By Hudson George
Whenever anybody ask me what religious denomination I belong to, I always tell them I am an Anglican but I do not attend church service and I am not interested in joining any other religion. Now my reason for raising this topic is, because I am very much upset with Dr. Terrance Marryshow and the Catholic bishop Clyde Harvey, for trying to tell us Grenadians who should be our heroes.
From the time Dr. Marryshow came back from Cuba as a qualified medical doctor, he is campaigning for Grenadians to make the late former revolutionary Prime Minister Maurice Bishop our national hero. He keeps on advocating his personal political desire every year during October month, when the Remembrance Day celebration of October 19, 1983 bloody event is held at Fort George, for those who died in the gun battle shootout between Maurice Bishop socialist faction and Bernard Coard socialist faction.
Dr. Marryshow seems to have no respect for Grenadians and especially the majority 82% of black Grenadians whose foreparents suffered the inhumane treatment of slavery, that still have a social and economic effect on us black Grenadians up to this present time. And it could be one of the social factors, why a large percentage of Grenadians are drinking too much alcohol.
If Dr. Marryshow is thinking properly with a true conscience and love for all human beings, he should know that the French colonisers brought Roman Catholicism to Grenada and forced that version of Christianity upon the enslaved African people without their choice.
He supposed to know that it was the French colonisers who committed human genocide against the Native Indigenous population in Grenada. For example, Leapers Hill, Sauteurs, St. Patrick is an historical site of the massacre evidence.
In addition, over ninety percent of Grenadians still do not know, what led to the political conflict between Maurice Bishop and Bernard Coard. However, I think it is morally wrong for Dr. Marryshow to be making any kind of demands for us to accept Maurice Bishop as our national hero, when he knows for a fact that majority of Grenadians are not interested in no forms of politics based on a specific ideology.
On the other hand, our Roman Catholic Bishop-elected Fr. Clyde Harvey who seems to be a grassroots person, is also crossing the political lines, by making statements about who should be our heroes. He should be aware of the fact that if the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) was still in power, he would not have that opportunity to be on the same speaker’s platform with Dr. Marryshow. The political game would have been totally different.
However, although the largest religious denomination in Grenada is Roman Catholic, the highly respected religious leader should know that Roman Catholicism was brought to Grenada by the French colonisers after the genocide against the Native people. So, it leaves us to wonder, if there is a God in heaven, how will he judged the colonisers who committed the genocide against the indigenous people.
In addition, Bishop Clyde Harvey is not a Grenadian. He is a Trinidadian and he is not fully aware of the Grenadian people political struggle against despotic political leaders such as Eric Gairy, Maurice Bishop and Bernard Coard dictatorial rule.
And knowing that he is a black man himself, I think he should be advocating to the ruling Peoples National Movement (PNM) government of Trinidad & Tobago to make the late great Black Power leader Geddes “Daaga” Granger a national hero of the Twin island Republic, rather than giving Dr. Marryshow any kind of political moral support.
Presently, Grenada is govern by a one political party government that was elected by the people in a democratic held election. There is no elected opposition. Our Governor General was handpicked by the Grenadian prime minister as the representative of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth oùf England, based on our laws within the constitution.
Additionally, prior to the bloody events that took place on October 19, 1983, there were periods in our history when Grenadians lost their lives in political upheavals. As a matter of fact the biggest execution that took place in Grenada after the native population was extinct, was during the conflict between the British colonisers and Julian Fedon rebellion. After the British defeated Julian Fedon, they executed hundreds of Fedon’s fighters in the Market Square.
During that period of the Fedon rebellion there were three different groups of people in Grenada. The groups were white Europeans, Mulattoes and Black Africans. The Europeans were the colonisers and slave owners. The mulattoes were in the middle with some levels of social status, while the black Africans were the slaves.
However, due to the structure of racism during that period, black people were not considered as human beings. So, the coloniser’s historians refused to give us the record of the number of black Africans who were executed in the market square after the Fedon rebellion but they gave us historical records of some of the French Creole mulattoes who were executed.
However, it obvious that there were more black Africans who took part in the Fedon rebellion than mulattoes because the African black slaves population were the majority. I hope that Dr. Marryshow is aware of that too because he seems to be showing some kind of elites behavior like our former European colonisers, by trying to demand what is right for us to accept.
Furthermore, I think that Dr. Marryshow is aware of the fact, that there are some Grenadians who know the history of the Fedon rebellion and what role Louis La Grenade played on the side of the British. In addition, he seems to be ignoring the fact that in 1951 Gairy revolution, some black Grenadians lost their lives, when they were shot in La Tante, St. David by members of the British Royal Police Force that had extra help from policemen brought to Grenada from St. Lucia by the British.
So, my question to Dr. Marryshow is: Why do you want to force me as a black Grenadian to accept Maurice Bishop as my national hero, when I do not have any information about our African Grenadian slaves, our ancestors who were executed in the market square after the Fedon rebellion?
This is most confusing, incoherent and illogically written narrative that I have ever read from you, and unfortunately I have read quite a few of your nonsense previously in publications such as Now Grenada. It may not be presumptuous to you, but are you implying that YOU can speak for “Black Grenadians” (whatever that may mean)?
Dave, when Dr. Marryshow made his deands for Grenadians to accept Maurice Bishop as a national hero, who he was speaking to? He was sending out a message 82% black people based on our Grenada’s Census by race. So, how do you expect me to react to his demand that I opposed as a member of that 82% within the general population? Are you telling that I am wrong to speak about my black unnamed ancestors whom are more worthy to be heroes than Maurice Bishop? If your opinion is different, it does not make more black or less black as I am. Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. This is the beauty and freedom of free speech within the democratic system. Did Maurice Bishop respect free speech? Don’t try to turn back the hands of time. Forward on bro! Rid yourself from dogmas. It will poison your thoughts. Think free and you will experience freedom.
Here’s a scenario: The US gov’t assasinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his mother, among others, then canonized him with a holiday. I think our government recognizing the victims of that tragic day would be 100 percent more sincere than the situation with a freedom fighter, which King and Bishop clearly were, being recognized by a government that is not interested in the liberation of African people, in the US context and internationally. And by the way, there is no need to be speaking in racial terms when speaking about the revolution, unless you are referring to non-Grenadians. We don’t have a race problem in Grenada. Moreover, the Dr. as was his late father are in that category of freedom fighters. He would be very qualified to nominate his comrade Maurice Bishop. Mistakes were committed which led to the demise of the revolutionary process by Bishop and his colleagues, but Bishop himself, and other who died alongside him, never betrayed the Grenadian masses.The rate of development that came about as a direct result of that process in areas such as adult literacy, greater access to primary and secondary education, agro-industry, the construction of a international airport, creation of a national insurance scheme, expansion of educational scholarship, and it continues. My question to you Hudson George is: What is your problem?
Yao Atunwa, I do not have a problem. I have an opinion, just as you have you own opinion. I think that it is healthy and democratic, when we all can express our opinion on social and political issues.
In addition, I think it is very important for us to know our history, so that persons with selfish hidden agendas will not be able to use us as fools, in order to accomplish their selfish gains.
I wanted to say that rate of development is still unmatched by subsequent governments, socially, economically, and the sense of purpose it engendered among the youths in particular. We were on our way of attaining true manhood and womanhood as a people: true sovereignty. We were learning to become a self-propelling and self-producing people, a dignified and proud people (more than we have ever been). Our self-esteem and personality as a people were experiencing the most rapid growth during the revolutionary period. How is Bishop not like Julien Fedon? You could argue that his predecessors, as in members of the la Grenade family, were opponents to Fedon, but does that indicated that Bishop were not for the downtrodden of our Grenadian society? Bishop would otherwise have a privileged existence as a lawyer and even member of parliament. It’s only fitting that we recognize his enormous sacrific and contribution to our nation. He is bar none a national hero, as is the Bain brothers, Jacqueline Creft and the others who gave their energies and ultimately their lives to transforming our improvised reality and spirit in an era that spelled dependency.
Yao Atunwa, yes the revolution had some positive things in it. However, that does not makes it a good regime. For example, I don’t support Donald Trump style of politics but I support his renegotiation policies on free trade. Now, going back to the revolution , I don’t think there are any heroes in the that era. You might like Bishop and others might like Coard but as long as their followers are not willing to tell the Grenadian people the truth , about what led to the bloodshed on October 19, 1983, there is no need to respect none of them. In addition, yhey were destroying the fabric of a post slave society with a foreign ideology, that would have destroyed our family history as black people. There was a possibility of mass exodus of a 1/4 of the population.
Michael Francis, I know myself. I am a black person based on Grenada’s census. All black people don’t think as me. We all don’t think the same. We have a right to think for ourselves. My opinion is my opinion. It is not other people’s opinion. We are not cloned human beings and I am not demanding others to think as me. Look at vehicles, and buildings carefully as examples. They are not designed by one person, so they have different shapes. That goes back to October 19, 1983 when one small group of persons fought a bloody senseless battle for political power to control because they had differences in creating a revolution, while the had persons who think differently from held in isolation. It is morally wrong to demand that I must accept your hero.
A fighter for the economic freedom of the masses is a hero, given that s/he does not betray that agenda and ultimately the people. That is a clear cut criteria for identifying heroes. People leaving for the US and all else that transpired thereafter would be besides the point.
In terms of free trade the U.S. played a wrong economic game with China. Former U. S. President Ronald Reagan miscalculated China economic capabilities after Chairman Mao died and Deng took over. Reagan thought the Deng was a capitalist but he was wrong. Deng version of Communist mix capitalist economy weakens the U.S. Now China has become a global power.
Explain your version of Economic Freedom for me please. I am always willing to learn but I thought economic freedom is a sort of laisse-zaffire system whereby, government is not involved.
Economic freedom, as the NJM and PEG saw it, is democratizing the economy whereby workers would be able to have greater equity through their active participation in terms of their employment via greater union organization and mobilization, ownership of the means of production in some instances by way of worker cooperatives and government-sponsored enterprises. That is the reason union organizing grew during the revolution in terms of more unions gaining recognition and the overall number of workers being union members. That is why a national insurance scheme was created. That is why iniatives were taken to give support to fisherfolks to acquire new skills and technologies. That is why a marketing board was created to give support to farmers. That is why iniatives were taken to manufacture local fruits. The aim was to have the people create the wealth that they in turn will benefit directly and indirectly from; that the prosperity will be shared amongst the workers that will empower them and give them more than job or financial security. So it was the opposite of that other system you have in mind where the lion share of the wealth created by the labor of workers goes to those owning the other means of production: land and capital. Such an economic system could never give workers freedom. They are made dependent and enslaved to the capitalists.
Yao Atunwa, the PRG is not the NJM.
There was an inside coup made by Bishop and Coard alliance against the NJM. After the coup was made the PRG comrades consolidate their and they they purged the army and get rid of the NJM cadres. On the other hand, some of the PRG programmes were good. But they did some dirty things too, by creating concentration camps and locked up too many rural people they did not want in their system and others whom were just outspoken citizens who did not posed any danger.
I am much aware that the People Revolutionary Government isn’t the same as the New Jewel Movement. The two organisations that forged into one joint organization which then led a movement to overthrow Eric Gairy I intended to mention to reflect on the principles that they upheld and eventually sought to manifest when they indeed overthrew Gairy. The point I really intended to make clear is that economic freedom was paramount in the revolutionary struggle. It has never again been a priority by subsequent governments. You speak of concentration camp, and I don’t for a second think that you think are being extreme in your description of individuals that were detained and some imprisoned for a longer period until the revolution would gain a solid footing. Such was necessary, especially in a bloodless takeover of power. What did you expect? The discomforts certain individuals experienced by their being detained and questioned was necessary at that time. How esle was the revolution going to be protected? You tell me.
Yao Atunwa, remnants of the Grenada revolution has no moral values to explain the foolishness they made after eradicating the NJM as the vanguard movement and creating the PRG sort of fascist regime with a small clique of urban cadres promoting socialist-communist ideology. The revolution is dead. It cannot come back. Bishop, Coard and Whiteman used the NJM as a disguise to fulfill their political desire. In the end political Karma punished them.
Capitalism may not be foreign to you, after all. Many admire capitalism, for they don’t have much of a clue as to how it functions, and the price that they pay.
I find this quote very fitting:
“Supporters of capitalism pay lip service to ‘freedom and liberty’ yet every single element of the capitalistic life is dictatorial. Our bosses are dictators. Our landlords are dictators. Banks are dictators. Public officials are dictators. Cops are dictators. Even our teachers are.”
And the governments are what? The biggest the most powerful dictators of them all. I’d rather have my boss/teacher/landlord be the “dictators” in my life than the government. Socialism is the lazy man’s wet dream. Nothing more, nothing less.
Zanek, it depends on the situation within the country and the role of the people in the system. If the majority of people
accept socialism, then it is good. But if the system is unpopular, then it will not work.