Created: 04 January 2023 08:00
Sir Frank Worrell, at Arundel in West Sussex, England, in April 1963. He became the first black full-time captain of the West Indies in 1960-61 and immediately proved himself in the job, which had been the domain of men white since 1928 (Photo by Bob Thomas/Getty Images)
There is a school of thought based largely on a Darwinian premise of random selection. Therefore, there is its accompanying cofactor – “what if?”
What if this had happened contrary to that, etc.? Even though “if” is an unreality, we still fascinate ourselves with this question.
One such thing that comes to mind is, what if Sir Frank Worrell had survived and not died at such a young age of 42. the distinction of White privilege that until 1960-61 saw only white captains, even if it was a predominantly black team.
Sir Frank went beyond that of a captain: he brought the team together by thinking truly regionally under his captaincy. It was no longer good enough for a cricketer to excel personally or for his particular island. Under Sir Frank Worrell, who may have been influenced by the great writer CLR James, they discovered cohesion and played the game hard as a team for the whole region.
Sir Frank went beyond cricket. Former Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamente appointed this Barbadian-born man as a senator in Jamaica. It is also known that Sir Frank attended university and studied economics. With CLR James, former Trinidadian nation editor who became a cricket writer for Manchester Guardian in England and it was important for Sir Frank to become the first full-time black captain in the West Indies, one can only assume that James, as a newspaper columnist, would have had the same effect on his political operator had he developed .
Of course, I can imagine that, like Nelson Mandela, Sir Frank Worrell, a very famous cricketer and captain, might have been just the kind of leader who could have brought the Caribbean islands as a regional body closer to the attitude and his thoughts on regionalism.
We all realized what happened to the failed federation, to the dismay of students and intellectuals, when Jamaica seceded, followed by Sir Eric Williams’ famous statement that “one in ten leaves nothing” because federation had continued , Trinidad, in the absence of Jamaica, would have borne the lion’s share of the budget expenditure in maintaining the federation.
Of course, against the background of that failed federation, it could be extremely difficult to inspire the thought of greater regional unity. However, again after the successful emergence as a regional cricketing power, it would not be difficult to imagine a political ideology riding on the back of that success with the subsequent leadership of Sir Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards.
With the passing of the years and the absence of any leading mega-government figures, Trinidad’s Sir Eric Williams remains the last of the intellectual greats. Not to suggest that there were no great intellectuals, but that none became leaders of government.
There remains a need for a great archetypal leader who can bring the Caribbean political region to a globally respected level. There is no end to the study of the region, and no one can criticize the saga of slavery and colonialism with more eloquent arguments than them. But, to date, when comparing the level of participatory democracy exhibited in the region, apart from Costa Rica, it is regrettably Third World and has no example of modern democracy. In addition, there is no continuing intellectual legacy from the University of the West Indies; rather a silence as it caters to the region’s politics rather than challenging them. This is certainly relevant when we consider the fate in Guyana of Walter Rodney, a sharp intellectual and political activist who defied reason and was killed at the tender age of 38.
When we compare what rights citizens of colonizers enjoy today, which includes multicultural and diverse populations, these citizens enjoy far more political participation, rights, privileges, and protections than those from jurisdictions that were once colonized and now claim to be. free. It should be the opposite, especially after deprivation, with the newly emancipated people leading the world to a higher understanding of government and free society. One would think that the outrage after several hundred years of subjugation would lead society to build a body politic with greater inclusion, more dignity and greater rights. But, it seems, all that emancipatory glory was shamelessly traded for the right to rule and express power by any means necessary.
We still need to consider the continuing effect of colonialism, especially in the area of education and the resulting classism. Elite schools led to elitism and class orientations that resembled medieval Europe, where the elite ruled and exploited the masses instead of liberating them as equals.
We cannot fail to realize that many of our intellectuals as transitory agents and leaders of the fifties and sixties followed the Marxist ideal of labor by ultimately taking over the market and the means of production. Instead of an enlightened approach where education becomes an instrument for self-mastery and an expanded free market, we end up in purgatory where disease, due to the lack of an inclusive market or education about what basic human freedoms look like, has resulted in traditional politics. complacency with leaders preoccupied with securing eternal power under political hierarchies that are almost impenetrable.
Bermuda as an island jurisdiction is remote enough with its extreme northern position to set its own example and effectively become a model for many small island jurisdictions in the Caribbean and further afield – but only if it wants to. Because left alone we will follow the example of going nowhere.
Fortunately for jurisdictions such as Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana, they have oil and natural gas, which on their own will ultimately stimulate the economy and thus increase higher education opportunities for the entire population leading to in a more enlightened citizenry.
Politics inevitably follows. If only this were true for everyone.
