Vincentian historian gives Japanese researcher new Vincentian historiography

By Dr. Garrey Michael Dennie

Recently, I witnessed an intellectual tornado.  In a conversation that is certainly the first of its kind, a Vincentian historian, Dr. Cleve Scott, engaged a Japanese historian, Dr. Kuwajima on three issues critical to the study of Vincentian history. 

First, Scott enlightened him on what constituted appropriate areas of research on Vincentian history where Vincentian historians could fruitfully collaborate with him.  Second, Scott defined the intellectual and ideological frameworks which would guide such collaboration.  And, third, Scott explained to Kuwajima how the research subjects and underlying philosophies which excited scholars 100 years ago are utterly meaningless and offensive in the post-colonial Caribbean intellectual universe that we inhabit in 2025.  

In one hour of a detailed exposition of Vincentian and Caribbean historiographical traditions, Scott tore apart Kuwajimi’s illusions of a benevolent imperialism leaving Kuwajimi’s proposed research project in complete tatters.  Scott conceded nothing.  He doused Kuwajimi’s hope that a comparative study of the British presence in Ireland and St. Vincent and the Grenadines through the person of British philosopher Edmund Burke had value for Vincentian history.  Rather, Scott advised, study Vincentians themselves.  Give value to the enslaved, not the enslavers.  

To understand the scale of the demolition, think of this image.  Kuwajimi began the Zoom interview waving a book that he believed offered him an entry point into the study of Vincentian history.  By the end of the interview, he had a pen and a sheet of paper taking notes as Scott instructed him on the course of action he needed to take if he was truly interested in acquiring expertise in Vincentian history.

As the convener of the Zoom meeting. I had a privileged seat to watch Scott’s tour de force.  But unfortunately, Dr. Adrian Fraser and Dr. Arnold Thomas — our other colleagues working on a multi-volume history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines — did not see it. Hence, I texted them the following messages:

“Adrian, Arnold forgot to tell you… Cleve schooled the Japanese Professor this morning. It was complete. I stayed out of the way! By the end of the lesson, he had become an attentive student. It was like a little car running into an eighteen wheeler. Cleve was the eighteen wheeler.”

I write this article and I reveal this private conversation as a direct response to the National Archives’ statement on Kuwajimi’s visit.  The author of the release seemed utterly unaware of the academic distinctions of Scott and I who along with Fraser and Thomas are writing a history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines funded by the Government of St, Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Central to this history writing is the principle that we must fully focus on Vincentians as architects of our own destiny.  The release from the National Archives showed no awareness that Kuwajimi was at best, a complete novice to Vincentian history.  Unfortunately, it reproduced a sensibility that a new Vincentian historiography rejects:  that we bow to outsiders’ rendition of who we are and who we should be, and that we seek their approval in how we write our history,      

We do no such thing.  This is the moment for a new Vincentian historiography.  My colleagues look forward to publishing the first general history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines written by Vincentians for Vincentians.  It surely will be placed in the National Archives.  And after Scott’s comprehensive destruction of the imperialist fantasies of Kuwajimi on the writing of Vincentian history, I presume Kuwajimi will understand one thing: for him, it is required reading.  

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