Given
the current media attention to the war against so-called
terrorism, African people should not forget significant
events in our history. One of the events is the United
States' invasion of the island of Grenada. The Caribbean
island has virtually been banned from international news
coverage.
It
was twenty years ago that Grenada was a major international
news item, a result of the United States' invasion of this
African island of 110,000 people on October 25, 1983. The
headlines of the October 26, 1983 issue of the New York
Times was the following: “1,900 U.S. Troops, With Caribbean
Allies, Invade Grenada And Fight Leftist Units; Moscow
Protest; British Are Critical.”
Just
as we observe the United States' destabilization tactics
in the Middle East today, these were the same tactics used
in Grenada twenty years ago.
These
tactics go something like this: Since the African people
cannot govern and rule themselves, we must come to their
aid in a humanitarian manner. We must provide them with
food and other necessities of life. We must identify or
create allies among the African people and create an atmosphere
of support for the efforts of the United States to bring
peace, harmony, and stability to the African people. Does
this sound familiar? Obviously, the majority of the people
in the Middle East oppose these tactics and are rebelling
against them, just as the people of Grenada resisted the
United States' invasion twenty years ago.
I began
writing my weekly column twenty years ago because of what
we, in the National Black United Front (NBUF), observed
as the continuing white supremacy policies of the United
States toward Grenada, the New Jewel Movement and its leader
Maurice Bishop.
This
is what I wrote in my first column that appeared in the Chicago
Defender on October 24, 1983:
“The
Black Liberation Movement worldwide is deeply saddened
by the death of Grenada’s Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop.
Mr. Bishop, along with other Grenadian Officials, including
Education Minister, Jacqueline Creft, Housing Minister,
Norris Bain, Unision Whiteman, a former foreign minister,
Secretary of Home Affairs, Vincent Noel and union leader
Fitzroy Bain were killed by the new army forces on October
19 in a demonstration to free hundreds of Grenadians who
were arrested because of their support for Mr. Bishop.
These supporters had been placed in detention in Fort Rupert
Army Headquarters, named after Rupert Bishop, Maurice’s
father.”
As
I continued to write in this first column:
“This
Caribbean identity simply means the interconnectedness
of the African experience that resulted in millions of
African people being captured and brought to this region
of the world during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade of
the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries.
This
area of the world is predominately African and the people
in it have been struggling against white domination in
an effort to achieve independence and sovereignty. Grenada,
under the leadership of Maurice Bishop, was a shining example
of an African government and nation seeking independence
and sovereignty.”
There
are many lessons that the invasion of Grenada taught us.
Lessons that continue to plague the worldwide African Liberation
Movement, and steeped in the efforts of the white supremacy
forces, always to find some African person or persons to
keep us divided and fighting each other, rather than focusing
on and fighting the real enemy.
In
the case of Grenada, an African man with whom Maurice Bishop
had practiced law and who became the Deputy Prime Minister,
was the chief architect of Maurice Bishop’s and the New
Jewel Movement’s overthrow that provided the open door
for the United States’ invasion of the island.
As
I wrote twenty years ago, and as so many had stated before
me:
“The
real question for the Black Liberation Movement worldwide
is when will we stop killing each other over political
disputes? This was clearly a political dispute between
different forces within the New Jewel Movement. All factions
had pledged a commitment to bring about change for the
people of the island, and Bishop was beginning to bring
about that change as the popular outpouring of support
for him during the fighting intensified. Did someone want
that change to stop?”
In
the same context I wrote:
“One
thing is certain, African Movement forces must find political
solutions to political disputes. Killing each other is
not the answer to changing systems that are exploitive
of our people.”
We
must always remember Grenada and the words that Maurice
Bishop spoke at Hunter College in New York on June 5, 1983.
Maurice said, “Our people, therefore, have a greater and
deeper understanding of what the revolution means and what
it has brought them.”
The
people of Grenada and the New Jewel Movement will return,
as all African people will once again find our place in
the sun. Even though it appears to be bleak, we must continue
to struggle and move forward.
BlackCommentator.com columnist
Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman of the
National Black United Front (NBUF). Click
here to contact Dr. Worrill.