Dear Editor,
The Caribbean has not been short of historians, many of whom went beyond the the handed-down, self-serving history and broke new ground. Now we are blessed in a different way with an embodiment of rare learning which is bound to upset what we thought we knew. The Stabroek News has favoured us with her revelations.
Leah Lawrence ends a letter captioned “Britain was unable to hold its empire, there was no real struggle for independence” (07.01.01), directed against a previous letter by Dennis Wiggins, with the warning . “Regular letter-writers like Mr Wiggins and others should be very careful of their facts, since if facts are not accurate they could mislead and indeed discredit their letters.”
Truly there is this danger, whether the writer is regular or not, as Lawrence’s letter clearly bears out.
Among her amazing insights is this gem:
“The difficulty of one culture like creole culture, wishing to dominate, leads to alienation and disunity”. Lawrence challenges Wiggins’s finding that “slavery, emancipation and national liberation is what shaped the politics and history of the Caribbean.” And how, in the opinion of learned Lawrence, does this rule fit European culture, which did not merely seek to dominate, but in fact installed itself as the official culture?
Her reflections on history take a very positive view of the European invasion Here is Lawrence in her own words: ” European peoples came to the Caribbean, suffered great hardships, invested their money over the centuries , peopled the place with Africans, Indians and others, created the economy of the territories, gave the territories the law, languages, political institutions, administration, education and to a large extent their culture. Europe even gave their territories their thought-process and world view. ‘Slavery, emancipation, and national liberation’ were merely noticeable eddies in the flow of Caribbean history.”
Rather than plunge into an argument with Leah Lawrence I prefer for now to pose some questions to the writer, through the Editor.
If there is indeed Caribbean history as some of us fondly think, in what century approximately does Ms Lawrence place its beginning?
Who imposed great hardships on the Europeans ?
Is there any record of any people living in the region before the self-sacrificing Europeans arrived? If the answer is yes, will she name some of them?
Why did the poor Europeans on arrival here in the Caribbean find the need to “people” it as Ms Lawrence reveals?
What steps did the Europeans take to “people ” the un-peopled region? And after peopling it with people, did the Eurpeans arrange for the people used in peopling the Caribbean to retain the status of “people” or of “persons”?
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
