Chief Duvalle (Duvalier) should be our second National Hero

Fri Apr 11, 2013

Editor: I write this to offer words of support for the call made by lawyer Carlos James on 14th March for Chief Duvalle (Duvalier) to be named as our second National Hero alongside his ally Chief Joseph Chatoyer.{{more}}

In the understandable zeal to recognize the sacrifice of Chief Chatoyer and the Garifuna, I believe we have forgotten to mention the equally great contribution of the Kalinago chief Duvalle and by extension the fight the Kalinago people living on the Leeward side of the island lead against British colonialism.

I support Mr James’ contention that Duvalle’s contribution should be recognized before the competing claims of George Mc Intosh, Ebenezer Theodore Joshua and Robert Milton Cato. He fought side by side with Chatoyer and the alliance of the Kalinago and Garifuna peoples presented the British with a great challenge to their control of this and other islands, which had to be decisively dealt with by eliminating the threat which the Garifuna and Kalinago people presented. History shows they did so by exiling over 5,000 Garifuna to Balliceaux and then shipping the survivors several months after to Honduras and Belize.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr James’ assertion that we should not rush to any conclusion to the National Hero’s debate in this country and we certainly should not politicize the debate either…it is far too important for that. All claims should be examined thoroughly before we name more National Heroes.

Respectfully,

J. Williams