Self-determination is a fundamental right under international law that enables peoples to choose their political status and determine their own economic, cultural, and social development. The process involves three main options: independence, free association, and integration, each requiring minimum standards for full self-government. For Caribbean territories, dependency modernization arrangements—such as crown colonies, overseas territories, and commonwealths—fall short of these standards and represent transitional arrangements rather than genuine self-government. The completion of self-determination is essential for true decolonization, requiring strategic thinking, political education, and awareness of economic realities including hidden revenue streams and resource exploitation. Each territory must determine its own path through objective assessment to achieve the final stage of emancipation.
Annual Emancipation Lecture
Added:What's that?
[music] >> [music] >> in the middle of my platform. [music] >> [music] [music] >> I hear [music] So [music] okay, [music] [music] man. Good. [music] >> [music] >> Yeah. [music] >> [music] >> You know, you know, you know, I Praise for your [music] hand.
[music] [music] >> [music] >> Just stop all [music] [music] [music] [music] right. It's not Heat. Heat.
[music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Good evening everyone. [music] I invite us all to stand and as we lift our voices and sing with the anthem, lift every voice and sing.
[music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Every [singing] voice I sing till [music] I [music and singing] rejoiceing. [music and singing] highest [music] [singing] glor. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] Sing full of the hope that [music] the prestory [singing] [singing and music] [music] [singing] is [music] [music] [singing] ever [singing and music] [music] yet [singing] >> [music and singing] >> Come to the place of [music and singing] the son.
We [music and singing] are over.
[music] [singing] We are [music] through the Oh [singing] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] my [singing] My son is [music] [singing and music] [singing] [music] thous.
[singing] for [music] the thy [singing] [music] us forever. [singing] We [music] pray [singing] [music] from the blesses of God.
[singing] Bless [music] the wine of the world [music] for [singing] me.
Sh. [music and singing] [music and singing] [singing] [music] [singing] We remain standing as we invoke the presence of the Lord.
Creator God, sustainer God, saving God, we adore you.
We magnify you.
We give thanks and we give praise to you because you are a great God, a God who lovingly redeems your people.
For we have fallen. We have fallen short.
But through your grace and your mercy, you have redeemed us.
And for that we give you praise.
We give you the glory and thanksgiving.
Redeeming God, we gather here this evening to reflect on your goodness and mercy which kept our phobias despite the hardships and humiliation they were made to endure at the the hands of their oppressors and colonizers.
We thank you for their perseverance and their faith through pain and quiet resolve to ensure a brighter future for those who would come after them.
This evening we are indeed grateful for the presence of Dr. Kle G. Carbin who has come to stimulate our minds as he speaks on the topic self-determination the final stage of emancipation.
Help us oh God to deeply ponder what this means for us as yet being a colonial entity.
how we should approach future decisions.
And most of all, help us to consider how spiritual emancipation prepares us not only for living in this world, but for life in the world to come, where we will enjoy life in your presence for all eternity.
So bless our speaker and all who will share in this evening's program.
In Jesus's name, we pray, believing that you are the God who is faithful and able to answer all our petitions.
Amen.
You may be seated. Thank you very much, Reverend Hajj.
Good evening.
Welcome to Ebenea.
As the sun sets and the pews here at the Ebeneza Methodist Chapel in the historic Ang and the historic valley in Anguila as they fill up. If you're on your way, you still have a bit of time. We receive apologies this evening from the honorable premier, Mrs. Kora Hutch, who is traveling shortly and could not be with us this evening. She extends her best wishes and we are pleased this evening to have with us the honorable representative M Island Wild representative Mr. Jason Bryan. And we will also be joined, we are joined by the honorable McNeel, Evans McNeel Rogers, representative of the House of Assembly, and other members of the House of Assembly. Uh we would uh like to welcome here as well. I think I see Mr. Merrick Richardson, the honorable representative for the uh district number five as well. Our presenter, our friend Dr. Carlile Corin.
Good evening. Reverend Wilmouth Hodgej, circuit stewards and officers of the Methodist Church and the Ebeneia Methodist Chapel, pastors and members of other congregations, permanent secretaries and other government officers and members of the constitutional re reform committee as well as Miss Claudilia Senhouse and other members of the Angula Youth Parliament, members of the Angola National Youth Council and their mentor, Mr. Mr. Neil Gums, Mrs. Stella Gums, Edwina Stella Gums, Elliot Gums, and Ebeneza family, friends, colleagues, sisters, brothers and children, those who are joining on social media via the Ebeneza Facebook page or our YouTube channel. Rita Angilla who has suspended its normal programming so that we can be carried live this evening. We appreciate the support and other media to our Malana Poetry Committee members, Miss Avan Carti, Miss Anakah Hughes, Miss Carla Harris, Janzy Webster, and Reneie Henry. And we also want to recognize this evening the participants from the storytelling workshop who suspended their uh proceedings this evening, their sessions this evening to be here. We are very happy to have you and we want to welcome all those members of the the press as well. Janisa, always a pleasure to have you and we thank you for the work that you do.
Now this evening we are celebrating a special milestone. It's 10 years since the launch of the emancipation lecture series. Some of some of us has whiter hair, a little shorter. But it was right here on July 15th, 2016 that Professor Virein Shepard uh presented our very first lecture. And since then this historic Ebeneza chapel has become the home, the place where we have been challenged, the place where we have engaged, the place where we have reflected, we we have learned and engage in dialogue through presentations by local and regional scholars like Mr. Kai Rogers, Miss Dr. Ronald Haragan, Mr. Ken Bangs, Professor Don Wichek, Mr. David Carti, and James Malik Fleming. And in this 10th year, we are pleased to welcome an anguilian at heart, Dr. Carly Carvin, to present our 2026 lecture.
The now annual emancipation lecture series was inspired by the late Reverend Dr. Vichil Gums, an activist, a scholar, and former superintendent of the Methodist Circuit here, Anguela, and the very our own pastor here at Ebenea. One of his most memorable refrains and I keep saying this every year, lest we forget. He believed deeply that the observance of emancipation was not uh merely a tradition or something that we do but it was a responsibility.
He challenged us to remember the courage, the resilience and the perseverance of our ancestors and to ensure that each generation, each generation youth parliament, each generation youth council that you are aware of from whence we came lest we forget.
So we give thanks for the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Witchery and this evening we are pleased to continue recognizing his life and work through the Maliaana poetry committee Reverend Dr. Witch Gum's awards which will be presented later in this evening's program.
Ebeneza stands as a monument to faith, resilience, hope, and community. And we continue to express our appreciation to the superintendent, minister of the Methodist Church in Anguiler, and to the pastor and members of the Ebeneza congregation for continuing to partner with us for the hosting of these annual lectures.
Because it was here, as you know by now, on this very ground that our forebears gathered about 192 years ago on August 1st, 1834 to celebrate the first Emancipation Day, uh the day that the slavery abolition act of 1833 came into effect throughout the British Empire. So there could hardly be any other place that we would be celebrating or commemorating this emancipation in 2026.
So welcome to Ebeneza and welcome to our 2026 emancipation lecture and welcome to our chairperson for this evening.
It is my great pleasure to welcome back our esteemed chairperson. I'm smiling because this distinguished educator and scholar is one woman for whom I have the deepest respect and admiration. She's a career educator, a passionate advocate for independent and lifelong learning and a firm believer in the trans transformative power of education. We are both pleased and honored that she so readily accepted our invitation to once again be part of this emancipation commemoration because as she so eloquently put it, it is essential, it is vital even that as members of the African diaspora, we all seek to bend our minds in unraveling of the past as this can only lead to a better grasp of self in the present. She holds a degree, she holds degrees, excuse me, from the University of the West Indies, from LA University Desantil Gan and the University of London. She currently serves as education officer human resource development within the department of education and throughout her very distinguished career. She has also served as principal, deputy principal pastoral and head of the English department at the Albina Lake College comprehensive school. As a classroom teacher, she specialized in English language, English literature, communication studies, and French, inspiring generations of students through her dedication, scholarship, and unwavering commitment to education.
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, I could be talking about no other woman in Angola than the very lovely Mrs. Rita Celestian Carti who will take over. [applause] I guess I begin by saying thank you Dr. Fleming Banks for that introduction and I bid everybody a good evening. Are you having a good evening? Okay. So, I want to see that on your faces. Then I endorse the protocol that has been established and I in my turn welcome you all to this 2026 emancipation lecture as coordinated by the Maliaana poetry organizing committee. I welcome to our esteemed feature speaker Dr. Carlile G.
Corbin who will soon have our full and wrapped attention.
At this time I also draw our attention to the fact that we are here not only to attend the emancipation lecture but also as Dr. Fleming Bank said to commemorate the 196th anniversary of this space in which we are seated. the Ebeneza Methodist Chapel.
[applause] I trust that at the end of this evening of celebration and reflection, we will be able to say that we were well met in this special space.
At this time and as per our program because it is going to be a busy evening I will welcome the Ebeneza men's fellowship to render a selection. Please welcome them.
[applause] >> [clears throat] >> Hello.
Let's go.
Excuse me.
Good news.
>> Good news.
>> That good news. Good news. Good news.
That good news.
That good news. Good news. Good news.
Good news.
I got a crown up in that kingdom. In that good news, I got a crown up in that kingdom. In that good news, I'm going to lay down this world.
My first home to my Jesus. Good news.
Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news.
Good news. Good news. Good news. I got a robe up in that kingdom. That good news.
I got a robe up in that kingdom. And that good news coming lay on this world [singing] on the shoulder of my cross. Going to take it home on my Jesus. Good news.
Good news. Good news.
Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news. Good news.
Good news. Good news. I got a savior in that kingdom.
>> In that good news, >> I got a savior in that kingdom. In that good news, I'm going to lay down this world [singing] and show her up on my cross. Going to take it home to my Jesus that good news.
I'm going to lay down shoulder up on my cross. Going to take it home to my Jesus in that good news.
>> Good news. Hear that good news. Good news. Hear that good news. Good news.
Hear that good news. Good news. That good news. I got a hop in that kingdom.
In that good news, I got a hop in that kingdom. In that good news, good news. I'm going to lay down this world. Going to shoulder up on my cross. Going to take it home to my Jesus. In that good news, good news. That good news. Good news.
That good news. Good news. That good news. Good news. That good [singing and music] news. I got a song in that kingdom. That good news.
>> I've got a song in that kingdom. in that good news.
I'm going to lay down my C [singing] shoulder up on my cross and I take it home to my Jesus king of that good news.
I'm going to lay down this going to up on my cross. Want to take it home to my Jesus in that good news.
the Angolian Methodist minister, author, and a poet. Reverend Dr. Gum's work, whether theological, academic or artistic, was largely directed to issues related to personal and national emancipation, selfhood, authenticity, culture, and creativity.
The creative non-fiction genre therefore provides an opportunity for a a more sustained consideration of the historical, social, cultural, and economic issues that formed the core of his writings.
This year's competition has an had an adult and a youth category.
This year, however, we received only adult submissions.
And now we proceed to our awards.
Our first awardee is Miss Charlene Igums with Daboy Aonto. [applause] Miss Gums is known to us has produced prolific works both in poetry and increasingly in non-fiction and she is tonight's first awardee.
>> [applause] >> Micholene Gums.
[applause] Our second awardee tonight is Miss Aaliyah Richardson and she produced a piece called Is It Really Just Here? Anguila's struggle with colonialism.
[applause] Miss Aliyah Richardson.
[applause] In third place, our third place awardee, we have Miss Casilda Thomas Carti with the Moses of Angrilla. How Mr. James Ronald Webster became the father of the nation. Our third place awardee is Miss Cassilda Thomas Carti. [applause] Cassilda Thomas Carti [applause] in second place this evening.
We have Miss Karine Rogers, freedom still calling Amazing Grace. I'm not sure if Karine is here this evening.
>> Okay, then [laughter] Chanissa will collect it for her.
Miss Janisa Webster, who works alongside Miss Rogers, will collect the award on her behalf.
[applause] Thank you, Jennisa.
And uh this evening we are happy to announce the winner of the 2026 Reverend Dr. Witchley Non-Fiction Award, Miss Suzanne V. Hajj.
[applause] Miss Hodgej is a reader, a writer, a poet. We know her a lot about disaster management and now she has created her own whirlwind with freedom's ghost.
Suzanne Vhaj.
>> Oh, she wants you in the middle.
[laughter] >> Congratulations.
Thank you. [applause] Congratulations to all of the winners and please give them another round of applause for their hard work. [applause] And I want to draw your attention to the name of one of the pieces which fits right in with the theme of this afternoon's presentation. Can you guess which one it is?
Somebody's saying it. Freedom still calling. So that is a very apt name and I think that is the award that Janisa collected. We will continue now with a selection by Mr. Elliot Gums, son of Reverend Dr. Witchley Gums. Please welcome him.
[applause] Good evening and greetings.
I thought about what to play for this evening. something that would fit in line with this evening's theme. And we've come this far by faith definitely fits right in along with the journey that we're on as a people. So, I encourage you, I invite you to sing along with me. It's a it's a well-known Negro spiritual. So, feel free to sing along.
>> [music] [music] >> Heat.
Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.
[music] Heat.
[music] [music] Heat.
[music] Heat.
[music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat.
[music] [music] Heat.
[music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat.
[music] [music] >> [applause] >> Yes, I can tell that that was well appreciated and I'd like to hear clapping. So, clap some more, please.
[applause] And I also like that Elliot referenced this journey that we are on. So, I want us to contemplate that for a little and to understand that history isn't something that's in the past. We are tomorrow's history as we sit here right now and we have to do something to pass on when we pass the baton to the next generation on our continued journey. So thank you very much for your contemplating and as we continue in that vein we will now have roots pingi to render their selection. I think I saw yes there they are.
Heat.
[music] [music] Heat.
Heat. Heat.
[music] [music] [music] Heat.
[music] [music] [music] Heat.
[music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.
[music] Heat.
[music] Heat.
>> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.
[music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Okay. Okay.
[music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat.
Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat.
[music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.
[music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [applause] [music] >> for me.
For me, [music] Africa [music] wonderland Africa. [music] I feel [music] [music] you That's my [singing] I just [music] [singing] [music] Any time [singing] [music] [music] you [singing] [music] all [music] [singing] [music] Africa >> [music and singing] >> Oh [music] yeah. Oh, [singing] [music] [music] [music] really [music] the sea.
Right on rece. [music and singing] [music and singing] s you know [music and singing] you know [music] [music] heat.
>> [singing] [music] [applause] >> Okay, we say thanks again for those inspired and inspiring pieces.
[applause] Everything is falling into place and we're here to sing freedom songs. And as I said earlier to know that our time is but our time and we have to pass the baton. So at this time I will call on a member of the Angula Youth Parliament.
You have seen her earlier by another name, but I assure you that her real name is Miss Claudelia Senthouse. And she will now come and introduce our keynote speaker.
[applause] Okay.
Good evening everyone. Continuing with the protocol already established, it is my privilege and honor to introduce the keynote speaker for this evening. Dr. Carly G. Carbon is an internationally recognized authority on governance, self-determination, and decolonization.
He serves as senior analyst with the global dependency study project expert group, a United Nations independent expert on the colonization and executive secretary emiratus of the council of presidents of the United Nation General Assembly.
Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Carbon has advised governments, international organizations and the United Nations on issues of self-governance, political developments and constitutional advancements.
He previously served as minister of state of external affairs in the government of the United States Virgin Islands and was a member of the territorial relations.
He currently serves as advisor to the Assembly of French Polynesia and is the originator of the self-governance indicator assessment mechanism now used by many territories around the world to measure progress in self-governance.
A prolific scholar, author and educator, Dr. Carbon is a visiting lecturer in dependency governance studies at the US University of Guam and in global studies at the University of the Virgin Islands.
He is co-author of the landmark 575page self-determination study prepared for the Guam Commission on the Colonization and his most recent book evolution of the French colonialism a political and constitutional analysis was published in 2024.
Dr. Carbon is no stranger to Angola. He served as constitutional advisor to the Angola constitutional was part of the electoral reform committee on behalf of the United Nations Development Program short UNDP from 2002 to 2003 and leave and delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Anguila country conference in 2017.
Today Dr. Carbon will present on the topic self-determination, the final stage of emancipation, drawing on decades of international leadership and scholarship in the pursuit of political development, constitutional advancement, and the fulfillment of the right to self-determination.
Please welcome Dr. G. Carvin.
[applause] Good night.
>> Wow. Makes me feel like I've been around a long time.
I I uh my professor once said that he's not old but he's been young a long time and I always listen to that because it makes I think that's probably defines me as well. um excellency's uh protocol having been established and in addition to that all my friends and I don't uh I have many friends in in in Angula past and present first of all peace and blessings uh excellencies dear friends uh give pay homage to the most high I wish to thank the officials of the Malhana poetry group for the kindness the invitation to offer some thoughts during this important 192nd commemoration of emancipation day. I thank the organizers for the excellent arrangements for my visit to Angilla. Of course, I have been to Angilla over the years as has been said on behalf of the United Nations and the constitutional advisor under my my good friend um David Karti who is here I believe uh somewhere. I recognize the white hair.
It was a little grayer before I saw when I saw you last, but now yeah, we all getting we all getting there. Um, also, uh, with respect to seeing my friends, and it has been far too long since I've been to this beautiful country, I take this opportunity to thank my dear friend, chairperson, Dr. Phyllis Fleming Banks and honor her for her years of continuing service at multiple levels in raising the consciousness of our people across the region and around the world.
I thank her for her work in tertiary education, civil society, the private sector and so much more.
I also honor those of my friends in Angola who have passed on. As Bob Marley wrote, "Good friends we had, good friends we lost along the way."
Today, we join with others around the region and around the world in honoring the victory of our ancestors who waged the successful struggle to eradicate the crime against humanity known as shadow slavery. Those who set the path for us to follow. I acknowledge that our commemoration is being held in this historic Ebenezer Methodist church which is which was dedicated in 1830 and which was constructed by many of those same ancestors. For these discussions to be held in this house of worship is meaningful beyond measure.
It is reminiscent of the historic role that the church has played and continues to play in the struggle for emancipation and self-determination for well over a century. I recall the courageous activity of institutions such as the Caribbean Council of Churches and its widely read newspaper Caribbean Contact decades ago which was in the forefront of providing information and advocacy on social justice and instrumental in the self-determination struggle in the Caribbean. The role of churches and faith communities in the process of self-determination and decolonization was a theme of a recent conference in Tahiti, French Polynesia, where I had the honor of delivering a keynote address. The conference reaffirmed the primary role for the church in the self-determination process. It was with this in mind that the theme self-determination, the final stage of emancipation was selected uh for our discussion this evening. Friends, much had been wr much has been written on the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery. We know the story all too well. It is a tragic story of kidnapping and enslavement of African people. Perhaps no more, a graphic portrayal was presented rather surprisingly to me in a Netflix docu drama when I was on the plane on my arrive on my time arriving in St. Martin before coming across uh to to Anguila on the on the ferry. And let me paraphrase from that source, and I quote, "The slave trade involves taking enslaved persons from Africa and carrying them across the Caribbean and to the American colonies and stocking up on goods from those regions in a triangular trade.
Imagine human beings torn from their families and homes, brutally dragged halfway across the world, used as human currency. But slaves were more than currency. Once in exchange for commodities, they are put to work growing more commodities. This was really backbreaking work which led to tremendous loss of life and did not allow for enslaved people to do much more than work from sun up to sun down.
People in humanely crowdly conditions who had been at sea for months chained together below deck, hundreds and hundreds of them well beyond capacity.
They couldn't even sit upright. They suffered from rampant disease, particularly dysentery because of contaminated water. Many perished along the infamous transatlantic passage. One in five enslaved persons died on the travel through the middle passage. The slave trade is worth billions of pounds each year.
I close quote.
One would ask the question as I do. How then can the European and North American governments, businesses, and institutions whose wealth was derived from centuries of forced labor and inhumane treatment of fellow human beings claim that they have no responsibility for reparatory justice?
When will we be paid for all the work we did for free? No doubt the demands for reparatory justice will continue to grow stronger in the Caribbean, in Africa, and beyond. I'll speak a little bit on this shortly, but it is to be emphasized that our history did not begin with slavery. Our history bears the legacy of thriving African kingdoms long before the European invaders. As Mutaba Baruka reminded us, slavery interrupted African history. Thus, we stand on the shoulders of those survivors who withtood those horrors which led to the ultimate victory of freedom. It was a hard-fought victory and came at great sacrifice. The Ark of Return was erected at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2015 as a permanent memorial honoring the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. So many perished in the struggle. So many perished in the struggle. Least we forget.
We commemorate emancipation from slavery at different times across our region depending on the perpetrator.
Emancipation in the British colonies 1834. The Danish colonies of St. Croy, my home, St. Thomas and St. John 1848.
The Swedish colony of St. Barts the same year. The French colonies also 1848. The Dutch colonies 1863 and the Spanish colonies 1873. Of course, our brother Tusan Le overur led the way in Haiti in 1804 with the defeat of Napoleon's forces. As we celebrate these victories, we should remind remain mindful that full emancipation did not come with the abolition of child slavery. What followed was a period of post emancipation colonialism.
This was a sequel to slavery.
This was a slightly modified, modernized version of what had formerly prevailed.
So although the 1833 Emancipation Act officially ended slavery, newly freed persons were forced to continue working for their former enslavers under a system of apprenticeship.
Similar versions of this post emancipation colonialism and the abuses experienced predominated throughout the Caribbean. Kovville Petty's excellent handbook, History of Anguila, recounted the period of a 4-year apprenticeship for domestic enslaved persons and six years for those who worked in the fields to prepare them for freedom. According to the perpetrators, as this postemancipation period evolved and as hard-fought incremental rights were gained over time, a new struggle began to emerge across the region. the struggle for self-determination.
It is amazing to think that this period of postemancipation colonialism lasted for well over a century in various forms.
Some territories ultimately exercised their inalienable right to self-determination between 1962 and 1983 during what we know as the decolonization acceleration period when the majority of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific gained their independence. St. Kitsenas in 1983 was in fact the last country in the Caribbean to achieve independence. This is 43 years ago.
For those of us who did not choose independence, other forms were constructed. There were the autonomous forms.
We know them. We knew them as the Netherlands Antilles of six, Aruba, Kurissau, St. Martin, Bonire, St. Eustaceius, and Sabre 1954. Puerto Rico the year prior to that, 1953.
Most recently, French St. Martin and St. Barts uh which actually took place in 2007.
But as it turned out, many of these forms lacked sufficient autonomy. They were semi-autonomous.
Other territories entered into integration arrangements. We know them as Martini Gualup Guan or French Gana with their own set of challenges as overseas departments of France. Later forms of partial integration emerged and I say partial integration as in 2010 when the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles dismantled this resulted in forms of partial integration Bonire Sabre and St. stasis as well as forms of partial semi- autonomy curo and sim margin and then there are the rest of us who will follow the path of we call dependency modernization crown colony dependent territory overseas territory unincorporated territory as the US Virgin Islands commonwealth as Puerto Rico, you name it. There are many, many ways of characterizing ourselves. These have been our designations at different times up to now. We have remained in these arrangements which were actually never meant to be permanent, but rather they were meant to be preparatory to full self-government. This is the requirement under the United Nations charter.
Patience that we do not remain forever in the preparatory stage.
Some would suggest that we have been in a period of dormcancy whilst we hear a consistent narrative that seeks to legitimize our present dependency arrangements. Thus, we are considered sufficiently self-governing.
I'm not sure what that means, but an objective assessment of our arrangements suggests that it is insufficient. This is the second quarter of the 21st century.
Administrative self-government is not political self-government.
It may surprise many of us that the Caribbean has more dependent territories than any other region of the world in such a small geographic space. And I work in the Pacific which is a vast area. There are many colonies and dependencies there as well. But we concentrated in a very small space which means that we have many connections and interpersonal connections coming to Angilla through St. Martin. I used to go years ago through the from the Dutch side to the French side to to to Angilla which I thought was very interesting to do because you passed through three countries with three different currencies and people were all related but the currencies are not interchangeable. And the fourth currency is the one that most people use.
It is an interesting phenomena. Um but it's our history. It's our present day.
It's our reality. So it doesn't seem diff different. It doesn't seem uh out of place as we would say. But it might surprise us that in many ways we have six British dependent territories, two US territories, two French collectivities, three French overseas departments, three Dutch partially integrated territories, and another three Dutch semi-aututonomous countries.
If you look at the map and zoom out or in, we we you can distinguish it. But we we've done I'm trying to create one of find one of the young um content creators they call them and uh to actually produce a map which shows the distinction in colorcoded and I'm working on it. My daughter is actually a animator. I'm trying to get her to do it but she's too busy.
We have been called the remnants of empire and and so we are now for those of us in in these remaining political dependencies. The process of self-determination has not yet been completed.
So let us speak a bit about this term self-determination. What it is perhaps what it is not and what it may or may not mean to us. Self-determination first of all is a right of a people under international law to choose their political status and to determine their own form of economic, cultural and and social development. The right is contained in the United Nations Charter in its various human rights treaties and among others. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Universal Declaration on Human Rights among others. The nations of the world which administer territories are legally obligated to advance the territories to the full measure of self-government.
Some equate self-determination with independence. I hear that a lot. This is not necessarily the case. The exercise of the right to self-determination can result in several governance models ranging from independence, yes, to full integration within an existing independent state.
Thus, self-determination is the process which provides for the people to make an informed decision on a permanent status providing for the full measure of self-government.
And there are minimum standards for the full measure of self-government. A proper self-determination process leads to genuine decolonization and the full measure of self-government. This is explained in United Nations principles which provide minimum standards for the options of independence, free association and integration.
Thus, independence is clear and is a matter of preparation, a timetable and commitments to postindependence support from the former colonial power and also from the international community including the United Nations.
Independence for small states can come with agreements on economic development, trade, defense and more. These are normal features in the 21st century for small states in particular. Today's independence is more like interdependence.
Now the opposite of integration must provide for the citizens to have full political, economic and social rights and rights of representation in the country in which they are integrating.
Our self-governance assessment of Bonire for example in 2020 revealed that they have only partial rights that have been extended to them. This does not comply with minimum standards for integration which is the reason why the civil society organizations in Bonire are seeking to be reinscribed on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. they have an uphill battle because it is it is a political decision of countries in the car in the in the United Nations and recognizing that it's been 41 years since we've had any movement in our region.
Free association is another option that we talk about is it is a legitimate political status as long as it is on the basis of full political equality and mutual consent. That is one party cannot make unilateral decisions for the other such as a nulling legislation of the elected government among other matters.
The West Indies Associated States model of the 1960s was judged by the UN to be insufficiently autonomous.
Our self-governance assessment of the autonomous country of Curissau in 2012 revealed significant deficiencies in the political equality with the Dutch which maintained unilateral authority in many areas of that relationship. The Dutch acknowledged this today as a democratic deficit, but not much is being done to alleviate that deficit so far. The association has a particular connection to Angola, of course, with your experience with the West Indies Associated States. After the demise of that association, not much has been said about free association as an option for the remaining dependencies in the Caribbean. This changed in 2003 when the United Nations convened the Caribbean Regional Decolonization Seminar here in Angilla. The first time and the only time in the history of the United Nations that a regional seminar was held in a dependency and that and the the government of Angilla of the day uh is in was instrumental in in ensuring that that took place. But interesting things happened at that time 2003.
At that seminar, free association was confirmed as a viable option by the administring powers who attended. Months later, however, the one ministering power with the most territories in the Caribbean announced that it no longer offered free association because it contained unacceptable contingent liabilities.
Now on this point it's important to emphasize that genuine free association carries no such liabilities. Free association is not another form of dependency status. There are examples of genuine free association arrangements throughout the world including within the commonwealth. I am of the view that a genuine free association arrangement represents a viable alternative of small island dependencies like those of us in the Caribbean.
Dear friends, as for ourselves, the status quo dependency governance arrangements, even in their modernized forms, fall short of minimum standards of full self-government. Again, these arrangements are meant to be preparatory and transitional to full self-government, not the embodiment of self-government. The UN charter is clear on this. We must endeavor, however, not to remain forever in this preparatory phase as a dependency status can represent a slippery slope into stagnation. Some have suggested that we have stagnated already.
At a recent conference at the City University of New York, the question was raised as to whether the future of US territories would be of decolonization or colonial reform. The same question has been asked about territories under the United Kingdom of France and Netherlands in our region and others others in Oceanania which are similarly situated. A number of actions have been taken to examine this question on a number of fronts. We have had self-governance assessments for the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Curissile, Bonire in the Caribbean, and French Polynesia, Guam and Norolk Islands in the Pacific.
In recent years, they were examining the depth of the nature of their dependency arrangement and to assess their level of preparation for self-government.
The University College of the Cayman Islands has published several books and journals with scholarly articles examining issues of contemporary colonialism in the Caribbean.
The UN Decolonization Committee has conducted visiting missions to individual territories and holds its annual two-week session at its headquarters in New York. The most recent visiting mission was to the British Virgin Islands in 2024. I had the honor to be the independent expert on that mission. United Kingdom government is to be commended for its cooperation in facilitating that mission. A major conclusion of the visiting mission to the Virgin Islands was to call for a public education program to heighten the awareness of the people of the options available to them in the exercise of the right to self-determination and to providing them with the full measure of self-government so they can make an informed decision on their political future.
The issue of education on self-determination was very prominent at the annual Caribbean Studies Association panel held in Jamaica last month. At this conference, Dr. Yadira Boston of St. Martin presented her latest book entitled Educators Perceptions of St. Martin's Readiness for Independence. It was very fascinating book. assesses the awareness of teachers on self-determination process. And this is critically critically important in my view because this was an approach that determined the the level of awareness of the teachers who are the ones who have the primary role in informing our young people on these issues. And the representative young I say young lady because I'm a father of daughters. the young lady who introduced me before she introduced me, she also had an award and her paper was on this very same question. So, I'm really hoping to read that.
There are other activities as well. The annual United Nations decolonization seminars are important uh activities that provide the space for territorial representatives to exchange views with experts uh United Nations members other territorial representatives who are also in similar political and constitutional circumstances. And this these these seminars were created in 1990 and they've been annually held and have been most for the most part and they alternate between the Pacific and the Caribbean and it's the information exchange between us and amongst us is very very valuable because many times we are undergoing things which have been solved somewhere else but we don't know that they have been solved and then vice versa we have also created things that others could benefit from. So that cross fertilization of ideas uh has made made it very important. In in an earlier period of of my tenure in government, I had the opportunity to serve as the executive secretary of the group of Pacific Caribbean countries and territories that were looking at self-determination and the the involvement and the connections made at that time are very very critical. I had the honor in the last seminar in Managua to have discussions with with Mr. Stanley Reid uh and also previous years with with uh Mr. Kenneth Hodgej. So we have that u connection continuing and the discussions are continuing.
The sustained engagement of our territories in this UN process is highly useful in our gaining a greater awareness of how we fit in this rapidly changing world where territories are increasingly seen more and more in the context of their geographic and geostrategic as well as geoeconomic value to the exclusion of the promotion of self-determination.
The most important value of territories increasingly is where we are, what resources might be in our waters and in our and on our lands. And that is more important and where you where we are in in the context of a major issue in the Pacific. For example, in my work in Guam, uh Guam is being used as a major staging point for military activities uh with respect to China. in other areas in our own region. We we've recently saw uh Puerto Rico and and US Virgin Islands being used uh with respect to the op that operation that took place in Venezuela.
So we are now we have a different pers context in in terms of those who have the power over us.
we we cannot we can't necessarily we don't have a we don't have a an ability to influence those decisions.
Now most recent interesting development occurred a few weeks ago at the Caraccom Hez of Government 51st re regular meeting held in St. Lucia. Caraccom has now endorsed the revised Caraccom 10-point plan for reparatory justice which includes reference to decolonization for the very first time.
And I read from that plan. I quote, "The process of decolonization of the still existing European and North American colonial territories is an important component of the reparations cause.
Colonized territories are economically constrained by imposed constitutional arrangements. Close quotes.
The Caracon recognition of organic link between decolonization and reparations lends further support to the importance of completing the self-determination process and consequent decolonization.
There are other elements at a global level that are seeking to address the question of reparatory justice for colonialism. Recalling the period after colon after emancipation, there were many wrongdoings that were undertaken against the people and and of course as well as the exploitation of resources, the misuse of of persons in labor and and many other things. In my own experience with my work in France Polynesia, there was 30 years of nuclear testing.
Okay. And that has caused tremendous hardship uh economic but health consequences mainly. And this is inter intergenerational intergenerational. So the cancer rates there you can imagine are significantly higher than anywhere else and of course the issue of whether or not those such tests were safe uh were became a factor and continues to be a factor but the the will of the people and God's will made sure that this issue never died and now there there's a response. It's coming.
But it we must be digent.
Vigilant as well. Diligent and vigilant indeed.
Dear friends, last December I spoke to a group of educators in St. Martin. A number of questions were raised that might be of interest.
One question was whether our territories will evolve or whether we will stagnate, devolve, and be airbrushed out of existence as part of a forgotten history of a once proud people.
We concluded that there are ramifications to delay and indecision in addressing our incomplete process of self-determination and that we should examine closely our current condition as we have and continue to experience it and as we have permitted it to take shape. Some participants in the discussions in Simatan expressed hope that we might take the road of evolution rather than the road of stagnation.
As Morgan Freeman said in the epic film Shaw Shank Redemption, hope is a good thing and a good thing never dies.
Might I suggest that hope is an important commodity [clears throat] but it is not a strategy. It contributes to a strategy. This is not about hope alone for we for us to advance. It is strategic thinking that is required.
This way we can plan our collective future rather than have the future plan for us without us. And I had occasion last evening to meet with the constitutional reform committee and this is what we are talking about in terms of strategic thinking. These are the these are the kinds of of systems, kinds of organizations and strategy sessions that are critical for our future. And we and hopefully you can take this model and export it to the rest of the of our region as well. In the US Virgin Islands, we have a constitutional convention, our sixth constitutional convention seeking to draft a constitution for the territory, but in the end it's still a territory. So it will be a constitution with a territory as as opposed to a constitution without a a territory without a constitution. Um I think that's essentially what our approach of at least we're moving in the direction. Eventually we will we will be able to address the question of our political status.
We often witnessed in all of our territories to a mindset that the dependency status only needs to be tweaked a bit, modernized perhaps through changes in languages, titles and and so on. But with no real change in the imbalance of political power, many are convinced to accept the path of dependency reform and modernization as the safest benevolent path. But how then do we respond to the challenge laid down by our elder DrWam Krummer who reminded us that and I quote, "It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else." close quotes. But Dr. Enruma also observed that existing colonies may linger on with intendent ramifications.
Dear friends, by by way of conclusion, I would suggest that the dilemma of many small island territories as our own, if indeed it is seen as a dilemma, is a result of waiting too long to emerge from the status quo, which can represent an increasingly slippery slope. It is important to emphasize that self-determination is a transformative process. Dependency modernization does not yield transformation.
Rather, it is a way to legitimize political inequality to normalize it to make it more acceptable.
The present state of our dependencies in the Caribbean, even in the most benevolent and sophisticated forms, do not constitute the full measure of self-government. But these arrangements have been in place for a long time. We may have grown accustomed to in to the inherent inequality. We should be unsurprised that inequality is a requirement of these arrangements. If it were not in if they were not unequal, we would not be territories.
In a final analysis, the process of self-determination leading to decolonization is our unfinished business. No one else. The process is incomplete. We have to complete it.
There are alternative paths that can be taken. Each territory should determine their own path.
The determination should be made through objective assessment if we are to advance through a genuine process of self-determination to reach its natural conclusion and to reach the final stage of our emancipation.
As Bob Marley would say, until that day, I thank you once again for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you on this momentous occasion of emancipation.
As I said, onward forward. May God bless you all. May God bless the people of Angula. May God bless this sacred land.
Thank you.
[applause] some more appreciation please.
[applause] And I'm sure we have a lot to think about.
And uh one of the things we have to think about is are we stagnating or strategically thinking where are we now?
We have questions now for Dr. Carbin.
We'll give him a moment to refresh himself and you to collect your thoughts and you can ask him any question or share any takeaway that you have from this very important session that we have shared today.
An important takeaway for me would be how this situation continues to evolve.
And now what is being exploited is our strategic geographical placement rather than our enshrined rights. So that's where the debate is which is greater now and of course this is from different perspectives because we know where we live and how important it is to us. Do we think about it as a strategic geographical placement or do we prefer to prioritize our enshrined rights? your thoughts, your sharing, your questions.
And I have Mr. Gums and uh there was a charge to teachers in the presentation.
So I guess he's standing to defend himself.
Um, um, one of the biggest arguments about emancipation in the Caribbean is that uh, the highest economies of the Caribbean seem to be overseas territories. So there's this argument that the overseas territories are developing at a faster rate than uh, depend uh, independent countries. So what's your response to that? Uh, doctor Well, I think um there are many ways to determine that. If you would look at for example uh the question of uh whose economy uh are we speaking about um in terms of territories generally uh are also constrained from from certain aspects of their development. So the type of development for example is something which uh territories have to to actually address but they don't have necessarily and we as a generally speaking we do not have the the uh form the actual controls and and and powers to proceed with the kind of of uh of of economies that we would like. But if you look at just barely at the just the statistical information, you will find that that is true. In fact, uh we did a study some years ago which examined caraccom countries uh GDP and the countries of uh the uh and al the various overseas territories in in whatever dimension they are and and that was in fact the uh the finding.
>> Thank you Mr. Gums. And we do know it as our lived reality.
But it's a matter of figuring out how to think about it and what does it really mean in the long run and in this baton that we have to pay to pass on in this continued journey. Mr. Foy, >> thank you. Good evening. First of all, let me thank you Dr. Carvin for the um presentation.
My background is economics.
So I'm always concerned about economic self-determination.
And the question that Neil raised speaks to that, right? Um but I don't want to talk so much about that. Oh, what I want to raise is are we making an assumption or what is the assumption we are making about political awareness in relation to the question of self-determination?
I think that that that is important because if if we're going to talk about what what form of self-determination then it be assuming that we the community on a whole is is at a certain level of political consciousness and awareness. So they can understand the difference between going the traditional independence route versus free association versus whatever other um uh uh options there are. And then you have to think about the political, the cultural, the economic and all of those social and all of those aspects, right? But I would say this that the level of awareness isn't there.
So one of the first steps we got to take is how do we raise that awareness people going about their daily lives the first and most important thing for them is living their standard of living right some some writers in economics talk about the materialist conception of history that is what is dominating us we start with the materialistic aspect I going to run two jobs to get car and this kind of And I ain't too concerned about the culture and the the link to the past and the future and so on. So so that that is my concern that even before we get into the roots of the options we need to raise political awareness. So political education. So this kind of event once a year is not enough right? We need to have and not just this kind of event more often but in the schools I know that people in history do their various things. What is the library doing in in in regard to that?
The library is is is is is an can be an important instrument in this process of raising awareness political, cultural, economic, who we are etc etc. and how historically what he did in ' 67 for example is resonating today. Quick example, we all talking about AI and the money angular getting from having the the the country domain AI, but we couldn't get that if we if we didn't have 67.
we would have been in a different political arrangement where that air would not have been a country code uh uh um domain that sink neg the historians also in school need to look at how we link what happened in the past even though when it happened one couldn't predict aai But perhaps when you really make the right decisions, there's a way history reveals itself to you and you'll get benefits that you never even dreamed of.
Whereas when you make the wrong decisions, you end up with problems, etc., etc. So even as we talk about the question of self-determination, we should be aware of the need to be very careful about the kinds of decisions we make in terms of the kind of country that we want to um really have as ultimately a country where we determine what we want and we have the freedom and the rights and everything to do it.
Sorry for talking so long, but it's the kind of thing that exercises my mind all the time.
>> Thank you so much. [applause] Thank you very much. And you said a lot there and I had some of those questions and concerns myself. How aware or how concerned are we as individuals and individual households? I think individuals and households are as Mr. voice said concerned about their own issues, their own material levels, their ability to take cruises or not rather than these questions that we are here thinking about tonight. So how do we get that change and emancipation lecture as important as it is needs to amplify and multiply so that we could talk more and understand the options more and and before I get to Dr. Brooks, I wanted to say that it resonates in cyber space as well because as we know, Sir Hillary Beckles and his team went to the UK not too long ago, maybe about two weeks ago, and they promoted the fact that the CARACOM reparations um plan had a new addition which included deconalization as Dr. Carvin said and that was published and I think that there were responses on social media. I didn't see them but I heard about it with people asking them so when did you ask us?
This is our business and you're making decisions for us which means that they're not really concerned about what sir Hillary Beckles is concerned about.
So those are things to think about as well. we who are here and other people in our spheres of influence. What are our thoughts about this? Because again, if you call it self-determination, it can't be somebody deciding for you. You have to be part of the conversation. Dr. Brooks, >> thank you uh doctor for your presentation. I think it was very informative and uh gives us a lot of material to think about. But I would like to talk about um economics. Um brother Foy spoke about his concern about economics.
In the early 70s, Dr. um Mr. Stokeley Carmichael came to a college and he gave us a lecture and one of the things he said was that he who controls the means of production controls he who consumes the product. We have to think about that he who controls the means of production controls he who consumes the product.
as independent countries. If we talk about self-determination in the Caribbean, the same thing happened in Africa.
The European countries who coloniz the means of production, stripped us of what we have. What do we have? A human resource. And in regards to the Caribbean, all the Caribbean islands basically have the same thing.
Beautiful beaches, now tourism.
Jamaica had box site. Um, but what do we have to exchange? We have nothing to exchange. So when we talk about independence, independence, how do we define it? How do we define independence?
America America became independent from from the British government, England. No taxation without representation.
What is it that we have that will allow us to be independent as Caribbean countries? We have nothing. So it means therefore then that uh strategic thinking and planning still limits us in that there is a ceiling of which we cannot go above because we do not have the means of production.
We have 200 I I understand and and correct me. have 200 um miles of sea water or something like that out there.
And my understanding also is that uh the Japanese and other foreign countries come and fish in our fish in our lands.
And we can just we'll talk about it that they pay probably have re harvest millions and millions of dollars. So as a tiny island Anguila and a dependent country of Britain, what is it that Britain is doing for us when we have those resources that can provide economics, a better economic situation, a better standard of living?
Nothing. we don't have the means to be able to control those waters.
So my concern is is it somewhat of a um a nice thing, a good thing to be strategic, can go to school and and and we study and we come up with ideas.
But independence, how do you define independence from Caribbean countries? You see what is going on in Africa?
The colonists, even the independent so-called countries in Africa still have to do what?
Get a hand out from their former colonist. Why? And that is because the college provides certain economic uh benefits for them. So therefore they are tied they are trapped.
Your thoughts?
[applause] Yes.
I I think you make a very good point as the speaker prior to you also I I take them in succession. Um the speaker prior mentioned Mr. Foy I think yes mentioned um key point the need for education, the need for awareness and and having an event such as this is monumental on an annual basis but of course trying to replicate it regularly is of would be would take would require a great deal of strategy in in order to do that. But we have something at the United Nations which is adopted every year and that is called a political education program to heighten the awareness of people in the territories about the options available to them.
There are also programs that relate to the the second point regarding the education right regard rather economics and in order to determine the actual value of the country requires it's a very significant economic analysis and we have top people that can do that. we can bring them together in order to assist in determining a study on what actually we do have because there's a lot that we don't know we have and in fact reference to the Japanese fishing that's been going on for a long time and you know we we have to be able to identify that and we don't have the resources obviously to police it necessarily but there are other there are other ways is to do that by confronting them. For example, >> um if you wish to confront the Japanese regarding fishing rights where they're fishing illegally perhaps in the waters, they will they may not want to wish to talk to us because we have we're not sovereign people.
They will talk to the sovereign about that. We don't know what the discussion will be. Sometimes that happen and and so we we also have things which our territory our geography uh makes creates revenue for abroad not for ourselves. I I work with again with French Polynesia which has 5 million square kilometers of Pacific Ocean.
They are seeking to identify how much the French take from the overflights.
Every time a plane flies through their their airspace, there's a there's a fee associated with that. Where does that go? It doesn't go to French Polynesia.
It goes to France. Same thing with cargo ships. Same thing with ships going through their waters. The fees on that do not go to the people. Goes to France.
So the Fenon talked about this wretched of the earth.
He talked about the territories being a market but he also talked about the territories being a a generator of revenue and the people are not familiar with that. So these are the kinds of things that can be unveiled and to give you a true picture of your e economic value and and that also gives you leverage in terms of the the negotiations that you may enter into about more autonomy or what have you.
But there are many things that can be un unveiled by an assessment examination of this on the economic level particularly as well as other other areas um other areas of revenue that that being generated that are silent. We're not even aware of what they are or how much they are things of that nature. These are things which can increase our awareness and enhance our awareness and give us more confidence in terms of how we may wish to proceed um moving forward. I think that basically my my response.
>> Thank you for that. And as another speaker comes to the mic, I think we can paraphrase all that and say that strategic thinking can set us free. And also I would like to add to that that we should not think about economics only for ourselves as might be the case in the present but to think of future generations because we stand on the backs of past generations who sacrifice to make sure that we have what we have and I think that the that selflessness might have gone away from us and we don't think so much of future generations like a country like Norway because they're rich right now, but they don't act it because they're thinking not only of now, but of their future generations. Mr. Hajj, >> good night. Thank you, doctor, for your presentation.
Um, I think the chairperson mentioned strategic thinking or stagnation.
In my opinion, I think and this is specific to Angular, we are swimming in a sea of complacency, a place of comfort, our zone of comfort in so far as thinking about moving on.
And in so doing, I think we are doing ourselves a disservice.
Mr. If I would have spoken about the um the economic side of it and how things are in other countries, comparison has been made about ourselves and other independent territories and where we are where we are today.
We may feel that we are in a good place.
However, things change and we have seen a lot of changes in recent time in terms of the economic standing of different countries. Today we have a number of islands or dependent countries who are whose economic standing has changed recently. Guyana for example. So while we think that we are doing good today, tomorrow we might find ourselves in the other situation. And with our thinking, I think for future generations, if we do not prepare them, we have may very well be doing them a disservice.
[applause] >> Me again.
>> Okay, [laughter] >> I won't be so long this time. I just wanted to respond to um a comment that um Dr. Brooks, the speaker right after me, the um said about uh we have nothing.
We got something apart from apart from the physical and the in and the um intellectual resources like um telephone numbers and system and all of that.
We got brain power.
We got brain power.
The difference often that happens in the world is not just your physical resources, is your brain power. So education is absolutely vital. Not just political education.
But first of all, having a vision of what a little place could do if it develops the brain power of its people.
I do believe actually that we angle have done a number of things maybe by accident if we hadn't thought it through properly. Right? That says to me that if we would really develop our brain power, we could do a whole lot more. And I'm glad that that you mentioned um chair about Norway. We really need to study Norway. NA has the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
Twice the second biggest$2 trillion US.
The Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund accounts for 1.5% of all global financial investments.
The per capita value of the NA wealth fund is $340,000 US per person.
They don't really call it a sovereign wealth fund. You know why they call it?
Pension fund. A pension fund. When when they came up with the idea of the siren fund, they named it a pension fund because the driver in their thinking was the safety and the security of the next generations, >> right?
[applause] >> Hey Doc, nice to see you again. Thank you for recognizing me by my white.
But uh before I have before I make my contribution, I really want to congratulate you for being such an apostle on this issue of self-determination.
Uh when we think of great apostles, we think of St. Paul marching all over the from Tarsus to Jerusalem to Philippi to Corinth and on to Rome. you seem to be walking in his footsteps in terms of global advocacy on this issue and I want to applaud you for your [applause] for your advocacy and for your diligence and for your commitment.
So to back up my good comrade Marcel on his point of awareness which I think is crucial because I'm not an economist like him.
The blunt as I think we all know the blunt answer to his concern is that we are ready when it comes to awareness. We are not ready. But here's the thing that burns me up in terms of that very issue.
Angula could be far more ready than it is because of the uniqueness of our history with respect to self-determination.
No other island in the Caribbean, and I dare say no other island in the world did what we did in 1967.
[applause] And the audacity of what we did is just incredible when you really think through the ramifications of what could have happened to those leaders in 1967 and the people who rooted for them if they had failed. That is an enormously powerful example to us less than two generations later. We're not talking about 1834.
We talking about 1967.
And I've al always been concerned about Angula Day in its the way we celebrate it. And and I'll tell you, I said I made a I I I I had a radio broadcast on this very issue years and years and years ago. Of course, nobody took me on, but that's okay. That's um in that in that we love Angular Day. We all do.
and hundreds if not thousands of people turn out on the park to listen to our premier or our chief ministers at the time say what they have to say and celebrate then and then we go on to watch a good boat race. All right.
And we stop we don't stop to reme realize that how we celebrate on the park is a colonial throwback with the police right down to the boys brigade. And you don't have to tell me because when I was a little fellow in Sis in the boys brigade, I had to march past the administrator with his plume feathers and his sword. Give him the eyes. Right.
Okay. So it's a colonial throwback that we have mixed with one of the most radical revolutionary moves that any small society 6,000 people at the time 6,500 and pulled it off. So the seeds and the groundwork for raising awareness which Marcel so correctly raised is crucial along with your very good point about the strategic thinking.
What the other thing and I really really like you to speak to to this is that of the three formal United Nations endorsed methodologies for self-determination integration and free association and independence.
We know in Angola that integration ain't going to happen with us. I think we smart enough to realize we ain't doing that. We're not going down the St. Bart's road. But independence as touched on by Mr. comes has almost evolved in in in in our culture as almost a porative position.
Yeah. If you go independent and there's a mindset there's a mindset in I don't want to accuse the older generation but it may be correct to say that the mindset that you don't want to go there but free association has never ever been explored in the possibility the possibilities of that um mechanism [clears throat] if I may put it that way and in your lecture just now Um, you mentioned examples of free association that quite frankly I must admit I was unaware of. What I would like you to to respond to is what more can you tell us about that? Because I think that if our leaders if our political leaders were were were to push to make the strategic shift from saying we ain't going independence, we're going to free association. If we could defi, if we could define that more clearly to the people, perhaps the awareness of what it means to be an Angrilian and what it means to be a free people and what it means to have stood on the shoulders of our ancestors, you know, way back who built this church right through to those ancestors in our lifetime who had made such a revolutionary and successful move in 1967.
I think that free association is undervalued or perhaps misunderstood and if you could speak with your apostolic experience on this issue I'd appreciate it. Thank you.
[applause] Thank you sir.
We had this discussion 20 years ago and right here in Angola when it was presented as an option and the ministering powers who were represented at the meetings the British the French mainly um said yes of course we offer that but then they turned around and said no we don't offer it and therefore limiting the opp options to and of course integration was also not on on offer either. So the only thing was independence but with a caveat that it'd be immediate. So not even with a timetable you know but but obviously it was a trap essentially to and either today's discourse is independence or if you wish to remain the same these are the parameters that you have to exist under and that is essentially the position.
Now before I get into that, you you you call me an apostle.
I'm wondering if I'm not Don Kiotei. I [laughter] But there are many options of um preassociation and even not even in the context of what they're actually named because names are unimportant in these things. my former boss, my favorite governor of the US Virgin Islands, Alexander Anthony Farrell, who you all know, I'm sure, um, used to say, "It doesn't matter what you call it. What matters is the elements of it." And, and so, you have models which we looked at and we have been looking at for a while.
Uh, my favorite model is is is now been uh, tarnished a bit. Greenland has been tarnished for totally other reasons reasons having nothing to do with their their their arrangement except to say that their arrangement with Denmark is very very unique in that they have elements of integration and elements of association. They have their own to uh totally self-governing internally. There actually is a listing of areas that they control and a listing of areas which are are administered jointly and mainly defense and foreign affairs to some degree but they also have significant foreign affairs as well. they control their their natural resources even though we're all supposed to control our natural resources by virtue of the United Nations but lack of awareness then we we we don't force that issue but certainly uh my other model and I and of course Greenland being because US Virgin Islands was once the Danish West Indies and the treaty that transferred the Danish West Indies to the United States for 25 million in gold in 1917 included a reference to Greenland in in the treaty as a as one of the addendums to the treaty which effectively said that Greenland would the US would agree that Denmark would maintain Greenland.
And now a lot of that is un unraveling in the basis of uh the uh interest in acquiring Greenland by any means necessary perhaps. Um now my my other model favorite model is is Cook Islands and it's an important model for us in the region because that's within the Commonwealth. Okay. And the model of of green of um of of Greenland of course includes shared citizenship which is very interesting because the the US model does not have that and I'll get to that shortly. Uh the Cook Islands has also shared citizenship with New Zealand and they have full internal self-government with the exception of defense and no independent state if it's purely independent state in today's world as a small island independent country is control of their defense really. They may control their internal security, but anything in relation to e external threats will always be in reference to a an agreement a defense agreement signed either regionally with the regional security system or or even further field. So independence as I mentioned in in the in the presentation independence is interdependence because in fact in today's world it it it just has to be that way. No one is isolated anymore.
Whereas once we were very isolated and that and what that was one of the dangers perceptions the dangerous perceptions about being a small island state separated from the other from the mother country existing on your own you know the story but that is not the case anymore for so in the independ the control of and I'm not an advocate for anything as I tried to be as neutral as possible because I teach class I can't be give you my real story. But I do like free association like um [laughter] but the idea of course that you studying these models is very very useful to determining that and one can devise a model specifically for any territory and it's an upgrade.
It it's it's not considered to be a rejection. It's it's a lot of it is a psychological uh we're not rejecting anyone. We're just upgrading the relationship to a real true partnership in that case because the partnership that we speak of today, these arrangements, we're partners, but one one partner has more power than the other. No, that's not a partnership. That's something else. I there's a phrase for it, but I won't use it. I'm in the church.
>> Mr. Richardson, >> Ray Richardson, >> Ray Richardson, Mr. Caris Ray Richardson. I think I got it right now.
>> Good night everybody. Um, I just had some questions regarding the topic. Um, I like everything that everybody said, but I want to be very specific to Angular contexts. Um there was a previous vice president of Zambia who spoke about handling their independence and making sure that being careful because colonizers would come back in the form of investors.
>> I want to be very specific to the tourism industry.
Um the late Kville Petty he would have specified in his book bless our phobias >> he's very much alive sorry yes um in his book bless he would have specified that during the 21st century hotels and the expansion of them would have caused the erosion of anguilian on consciousness basically in land ownership and that and that he specified that land and he was very let's see if good and he was very specific with our understanding that land is power economic and political and that the current projection that Angula took with tourism and having foreign investors own land leaseold freehold instead of it being lease hold would have been a problem going forward for Angular's future. Um I particularly believe that just how we talk about AI being a natural resource before that land was considered the number one resource in Angula and when I was interviewing for my dissertation Mr. Fi taught me about um commanding heights of the economy and I think Angula needs to consider land as one of our commanding heights of our economy.
I want to know what is your thoughts on the projection of not just Angula but Caribbean governments when it comes to hotels in the Caribbean and how those governments should go forward because it's really the when we're talking about consciousness the first contact with any foreign investor is the government so it's really the ministers past or present who should have that also level of consciousness when they are going through laws whether they are revising them or choose not to whether willfully or not and yeah hear me. Okay. [laughter] Yeah. laws that need to be revised or may have not been revised whether willfully or not and kind of like the projection of labor relations, beach access as we see with Jamaica.
What are your thoughts in how those governments should go forward? Because the industry when we talk about decolonization, we can't talk about it without industry.
>> We're talking about economy. The number one economy or the number one industry in Angula is tourism. How are we managing that and how should we be managing that going forward?
[applause] >> Well, thank you for that. Um I mean our territories generally in the Caribbean with respect to a few uh our economies are tourism related and therein lies a particular question of issues related to who owns the the tourism industry within our territories. Is it in some instances um and in most cases certainly uh foreign investment is necessary. The nature of the foreign investment the kinds of arrangements uh the contracts the the requirements for uh local employment and management these kinds of things are all part of that process. So it becomes a real partnership.
um if if if it works well, it's a partnership. If it if it doesn't work so well, then there are ways to to address it. Um, but certainly for us, I recall in years ago, I I date myself now, Michael Manley was the prime minister of Jamaica. And I recall that there was a a major hotel that folded in Jamaica, you know, hundreds of workers, you know, employees and so on. So the government took it over and ran it for a period until such time as they were able to find a foreign investor. Okay. So there there's those kinds of things that governments can government input to ensure that people are not displaced in a situation where that happens. has happened to us in in the US Virgin Islands as well uh where uh hotel closed from one day to the next you know and and do we have controls in place to address that do to protect the workers the unions are involved it's a very complicated as you well know I'm sure a very complicated process uh Mr. Foy would be more capable of elaborating on it because of his economic acument. Uh for me I see it more in the in the context that our economies generally are also include we also include foreign investment in that mix and in order for us to ensure that we're able to control the society. I get a sense that the econ the tourism economy in Anguila is largely angrilian and I today I I I had an opportunity to ride around with one of my good friends and I was shown different hotels, different restaurants and I remember from my time coming to Angula before every restaurant that I that I I ate in was was Angulian owned restaurant. So if you compare Angilla to to other territories, you'll find almost an absence of local ownership. And so that's something that is uh really disturbing, you know, in in in many ways. But at the same time, tourism is key, but also having only a singular industry is very difficult. Uh there are times when one can focus also on other areas of the economy fisheries in some cases agriculture uh the linkage between agriculture and the tourism industry. So you make sure that the local industry, the local agriculture can input into the tourism industry which means that that is a a much more valuable uh input and and you get much more out of it as opposed to the importation uh which is probably necessary but at the same time uh it doesn't have to be totally dependent upon that. Oh yeah sir, >> good evening sir. How are you doing?
Um yeah, we've collaborated in the past and it's good to see you back again.
Um I want to you spoke just before this last presentation last question about models and um I think Mr. Foy in his last question talked about models.
The revolutionary leader of Anguela, the father of the nation as we all know, the honorable James Webster actually put forward his vision for future Angilla which I have never heard anybody politician or or otherwise pick up and promote or discuss anywhere.
his model was a different form of integration. So we talk about integration, you talked about integration, he talked about um other models but his model which he proposed it's in writing it is it is there in his books he proposed that the small islands around Angilla which together singly would singularly whatever is the correct word would not be um able to go it on its own. And remember I'm talking this he he'd have written this uh maybe 20 years ago or so but his model was Anguila St. Martin French St. Martin Dutch Sabre Stacia um St. Barts together. I'm not sure if he brought the British Virgin Islands or the US Virgin Islands into it. I can he could check that. But that was his model and and yeah, I guess you can expand it to bring in the US and British Virgin Islands and the Spanish virgins which they now which now they now call them which Angola of course um control at tried to control at one point the Spanish virgins. Um so what do you think of that possibility?
Of course, we have issues with the colonial powers. You know, you can an Angulian fisherman cannot go 5 miles, you go one foot into their they they arrest them, right? Or they they they seize their boats or they threaten to seize their boats and take their take their um their their catch.
So obviously there are those higher powers which might mitigate or which might which might you know against this but if we are to be the authors of our own destiny if we are to walk towards self-determination then um perhaps that is one of the ways which like I said has not I have never seen seen anybody discuss it. I've never heard anybody debate what Mr. Webster said as his vision and he is the one the primary leader who um as Mr. Foy said brought us to this point. So just want to put that for us.
Wow. Yes. Thank you. [applause] that does um reveal the idea of of that and and the point you raised regarding the integration of the of the territories presently. Uh we we have a a form known as confederation, right? which means that each individual territory would not lose its individuality but they would agree to a common authority in certain areas and it would ease the questions of movement of people and and so on. Um I I have heard of this idea with respect to the islands in this area part and part of the region. We tried something in the British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands years ago uh under Governor Farley at the time and also under Governor under uh chief minister Havi Stout at that time and the idea was a confederation between the two confederation of the Virgin Island, the greater Virgin Islands what we called it. Um, of course the British and the Americans were, you know, not too pleased that we would actually have the audacity to discuss something like that.
But as Governor Farley would say, do until I tell you otherwise. And that's that was his mandate to me as his minister. and we we established a confedereral arrangement but we ran out of time and he and the office and the next government didn't take it up but the idea was is still there in principle. Uh you can start with two and you can add one and you and we also had an interesting discussion about adding a gorilla during that period because of our closeness you know geographic ties, family ties, historical ties, all of that. Um but you know again you're not losing the individuality but you have pooling resources in certain areas which is always beneficial which would then regularize travel transportation. I used to be able to come to Angilla on on Liat very quickly or air Angilla for example but it's a little more difficult to get here now. It's more difficult to travel in the region today than it was 20 years ago. So these are the kinds of things that are very interesting. You take a country like Indonesia, thousands of islands, but they were able to maintain and still maintain a very viable country by the the kind of linkages that they have developed over time. So it's very doable in my in in my view. I would think that you would have also some considerations regarding the administering countries uh because they may not wish to lose what they have and part of it once again is the whole geostrategic geoeconomic situation for them but that should not necessarily you know dissuade us from having that discussion amongst ourselves and invariably the OEC is was initially looking at something similar to that. It didn't evolve to that, but the idea was there and and in many ways they do function in in a in a in a block. One of the things that they do which I think is very admirable and this has been going on since when Dr. Von Lewis was the director general of OECS and that is to have to purchase pharmaceutical products in a block. As a result, obviously the cost is goes way down. If we could replicate that in other commodities and things of that nature and even begin to produce and exchange and look at our own integration, economic integration within our islands in terms of what someone produces that we could purchase or even exchange in a barter situation versus what we have to p buy from coming out of Miami. these kinds of things. There have been discussions on this for a while and and uh the kind of information that came out of those discussions is what we need to be able to leave for our younger generation will come after because these ideas are still still ripe in my view.
>> Okay, we'll have one more comment contribution from the audience before we begin to wrap up for this evening. I must thank our presenter >> for that excellent presentation. Those of us who been around as youngsters with the 1967 revolution that we've heard people spoke about a bloodless revolution.
Okay. And being a trade unionist a member of the Angula National Council of Women, a group that formed here for women for over four years. Some of us are in church groups. We are the same faces we see everywhere. And I was enlightened when I saw these young person, younger generations coming up and spoke the way they spoke.
And I would encourage those the organizers to take something like this to the school particularly the Albina Lake Comprehensive School. I used I retired as a school education welfare officer and when you go to the um an assembly not for the whole the whole school but you say gone to the six form or they have PSC sessions that so and you'll be surprised to see just how one or two youngsters got up and say something because I know these youngsters in school and I'm impressed and I'm sure that if you all go out there and carry things like this we have the human resources one of the things being a trade unionist right and as We are saying union here now like it gone sleep some people saying this and saying that but the union has already made things put things in place for future generations to carry on right you spoke about the pharmaceuticals coming in and blocking all these things so everything that was said there tonight I was a little girl then but I'm now over 70 so I can relate to everything that that has been said you talk about handley manly and all these [laughter] people being a trade unionist. I travel and I meet all these kind of people and whatnot. But here we have a thing of trying to muzzle the ox and I'm one of those who's always speak out whether in church or wherever.
Okay. I try to get a gossip, you know, but I would really like to see things like this go on even to our community college. We have people have um there and I'm sure we'll have younger people so that people like me will not have to be speaking at certain things but just be there as physical presence. Thank you very much.
[applause] >> And thank you very much for that. And it it really does tie in with how we should wrap up. And I just have a takeaway question or two. And the first one is well, we know that the story is not static. It's dynamic. It continues to evolve. So, I want us to consider, have we evolved from the mouse that roared to a comfortable anomaly?
That's one of our takeaway questions.
And I want to remind us that we were here for the emancipation lecture which commemorates also the 196th anniversary of the Ebenea Methodist Chapel and the 192nd commemoration of Emancipation Day.
I want Yes. [applause] I want to borrow a sentence from Dr. Carbin. He said, and this is important for us to take away as well. Our history does not begin with slavery.
That's important for us to know. And we should also consider that there was that horrible inhumane time called slavery.
And yet we sit here.
That's important. So my last question is what will we pass on to the next generation that they will express gratitude to us for things to think about. But to end this event I will now call on Miss Avan Karti from the Malana poetry committee and she will be followed by Mr. Sanford Richardson, steward of Ebeneza Methodist Chapel. And they will both bring expressions of appreciation and that will end this very important event. Have a good evening all.
[applause] Good evening everyone. My expression is simply to do a presentation. So don't be fooled by the fancy word. It is my distinct pleasure and I humbly do this on behalf of the organizing committee of the Malioana competition to present to Dr. Corbyn on such a beautiful and stimulating evening. I think we'll all leave here that much wiser and more thoughtful to present to him on our behalf the small token of our appreciation.
>> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
>> And uh on behalf of the committee again, I want to thank our so very eloquent and competent chair lady for leading us this evening. Thank you, sister-in-law.
Congratulations. [applause] [applause] I have 4 minutes to 9:00.
Someone once said it a vote of thanks is not an opportunity to make a speech.
So with that in mind, here goes.
As we come to the end of another evening and I may de I dare say a wonderful evening of reflection in commemoration of emancipation in this the 196th anniversary year of the Ebeneza Chapel.
The Malana poetry emancipation lecture organizing committee includes persons like Avan Carti, Anakah Hughes, Skola Harris, John Z Webster, Renee Henry, and Dr. Phyllis Fleming Banks and this Abeneia congregation.
We'd like to thank our wonderful, eloquent presenter, Dr. Carly Corbin.
>> [applause] >> for your very dynamic, informationp packed and timely presentation.
Since you're an Australia to Angular, we look forward to having you again even if you just come just to relax.
Yeah. Freely free association. Yeah, we want to thank Reverend Wilma Haj as well, pastor of our congregation for the inspiring invocation as well, taking us before God's throne of grace.
And our dear Mrs. Rita Celestine Carti for so a chairing the proceedings. Every time I hear Rita chair, she she does it differently. [applause] Well done the Ebeneza family for continuing to support this annual lecture series and of course Mrs. Stella Gums and [clears throat] Elliot Gums representatives of our dear Dr. Richie Gums. I think he would have been very pleased if he were here physically tonight. I recall Vote of thanks. You don't give speeches.
I recall at one of our church senate conferences, Reverend Gums preached a sermon entitled God's mathematics.
God's mathematics.
And one of the things he was pointing out is that if he were yet, Ebenezer was a made of stone. Every one of these stones have a story to tell and they may not be all very nice stories, but it's a story to tell anyhow.
And just like all of us who have been here tonight and we have listened, we too have a story to tell. And we be reminded all night that we have a part to play in ensuring that we leave Angilla better for the next generation to come.
Sorry about that. I just had to do it.
[laughter] Roots Bingi Aminesa Men's Fellowship and Cla Rami for the continuing contribution to the music. We want to thank you very much. [applause] Then of course, yeah, there are those persons who can't come or choose not to come here physically. So you want to thank the media, the Angilian newspaper, including Mrs. Janisa Fleming, Red Angilla, I I said something wrong.
Red Angilla who carried the proceedings live.
Lloyd's live.
Class FM, Cool FM, Upbeat Radio, Calypso Charters, and Caribbean Sundries. We want to thank the media for projecting the message tonight.
[applause] The Muna technical team did an excellent job. All of them are working overtime tonight. We give God thanks for you.
[applause] Our colleagues at the Angulan Angula Library Service, the Department of Youth and Culture and the Department of Education say thank you as well. I must say though that we need to single out those persons who really got up and ask questions and made comments. It it makes a difference to the presenter when speech is given, lectures given and persons are able to comment and to ask questions to enhance the exercise.
Most importantly, we especially thank you the audience, those who have joined us at the historic Abenea and those who joined us online for sharing in this experience.
Another important partner in all this is the social security represented by whom?
All of us. Oh yeah. You want to thank the members of social security for their input in the exercise as well. So another lecture has ended but our work of awareness continues. God bless you. Have a wonderful night.
[applause] Benediction. Sorry.
>> Thank you. Uh can I invite you to stand for the benediction.
And now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever more. Amen.
[music] Heat.
Heat. [music]
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