HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRENADA!!!

Over the past week I watched Grenadians both at home and abroad come out in impressive numbers, dressed in National colours, to celebrate a “free Grenada”.  I listened and read various comments made by politicians, ambassadors, journalists, etc.; some with messages of hope, others with their vision for nation building, all spoken with pride.

But amidst all the celebration I kept asking myself: What does independence mean to me?  What should Independence mean to a nation?  Why did we seek Independence in the first place?  Indeed, what exactly are we celebrating?  Some may think this last question is childish, but it is probably the most important one.

Our fore-parents sought Independence not because it was the “in thing” but because we wanted to be free to make our own decisions, to choose our own style of governance, to worship in our own religion, to live by our own traditions—in short, to build our own Grenada -- a Grenada free from colonial control and domination.  

The struggle for Independence was not merely “a Grenadian thing”; it was a Caribbean thing, an African thing, an Indian thing.  Sir Eric Matthew Gairy usually gets the credit as “The Father” of our Independence because he “brought it home in the bag” on February 7, 1974; but the journey towards a free Grenada started well before Gairy.  

This journey goes back to the Rebellion of 1795-1796 led by Julien Fedon and his emissaries, Ettienne Ventour and Joachin Philip, among others; with the struggle for Constitutional change in 1883 by newspaper editor and political activist, William Galwey Donovan; with the educator, political activist, journalist, newspaper owner (the West Indian) and Father of Federation, T. A. Marryshow; and Lady Beginner/Doris Alexander and her debut Calypso presentation in 1973.  According to Bigdrumnation, Lady Beginner’s calypso debut “symbolically declared her independence (and that of all Grenadian women) fully one year ahead of Grenada’s.” 

Interestingly, the struggle for “Independence” continued after February 7, 1974 with Maurice Bishop and the People’s Revolutionary Government.  The PRG sought to “decolonize” the education system, a system they believed promoted white supremacy and self-hate among Grenadians.  

They suspended the Constitution which was, in their view, nothing but a set of colonial rules geared towards keeping us forever enslaved.  They created the Marryshow Reader series of textbooks so that what our children read and learned was more representative of a truly “free” Grenada.  

So while we may have gotten “Independence” on a piece of paper, the question remains as to whether we are “free” from colonial shackles.  In other words, the very things our forefathers and foremothers fought to get rid of are very much part of our society today.  February 7, 1974 was the beginning of the freedom train, but nowhere in our celebrations do I get a sense of the question: What exactly has changed since we boarded that train?  

Indeed, we still honour a Constitution that “free” Grenadians had no input in creating -- a Constitution that in many ways remains oppressive and sexist.  We still have as our Head of State a Governor General that is the Queen’s representative.  Our education system, although significantly improved, is so full of ways to make our children “employable” that there seems no room left for teaching our history.  Not to mention the shunning of our African and Indian heritages and religions.  The new emphasis on teaching “Tourism” in Grenada’s (and other Caribbean countries’) high schools is perhaps the best example of this.

After interrogation and scrutiny we may, as a Nation, decide that some things in our colonial heritage have value after all, and so we may need to hold on to them.  We may also seek to find out which other things need to be reformed, transformed, or even dismantled.  

But shouldn’t such decisions/questions be central to our celebrations?  Where is the forum that facilitates such a discussion?  Where are our intellectuals—rum shop historians included—documenting and exposing our history?  Where is the discussion that really examines the reason for Independence?

Only with such necessary and continuous engagement with our past can we truly grow as a free Nation.  Only when we understand the reasons for our ancestors struggles can we really achieve this freedom.  Only when we make it our mission to recognize that our ancestors’ struggles ought to form the basis of this freedom can we begin to celebrate.  

In so doing we should keep in mind that much of our ancestors successes occurred outside the realm of organized political parties.  In sum, only through a conscious effort by all can we see the true depth of our continued dependency on the colonial masters.

I have taken this bold step in beginning the self-scrutiny.  Happy Birthday Grenada!

Sandra Pierre
Toronto, Canada.