I have a question and it is this:
What is there to celebrate in Anguilla, 181 Years after Emancipation from Slavery?
Bob Marley says
“Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
‘Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs
Redemption songs.”
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Our National Song says and I say:
“God bless Anguilla
Nurture and keep her
Noble and beauteous
She stands midst the sea”
Anguilla was far from being regarded as a land of beauty and the Anguillian community of our forebears hardly was considered a noble people, on August 1st 1834, when Emancipation from slavery in the British colonies was proclaimed. Indeed, living conditions in Anguilla were very difficult and close to starvation for a significant majority of the newly liberated population and even for some of the few remaining former slave masters. Colville Petty OBE, in his book, Bless Our Forebears, has this to say:
“……during the 1830’s social and economic conditions remained harsh. They were worsened in 1832 when protracted droughts destroyed all food crops. The resultant famine caused much distress especially among the slave population. There was one month when three or four funerals took place each day. One day 12 took place. …… Ensuing drought conditions caused them much distress and during the 1840s the island went through another period of economic depression.”
An appropriate question to raise therefore, is this: What was there for our great great grandparents to celebrate going back 181 years ago from August 1st, 2015? What was there, when at Emancipation they battled great physical hardship and struggled really hard, just to stay alive? Moreover, by the time Emancipation had been proclaimed on August 1st, 1834, a significant number of persons in the population already had been granted their freedom from enslavement by the freewill decision of their owners or had purchased their freedom by way of agreement with their masters.
Most notably, the scourges of drought and famine devastated the budding free society of Anguilla again and again throughout the remainder of the 19th Century. The most devastating of the later episodes of hardship was the famine that began in 1888 and reached a peak in 1890, referred to as the “great famine” by Dr. S. B. Jones in his book, Annals of Anguilla. This famine resulted in significant loss of life as discussed by Petty.
It is generally accepted that chattel slavery in Anguilla was not as harsh as the system in the wetter and more fertile British colonies in the Caribbean, where sugar ruled supreme in the 17th and 18th centuries. But no matter how much the harshness of the system may have been attenuated and reduced in Anguilla, no matter how much Anguillian slave holders, by reason of highly difficult economic circumstance, were forced to exercise greater consideration and sensitivity towards the people they held as property, the deprivation of the freedom of the enslaved persons was a severely dehumanizing act that hurt the enslaved Anguillians greatly, not only physically, but also psychologically.
So yes despite the differences in the circumstances in Anguilla compared to the greater severity of the system in the long profitable and successful sugar plantations in the other British colonies, Emancipation meant much to the enslaved community of Anguilla psychologically, socially, as well as physically. They could look forward to rising up from the dust and dirt, from the poverty and deprivation of slavery and to building meaningful and successful and even prosperous lives aided by access to the tools of education and a solid foundation of Christian ethics and morals.
Your forebears and my forebears were rightfully moved to celebrate their emancipation and to exhale in relief, knowing that they had made a significant step forward towards true freedom and ultimately to changing their lives for the better. In a remarkable evolution of Anguillian patriotism and love for their Anguilla land, our forebears refused to be resettled elsewhere and refused to abandon their little piece of Rock, a mere speck in the world, despite the pain and suffering, hunger and starvation they endured. They would not be budged to go and leave behind their little piece of God’s creation that they owned and loved so very much.
Beneath the depressed conditions, beneath the destitution, there survived faith and hope and the belief that one day sooner or later, this Rock Anguilla would change from an ugly duckling into a beautiful and elegant swan by the efforts and work of the minds and hands of Anguillians, as a free people and by the favour and grace of God. And so in the 1840s and for the rest of the 19th Century and well into the second half of the 20th Century, our ancestors held on to Anguilla, as I have penned in the poem Anguilla Rock, included in the recently published anthology of Anguillian poetry entitled “Where I see the Sun: Contemporary poetry in Anguilla”:
“Our fathers chose to starve
Than give up this rock
For the moist promise of Demerara
And the sweat of sugar.
And when things were rough
We ate the dust
Held on to our boats
Our land
Left God to work His plan.”
Work his plan indeed he did. He answered the prayers and responded to the longing of the hearts of those who came before us, whose genes course through our frames, providing the foundational platform for who we are, who we have become and how we will be transformed as a society and as individual members thereof. The determination to work our plan, he placed on our hearts, inspirng our heroes, heroines and ordinary folk to promote and support and work hard to realize.
And so we should be thankful to God who has brought us from poverty, destitution and starvation to a condition of relative plenty; who has raised us up to be much more than we have been and to be transformed from the forgotten, ugly duckling of the Northeastern Caribbean into a place of beauty and honour, harmony and promise, a place where God is working out his purpose and allowing us the opportunity to be our best selves as individuals and as a community, if only we would be guided by his precepts and commands to us, that we too often overlook and disregard.
God speaks to us through Scripture about slavery and freedom, emancipation and development. He wishes us to be free, free spiritually from the bondage of sin; free politically from the violence and wounds of tyranny, physically and psychologically; from ignorance and fear, disease and destitution. And he wants us to be responsible in the exercise of our freedom. In 1st Peter 2:16 we are admonished to
“Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover up for evil; live as servants of God.
Again in Galations 5: 13 and 14, the Apostle Paul writes
“You my brothers were called to be free. But do not use the freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command ‘Love your neighbour as yourself””.
Consider this picture of the situation in Anguilla on August 1st, 1834. A population of less than 3,000 of which the vast majority are African and persons of colour, with few Europeans. The newly emancipated have been given their freedom, but nothing with which to start on their new life’s journey as free persons, neither cash nor land and means to cultivate it. Instead by the authority of the Emancipation Act a system of apprenticehip is implemented. At the same time, their former masters/owners are assessed compensation for the loss of their value in their former slaves and loss of income. Emancipation did not mean that all legal restrictions on the freedom and liberty of the formerly enslaved persons were removed. Far from it. In fact, the ending of chattel slavery in terms of the removal of physical and legal restrictions on freedom of movement dealt only with one of the major aspects of freedom for those who were dehumanized by the system of plantation slavery.
The emancipation of the transplanted and enslaved Africans should be seen as a process that has been evolving over time and is far from complete today. When significant milestones are reached, they should be celebrated. Emancipation in 1834 is a major milestone and is righty celebrated. In this vein, let us ponder the progress that the Anguillian community has made over the last 181 years since the proclamation of Emancipation. So it is quite fitting for us to note and celebrate what our ancestors achieved.
The development of the ethical, religious and spiritual elements of Anguillian society have been positively and quite significantly impacted by the role and function of the Christian Church in our society starting well before Emancipation.
The Methodist and Anglican Churches became proactive from the early years of the 19th century among our enslaved ancestors, engaging in preaching, teaching and spreading the Word of God, in primary education and related areas meeting needs in the community. The earliest schools were built and operated by these Churches, such as the Valley Boys School in the recently restored building next door to the Church.
The foundation of the moral fiber of our community derives from the tenets and work of the Christian Church especially over the nearly two centuries since Emancipation. Sadly, even as more and more churches are being established today, a significant decline is noticeable in the standards of behaviour in general and mainly among the younger generation. Still, we must be thankful for and appreciative the role and work of the Church in the liberation of its people.
Anguillians, since the early 19th Century had openly expressed a strong desire for greater political self determination and much increased local autonomy in the operations. Petitions in the 19th and 20th Centuries for constitutional separation from St. Kitts-Nevis, finally came to a head in the Anguilla Revolution of 1967.
The leaders and other revolutionary pioneers intoned and sang about their vision “to build a new Anguilla” economically, politically and constitutionally, socially and culturally and in education, in sports, the arts and sciences, technology and engineering, in health care and in moral and ethical standards. From this perspective, there is much progress made over the past 181 years that we can justly celebrate, rejoice about, shout out praises in song and dance, the written and spoken word, in the visual arts, inventions, entrepreneurship and creativity.
1834 a famished people less than 3,000, very limited literacy, subsistence economy, drought stricken, barely surviving, devastated by mild outbreaks of malaria and small pox. Our forebears were a physically impoverished people, without impoverishment of spirit and character. The population in 1901 according to S.B. Jones in Annals of Anguilla was put at 3,290. In the Foreword to the book he notes that during the period August 1918 – May 1923 there were
“four consecutive years of drought; great scarcity of food …….; a hurricane; and most trying of all, a quarantine period of several months due to the presence in their midst of over four hundred contacts and nineteen cases of mild small pox, imported from the Dominican Republic.”
According to Kushnirs.org Anguilla’s Gross National Income or GNI was US$3.6 million and per capita GNI was $558.2 based on a population of 6449 in 1970, ranked at 81st in the world and which was below the average Gross National Product for the world economy. In contrast in 2013, after the economy had declined in the five years by an percentage total of some 27%, the GNI was $280,000,000 with a per capita GNI of US$19,732 based on a population estimated at 14,190, ranked at 52nd in the world. Yes 52nd in the world.
We have come a long way over the years, especially since the 1967 Anguilla revolution. A statistic I am particularly proud of is Anguilla’s life expectancy ranking. Consistently for the past over 5 years our little country has ranked in the top 20 countries with the highest life expectancies. For 2015 based on United Nations Development Programme figures, Anguilla ranks at No. 20 with a life expectancy of 81.31 years. We are the only population with majority African people and people of colour in the population that has made to and remained in the group of top 20 countries with life expectancy over 80 years. Interestingly Bermuda’s and the Cayman Islands’ ranking for 2015 are No. 22 with 81.15 years and No. 23 with 81.13 years respectively.
I could refer to much more that has been achieved. In education almost 100 school enrolment, 90% literacy, around 95% of households with electricity and 93% with cooking gas. The poverty rate in 2009 was 5.8% of the population, but is expected to have increased significantly by at least double, since 2009 due to further declines in the economy up to 2013. This is taken from the 2009 Country Poverty Assessment of Anguilla.
And while a minority of our young people persist down a destructive path of gang violence and crime, the vast majority are grasping opportunities to realize their potential in many fields. The most visible of which in recent years has been in professional sports notably, cricket, athletics and tennis, but also in soccer, in which our athletes have excelled on the regional and international stages.
Just imagine in 2012 our very own Shara Proctor broke the British long jump record that stood for 26 years. And guess what she broke her own record a few days ago seting a new British mark. And wait, young Zharnel Hughes has broken through on the international stage becoming the British champ at 200 metres and running the third fastest 200 metre race this season in 20.05 seconds in a meet at the Olympic Stadium, London England a few days ago. Just imagine that two of our very own Shara and Zharnel will be representing Britain in the Olympics in Brazil next year. We have to be proud. We are getting some things right, despite all the challenges.
We have much to be thankful for, to sing and shout about, to be happy and joyful, our forefathers’ dream and their vision for Anguilla is indeed coming alive in the hands of their children and grandchildren. Let us celebrate indeed. We are making freedom and extending the boundaries of emancipation, proving that being a micro state is not a limitation on what we can achieve as a people and we must never consider it to be an insurmountable hindrance to what we can accomplish.
“Oh land of the happy
A haven we’ll make thee
Our lives and love
We give unto thee
Chorus: With heart and soul
We’ll build our nation
Proud, strong and free
We’ll love her hold her
Dear to our hearts for eternity
Let truth and right
our banner be
We’ll march ever on
Let truth and right
our banner be
We’ll march ever on.”
Dr. S.B. Jones at the end of his Foreword to his Annals of Anguilla had this to say:
“Admiration for the sterling qualities displayed by all classes of the inhabitants – qualities of honesty, courage and determination in the face of overwhelming odds……. Obedience to lawful authority and willingness to follow wise leadership – has prompted this small tribute to a gallant and grateful people.”
One hundred and two years after Emancipation his tribute to our forebears, our great grandparents, grandparents and our parents.
We must not lose this, despite all the dangers and pitfalls. We must live up to their good name and carry on their legacy and be proud and grateful to do so and in the end to pass the baton on to our children to take the race a little further along the path to full emancipation, freedom and democracy, self determination and prosperity in peace and harmony.
I say to you finally in the words of the Black National Anthem by the African American, James Weldon Johnson:
“Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.”
May God continue to guide us on our emancipation journey as a community.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
