By Kimalee Phillip
An African woman born and raised in Grenada, Kimalee Phillip is an anti-colonial labour and community organizer and independent researcher. Currently based in Toronto, Kimalee is a member of Groundation Grenada, serves as the Equity Officer with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, local 1281 and does organizing work with the Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity.
On June 6th 2013, a few persons participating in the 38th Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) conference in Grenada, including myself, were privy to the first public screening of the documentary, ‘Forward Ever: The Killing of the Grenada Revolution’ produced by Bruce Paddington. This documentary captured the multiple and conflicting stories and experiences faced by Grenadian people under the reign of the People’s Revolutionary Government from 1979-1983. The timing of this documentary was poignant as not only is 2013 the 30th anniversary of the implosion of the People’s Revolutionary Government and the subsequent US invasion of Grenada but in addition, the viewing took place exactly one week before Walter Rodney was assassinated in Guyana 33 years ago on June 13, 1980.
What Rodney represented to Guyana, the Caribbean and Africa can be compared to some of what Maurice Bishop embodied for many Grenadians – an opportunity and means of verbalizing what self-determination, freedom and a quest to reclaim and redefine ideas and ideologies meant. These men and other leaders also helped to put into words and actions a new meaning of community, identity and accountability that was reliant on self-determination. Therefore, to recognize the significance of these historic events occurring so closely together, we at Groundation Grenada would like to salute Walter Rodney and his immeasurable contributions to Guyana, the Caribbean and pan-African struggles globally.
It is however important to acknowledge that the faces who tend to be remembered and idolized in times of revolutionary struggles tend to be those of men, and to point out that despite men usually being placed at the forefront of liberatory struggles, this is not necessarily a true reflection of who is actually putting in the work and that many women tend to be forgotten.
Groundation Grenada was created in 2009 to foster the development of youth-led action in community-based initiatives. We seek to raise critical consciousness through the use of creative media and collaborative projects in Grenada, the region and the diaspora, while recognizing the activation of virtual space as critical to this mission. There is a deep power and insight that can develop from seeing oneself represented, or perhaps even more so from representing oneself. It is because of this understanding that we prioritize giving voice to the widely diverse narratives of Caribbeanness, blackness, and of gender expression and sexuality. Attempting to avoid falling into the trap of what young Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, calls “The danger of a single story”, we seek to create a platform for a wide range of voices. We also develop our capacity as a support system by amplifying and building a critical dialogue around the creative and social work of others across our growing network. As our virtual space acts as a magnet for the types of people who are passionate and ready to grow a movement alongside us, we build capacity for other collaborative projects.
One of our major long-term goals is to build a multifunctional resource center to further facilitate our vision of being a support system for radical social and artistic action. We are committed to developing an economically, environmentally and emotionally sustainable model so that this center can have a lasting impact, which is set on a solid foundation. Experimenting with activating existing spaces allows us to gain valuable knowledge about how we might want this community nexus to look, feel and function. On March 17th 2013 we collaborated with Camerhogne Creative Consulting on an event in Toronto called Yoga from Back Home. For one evening we turned Accents, an African, Caribbean and Latin American bookstore, into a space of healing for activists from the Global majority South living in Toronto. Most recently we collaborated with ARC Magazine to launch their 7th issue in Grenada. Arc Inc. is a not for profit print and online publication and platform founded in 2011, that seeks to fill a certain void by offering a critical space for contemporary visual artists to present their work while fostering and developing dialogues and opportunities for crucial points of exchange. On June 6th 2013 our collaboration manifested in a re-occupation of Fort Matthew in St. George, Grenada. We filled the tunnels, old rooms and courtyard with installations of contemporary Caribbean film and video art, and featured a reading by Grenada-based Guyanese novelist Oonya Kempadoo from her latest novel All Decent Animals, followed by a dialogue with her about her creative and social practice. This event created a rare opportunity to bring together a broad cross section of local, regional and international scholars, activists, artists and community members to engage with one another and with these unique creative works. This was a major benefit of the event, one that coincided with the CSA’s Annual Conference, which both members of Groundation Grenada and Arc presented at. A crucial feature of the work of Groundation Grenada is collaboration. Our desire is not to hoist a movement onto our own backs and then carry it. Instead, we act on a deep desire to walk together, recognizing that our movement is all the stronger for the different experiences and strengths that we bring to bear on our collective struggles for change.
The name Groundation is intentional as it speaks to the importance of remaining aware of community needs. It also draws from Rodney’s use of the term ‘groundings’ to describe his sessions with Rastafari and others in Kingston, Jamaica in the 1960s when he was at the University of the West Indies, before he would be deported in 1968, go to Tanzania and ultimately return to Guyana. For Rodney, Groundings meant that one had to be “prepared to go anywhere that any group of Black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen…a sitting down together to reason, to ‘ground’ as the Brothers say. We have to ‘ground together.’” Crucially, Rodney went on to emphasise that “The black people of whom I speak…are non-whites — the hundreds of millions whose homelands are in Asia and Africa, with another few millions in the Americas.”
This ability to engage authentically and meaningfully with any group of people, from market vendors to bus drivers to the rum shop politicians is key as these are the people who make up the masses and in the case of the Grenada Revolution, formed the well-disciplined militia. As we, in Groundation Grenada reflect on our growth and the ways to move forward, we continue to ask ourselves how can we develop new models of engagement with the people who fit Rodney’s broad definition of blackness as well as finding effective ways of partnering with allies.
Many Caribbean countries proudly wave their flags and engage in nationalist and political rhetoric that suggests that we are indeed independent. However, when one stops to look closely at the actual global economic and political realities faced by Caribbean governments, it seems fair to say that what we gained was indeed ‘flag independence’ and not the ‘go-ahead’ to actually determine our futures devoid of imperial sanctions. Independence cannot be something that is given, it must be taken.
Currently, the political direction and economic policies of most Caribbean countries, with the exception of Cuba, are aligned with the political and economic interests of the Global North, primarily the United States, Canada and Europe. This is unfortunately done with little to no recognition of the historical and systemic forms of violence imposed upon the people through structural adjustment programs and the growing financial debts we incur to countries that became rich off of the backs of our ancestors. Many of our political leaders are complicit with neoliberal agendas that place the lives and livelihood of our people outside of the priority pool. When we see our governments touting political agendas around modernization and privatization, we should immediately become cautious around what this means for our land, livelihoods and labour force -, job cuts, reduced wages and exploitative labour practices broadly. The question becomes, whose agendas are we really being asked to support?
In contemporary Grenada, as elsewhere in the region, our failure to link the current neoliberal agenda with colonialism and think critically about how it influences social attitudes and ideologies will only ensure our continued dependence on imperial states, financially and socially, as well as ensure the marginalization of women, the poor, and the vulnerable in society. Maurice Bishop once said, regarding Grenada’s dependence on foreign aid and foreign states, “When North America sneezes, countries like Grenada catch pneumonia”. Slavery, indentureship and the official existence of a dominant colonial administration may have come to an end but as alluded to in Bishop’s quote above, the effects of colonial power continue to exist through the uncritical and rarely disputed exercise of power by current “post-colonial” governments.
Rodney’s acclaimed book, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ continues to be a relevant intervention into the ongoing struggles faced on the continent, its peoples and the diasporic African population. It accurately captured and fleshed out the realities imposed upon communities in the name of capitalism, imperialism and neoliberalism. Rodney’s analysis remains necessary for Caribbean governments and civil society to seriously consider when attempting to decipher what true independence (and not flag independence) looks like. It also provides an avenue for working peoples to garner a better understanding of the systemic and nuanced ways in which colonialism and capitalism continue to manifest themselves. Resistance must be rooted in a sense of sharp and critical political understanding of our everyday realities within a global context.
To ground oneself, to acknowledge the power and privilege that we enjoy and the oppressions that we are confronted with, is critical to unshackling the mental restrictions to which we have been subjugated and to which we continue to subjugate ourselves to. Furthermore, to ground oneself within one’s community and environment is equally liberatory for it reminds us of the sacrifices made and our responsibilities to others, and provides for some form of accountability to take place. We did not get here on our own and we do not survive in this world on our own, therefore remembering that must remain a central tenet of our humanity. Walter Rodney’s ‘groundings’ reminds us of this need to remain actively and consciously grounded in our realities and to engage in change and resistance. Rodney reminds us of the need to agitate change wherever we may be, on the farm, in the rum shop and social spaces. Let us move beyond rum shop politics to actual organizing and the building of lasting movements. As we continue to subscribe to social and academic ways of thinking that strongly discourage a knowing of who we are, we at Groundation Grenada appreciate Rodney’s work that centres on the importance of knowing our complex selves and our political possibilities.
We remember Walter Rodney, a great Guyanese, a great Caribbean scholar, a great Pan-Africanist, extraordinary political scientist and a genuine comrade. As younger persons attempting to remain rooted in the needs and experiences of the community and the working class, we look to people like Rodney as guidance based in camaraderie and solidarity. We remain aware of some of Rodney’s words where he stated ‘we must stand up for those who lay down their lives for us’.
Rest in power Walter Rodney! Rest in revolutionary power!