As a Nobel laureate, Derek Walcott, a Caribbean-born poet has a distinguished record of articulating his emotions in a most eloquent and indeed soul-searching fashion.
So when he wrote “I see these islands and I feel to bawl,” you didn’t have to think twice about the identity of the region he had in mind: the West Indian islands.
How about Barbados’ Professor Kamau Brathwaite?
“Never seen a man travel more seen more lands than this pathless harborless spade”
It was clear that like Walcott, Brathwaite had the West Indian on his radar screen.
Now, add the work of V.S. Naipaul, the Caribbean’s second Nobel Prize winner for literature and Austin Tom Clarke, the Bajan Commonwealth awardee, to the list of outstanding writers whose navel strings were buried in the islands and the region’s major contribution to human civilization would become clear.
But their gifts to the global arena were not limited to literature. Dr. W.E.B Dubois, the iconic international scholar whose prophetic historical insights into the way forward for people of colour illuminated a path travelled by millions, said as far back as 1923 that American blacks “to a larger extent than they realize, are not only blood relatives to the West Indians but are under deep obligation to them for many things. For instance, without the Haitian Revolt, there would have been no emancipation in America as early as 1863. I, myself, am of West Indian descent and am proud of the fact”.
The Haitian revolution, which culminated in the emergence of the world’s first Black republic led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, Jacque Dessalines and Henri Christophe brought grudging respect from other nations to the achievements of Blacks in Haiti because victory came at a time when French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was the all-conquering military mastermind.
A perusal of the pages of history would unearth evidence of the role played by Blacks from the Caribbean to the global way of life and to economic and social progress.
For instance:
• Prince Hall, a Barbadian who established free masonry in the United States was a key historical figure in Black Boston in the 18th century and pressed the Massachusetts legislature to provide publicly-funded education to Blacks and he succeeded in getting Boston to provide schools for free children of colour in 1797.
• Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican, was the leader of one of the largest mass movements of the 20th century. His campaign for the dignity and honour of Blacks was a spark for the discontented across the United States;
• Jan Ernest Matzeliger, the inventor from Suriname revolutionized the mass production of shoes;
• Eric Holder Jr, the United States attorney-general – the first Black person to hold that position – has strong Barbadian roots;• as recorded in a new book titled Some Barbadian Canadians, a Biographical Dictionary, Professor Juliet Daniel, a microbiologist at Canada’s McMaster University and a cancer researcher, discovered “the kaiso gene” which is helping the international scientific community to understand more about cancer;
• the late Shirley Chisholm, who spent part of her years growing up in Barbados, went on to become the first Black woman to win a seat in the US House of Representatives;
• Anne Cools, a Bajan, was the first Black woman appointed to Canada’s Senate; and Diane Abbott, the first Black woman elected to Britain’s House of Commons all changed the course of history.