By Ashford Peters
More than two centuries after Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer was killed at Dorsetshire Hill defending St. Vincent and the Grenadines against the British, comments by International Garifuna Council President, Trevor Garibali Palacio at the wreath-laying ceremony Saturday, National Heroes Day, have suggested a creeping conflict that smacks of political tribalism between him and other Garifuna.
At The Obelisk, a monument erected the site of Chatoyer’s death and declared to be sacred ground overlooking the capital, Kingstown, Palacio’s comments cannoned into the mountains, reverberating along the hillside and shattering the solemnity of the event as he fired salvo after salvo.
Palacio’s thunderous comments appeared to be a spill-over from the annual international Garifuna Conference held here this week.
“… let’s not be hypocrites who speak of unity and operate contrary to that,” Palicio said at the beginning of his remarks.
“This is the only way that we can accomplish this end moving forward. Let’s not spew out of our mouths unity and you tell me to shut up at the conference yesterday. You tell me to shut up at the conference yesterday. Don’t speak of unity.”
Palacio told Prime Minister Godwin Friday he was not there “for political correctness or political expediency”.
In a speech that was at times equivocal, at times vague and sometimes amounted to supercilious attacks, he expressed gratitude to God and to Chatoyer who “was assassinated because he could not be bought” and “could not be sold”.
“I’m speaking to you. You know who you are, the one who’s been bought,” he said. “You will soon be sold.”
Reiterating that he was not “here for political correctness”, the International Garifuna Council president said that he might never be invited back to SVG again for the annual Garifuna celebrations and activities, but said, “It’s okay.”
“I am disappointed that Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is not here because every single year that we’ve been here, Godwin Friday has been here and I’m not gassing you up, sir. It ain’t for the gas. We’re making a very valid point of why this country is divided and economic opportunities and struggles remain because of politics,” he said.
He congratulated Friday and his administration on ”the political success”, saying “it took a couple of decades to make this happen”.
“From small beginnings, Prime Minister, great things can grow. Since I’m coming from the United States of America and I was raised by African Americans, I also want to say rest in peace, Reverend Jesse Jackson,” he said.
“Reverend Jesse Jackson was the one who taught this Black man. I’m black and I’m proud. So I stand here before you as a Black, dark-skinned indigenous man and saying I am proud of that. Every African descendant and Caribbean American owe the African American community a contrite ‘thank you’. A contrite ‘thank you’ because we have drank the soup of propaganda against our fellows. We’ve drank it. Let’s not do this in modern times.”
Palacio thanked Gonsalves for what he had done for the Garifuna people.
“Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, I look into this live television, sir. We wish you would have been here with us because some of our family members were looking forward to meeting you. But today, they get to meet the Honourable Godwin Friday,” he said.
Vincentians rejected Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party at the polls in November when they gave 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats to Friday’s New Democratic Party, which had been in opposition for 24 years and eight months.
Palacio noted that the uninhabited island of Baliceaux, to which Garifuna were exiled in the 18th Century, making it of tremendous significance to the Garifuna people, was acquired by the government of SVG — under Gonsalves’ leadership.
“There’s a brand new prime minister, a brand new consul general”, he said, adding that whereas previously the Garifuna delegations “every year we had like 50, 60 of us come into this country, there’s over 150 of us this year.
“But if you don’t hear what I’m saying now, the numbers are going down. It’s me, Gabraldi. They could go up but we have to stop being hypocrites, talking about unity and operating contrary to that,” he said.
Palacio told the ceremony that Consul General Roland Matthews said that this administration is considering what it called a Garifuna desk.
“Yes, you see, not everyone is clapping because not everybody like Garifuna, I’m telling you. Not everybody like me, not everybody like us. There are people here who loathe us telling me to shut up in public. Me! And when I try to touch her and say, ‘Sister let’s communicate’ she said don’t,” Palacio said, indicating a fallout with the indigenous people.
Palacio, extravagant on his assertions but economical on explanation, further stated: “Okay, not here for political correctness. Again, may never be invited again. I am publicly asking now Chief Sardo (Agustine Sutherland) of the Kalinago; I am your brother. Please don’t allow individuals to divide us. I’ve been calling you, I’ve been messaging you, but you have allowed individuals to divide potential.
“Please, I beg of you, Chief, I am your brother, which is why I brought you a gift, which is a knife that cuts asunder division.”
Palacio asked that the presence of the chief be recognised with a round of applause.
Palacio also acknowledged the presence of the President of the SVG Indigenous People’s Association, Joan Hoyte.
“I would also like to encourage my sister, Joan Hoyte. It seems as the Garifuna people and the Carib people and the Kalinago people have chosen her to lead you guys. So you guys have chosen Joan to lead you.
“Congratulations on that. She’s a lawyer from the United States of America. She knows what she’s doing and I pray Joan that you and I can look eye to eye because what we’re here for is retrieval,” Palacio told Hoyte.
Palacio said “it’s not about us as just Garifuna people”, reminding that Chatoyer was paramount chief and “that’s why he is the national hero”.
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Where can I read about Chatoyer historically? I mean, how can a Carib Indian be named Joseph?
It is historically incorrect to claim that “Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer was killed at Dorsetshire Hill defending St. Vincent and the Grenadines against the British,” because Chatoyer was a French-loving, slave-owning, bought and paid for quisling whose aim was to return SVG to its former French slave masters, an effort, if successful, would have prolonged emancipation of our enslaved brethren until 1885.
National hero, my foot!