Questions about CARICOM’s designation as the “Sixth Region Of Africa”

By: Dr Kumar Mahabir, 

Chairman, Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC)

Don Miguel Road, San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago

Website: https://indocaribbeanpublications.com

On Sunday October 8, 2023, the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC) hosted its 176th edition of its ZOOM Public Meeting entitled “Interrogating the Declaration of CARICOM as the Sixth Region of Africa” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbUwZ4_9M0). The panellists included Professor Clinton Sutton, Dr. Adit Adityanjee, Professor Emeritus Patricia Mohammed, Dr. Indira Rampersad and Ms Omolora Wilson. 

The speakers referred to releases from UWI, CARICOM and articles in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, and the CARICOM website which featured and acknowledged CARICOM as the “Sixth Region of Africa”. The release from the UWI Regional Headquarters dated September 13, 2023 stated: “Caricom has been designated as the sixth region of the African continent. The region commemorated the second annual Africa-CARICOM Day on September 7, signalling an ongoing commitment to strengthened relationships between the two populations” (https://sta.uwi.edu/news/releases/release.asp?id=22682).

The statement was echoed by the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday of September 20, 2023 which ran the headline, “CARICOM recognized as sixth region of Africa” and stated specifically that “CARICOM has been formallydesignated as the sixth region of the African continent. The declaration was made during the second annual Africa-Caricom Day on September 7th, at the University of the West Indies (UWI) regional headquarters in Jamaica”  (https://newsday.co.tt/2023/09/20/caricom-recognised-as-sixth-region-of-africa/).

In a release issued on July 26, 2023 by CARICOM Today in its CARICOM website, the CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr Carla Barnett, announced: “I am pleased to join you today as part of the African Union’s sixth region for the Annual Global Africa People-to-People Forum 2023 and to reflect on the Inaugural CARICOM-Africa Summit, which was hosted by His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, then President of Kenya, on 7th September2021. (https://today.caricom.org/2023/07/21/caricom-africa-partnership-making-progress-caricom-sg/).

In light of the above, panellists and members of the audience at the ICC ZOOM Public Meeting raised a number of concerns:

With regards to the release of the University of the West Indies (the UWI), of September 13, 2023: 

  1. Who “designated” CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa”, and when and where was such a “designation” undertaken? 
  1. Did the CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett – who made remarks at the UWI Africa-CARICOM Day celebrations – endorse the “designation” of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa”? 
  1. To what extent does the designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa”, at the Africa-CARICOM Day which was attended and celebrated by the CARICOM Secretary-General, blatantly contradict the description of CARICOM in its website as “a grouping of twenty countries: fifteen Member States  and five Associate Members. It is home to approximately sixteen million citizens, 60% of whom are under the age of 30, and from the main ethnic groups of Indigenous Peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese and Javanese. The Community is multi-lingual; with English as the major language complemented by French and Dutch and variations of these, as well as African and Asian expressions” (https://caricom.org/our-community/who-we-are/).
  1. Does the P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Public Advocacy, headed by the Most Honourable P. J. Patterson, and who also joined in the UWI Africa-CARICOM Day celebrations, recognise the presence of other ethnic groups in the Caribbean, given his statement: “The ethnic origins and commonality of our colonial experience are beyond dispute … it is in recognition of this irrefutable reality that the African Union declared the existence of six regions, and on this special occasion to unite in recognising our shared history and aspirations.”
  • How can the UWI, which is a multi-ethnic regional institution which is publicly funded by contributing Caribbean territories with multi-cultural societies, with the Secretary General of CARICOM, annually celebrate on September 7th, an Africa-Caribbean Day, but has made no overtures towards a complementary celebration of an India-Caribbean Day, a China-Caribbean Day, an European-Caribbean Day, a Latin American-Caribbean Day, and an Indigenous/First Peoples-Caribbean Day, inter alia? 
  • Who funded the Africa-CARICOM Day cultural extravaganza at the UWI Regional Headquarters?
  • Was the UWI community, including the various Campuses and their respective Principals consulted on this Africa-CARICOM Day extravaganza at Mona, and did they agree on the designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa?”
  • Is this part of a UWI and CARICOM agenda to promote African hegemony in the region to the exclusion of other ethnic populations and contributions?

With regards to the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday article of September 20, 2023, in addition to the questions in (1) above: 

  1. How, where and when was CARICOM “formally” designated as the “sixth region of Africa”?
  1. What formalities were observed, and what form did the “Declaration” take? 
  1. Were there signatories to the “Declaration” including those of Heads of Governments, at the UWI Regional Headquarters in Jamaica on Sept 7th?
  1. Does the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday have a political and ethnic agenda in blasting the headline: “CARICOM recognised as “sixth region of Africa”, and then proceeding to deem it a “Declaration”?

With regards to the release from the CARICOM website on July 26, 2023, and the statement from the Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett: 

  1. When was Dr. Barnett (or CARICOM), formally recognized as part of the African Union’s sixth region? Is she endorsing this “sixth region of Africa” as a personal celebration, or on CARICOM’s behalf?
  1. Does the current Chair of CARICOM, the Honourable Roosevelt Skeritt, endorse this designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of the African Union”? Does his statement at the UWI Africa-CARICOM Day celebrations on Sept 7, 2023, suggest an acceptance of CARICOM as Africa’s sixth region. Skerrit stated: “I am confident that our relationship will continue to flourish in the years ahead. Our Community is home to many citizens of the African Diaspora, designated as Africa’s Sixth Region”? (https://today.caricom.org/2023/09/07/statement-from-caricom-chairman-pm-roosevelt-skerrit-on-africa-caricom-day-7-september-2023/)
  1. Did the African Union endorse CARICOM as its sixth region? 
  1. In as much as the African Union deems its diaspora as its sixth region, does CARICOM perceive itself as constituting the entire African diaspora, or part of the diaspora? If the latter is the case, then the designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa”, is geopolitically incorrect. It is also ethnically incorrect as the African diaspora is dispersed throughout the world.
  • Were any referenda conducted either by the UWI, the African Union or by CARICOM of their various populations on “designating” or “declaring” CARICOM its sixth region?
  • On whose authority, was the “designation” or “declaration” made?

Some of the panellists also touched on the issue of reparations. Of particular concern to the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC) are:

  1. The complete lack of inclusion of the non-African communities, both in the CARICOM Reparations Commission headed by UWI’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. Professor Beckles was appointed in 2013 as Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission by then Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago in her capacity as Chair of CARICOM, Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar. He has repeatedly stated that the Reparations Movement builds “upon the historic efforts of past organisations to bring justice to the victims of native genocide, chattel enslavement, and deceptive indentureship”. Yet, there is not one single person of East Indian or Chinese or indigenous descent in the CARICOM Reparations Commission which he heads. This brings into question the very notion of reparatory justice and its inherent ironies.  
  1. The complete exclusion of persons of East Indian descent and all other races despite the fact (or possibly because of the fact) that Indians constitute more than half of the population in Trinidad and Tobago, from the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission on Reparations first constituted in 2015. Moreover, the Commission was reconstituted very recently as reported on October 3, 2023 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago. According to the report, the entities represented in the reconstituted Commission are “the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs; Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts; Tobago House of Assembly (THA); Emancipation Support Committee; Orisha Elders; Santa Rosa First Peoples; All Mansions of Rastafari; Media and Youth. There is no mention of specific representation from the East Indian community, although the Santa Rosa First Peoples are now included (https://foreign.gov.tt/resources/news/appointment-of-trinidad-and-tobagos-reconstituted-national-committee-on-reparations/).
  1. Whether these two Commissions (Regional and Trinidadian) are about genuine reparatory justice or about ensuring sustained African dominance and hegemony, given the exclusion of other groups in the composition of their membership, is a critical question.

Some of the panellists and members of the virtual audience raised the following questions about the designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa”. 

  1. Is CARICOM, UWI and the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday employing the optics of branding, naming and framing to promote political and ethnic agendas?
  • What message is this conveying to other non-Afro ethnic communities?  
  • What message is this conveying to the African population in the Caribbean? 
  • What does CARICOM – being the “sixth region of Africa” – mean, in particular, for the governments and peoples of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname with considerably large Indo-Caribbean populations who believe that they have been excluded and marginalised for decades by an Afro-dominated political directorate?
  • What does the “sixth region of Africa” mean for our culture and our identity now, and in the future? 
  • Are we trading the European branding for an African one? 
  • Is this conceptualisation and designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa” a deliberate policy or politics of exclusion, or an unintended consequence?
  • Is this a response to the global competition for economic space and an initiative for Africa to dominate and/or recolonise the Caribbean?
  1. Whose initiative was it to designate CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa”? Was it the African Union, was it CARICOM or was it the University of the West Indies? Or was it some or all of these?
  • Was there a signed Declaration or formal ratification by Heads of Government for CARICOM to be deemed and recognised as the “sixth region of Africa”? If not, then the legitimacy and relevance of this designation at the UWI Regional Headquarters, and the declaration is questionable. 
  • Can this designation of CARICOM as the “sixth region of Africa” facilitate global problems like climate change? If so, how?
  • To what extent does this designation stoke divisiveness among the various ethnic communities of the Caribbean?
  • Is this declaration a return to the colonial policy of divide and rule?
  • To what extent does this designation distract from other more critical issues facing the region such as economic challenges, climate change and crime?
  • Given the timing of this designation, is there any truth to the contention that it is part of a UWI-Caribbean-CARICOM political agenda to mobilise the support of the fifty-five member states of the African Union with that of CARICOM states, to rally for the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, who is allegedly a contender for the position of UN Secretary General?
  • Is the designation consistent with CARICOM’s stated agenda of promoting regional integration and embracing diversity and multiculturalism in the region?

At the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC) virtual forum held on October 8, 2023, Dr. Hilary Brown, Programme Manager for Culture and Community Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, as a member of the audience, categorically denied that there is any Declaration for CARCIOM to be designated the sixth region of the African Union. Her recorded words contradict the statement from the UWI release that “Caricom has been designated as the sixth region of the African continent” and the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday headline that “CARICOM recognised as sixth region of Africa” and which continues with the story that “CARICOM has been formally designated as the sixth region of the African continent. The declaration was made during the second annual Africa-Caricom Day on September 7th, at the University of the West Indies (UWI) regional headquarters in Jamaica”. 

The firm denial by Dr. Hilary Brown at the ICC forum suggests that the statements in the UWI release and in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday are false, misleading, reckless, ethnically biased and dangerous to the harmonious co-existence of the multicultural ethos of the peoples of CARICOM. In this vein, the ICC is hereby making a clarion call for clarification on these matters and a public verbal and written apology as well as a retraction of public statements, articles and news releases where necessary, in response to the issues, concerns and questions raised above.