THERE WILL NEVER BE a final word on race and black consciousness, as recent offerings in both daily newspapers from Rev. Dr Clinton Chisolm, local historian (and schoolmate) Trevor Marshall, and Orlando Marville all bear witness to.
Trevor Marshall would send all Blacks who deny their African roots to the madhouse (MIDWEEK NATION, Wednesday, February 8). Maybe rightly so. Orlando Marville (Advocate, Friday, February 10) suggests a forced diet of Afro-centrism to combat decades-long starvation from Euro-centrism.
Maybe these gentlemen are missing something which a sojourn in Africa brought home forcefully to me many years ago. I lived and worked in Zambia and Kenya (along with a group of medical colleagues) for over a year in the 1970s.
We went to Africa, our Motherland, with great excitement and greater expectations. It was the era of Black Power and we were eager to find our roots and revel in blackness. It was also the time of black struggle in Africa against colonial rule by countless freedom fighters, including Mandela.
Down to earth
It was a thoroughly enjoyable time. We made great friends with thinkers from several African countries. But it brought us down to earth quick time. Yes, our roots were African. Yes, several customs, words and foods we could trace to Africa. But we were NOT African. Mind you, we looked like them and they like us. But that’s where the similarity ended. The difference was culture, culture, culture. History saw to that.
Space won’t permit me to detail the long list of cultural walls we crashed against as West Indians. But the most shocking (to us) was that they saw us, West Indians, not as brothers, but as “sons of slaves”. Boy, were we mad! The simple truth is that the West Indian is culturally an entire ocean away from the African. Doubt me? Choose any African country and live there for a year.
So I don’t deny my African roots. Nor do I deny my British roots. But those two roots have now created a unique tree – a West Indian. Not British, nor wanting to be British. Not African, nor wanting to be African.
As West Indians, we benefit from the best in both cultures – the endurance, stamina and strength of the African, and the education and enterprise of the British. Just look at what we West Indians have created.
The West Indies is the most peaceful place in the whole world, probably the happiest too. No tribalism, no ethnic wars so typical of Africa. Yet without the predatory mindset and rapine mentality of the British. So please, can’t we just celebrate being West Indian? Black, brown, yellow, white – but West Indian?
– TREVOR R. SHEPHERD