Is Massa Day Really Done?
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| Dr. Keith Riley |
There are government departments dealing
directly and exclusively with culture. We have our carnivals and our crop over
festivals. Some of our calypsonians and reggae artistes have achieved worldwide
recognition and fame. Prominent among them is the great Bob Marley. Our women are beautiful and are attaining progress
in all areas of national life. From the teacher in the class room, to the nurse
on the hospital ward; the lady cop on the street beat, to the entertainer. And
two female prime ministers are currently charting the destiny, of our two most
successful countries, in terms of development and growth since the end of colonialism.
If we Google the names of some of
our people on the Diaspora, we find them excelling in all areas of the life of
their adopted or what are now called host countries. Their intellectual capacities
are on display for the world to see. We have universities campuses within the region
that ensure we maintain a level of tertiary education that is capable of
competing with similar systems throughout the world. We have been given knighthoods and we have Nobel
laureates. We have our own National Heroes and we have dominated the world, at
least for a very long period, when our cricketers were beating up very team. In
more recent times, Usain Bolt and other athletes have clearly demonstrated that
we can be the best in the world.
While we at Mahogany Coconut, do
not subscribe to the mistaken belief, that we have been the best we can be and
while we remain certain, that the region is moving dangerously close to another
prolonged period of imperialism, orchestrated by inept political leadership and
external international corporate thugs, we do not take the achievements of our
region and people lightly. When the scoreboard is settled, we can say with some
pride and a deep sense of accomplishment that to have achieved all that we have
within two hundred years after being uprooted from Africa and sold off as
chattel and or cattle; we have a lot to beat ourselves on the chest for.
All of the achievements mentioned
above and the great struggle to accomplish them were done primarily by and for Black
Caribbean people. The overwhelming majority of our post independence and indeed
pre independence periods leaders were black. One notable exception was Edward
Seaga of Jamaica. Even those who looked white were really black or at most
mulatto; we speak of Tom Adams of Barbados and others of that particular shade.
In the real world they too will be considered black.
Against this background, we have
the amazing and unbelievable position now held by some Trinidadians that Dr.
Keith Rowley, the current opposition
leader, leader of the Peoples National Movement and a prime candidate to be the
next prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago , may be considered a bit “too black
“ to be prime minister. It is even more
alarming that this sordid and backward discussion has been dominating the
society. We at Mahogany Coconut are now further convinced, that the mental
slavery of which Bob Marley referenced in his songs, is a clear and present
danger to the region. The Black Caribbean has a lot on which to ponder. There
is a black president of the United States of America but Right here in Trinidad and Tobago, we are
saying that a Black man may be a bit “too black” to be Prime Minister. Is Massa Day truly done?
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