Those voices, both Black and White, that scoff at the growing momentum of the reparations movement, considering occasions such as the religious service below pointless pageantry, and a distraction from the kind of focus required to address the very real issues confronting Caribbean civilization as it tenuously navigates profound and potentially perilous change in an increasingly volatile geopolitical climate, may not be as grounded in their perspective as they imagine themselves.
Sir Hilary Beccle’s considered intuition (he repeats it oft enough) that the Reparations Movement will be, of all the upheavals we recognize at present as tornadoes waiting to touch down in world affairs, the single-most important and impactful one of the twenty first century, puts him squarely in the position of those who place all their bets on the horse sure to come in dead last. Either he knows something that everyone else doesn’t, or he is a fool. Prophet or idiot, genius or lunatic, there is no middle ground. You don’t bet on a pipe dream anymore than you rely on winning the lottery to build a house.
Either there is a connection between confidence, creativity and cosmology (worldview / identity) or there isn’t, and if there is, but the connection isn’t a vital determinant, then perhaps Beccle’s naysayers will win the day (or century). Creolization was not some random historical process. It was political strategy, clearly articulated policy in Brazil and other houses of government in Latin America and the Caribbean. The effectiveness of that strategy relied not on producing a spectrum of complexion, but spawning an identity to neutralize or at least buffer resistance.
Resonances of violent conflict continue to perplex regional political and religious leaders, and mar opportunities for growth and becoming that other societies unsaddled with our historical baggage have been able to evoke the necessary social cohesion to take advantage and grasp.
Perhaps those in the region, especially leaders, who think the Reparations train is bound for anything but glory should shift their thinking from money to mindset to see the potential of the movement to disrupt the pattern of mendicancy set within the soul still after physical emancipation. This appears completely counterintuitive (some of you may have to read it several times just to grasp the concept) precisely because reparations is conceived as legally enforceable transaction rather than process of reconciliation as enacted in the symbolism of above service.
This insight is hardly available to the one whose self evaluation is unlikely to detect that pattern of mendicancy firstly in themselves (whether because of haughtiness, denial, lack of empathy, all three or none – let every one judge their own soul … if they can.) What is plain to see is the condition of the region and either we identify with the people or we don’t, and if we don’t, justifiably or pretentious, we have our reasons. (Nothing is more deleterious though than non-representative, representatives of the people.)
The difficulty with being Afro-Saxon (those of us who outwhited [yes that is the proper spelling] the Whites for our self esteem) is there is no such people, no such country and no such truth. Prolonged oppression however does push the mind to fantasy as a coping mechanism.
The Creole who arrives at authenticity and creativity, as with every other identity, has not done so without first reckoning with the past.
YeKengalé 