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 GRENADA'S STORY

As Seen by Alister Hughes,

A Prince of Modern Journalism





 

Alister Hughes, Journalist

January 21, 1919 to February 28, 2005



 


BOOK: EYE WITNESS TO HISTORY

Alister Hughes, (1919 – 2005) was born in St. Georges, Grenada and lived there
for the rest of his life. Following a successful career in business and local
politics, he turned to writing and, from 1969 onwards he became one of the best
known of Caribbean journalists, his columns and broadcasts reaching all over the
region, as well as to North America and to London. He was the founder, editor
and publisher of The Grenada Newsletter and was admired for his integrity and
courage in pursuit of the truth in dangerous times. For this, he was beaten up
by the political thugs of one regime in the seventies and persecuted and
imprisoned by the army of another in the eighties. In 1990 he received an
honorary doctorate for his work from the University of the West Indies.

Hughes’ very personal account and analysis of these events makes compulsive
reading. His own vision for Grenada was of a prosperous, happy country; whose
multi-racial population was united by a common ‘Caribbean’ identity. His
unfulfilled ideal was to see the whole Caribbean world connected in some form of
beneficial federation. 

To download a copy, please click on the image below. 







In addition to this online and downloadable version of Alister’s memoir, there
will also be a softcover printed version of the memoir with the ISBN code
of 978-0-9855714-1-2. Watch this space and other online social media in the
WestIndies [sic] for price and ordering information.  




This web site was published and promoted by Margaret and Alister Hughes for the
people of Grenada, in the hope that the stories recounted here will help to
restore the heritage of Grenada to all.

This is a site for all Grenadians and well-wishers. We invite the active support
and assistance from all Grenadians and wellwishers in order to preserve, defend
and promote the heritage of the country.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


INDEX

 * Caribbean Man with an introductory note by Margaret Hughes

 * Alister Hughes: Juris Doctor, University of the West Indies, 1990

 * The Natural Features:
   
   * The Three Islands:
     
     * Grenada
     
     * Carriacou
     
     * Petit Martinique
   
   * Rain Forests
   
   * Lakes
   
   * Springs and Spas
   
   * Beaches and Coasts
     
     * Grand Anse Beach
     
     * La Sagesse
   
   * Kick 'Em Jenny

 * The Island's Products:
   
   * Spices of the Spice Island
     
     * The Nutmeg Story by John R. Groome
     
     * There's More than That to Nutmeg

 * Public Places
   
   * The Wallace Fountain
   
   * Walking Tour of Grenada
   
   * Gardens of Grenada
     
     * The Botanic Garden
     
     * Private Garden Tours
   
   * Our Forts
   
   * The Museum

 * History and Culture
   
   * French Creole in Grenada
   
   * The Kalinago of Grenada
   
   * Our Grenadian Ancestors
   
   * The Saga of the Horseless Carriage
   
   * The Sinking of the Bianca C
   
   * St. Patrick

 * Festivals
   
   * The Christmas Season
   
   * All Souls Night
   
   * Blessing the Fleet in Gouyave on St. Peter's Day 2003
   
   * Carriacou
   
   * Funerals---The Stone Festival and the Big Drum Dance

 * Recreation in Grenada
   
   * Public Beaches
     
     * Grand Anse Beach
     
     * La Sagesse

 * Monthly Events

 * Statistics

 * History and Cultural Resources
   
   
   * * THE GRENADA NEWSLETTER
       
       
       * THE SCOTT STREET HOME OF THE NEWSLETTER
     
     * The Grenada Handbook



This website is a work in progress, and we ask your help in making it more and
more useful in restoring heritage resources available to the people of Grenada.
Give us feedback on what you find here---AND on what you WANT to find by sending
Margaret Hughes an e-mail (click HERE).







>  CARIBBEAN MAN
> 
> 
> 
> by Alister Hughes, Journalist and Poet, 1919 - 2005

> > > "His poem Caribbean Man tells all this. Written in 1990, it speaks of his
> > > passion for country, place and homeland. His poem "Flotsam" says "Once
> > > jewels in a monarch's crown, now flotsam in a carib sea" etc etc. His
> > > life-long search for Caribbean unity was never forsaken. His light spirit
> > > and optimistic personality covered a relentless and purposful Will."
> > > ... from a note announcing Alister's death on 28 February 2005
> 
> We're now independent, yes, massa day done,
> 
> We're free. It's a new day which now has begun.
> 
> So please, let's get working as hard as we can
> 
> To foster the growth of Caribbean Man.
> 
> Let's take a look backward, remember with pride
> 
> Those brave ones who stood up and battled the tide,
> 
> Who braced up and faced it when all others ran,
> 
> Who fought for the birth of Caribbean Man.
> 
> Paul Bogle, as brave as you ever will find,
> 
> And Gordon, like true steel in fire refined,
> 
> They died in Jamaica pursuing a plan
> 
> To fight for the rights of Caribbean Man.
> 
> And Critchlow, for gains to the workers he fought,
> 
> And when he was fired that counted for naught,
> 
> Guyana his country, farsighted his scan,
> 
> He called for the vote for Caribbean Man.
> 
> More noble nude freeman than full gilded slave
> 
> He lived by that precept, and Donovan gave
> 
> Example that we too with dignity can
> 
> Though trampled, be proud of Caribbean Man.
> 
> In Donovan's tracks then came Ted Marryshow
> 
> His dream was that we had just one way to go
> 
> One country, Westindies, division he'd ban
> 
> One nation, one people, Caribbean Man
> 
> These are but few of the great ones of yore
> 
> Who faced the rough storm in the time gone before
> 
> When it was easy to drift with all in the van
> 
> With never a thought of Caribbean Man
> 
> When all were so willing to swim with the tide
> 
> Be accepted, and join in the social ride
> 
> Kowtow to the massa, and pray that he can
> 
> Forget that you are a Caribbean Man
> 
> Be called in to dinner or Government tea
> 
> Get an honour, a knighthood or CBE
> 
> Think Limies superior and much better
> 
> Black, brown or whatever, Caribbean Man
> 
> Not so these great ones, much more noble their game
> 
> Unselfish, farsighted the stars were their aim
> 
> Society's glitter was not in their plan
> 
> They knew the true worth of Caribbean Man
> 
> They knew that the Masters did'nt dare educate
> 
> The objects they ruled in colonial state
> 
> The learning they gave us was 'Dan in the van'
> 
> The basics, no more for Caribbean Man.
> 
> And history for us never touched on our shores
> 
> But focussed on Europe, kings, treaties and wars
> 
> What mattered, developed, continued, began
> 
> In no way included Caribbean Man.
> 
> They taught us of Raleigh and Hawkings and Drake
> 
> Their exploits and how brave a fight they did make
> 
> We saw this with pride, as true British eyes can
> 
> But not with the eyes of Caribbean Man
> 
> We knew naught of Fedon, Toussaint or Quacko
> 
> Nor Christophe, Quamina or loose-mouthed Cudjoe
> 
> We knew not of Cuffie away down in Guyan
> 
> And what he had done for Caribbean Man
> 
> But now we are free, and it's slavery no more
> 
> Our fate is our own. We've the key to the door
> 
> That leads to our future, let's find if we can
> 
> What stuff that he's made of, Caribbean Man
> 
> When we were colonials in long days gone by,
> 
> To make like massa was what we did try,
> 
> To be like the British, our aim and our plan
> 
> A synthetic Limey, Caribbean Man.
> 
> That's over but, sadly, we've not yet begun
> 
> To see our own place, recognize our own sun,
> 
> In place of the Limey, we're now African,
> 
> Not yet do we know we're Caribbean Man.
> 
> How dare we forget and consign to the breeze
> 
> Our brother the Indian, our sister Chinese
> 
> And others who cover the whole ethic span
> 
> For they too, my friend, are Caribbean Man.
> 
> We're all of this region, no matter the skin,
> 
> Black, white, pink or yellow, we'd better begin
> 
> To know we're a nation and one common plan
> 
> Is what must develop Caribbean Man.
> 
> Let's turn eyes inwards and scales from them shed,
> 
> See us as a people, and not that we're wed
> 
> And fixed to some Mother, whom never can
> 
> We grow and develop Caribbean Man
> 
> Not England nor China nor India nor Spain
> 
> Not Africa, Scotland nor France nor Bahrain
> 
> Can now be our Mother, that can't be our plan.
> 
> We're nobody's child, we're Caribbean Man
> 
> We have our own customs, traditions, folk lore,
> 
> Like Carnival, John Canoe, Big Drum and more
> 
> Anansi and Tigue, Lajabless and steel pan
> 
> A heritage rich of Caribbean Man
> 
> And pepper-pot, oil-down, ackra and bush tea
> 
> With foo-foo and jug-jug, bul-jhol and bodi
> 
> And ginger beer, sorrel, all foods that we can
> 
> Be proud are produced by Caribbean Man
> 
> Walcott, Louise Bennet, Rhone, Peters and Hill,
> 
> McBernie, Keens-Douglas and many more still,
> 
> In drama and poetry, dance, none better than
> 
> These greats, they're the soul of Caribbean Man
> 
> Our foods and our culture are not second place
> 
> The're unique and reflect our multiple race
> 
> We're a nation, a wonderful blended clan
> 
> We're special, we're vibrant Caribbean Man
> 
> And why, in this climate, continue to try
> 
> To ape the ex-masters with jacket and tie.
> 
> That garb is for cold clime, can't we find a plan
> 
> Of suitable dress for Caribbean Man ?
> 
> That may seem a small thing but symbols must be
> 
> The pointers which prove to our children that we
> 
> Are not orphan people who catch as they can
> 
> At standards to govern Caribbean Man
> 
> We must know and teach, we're a people by right,
> 
> We're not bastard offspring in desperate plight,
> 
> Pretending we're British or African clan
> 
> Ignoring the fact we're Caribbean Man
> 
> Let's shake off inertia, let's find a new birth,
> 
> Let's lift our heads high, recognize our own worth,
> 
> Our future awaits with unlimited span
> 
> Awake and move forward, Caribbean Man. !!!
> 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> And this is Alister's "Explanatory Note" --- the page numbers refer to
> Alister's original typescript of the poem.
> 
> CARIBBEAN MAN
> 
> Explanation Sheet
> 
> Cover Logo and word "CARICOM" refer to the Caribbean Community and Common
> Market, the grouping of Britain's ex-West Indian colonies.
> 
> Page 1, verse 3 Paul Bogle a former slave in Jamaica, led an armed protest
> uprising (riot) in 1865 against injustices to ex-slaves in that country. He
> was tried and hanged. George William Gordon, also born a slave, a mulatto,
> educated himself and became a wealthy influential landowner. He was a member
> of the Jamaica House of Assembly and used his position to try to get better
> conditions for the ex-slaves. He took no part in the riot but, because he was
> known to be a friend of Bogle, he was tried, with no opportunity to defend
> himself, and was hanged.
> 
> Page 1, verse 4 Hubert Critchlow formed the British Guiana Labour Union in
> 1919, the first registered trade union in the dependent British Empire. This
> came in the midst of serious labour unrest in British Guiana and, championing
> the workers cause, Critchlow was dismissed from his job.
> 
> Page 1, verse 5 William Galway Donovan, Grenadian, newspaper-editor, patriot,
> lived late in the last century, and is well known for his principle that "A
> naked freeman is better than a guilded slave". He had the vision of a united
> Westindies. He went to jail rather then withdraw his public criticism of what
> he considered to be an unjust decision of a corrupt Judge.
> 
> Page 2 verse 1 Theophilous Albert Marryshow (1887-1958) was a protégé of
> Donovan and inherited the drive for a united Westindies. He is known as the
> "Father" of the West Indies Federation which, born in 1958, died in 1961.
> 
> Page 2, verse 4 C.B.E., (Commander Of the British Empire), an honour conferred
> by the Queen of England.
> 
> Page 3 verse 1 Natives of Britain's colonies had no vote in Britain and were,
> therefore, more "objects" belonging to the Queen than her "subjects". A
> calypsonian, ridiculing a totally unsuitable and inadequate booklet specially
> produced for the education of children in the colonies, used, in his song, a
> line from that booklet, "Dan Is The Man In The Van".
> 
> Page 3 verse 4 Julien Fédon led an unsuccessful revolution in Grenada in 1795.
> Toussaint Louverture and Henri Christophe were leaders of the Haitian
> revolution in 1791. Quamina was the leader of a slave up-rising in British
> Guiana in 1823. Cuffie was the leader of a slave up-rising in British Guiana
> in 1763. Cudjoe was one of the leaders of a slave conspiracy in the Virgin
> Islands in 1759. However, he violated security and the slave owners were able
> to avert an up-rising.
> 
> Page 4 verse 5 and page 5 verse 1 With the breaking of colonial ties to the
> "Mother Country", Britain, there has been an unfortunate tendency of some
> Westindians to seek Africa as a "Mother Country".
> 
> Page 5 verse 2 John Canoe, a Christmas traditional street dancing in Jamaica.
> Big Drum, a traditional dance routine in Carriacou, Grenada's sister island.
> Anansi and Tigue, traditional folk tales. Lajabless, a supernatural figure in
> folk lore.
> 
> Page 5, verses 3 and 4, Self explanatory.