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The Caribbean: From Colonialism to Independence
by: Godfrey Eneas
Introduction
From the 16th to the 19th century, as part of the New World, the Caribbean became an important entrepot for the emerging global economy created by the major European States of Portugal, Spain, France, The Netherlands and Britain. To facilitate this burgeoning economy, Europe established this region as a Slave Empire which was driven by the Slave Trade and fueled by African slavery.
The 1804 Haitian Revolution commenced the transformation of the region when it became the first Black Republic in the world. The Revolution launched the march to Independence, not only in the Caribbean but also for the fledging colonies of the world. It also precipitated the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807 because it sent a message to the European powers that if it could happen in Haiti, it could be duplicated throughout the region. Three major slave rebellions took place soon thereafter in the British West Indies, namely the 1816 Bussa Rebellion in Barbados, the 1823 Demerara Rebellion in then British Guiana and the 1831 Samuel Sharpe’s Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica.
The Haitian Revolution and the three rebellions signalled to the British and the West Indian plantocracy that slavery was on its knees and the end was near. Three years after the Christmas Rebellion, King George iii and the British Parliament ordered the end of slavery with the Emancipation Act in 1833. The Royal Assent would come into play in August 1833 ending slavery officially on August 1, 1834. The plantocracy was able to negotiate a period of Apprenticeship for the former slaves and four years later, full Emancipation would come in 1838.
Freeing 800,000 enslaved Africans made the Caribbean the only locale in the New World where Africans were the majority ethnic group. The African had gone from Slave to British Subject. This marked a dramatic re-ordering of British geopolitics as the British had to govern free people as opposed to enslaved people who were owned by the British plantocracy.
Backdrop To Independence
The decades between 1838 and 1962 were defining for the former enslaved Africans of the Caribbean, specifically those in the British West Indies.
Immediately after Emancipation the West Indian plantocracy realized that their plantations would experience a farm labour challenge, so in order to address this issue the British government allowed them to recurit 500,000 million indentured workers from the British colony of India between 1850-1917. Plantation agriculture was labour-intensive and Emancipation eliminated free labour. The unavailability of free labour negatively impacted the cost of production. Plantation Agriculture for almost four centuries was based on slave labour.
The competition for labour was further exacerbated with the construction in 1855 of the Panamas Railway which was to link the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and was vital to the construction of the Panama Canal. Thousands of Bahamians, Jamaicans, Barbadians and other West Indians left the plantations to seek work in Panama.
The labour situation was further compounded with the commencement of the construction of the canal in 1904. These two construction projects proved to be beneficial to newly freed people in the Caribbean. From as far north as The Bahamas, the descendants of the former enslaved migrated to Panama for work. From 1855 to 1914, the Panama projects were the employment lifeline for a people recently freed from human bondage.
The Americas were in a precarious state because the whole hemisphere was emerging from the Slave Empire which Europe had created. By 1914 Europe itself was in turmoil as it was engulfed in the Great War which would last from 1914 to 1918. Thousands of the sons of former slaves were conscripted into the West India Regiment to fight in Europe. My grandfather, John Henry Saunders, Sir Etienne Dupuch and others were some of the Bahamians that went to war.
The post-slavery Caribbean became a region which was in a state of socio-economic chaos. Britain offered no solution and the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, referred to the British West Indies as the “slums of the Empire.”
Why Is The Bahamas Different?
In order to appreciate the type of economies Caribbean governments inherited upon gaining Independence, one has to understand this backdrop. Caribbean governments entered Independence with broke governments, poor infrastructure, health care and educational facilities and high unemployment. Further, with the exception of Jamaica (Bauxite) and Trinidad and Tobago(Oil), their economies were agricultural and based on export commodities which were rooted in plantation crops, a relic of slavery. The main source of foreign exchange earnings was from commodities like sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, tobacco, sisal, cotton, citrus and other Tropical crops and by-products like rum. The chief market was the UK and, eventually, under preferential agreement into the EU.
Owing to the proximity of The Bahamas to the US, the post-Emancipation experience has been different from that of the other Anglophone colonies which have evolved today into CARICOM states. All of these colonies had essentially agricultural-based economies. The difference is that Bahamian agricultural trade was primarily with the US whereas in the other British West Indian colonies where production was primarily for the British market as the producers were either the British plantocracy or British companies like Tate and Lyle, Bookers in Guyana or the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC). The Bahamian economic orientation was to the US because:
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it was the Loyalists from the Southern US with their slaves that changed the demography of The Bahamas making the Africans the majority ethnic group;
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it was the place where Bahamians migrated to resettle, for education and to seek employment opportunities;
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during the American Civil War, The Bahamas played a significant role in Blockade Running as a transshipment locale for a variety of commodities including cotton and guns between 1861 and 1864. Cotton, for example, was shipped from Charleston to Nassau for sale in London;
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it kept the Bahamian economy functional during the Bootlegging and rumrunning of the Prohibition Era from 1920-1933;
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It was the US that influenced our dietary habits because it was America that supplied most of our foods as well as the items which were used in our households, our construction industries and other spheres of life.
Factors like these gave The Bahamas a different perspective and orientation. It was this outlook that was responsible for placing The Bahamas on a different socioeconomic developmental track. When Independence came to the British West Indies in 1962, The Bahamas had commenced the transformation of its economy from a Fishing Village to a modern tourism mecca from as early as the ‘50s.
In my book, the New Caribbean: A Region In Transition, I quoted the following passage from Michael Craton’s book, The History of The Bahamas:
“The end of the war, so joyfully celebrated, was not followed by the traditional slump. Indeed, the two-and-a-half decades after 1945 were a period of unparalleled, almost uninterrupted expansion and success. Soaring tourist and investment figures and the corresponding rise in government revenue were accomplished by huge improvements in living standards, education and political sophistication. At the same time, encouraged by a declining will or ability to rule on the part of the British government, steady progress was made towards full self-determination. “
By 1962, The Bahamas was attracting more than a million visitors per year during that decade. In 1969, Jamaica was only receiving about 280,000 visitors which was the next highest in CARICOM after The Bahamas.
New Caribbean
The New Caribbean is very distinct from the Caribbean which was inherited by governments heading into Independence in the ‘60s. The Caribbean today is a product of re-engineered geopolitics as a result of the Post Cold War which eliminated the Iron Curtain with the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
This era ushered in a rules-based world which was led by the World Trade Organization (WTO) where trade liberalization would become
The guidelines for global trade. The Bahamas is the only country in the Americas that is not a WTO member. China as a WTO member has become a key player in global trade as the chief rival of the US. China became a game changer in trade as well as in international aid to developing countries. It is this scenario that altered the geopolitical field for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like those in the Caribbean. It is this framework that fostered a Neo-Colonial regime in the Caribbean and structured this New Caribbean.
The neo-Colonial Caribbean
The Caribbean Region, in language and socio-political attachments, represents their colonial architects. There are exceptions in the Greater Antilles with the Dominican Republic (1865) followed by Cuba(1898) gaining their independence from Spain but retaining Spanish as their language. Puerto Rico was acquired by the US in 1898 following the Spanish - American War and maintained Spanish as its main language. In 1804, Haiti won its freedom from France via Revolution but retained French as its official language.
The Lesser Antilles, on the other hand, comprised islands that were changing European national identities on a frequent basis. This could be the reason for several schools of thought:
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There is a view that some former colonial masters want to continue to have influence in their one-time colonies under a revamped form of colonialism.
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There is a segment of people in these former who preferred this new version of colonialism
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Some territories in the region felt that they should remain colonies due to the performances of the states which chose to seek Independence.
CARICOM states are at a crossroads as eight (Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) are Monarchical states with King Charles iii as their Head of State with the possibility of moving to Republic status. Some members are Associate Members while being dependencies of Britain. There are already four Republics (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Dominica and Barbados).
Historical connections are still relevant:
Former French Windward Islands were made up of Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Grenada. Today,Martinique and Guadeloupe are Overseas dependencies of France in the Caribbean along with St. Martin and St Barthelemy. St.Lucia and Grenada are CARICOM states. British dependencies in the Caribbean are Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands(Tortola), the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Netherlands or Dutch also have Overseas Territories in the Caribbean and they are Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Aruba and St. Maarten.
Haiti and Suriname are members of CARICOM and both are Republics. Suriname, though on the South American mainland like Guyana and Belize, was a former Dutch colony and achieved its independence in 1975. The other of the three(British and Dutch) Guianas was French and is today Cayenne, a French dependency. Apart from Europe, the US has two territories Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas and St John).
Conclusion
The Caribbean Region, in which we live begins at the Florida Cays to the Orinoco Delta around the Caribbean Sea, which is a large part of the Americas with a diverse geography and challenging environment. The Caribbean became inhabited and dominated by ethnic groups that replaced the indigenous peoples. It is a unique region of the world and its uniqueness stems from the manner in which it was developed.
The Caribbean, like the rest of the Americas, was a Slave Empire established by the Europeans who transported between 10 to 12 million Africans across the Middle Passage. African as chattel labour was used to exploit the natural resources of the Caribbean for Europe’s benefit. In this process, a New World was created via a system of government called Colonialism through the Europeans controlling every aspect of human existence.
It was this experience which enabled Europe to launch the Industrial Revolution by utilizing the raw materials from the region to supply European markets. This facilitated a level of global trade that made it possible for Europe to finance its industrialization at the expense of minimum or virtually no investment in the Caribean. On achieving independence status, Caribbean governments inherited poor countries.
It is this framework that caused Caribbean states to be faced with economic challenges stemming from population growth and high unemployment provoking inhabitants to migrate to Europe and America for employment opportunities. The colonies lacked the level of infrastructural requirements to attract foreign investment to expand the economies, train the manpower and install the necessary healthcare facilities.
An important reason for Caribbean awareness is owned by Caribbean intellectuals who, through their writings, music lyrics and other forms of artistry, have stimulated Caribbean pride. Through their works, they were able to impart to us a better understanding of whom we are after five hundred years of European domination via slavery and colonialism.
Rex Nettleford, Jamaican cultural icon, stated that the Caribbean represented “ the melody of Europe and the rhythm of Africa”.When academics in the prestigious universities of Europe and America rejected Dr. Eric Williams’(former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago) thesis and his book, Capitalism and Slavery, that the Slave Trade and Slavery financed the Industrial Revolution shed new light on this human tragedy.
St.Lucian Nobel Prize Winner, Sir W. Arthur Lewis in his book outlining the Theory of Economic Growth highlighted the deficiency of the type of agricultural-based economies of post-Emancipation Caribbean. Trinidadian of Indian descendant, V.S.Naipaul, became a world-class author as he wrote about alienation and rejection in the Third World. His compatriot, C.L.R. James in his groundbreaking work on the Haitian Revolution in his book, the Black Jacobins, is still relevant today in understanding the role Haiti has played in transforming the Caribbean. As migratory people, Barbadian novelist, George Lamming, in his 1954 book, The Emigrants, describes what it was like for island people migrating to a “Mother Country” which really did not want them. One of the best books from a native of the region was “Wretched Of the Earth” by Frantz Fanon of Martinique. Fanon wrote about the psychological and psychiatric dehumanizing effect colonization had on people like us who were descendants of enslaved Africans who were kidnapped and transported to the Caribbean.
Today’s Afro- Caribbean culture might be seen as a new tradition that grew out of a slave system structured to discourage linkages with Africa resulting in new behavioral patterns by displaced people. In The Bahamas, the cultural expression of Junkanoo is a throwback to Africa. Nigerian dishes like Fufu and Agege which were common in Bain Town and Fox Hill died generations ago; however, fry fish and fry plantain remain.
Africans in The Bahamas and the Caribbean have been transformed by slavery and colonialism and have evolved into a New World African, very distinct from the Africans of the ‘Motherland’.