From villain to National Hero

TOMORROW, March 14, we pay homage to Chatoyer whom we have declared our first national hero. Although he is central to the story, it is much larger than him. It is what I described in a book published last year as a journey from villain to national hero. In describing this journey, I have used an African proverb, “Until Lions have their historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter”.

The journey was about transforming a villain as depicted by the colonial masters and elites into an hero, as part of redefining themselves as an independent people. This was one aspect of the decolonising process that was a necessary part of the movement from colonialism to independence.

Perhaps a good point at which to track this movement is 1958 when the English-speaking colonies entered a federation that was to be a first step towards full independence.

That entity collapsed after three years, paving the way for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to become independent in 1962. It was only a matter of time before the smaller Caribbean colonies would take that political and constitutional plunge emboldened by a 1960 United Nations resolution that stated that size should not be an impediment to independence.

It was hoped that the University of the West Indies, established in 1949 to serve all the countries, would become one of the driving forces of the decolonisation process.

The birth of the New World Group with Lloyd Best then at the Mona campus, as a leading figure began to play a central role. As Norman Girvan points out, in the 1960s the old colonial order was dying. The question was what would replace it. This sparked debates and discussions throughout the region, influencing the formation of a number of groups.

A number of other things were happening that impacted on the process. The Black Power movement was followed and refined to suit Caribbean conditions. Walter Rodney, a former student of the UWI, had returned after a stay in Africa, to teach African history. This was two years after the visit of Haile Selassie to Jamaica that had energized the Rastafarian brethren.

Rodney took his lectures beyond the walls of the University and began as he called it to ground with his brothers. The Jamaican government felt threatened and following Rodney’s attendance at a Black Scholars Conference in Canada, refused to allow him back to the country, creating protests, not only in Jamaica, but also in other countries.

In St. Vincent a number of groups were formed, some like the Educational Forum of the People which was influenced by the New World Group and a number of Black Power Groups and community organisations. The idea of Columbus’s discovery of St. Vincent that was accepted as an historical fact was under attack. The name Youlou, believed to have been the Carib name for St. Vincent, came into use. Eddie Griffith named his first daughter Youlou. A Political activist group was named the Youlou United Peoples Movement (UPM). As discussions moved to the issue of independence, the idea of having our own national hero was central, an issue taken up by the National Youth Council that led after much advocacy to suggesting Chatoyer as the one best fit to fill that position. By 1985, an Obelisk was erected at Dorsetshire Hill and the movement towards having this formally acknowledged eventually bore fruit. The man who was described in colonial texts as a villain was eventually named our first national hero, replacing our colonial heroes like Drakes and Hawkins who were at the forefront of our enslavement. The rewriting of our history was beginning to take front page and the lions started telling the story of hunting. The story is a continuing one since the indigenous people left no writings of their own leaving historians and social scientists to battle the colonial texts.

● Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian