By *Jomo Sanga Thomas
(“Plain Talk” Jan. 17, 2026)
“Lawyers have a crucial choice to make. They can choose to be social parasites and opportunistically feed off the society from which they came or become social engineers dedicated to leaving their societies better than when they met it.” — Charles Houston
“Law is force in defence of an idea.” — Karl Marx
During their rule and domination of our Caribbean, the French and British colonialists made a mess of our nation. The devastation began with conquest and genocide that continued for centuries with economic exploitation, cultural and political subjugation that continues to plague our people 46 years after the attainment of flag or sham independence in 1979.
The colonial legacy is all around us. The sad state of affairs can be seen in our persistent poverty, underdevelopment, high unemployment, and most markedly hatred for our predominantly Africaness as reflected in our black bodies. Most people living in SVG lost their names, their religion, their cultural way of life, and a sense of self. The erasure was so complete that a first step to complete emancipation must be the restoration of memory.
When the British gained total control of SVG following the assassination of Chief Joseph Chatoyer in 1795, they immediately moved to commit genocide and exile against the indigenous population. Thousands died at Balliceaux, and thousands more were exiled to an uncertain fate. Many landed at Roatan off the coast of Honduras, survived, and went on to build thriving communities in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Today, many of our Garifuna brothers and sisters live across the United States.
An essential first step in reclaiming our authentic self is for the entire population,, especially young people,, to learn this history and vow never to forget it. Every year on Nov. 17, Garifunas in Belize celebrate Arrival Day. High schools should be required to include these celebrations in their cultural enrichment programmes so students can witness and participate. A critical part of the process of remembering not to forget is to pass laws that make the teaching of our nation’s history compulsory. Our people must be made knowledgeable about Chatoyer and Duvalier, Sheriff Lewis and Nellie Ebo, JP Eustace and Hugh Mulzac, George McIntosh and Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, in much the same way they are taught about European personalities whose lives hold little meaning to us.
Our education would become more meaningful and complete when our curriculum gives this knowledge pride of place, much as our young people are taught English, Spanish, maths, and chemistry. Knowledge of self is more vital than any other subject. The force of law must be put behind this effort.
The weight of the law must also be used to reorient our thinking about our land. Too many places unconsciously reinforced the colonial domination of our land. As we head to 50 years of independence, why do villages and roads retain the names of racist colonial overlords? Why can’t we swap out the names of streets and places for more meaningful ones? The main road out of Kingstown should be renamed Chatoyer Drive, with prominent signage to help people learn the name and the rationale for the change.
It is a national disgrace that politicians and educators live and work in Petit Bordel (little brothel) without a serious campaign to teach people how the French and British colonialists taught about them and why that beautiful village, dignified and independent-minded people, should not have a different name befitting their pride and resilience. The law must be employed to engage people in a name-changing effort with full community participation. A conscious and educated people aid the nation’s overall development.
Twinned with this broad-based participatory effort to open minds should be a return to the best village competitions, which can help build community spirit and national unity. The law can be used to create a nonpartisan, community-based rapid-response “shock forces” to address crime, national disasters, and the deterioration of roads, schools, clinics, and other public assets.
The National Reparations Commission should be revitalised with a mandate to establish smaller committees in every secondary school across the country, including community colleges. Every town and village should be actively encouraged to set up a reparations committee. The committees should be tasked not only with teaching history but also with addressing the wrongs committed by former colonial enslavers. Of critical importance must be an explanation as to why the Caribbean was and remains a colonial crime scene and why those crimes committed over centuries extracted an incalculable amount of wealth and resources from our region, which partly explains the social and economic problems of today. Only a true history of our nation and region will arm the people for the daunting developmental task ahead.
Last but not least, independence is not complete until our nation boldly and consciously reclaims its patrimony. As Steadroy Benjamin, the attorney general of Antigua, said Monday, it is an affront to our sovereignty as an independent, democratic state that our final court be located in a foreign jurisdiction.
If we are to truly be masters of our own destiny, we have to be responsible for all of us, including our judicial decisions. It is beyond late that 20 years after the creation of the Caribbean Court of Justice, a court in which Caribbean Governments invested US$100 million to ensure its independence and security, located in Port of Spain, Trinidad, only Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and St Lucia acceded to the CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction. Two of our larger jurisdictions, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, have remained stubbornly resistant to the court. The new NDP government must set aside any hesitancy or reservations it had about the court and swiftly accept its appellate jurisdiction.
It is a striking shame that the last matter from SVG to the Privy Council was the James Mitchell case, decided in 2014. The Vaccine Mandate case is making its way there now. Many opponents of the CCJ are unaware of its decisions. The decided cases, many authored by Vincentian Adrian Saunders, the court’s recently retired president, are of exceptionally high standards. The court has never been chided for lack of independence. Therefore, only a disregard for our self-worth and a deeply rooted feeling that others are intellectually superior to us explain the reluctance of our governments to break ties with the British Privy Council.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
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