The ugly parts of history of the Caribbean continue to define much of the present. From the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus, the ensuing genocide of native populations, European colonization, and enslavement of Africans brought to the region via the Transatlantic slave trade, there is a lot to unpack.
Efforts to amend and correct that history are underway across Caribbean nations. Recently Trinidad and Tobago has been in the news for efforts to change official government symbols which represent Columbus and British colonial rule for ones that are more representative of the people’s history.
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In August, Al Jazeera reported on a redrawing of the country’s coat of arms—the first since its 1962 creation when the country gained independence from the United Kingdom—removing Columbus’ three ships and references to European colonization:
Explorer Christopher Columbus’s three ships – the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria – will be replaced with the steelpan, a popular percussion instrument that originated on the island.
[…]
Prime Minister Keith Rowley first made the announcement on Sunday at a party convention for his governing People’s National Movement to a standing ovation, saying the changes will be made by late September.
“That should signal that we are on our way to removing the colonial vestiges that we have in our constitution,” he said.
The current coat of arms also features hummingbirds, a palm tree and a scarlet ibis, Trinidad’s national bird.
Here’s what the current coat of arms looks like:
This symbol is also used on many other official items like the island’s currency.
The Guardian’s Caribbean correspondent Natricia Duncan wrote about why this change is important:
In recent years, Caribbean countries have pushed back against what they see as a false narrative that Columbus discovered their islands, which, in fact, were populated when he arrived. Some have even removed references to the Italian explorer’s discovery in national holidays.
But there has been public concern that removing the ships from the coat of arms would erase important moments from Trinidad and Tobago’s history.
Dr Claudius Fergus, a historian who chairs the National Committee on Reparations, said: “This is not an attack on the history of the Caribbean. It’s not an attempt to erase but rather to correct … Every generation has an obligation to reinterpret their history and to correct the falsehoods on which some of that history would have been written.”
The committee is a local arm of the Caricom Reparations Commission, a Caribbean-wide body that seeks justice and compensation from institutions and governments for crimes committed during the transatlantic slave trade.
Stephen Gibbs also covered the story for The Sunday Times about the possible controversy of replacing the ships with the steel drums as it could stoke racial tension, despite it being the national instrument of the country:
[Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s] plan is to unveil a new design by September 24, the country’s Republic Day. But phasing out the existing symbol, which was designed by local artists in 1962 to mark the country’s independence from the United Kingdom, could realistically take years. The present version is everywhere: on every banknote, every passport, every naval vessel and every official government document.
Complicating matters, Rowley’s plan to replace Columbus’s ships with an image of a steel drum, also known as a steel pan, has provoked a whole new controversy, with the prime minister even accused of stoking racial tension in a country whose population is about 35 per cent Afro-Trinidadian and 35 per cent Indo-Trinidadian.
The problem is that, like Rowley, musicians in the nation’s steel drum orchestras have traditionally been predominantly from Afro-Trinidadian, rather than Indo-Trinidadian, communities.
Changing the emblem, especially without careful consideration of what might replace it, risks igniting “ethnic rivalries, societal strife, and hate … in a primarily peaceful multicultural society like ours, which can then devolve into violence and destroy our societal peace”, said Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the opposition’s leader, who is of Indian descent.
Bert Wilkinson covered the steelpan legislation for Caribbean Life:
Boasting that the steel pan has been the only acoustic instrument created in the 20th century, lawmakers in both houses in Trinidad have passed a bill designating the pan as the national instrument of the republic with sister isle, Tobago.
“This legislation will establish a definitive claim on the steelpan as an invention and innovation that was created in Trinidad and Tobago. Wherever the steelpan goes, it will be marked as a creation of this nation,” Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Senator Randall Mitchell said. Opposition representatives also voted for the bill. “The designation of the steelpan as our national instrument will increase opportunities for strategic investments and intensify penetration in the highly competitive global cultural and creative market.”
At a meeting late Wednesday, people of African, European, and Indigenous descent stepped up to the microphone one by one to voice their thoughts. Some thought the government needed to go further than just Columbus.
“What the hell is the queen still doing on top of the coat of arms? Please let us put her to rest,” said Eric Lewis, a member of the First Peoples.
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Her late Majesty is represented on the nation’s coat of arms above the shield. A golden helmet facing the front represents Queen Elizabeth II, the colony’s ruler at the time of its design.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Trinidad and Tobago’s history, here’s a brief overview from the Milwaukee Public Museum’s anthropology collection:
Little is known about the history of Trinidad or Tobago before Christopher Columbus landed on their shores in 1498. By the 1300s, the island was largely populated by Arawak and Carib Indian populations, of which little physical trace remains. These populations were largely wiped out under the Spanish encomienda system, which pressured Indians to convert to Christianity and labor as slaves on Spanish Mission lands in exchange for “protection”. By 1700 Trinidad, a sparsely populated jungle-island, belonged to the Viceroyalty of New Spain… In an effort to populate the island, King Carlos III issued the 1783 Cedula de Poblacion that granted free lands to any foreign settlers and their slaves in exchange for a sworn allegiance to the Spanish crown. As a result, numerous Martinique Creole planters settled in Trinidad. It would be these French planters, and other Europeans attracted by the promise of free land that developed Trinidad’s extremely profitable sugarcane and cacao industries.
Trinidad was part of the Spanish Empire until 1796 … By 1802, the territory was ceded to the British Crown whereby it became an official colonial subsidiary. Trinidad’s sugar industry, which English investors were keen to expand, proved extraordinarily profitable. African slaves, forcibly brought to the island in the 17th century, constituted the majority of the labor force on the island’s sugar and cocoa plantations. With an 1838 Act of Parliament abolishing slavery in all British territories, Trinidad’s agricultural economy teetered on the verge of collapse; newly-freed Africans refused to work any further on the plantations and left the fields en masse (Niehoff & Niehoff 1960:14).
To prevent complete disintegration of the sugar and chocolate industries, experiments with new sources of labor began. Chinese, Portuguese, African- Americans, and, most notably, Indians were shipped to Trinidad as indentured laborers to revive the island’s anemic economy. … Indians proved the most resilient and ready workers … They were consequently recruited in greater numbers than those from any other country, and by 1891, the island’s Indian population was already above 45,800 (East Indian Immigration& Indentureship Records [Trinidad]). From 1845 to 1917 there was continuous migration to Trinidad until the Indian Legislative Assembly abolished the system of indentureship.
For a deeper dive I would also suggest that you read this foundational text by Trinidad and Tobago’s first Prime Minister Eric Williams. Williams was covered here in July.
I’ll close with this Google doodle celebration of the steelpan from 2022:
Please join me in the comments section below for more, and for the weekly Caribbean News Roundup.
