No to Babylon!

By Bukka Rennie
November 19, 2003

You know for many years in this town, black-man usually could not bring himself to "sell" anything. "Vending" was "woman-work" or work that Indo-Trinidadians and others did.

Fruit trees in the black-man's yard will be laden and ripened fruit will fall and litter his yard, and if you asked him for some he will allow you to take freely but he would never "sell", though many of the fruit would eventually decay. Somehow, it seemed as if the act of "selling" would reduce his sense of being.

And when the Indo-neighbour chose to do the opposite, that is, place a tray of fallen fruit or whatever before his house with a price tag stuck between, the black-man got annoyed: "What they selling, plum?" "How they could sell mango?"

It took the virtual social revolution of 1970 in terms of how people viewed the world to cleanse the black-man's psyche of that ingrained aversion to "vending". And from then on it was "vending" with a vengeance.

No longer were the pursuits of life only about academics. Everyone suddenly began to see the worth in "buying and selling" and generating commerce to turn a profit. Before that the be-all and end-all was "salary" and social status.

The story was that you went to school to get "a certificate", which you then used to get a job, preferably in the Public Service, because Public Service jobs are pensionable, then you were supposed to take out life insurance, punto finale, end of story.

When I was first given that instruction at the age of 18 or thereabouts, I was quite sure that had to be my death-knell, yet it was what most Afro-Trinidadians accepted as the defining norm, a certificate to the grave.

But then I had also the good fortune of advise from the one and only person in my entire family who was considered "well-to-do" and who said to me: "Hang out a shingle, and sell something, anything!"

Theophilus Baptiste, deceased, purchased a taxi back in the early to mid '40s which he used to transport American soldiers based at Chaguaramas. Then he purchased a truck that he used to transport sand and gravel or whatever was required and from the proceeds of two such trucks he began to purchase lands and properties in Tobago.

At the high point of his business life, he owned the Providence Estate, another at John Dyall, Plaza Guest House on Milford Road and buildings downtown Scarborough which he rented out. One of them, I recall, was rented to American Stores.

All that arose from the proceeds of one taxi. Such development will never have come from sole dependence on "salary". In this case it was derived from the selling of a particular kind of service.

There is little schooling here that prepares anyone for making a living or for engagement with life in this particular environment. Unless, of course, one wishes to see life as being that of some intellectual dilettante imitating or feigning the discourse of Metropolitan salons.

To be real here one has by force to reject the constipated conservatism of the status-quo. That is exactly what the 17-24 Afro-Trinidadians have done. Since 1970, that age-group has repeatedly rejected "Babylon" - the term they use to describe the system of social relationships that have obtained here since the 1834 "Emancipation" and which continues to obtain.

The Rastafarians were the first to posit "one-manism" as the underlying negative philosophy of "Babylon"; they countered with a demand for social justice and righteousness in all basic arrangements.

It will not be surprising if in the next two decades most, if not all, of the Afro-Caribbean youth between the ages of 17-24 will come to hold some affinity to Rastafarian ideology and sub-culture as a beacon of Caribbean idealism, moreso if the situation remains static.

Do we know how many Afro-Trinidadians with full certificates walked off jobs and walked off the university campus since 1970 and have never returned? Do we know how many BoboShanti youths selling nuts on the highway and byways are, in fact, holders of five and eight O'levels?

Has anyone ever attempted to estimate how many Afro-Trinidadians have consciously refused to have any truck with this "system" or how many over the past years met their deaths in direct confrontation with the coercive arms of the State?

They are under-achieving precisely because they believe that there is nothing worthwhile to be achieved within the present system. The 17-24 Afro-youths have been saying and demonstrating by their actions exactly what Bhoe Tewarie, principal of UWI, intimated recently: that we all must decide what kind of society is to be fashioned here.

True to say the death and the dialogue in various forms began many, many years ago. The social crisis that has only now been identified as such has been ongoing for quite some time.

When today one sees that leaders prove again and again to be incapable of setting direction, that teachers cannot teach, that educators are bewildered, that pastors, pundits and priests, alike, have lost their integrity and moral hold over their flock, one is forced to recall having written the following many years ago:

"...At the moment we are faced with a deep on-going social crisis; the very fabrics of our society have been eroded; the Government seems unable to govern or to motivate anyone to perform as both Parliament and parties have now become too limited and narrow to fully embrace the aspirations and demands of the people...

"All the traditional structures and relationships have broken down... children are no longer prepared to be non-beings, to be seen and not heard, and even question the claim of parents to positions of authority over them...

"The school master, a symbol of order, justice and enlightenment, no longer exists; pupils now see teachers not as agents in the classroom to expand horizons but to stultify their vision and get them to accept the old order and arrangement...there is now mutual distrust and open hostility..."

The only solution is open discourse and dialogue. Active communities in which people live and work must begin to fashion their own view of a new order. There are no prescriptions. There is no mecca in the world to which we can turn. People all over the world have the exact same problems. There is no way to shirk the responsibility that is ours and ours alone.