus Garvey once said that “what you do today that is worthwhile inspires others to act at some future time”.
What the prime minister of Saint Lucia should have known is that British colonialism in the Caribbean progressively instituted the crown colony system of government in a majority of their colonies at the insistence of the plantocracy to stem the representational demands of the growing coloured middle strata. Later, we saw the rise of the petty-bourgeois class over institution such as the civil service. What was observed then, was the bureaucratic and political corruption more so in the English speaking Caribbean, and perhaps the prime minister “not so smart” came from that breed and therefore was fooled to think that ‘colonialism has a conscience’.
I hope that this article will help to act now more so when the ‘queens chain’ which should be called the Saint Lucian peoples chain is being handed down to foreigners just like the British colonials did when they perpetuated their will on this pristine land of ours. The prime minister thought process is that he is of this mold and therefore sees nothing wrong with his government giving our place of leisure to foreigners who should be engaged in business as a foreign investment instead of being depended on the people’s pension money to do business in Saint Lucia; aided and abetted by a government of Saint Lucia.
It is unbelievable that what is term the ‘queens’ chain’ can be given to non-investors for ‘99 years appertaining to the Desert Star Holdings (DSH) project’ and ‘75 years in connection with the Cabot deal’. What amazes me is that none of this is a foreign direct investment (FDI).
Prior to that, and not long after the United Workers Party (UWP) was elected, we heard about the setting up of a call centre in Vieux Fort, fully paid for by the government of Saint Lucia. Again, they come with nothing yet, this same call center recently invested $75 million in Grenada and not in Saint Lucia where they virtually had everything free of the state. How can that be acceptable to any Saint Lucian regardless of which party you support?
I, therefore, want to point out to the prime minister that colonialism was an imperialist system of white rule that raped and pillage Africa, India, the Caribbean and elsewhere. It was not only the British, but the French, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch and even the Germans were the perpetrators. Having just celebrated emancipation I am always curious as to whether this emancipation dealt with the removing of chains from our forefathers’ feet and wrist and taken brainwashed.
Bob Marley was right when he advocated that we must release ourselves from mental slavery because our in the bred colonial way of life, even the constitution … etc, is still part and parcel of the slave trade.
According to James Walvin 2006, “freedom in the West Indies involved a marginalized existence on the fringes of a white society, itself beset by an intrusive and all-pervasive racism”. He went on to write “in print (newspapers, books, comics, magazines and school texts), in graphic portrayal, in advertisements – in every form of visual material – the imagery of racism became basic Western life. Grotesque and threatening, barbaric and pagan, sensual and uncivilized – the images of blacks in Western culture could match, step by step, the worst iconography of the old plantocracy”.
Therefore, blacks in the Caribbean were reared on a diet of white education, white politics, and inevitable adopted white ideas. It is all around us for those who can see and like myself who fought against it on English soil. Consequently, this present prime minister is trying to cement that with those blacks in the United Workers Party (UWP) who want to jump into the imperialist and colonial shoes.
We now have the opportune moment to really say loud and clear to those who care sufficiently that “black lives matter” in a meaningful way and regardless of a false state of emergency which the opposition and independent senators in the senate argued against vehemently we should take to the streets and demonstrate, especially in the case of our beaches, termed crown lands when we are an independent country.
Men and women who are earnest and are not afraid of the cost of the consequences should take on board the call for our rights and to change any part of the constitution that talks about the queens’ chain. We are a free democratic people.
To be continued… The diet of imperialism and the conscience of a colonialist.
