Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says his government is moving ahead, jointly with other CARICOM states, pressing demands for reparations from colonizers for native genocide of the African people.
Delivering his speech at the 46th Independence Day paradeat the Arnos Vale Sports Complex on Monday, Gonsalves said that in 118 years, the British altered forever the population makeup, economy, and governance of our country, embedd an alien cruelty and brute force into a hitherto tranquil and blessed land, home of the peaceful Kalinagos.
“Colonialism was not a thinking machine. It was not endowed with reasoning faculties. It was violence in its natural state.
“Our forebears resisted heroically, but the prolonged resistance of over 30 years was defeated. Our leader, Chatoyer the Magnificent, was ambushed and killed in 1795 at Dorsetshire Hill. Evil had triumphed through superior military might, but the nobility and justness of the resistance have etched in our collective memory the virtuous essence that in struggle, a strenuous life is preferable to one of ignoble ease,” he said.
Gonsalves, political leader of the Unity Labour Party that is heading into the next general elections with the aim of getting a sixth consecutive term in office, said it is from that “wellspring of resistance and owning our nation and owning our future” that the genius of Vincentians continues to drink for uplifting purposes. “Our government is justly demanding, and compellingly so, in concert with other CARICOM member states, we are demanding reparations for native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies.
“Today, even after 46 years of the reclamation of our nation’s independence, we still suffer markedly from the legacies of underdevelopment wrought by native genocide, the enslavement of African bodies, indentured labor, and the evil spirit of colonialism. The contemporary apologists of colonial overrule absurdly, nonsensically seek to draw up a contrived and disingenuous balance sheet in the jaundiced count of the British inheritances of the English language, the common law, the imitative constitutional and administrative arrangements of Westminster … in a vain attempt to wipe away all the criminal sins of colonialism against humanity, Christian teachings, and international law. The struggle for reparations continues on all fronts,” Gonsalves said.
