It was an important aspect of the enslavement process in Africa, primarily West Africa, for the personal and institutional memories of the new African slaves to be destroyed by the Europeans. By the time those Africans, chained in the bottoms of slave ships, who survived the horror of the trip across the Atlantic, reached the so-called New World, they were beginning to lose consciousness of their families, their languages, their tribes, their skills, their religions, and their ancestral homes. Their very names were obliterated, and the process of psychic destruction began.
There are people in Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, New Orleans, and Belize who share the same ancestors in West Africa three and four hundred years ago. Today, in Haiti the descendants of slaves speak French; in Cuba, they speak Spanish; in New Orleans, they speak English; and in Jamaica and Belize, we speak whatever.
We have been successfully separated by the slavemaster, but a regional natural disaster like Gustav should remind us that we have African relatives in this region outside of our national boundaries. Gustav ignored national borders, bypassed all immigrations and Customs. Gustav needed no visa, and Gustav did not discriminate.
Over the weekend, we were struck by the indifference, near callousness, with which the American television commentators treated the fact that the Cuban people were being shelled by Gustav on Saturday night. The Cuban government evacuated a quarter million people from the western side of Cuba, and therefore suffered no Cuban casualties. There were a number of injuries, but no casualties. The cost to the struggling Cuban government and people will be enormous, nevertheless, in the areas of infrastructure, homes, agriculture, fisheries, factories, and so on. There is no doubt that Gustav caused a human crisis in Cuba, but the United States media showed no concern. That is because of political and ideological differences between Cuba and the United States. Cold-blooded.
The American concern was all about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the U.S. In Belize, we care much about New Orleans. It is a place to which many of our Belizean people, especially those of a lighter skin color, migrated from even before World War II. Many of these former Belizeans live in the parishes outside of New Orleans proper, like Slidell, Metairie, and so on.
What Katrina did in 2005, however, was expose to Belize, and indeed the world, how many millions of impoverished, black people lived in New Orleans and took a cruel shelling from Katrina. It was pitiful. Despite the United States’ surpassing wealth and power, New Orleans was ill-prepared for Katrina. The federal government of U.S. President George Bush fouled up from beginning to end. When you hear of hurricanes creating havoc along the American Gulf Coast – from Texas to Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama to Florida, historically the majority of the casualties are poor black Americans. You saw that for yourselves, for the very first time, with Katrina. Straight like that.
Because they have a presidential election in two months time, U.S. President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made a big thing out of skipping the Republican national convention in Minnesota to concentrate on Gustav. Listen, three years after Katrina, Bush and Cheney still have not properly repaired the New Orleans levees which were broken by Katrina. They didn’t care enough, because it was mostly us at risk. And we are saying “us,” because we are the same people in Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, New Orleans, and Belize.
It’s a pity we have to put a race spin on this s—, but it’s real. In the larger sense, the Gustav’s of our region should emphasize for us, as human beings, that we are all children of God, and that we are frail and vulnerable. After the relief whenever a Category Five dodges Belize, like Mitch in 1998 and Felix in 2007, we Belizeans should spend more time, apart from being grateful, considering the fact that our escape was someone else’s catastrophe. And remember, we’re all around us. In Honduras and Nicaragua, even though most Belizeans didn’t begin to know this until 30 years ago, there are many of us who take a bad part of the lick when there is national disaster. Gustav brings a lesson with it, Belizean people. Let’s stretch out our hands to our brethren and sistren around us in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Whether you know it or not, some of them are actually our African blood relatives. For real.