'We can’t expect our leaders to lead the fight for decolonisation'- Troy E. Christopher
“We say to ourselves that we like to see our leaders within the Westminster system of government having this discussion, but you must realise that those discussions are not allowed to be had in that type of an open way in a colonial system.
“So those discussions must happen from the people themselves, those of us who understand to organise must organise and come together and dominate the media space with the education. It can’t happen in the colonial system because the colonial system wasn’t designed for that to happen,” Mr Christopher stated on Umoja on ZBVI 780 AM on Thursday, November 28, 2024, when the topic of the programme was ‘The March Continues’.
The VI celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Great March of 1949 on Sunday, November 24, 2024, with a march through Road Town, beginning from the Road Town Bandstand and proceeding to Sir Olva Georges Plaza, along Main Street.
VI’s ‘shortcoming’
“Whenever our leaders begin to talk about these things they going to be attacked. You have to expect that. Our shortcoming is keep saying that our leaders should be the ones who will do that,” Mr Christopher emphasised.
The guest on Umoja said the people must know that the work to achieve decolonisation is theirs and that the leaders can lend support. He gave the example of the famous march Wickham’s Cay march of 1968 led by the late Noel Lloyd and others and noted that then Chief Minister H. Lavity Stoutt supported the demonstrators behind the scenes. “It was important for the movement to come from the people.”
‘The critical mass’ absent- Cromwell Smith
Co-host Mr Cromwell Smith aka Edju En Ka lamented that while some persons continue to speak about decolonisation, the critical mass is not behind the movement.
“I think it is time for us to make a concerted effort to really bring that question and those views to the forefront.”
Co-host Shaina M. Smith-Archer said the Virgin Islands must prepare itself and this must be done through education.
“It’s the same way as a child is sent to school to prepare yourself to become an independent adult because they [the parents] felt at some point you should become responsible for yourselves.”
Smith-Archer said there has been a “blatant absence” of educating the people for the past 20 years about self-determination or options available.
See related article below:
We don’t seem ‘to want that relationship with UK to be severed’- Cromwell Smith
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5 Responses to “'We can’t expect our leaders to lead the fight for decolonisation'- Troy E. Christopher”
You can never win a seat , you just lost your mind supporting these morons talking about independence. Look at all the other OTs , they look better, bigger and more advanced than us , and they still OTs. We have nothing, nothing nothing at all to show for our going somewhere. Shame they n you boy.
It is not carts that pull horses uphill, but instead horses pull carts uphill.
Don't allow political given position to blur your judgement any further, if you desire the eligible voters to consider you as a future political leader of the BVI. Be wise man, be wise and "wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove."
Simple put, the people of the BVI are not close to ready for independent. Leave this talk alone until such a time, if the UK agrees with us.