Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/2485/-1/133/
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HEARTICALLY YOURS - The Coup by Ijahnya Christian
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On 10th June 1967, something nearly happened, and had it gone as planned, this event would have changed the outcome of the Anguilla Revolution in ways that would have gone on record as having been bloody and dramatic.
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Ijahnya Christian
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The drama was there all right and the first attempted coup d’état in the English speaking Caribbean was but another paradox of the Anguilla Revolution. This became evident on Monday night, when Dr. Oluwakemi Linda Banks dissected the Revolution in her examination of its impact on the Anguillian psyche as she delivered the Walter G. Hodge Memorial Lecture at the House of Chandeliers. We don’t like to talk about this part of the Revolution I realize, but since that was the part of the Revolution, that I experienced, that morning of gunfire, in St. Kitts, is indelibly etched in my mind. It was this taking up of arms with the intention to bring down Bradshaw that would have made the Anguilla Revolution more comparable with other successful Caribbean revolutions. However, had the Anguillian guerilla forces not been delayed when they got slightly lost, had their partners the Kittitian Allies stuck to the plan, had the rumoured kidnappings or worse taken place, we would not have been today able to boast of the bloodlessness of the Anguilla Revolution. Anguillians of the day could not know then that Operation Sheepskin would have been mounted in Anguilla almost two years later but I know that the response to anything similar in today’s “security”-conscious world, would be swift and harsh and in the aftermath, there would be much talk of stamping out terrorism. Yet the taking up of arms when conducted in the context of a Revolution is not unacceptable and may even be deemed patriotic especially over the passage of time.
Arms are being taken up again in Anguilla and what we need to think about is whether we are not in fact in the middle of another revolution where those bearing the arms may have some justification for doing so. Do the rebels of this revolution really have a cause? The answer is that we do not know because we have not got that far in our sociological soul-searching and certainly would be reluctant to accept responsibility for the degree of violence that continues to blot the perfection of life in what is still paradise. However, paradise can be lost and especially so because our island is so dependent on tourism. We must therefore consider the deliberate education, training and employment of psychologists and sociologists in the area of social development. This is not a luxury but rather a necessity. The attempted coup was one thing but even before June 10, there was gun play in Anguilla, people and their homes were shot at, we burnt a couple of buildings and in the instance of Landsome House, we must give thanks for the divine intervention that spared the life of Warden Byron. Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating violence at all but I am suggesting that we need to be more deliberate in determining the causes of violence in Anguillian society today and that the present day context, more so than the Anguilla Revolution, be examined as a launching pad for inviting Anguillians into a process of collectively determining our national goals and our vision for Anguilla. This is where a word from authorities on the current status of the Constitutional Review and Electoral Reform Committee and process would be helpful.
I was very pleased to note that Sir Kennedy Alphonse Simmonds was one of the recipients of the recent Anguilla Day awards. This is appropriate and to my mind overdue for he was a player in the Anguilla Revolution but he is still alive and I hope will tell us the story of his involvement when he writes his memoirs. However, two other revolutionary personalities come to mind as I think about the Anguilla Revolution. The first is the anti-hero of the Revolution, Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, who died of natural causes in 1978 and the second is one of the most brilliant Africans produced by the Caribbean Region, the Guyanese son Walter Rodney who died in 1980 when a bomb on his lap exploded. Last month this is how Sir Robert L. Bradshaw was remembered by the St. Kitts and Nevis High Commissioner to Jamaica and Ambassador to Cuba, Mr. Cedric Harper, as he delivered the feature address at a Requiem Mass to recognize the contributions of the fallen Labour stalwarts of the Federation:
“Bradshaw used the union (St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union) to press for wages and better working conditions and the political arm – the Workers League – to press for changes in the then Planter-dominated legislature,” said Harper, who saidobserved that a great opportunity came when, as a result of political pressure, adult suffrage was enacted in 1952 which enfranchised the masses and soon allowed them to break the domination of the white or planter-class legislature. He revealed that he and Mr. Bradshaw did not see eye to eye on Anguilla or Nevis. “As regards Nevis, I think it was a matter of strategy, but Mr. Bradshaw was a great man. Even the Nevisians who say he has not done much for them or the Anguillians, would admit he did great things for St. Kitts. I dare simply say that we are glad, and he did much for Nevis and Anguilla too…”
This week, an article from the Pan-African Research and Documentation Center invited us to listen to a radio documentary on Walter Rodney on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City on Monday 13th June from 7.00 –10.00 p.m. You log on at http://www.wbai.org The site also provides a biography of Dr. Rodney and below I share an excerpt.
“He travelled widely and became very well known around the world as an activist and scholar. He taught for a time in Tanzania after graduating, and later in Jamaica at his alma mater at UWI Mona. Rodney was sharply critical of the middle class for its role in the post independence Caribbean. When the Jamaican government, led by Hugh Shearer, banned him from ever returning to the country in October 1968, because of his advocacy of the working poor in that country, riots broke out, eventually claiming the lives of several people and causing millions of dollars in damages. These riots, on October 16, 1968 are now known as the Rodney Riots. They triggered an increase in political awareness across the Caribbean.”
We are yet to engage in a class and gender analysis of the Anguilla Revolution but what Dr. Banks’ lecture has helped us to do, is to connect the dots that have brought us from the “that” of pre-Revolution Anguilla thru the action of the Anguilla Revolution, to the “this” of modern Anguilla today. What we are finding out is that we are still the same Anguillians and we will use our characteristic and collective confidence, to determine just what we want this island to be – and that we can do without violence.