The original title of this article was ‘The tenuousness and tenacity of Caribbean civilization’. However after working through the ideas i have decided to treat the two issues separately, so be prepared for a pessimistic end.
From the dawn of history, all coastal civilizations, as is the Caribbean, have had certain common characteristics which make them both vulnerable and vital, and sometimes volatile. Access to the sea and to major waterways establishes their importance as major centers of trade and commerce. Being at the nexus of human intercourse, one can appreciate the reasons for all three V’s (all puns intended).
The very real possibility exists of a Caribbean future at such variance with its present formation, that all present cultural features, including language(s), would not even be recognized much less appreciated by the generations of its inhabitants a few hundred years from now. If the trend of the last 500 years is an indicator, then this is no idle conjecture, but a likely possibility. Our high school Caribbean History textbook series was appropriately named ‘The People Who Came’. What was not emphasized, but was an integral part of the story, was ‘The People Who Went’.
The last 1000 years have certainly seen waves of peoples and cultures coming and going through the Caribbean corridor. Civilizational permanence requires deeply embedded cultural roots and sufficiently consolidated political and military structures and institutions to protect and preserve them. The enemy of this self-evident regionalist imperative is a certain myopic nationalism, blinded to imminent possibilities of a fresh repeopling or recolonization that could ensue from foreseeable shifts in global climate, global politics, or the interaction of both.
While it is true that as a general rule, and for apparent reasons, continental civilizations have tended to be the dominant global powers, coastal civilizations of longevity and formidable influence are not unknown. Whatever our present state of political awareness, our region has real options available at present to position ourselves for future power and prosperity, no matter how high the tide of climate change nor whichever the face of rising world power.
Economists have issued their projections that by 2080 or thereabouts, India will be the richest economy on earth. I’ve hinted in recent articles (highlighted in red beneath) that both in name (West Indies/Caribbean) and nature, (demography in particular) we are predisposed to being part of a future Great India or Great China. Then, there are those who welcome and those who dismiss the unilateral declaration by the African Union of the Caribbean as its 6th region.
More concerning is the naivete of those who consider race a thing of the past and multi-ethnic democracy the inevitable future outcome for humanity. Personally, I think the jury is still out on which is greater: pen or sword, i.e. the power of constitutions or the possession of WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Most concerning is the shallow intellectual climate of myopic nationalists, so engrossed in petty partisan politics that they do not seem to notice or consider the uncaptured imaginations of the uncommitted generation they have spawned and the threat that holds to any Grand Vision of future integrity and autonomy.
Of equal threat are those among us, who apparently never fully bought into the nationalist agenda, though being part of its pioneering generations. Parasites posing as nation builders with no abiding sense of allegiance nor obligation, whose vision does not extend beyond their own nose, whose deepest cultural alignment is external, twice dead creatures still exulting in the faded glory of colonizers, predisposed in the words of Marley and Jesus to stone and kill the prophets. Any wonder then that Jamaica still bows to a foreigner, the progeny of her historical exploiters, and would rather have justice interpreted by unapologetic violators of her freedom than entrusted to a confraternity in common struggle?
YeKengalé 