Commentary
Debbie Jacob
Debbie Jacob
PRIME MINISTER Rowley’s proposal to remove the three ships representing explorer Christopher Columbus from the national coat of arms and replace them with pans fascinates me, as does all the fuss about statues that countries periodically decide to destroy.
We understand that creations like coats of arms and statues are important and symbolic, and we have learned that their symbolism can change over time. Symbolism is always a matter of cultural and historical perspective.
Any symbolic image attached to Columbus can go. It represents the roots of genocide, colonialism, slavery and indentured servitude. It’s hard to find a redeeming quality for the man who sold Queen Isabella on the idea of his travels based on maps he stole from his cartographer brother. In his day, Columbus was the equivalent of a fraud, a stock market trader in this modern technological world.
He also deluded himself into thinking he had discovered Cipango (Japan) and tried to sell that idea to Isabella as well.
We may tear down his statue, but we cannot forget his infamous legacy. We need to think carefully about images to counter Columbus – images that symbolize generations of immigrants away from the ugly side of history: images that capture the essence of being Trinidadian and Tobagonian. How do we honor or at least recognize the arrival of postcolonial immigrants and separate it from the horrors of history?
The government has planned a public discussion about our statues – particularly the statue of Columbus – so this seems like the perfect time, once again, to defend a statue of Kwame Ture (Trinidad-born Stokely Carmichael). He made an immeasurable contribution to the American civil rights movement, first as president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee – SNCC (pronounced snick).
Carmichael’s work registering black voters in the Deep South and his civil rights work are important. The US recognizes its importance along with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
The late Prime Minister Eric Williams banned Carmichael from visiting Trinidad. His political ideology, which Williams feared, called for equality and equal rights for all – regardless of race.
If we are deleting the symbolic references to Columbus in the coat of arms and replacing them with pan, then we should replace the statue of Columbus with a statue of Tours. Pan and Ture both represent resistance and independence – opposites of colonialism.
We have no symbolic public recognition of Toure—the only political activist in that famous civil rights trio who was not killed. His post-civil rights life in Ghana and his work in the Pan-African movement symbolized reinvention. Like pan, Carmichael evolved from being a symbol of resistance to a globally recognized symbol of inclusiveness renamed Toure.
There is no plaque or street sign marking the site of Ture’s childhood home. I believe it was demolished to build government housing in Charlotte Street. We have no space that symbolizes his humble beginnings on this island. We can only imagine. After all he accomplished, our silence and lack of tangible recognition feels like shame and invincible fear of individuality.
Symbolically, we have managed to bury the political, social and cultural legacy of a Trinidadian who changed the course of US, Canadian and West Indian culture and history. This is a travesty of justice. We seem foolish, uninformed – even small – in not recognizing Toure’s achievements and transformation.
It is good to re-evaluate the symbols that defined certain historical periods and admit the mistakes we made because we lacked the historical information, social awareness and cultural sensitivity to make the right decision when we designed the coat of arms.
But we must also have the courage to replace those images with people or objects that make bold new statements about where we are at this moment in our history. We must consider how the substitutes we choose correct historical atrocities and empower us.
Pan is a perfect substitute symbol. It is bold, creative, culturally identifiable and broad in its symbolic appeal. The statement pan makes in a coat of arms is this: you thought you conquered us, but you never mastered our collective imagination, presence and determination. We found a way to be inventive. The same goes for Toure.
Yes, Columbus must go. He doesn’t capture our essence or strength like Pan and Ture do. We must be open-minded and brave enough to realize that the key to denying our colonial legacy is to honor our legacy of resistance. This brings two images to mind: pan and tour.
