By Earl Bousquet
February 22, 1979 opened a new road for the island and its people to break from the mental slavery of the imperial shackles that still remained intact through centuries of economic dependence on the UK and France, among the European nations that built empires off the so-called ‘Great Triangle’ and ‘Middle Passage’ of trans-Atlantic Chattel Slavery and subjection of successive generations of Caribbean people to colonial education and upbringing.
In the 46 years of Independence to be celebrated in Saint Lucia in February, the island has made its mark in a few areas on the world stage -from two of its sons winning Nobel Prizes in 1979 and 1992, to one of its daughters winning two Olympic (Gold and Silver) Medals in 2024.
But, if Independence was (and still is) meant to have set the Caribbean’s former colonies on a determined quest to lessen (and eventually overcome, or better manage) its dependence on the world for what it needs but can’t produce, then governments have done a bad job in the first 45 years.
Saint Lucians wrap themselves in their national colors, but still -every year and irrespective of which administration- there are national flags sporting different shades of blue flying on flagpoles and buildings, sold by roadsides and adorning vehicle bonnets.
Four-and-a-half decades after the date Saint Lucia became Independent, citizens continue to disregard, disrespect and dishonor the fact Dunstan St. Omer, the artist who drew and colored the national flag, actually invented a color (Cerulean Blue) that makes Saint Lucia the only country in the world with the honorable distinction of a flag with a color had by no other.
Ditto how we treat Sir W. Arthur Lewis, who shared the 1979 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences with (his then fellow US-based counterpart) Theodore Schultz ‘for their pioneering research into economic development, with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries’.
Forty-six years later, while the island’s top tertiary institution is gratefully named after Sir Arthur and the Nobel Laureates Festivals Commission annually celebrates the excellence of the nation’s two top hats on their joint birthday anniversary, Sir Arthur’s works aren’t yet an integral part of the national school curriculum.
Likewise, there’s no determined national effort to have his many written works available and distributed, read and publicly discussed, or to encourage Saint Lucian writers and poets to emulate 1992 Nobel Prize-winner for Literature, Derek Walcott.
Shortly after Walcott brought home the second Nobel prize, Rat Island was identified as a future retreat for young artists and poets to be groomed by the Rat Island Foundation -but, 33 years later, it’s still just an idea.
Saint Lucians annually celebrate Nobel Laureates Festival Month, but too-many still don’t see the nobility in keeping their Nobel legacies alive, until Julien Alfred arrived to remind fellow nationals and Caribbean people they can excel anywhere and everywhere…
Same with our eternal dependence on food from outside, the Caribbean’s food import bill piercing roofs and skies every year, until CARICOM governments decided to take action to reduce Food Insecurity by setting actual reduction limits, including lowering the Food Import Bill by 25% in 2025.
This is a continuing necessary exercise, in a context where the CARICOM nations import 60% of the food citizens eat, some importing more than 80%.
Caribbean nations continue to boast of the multiple possibilities of food and fruits grown across the region and celebrate their national dishes once-a-year, but also compete year-round to see which grows the best products, from Bananas to Cannabis to Dasheene.
Still depending on supermarket chains to buy brand-name products that are by-products of what Caribbean farmers produce, citizens willingly contributing to increasing the national food import bill and reducing regional food security.
Indeed, over the three-year period 2018-2020, CARICOM’s food import bill was US$13.76 billion (or approximately 5% of GDP), but Health and Agriculture Ministries haven’t been able to convince citizens to trust local produce enough, to help with import reduction and substitution.
Same with Tourism, another industry the entire region has depended on since independence, nations competing for visitors from the same sources, with little evidence of interest in getting Caribbean people to also discover their region.
Thus, local vendors and tourism service providers across the region tend to treat Caribbean visitors with less courtesy than Europeans and Americans, some even refusing to accept Caribbean currencies for their local products.
But not all has been lost.The past six decades have also seen an increase in the regional political directorate’s better understanding of why Caribbean nations still have much to do, to actually reduce dependence in everything from perceptions and practice of politics and economics, to treatment of education, culture and sports.
The region also has to permanently and continuously upgrade youth skills, build youth economies and expand necessary IT resources to quicken its adaptability pace, to avoid being left-back in ever-evolving global modernity race.
CARICOM nations and nationals have ridden the trodden curve of practical experiences that continue to expose the region’s dependence on the external world, as distinctive elements of one part of One Humanity inhabiting A Shared Planet.
As developing nations and small island states, the Caribbean Community continues learning the lessons of inequality of representation by the traditional international financial institutions and in the halls of international diplomacy and justice, in the process eventually joining other developing nations of the Global South to unite around common challenges and opportunities to reduce dependence and truly build independence.
But all this is still just the very beginning…
