Although it seems unlikely that the bigoted Afro-centric supporters of the PNM in T&T would in a million years vote for a non-Afro leader, it doesn’t mean that Afros elsewhere are of the same primordial, unwavering, uncompromising, bias.
Elsewhere – in Ghana, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines for example, Afros have voted for (party) leaders who were not essentially 100% of their racial tribe although there might have been some blood dilution and miscegenation influencing those who made the quantum leap from voting pure bred to mix breed in these more liberal-thinking societies where voting for a better life prevailed over voting for the same race.
Ghana, which might be considered the epicenter of the African diaspora to the West Indies democratically elected Jerry Rawlins as its President for two terms although he was in part of white Scottish ancestry.
Jamaica, always ahead of us in progressive thinking had as its political leaders during the last century Sir Alexander Bustamante, the Manleys, Edward Seaga – all non-blacks who were either whites or of mixed mulatto ancestry and whose vociferous supporters were the blacks of Jamaica.
Barbados also voted Caucasian when they elected Sir Grantley Adams and later his son Tom Adams to prove their Afro- Bajan electorate were sufficiently enlightened to think economic betterment and not ethnic bigotry.
Small St. Vincent and the Grenadines voted for the white James Mitchell until he retired and now there is Ralph Gonzalves for over a quarter of a century – they understanding that if you want quality governance ethnicity should not be the dominant factor in the decision making process.
Even small St. Lucia also voted for and worshipped its former Prime Minister Eugenia Charles who seemed to be of mulatto origin.
But while all these examples prove there are Afros who take an enlightened view on who should govern their lives and country, here the supporters, sycophants of the PNM, would rather they and our country perish rather than make that paradigm shift from Afro bigotry to societal enlightenment.
L. Siddhartha Orie
