Jumpy...A bajan was T&T first Prime Minister...:shock:

Jumpy...A bajan was T&T first Prime Minister...:

Sir Grantley and Dr Williams were Trinidad and Tobago's first prime ministers...Everyone has a right to an opinion based on their own unique perspectives. A recent issue that has flared up is whether Dr Eric Williams or Sir Grantley Adams were TT's first prime minister.On one hand, TT’s first taste of independence occurred when we were part of the West Indies Federation of 1958-1962. Sir Adams was prime minister of this federation. Hence, logic dictates he was also prime minister of TT since this nation was a part of that federation.On the other hand, after the federation broke-up, when we became individually "independent" in 1962, Dr Williams was the prime minister.

Simply put, we had a prime minister when we were part of an independent group of nations within the Caribbean region and one when we were an independent nation alone. Both are considered firsts, so in actuality, both views are correct!Dr Kirk Meighoo who has opined that Sir Grantley was our first prime minister, is internationally renowned for writing the definitive political history of TT – Politics in a half-made society – which is found in 351 university libraries around the world.

Whether he belongs to the UNC or not, does not negate him from having an opinion – especially when he backs it with historical proofs and facts.Volcanologist Dr Keith Rowley, attorney Stuart Young and other PNM member’s have an opposing opinion to Dr Meighoo. As much as they may have researched TT’s history, it would not have been at the level of Dr Meighoo.These gentlemen appear to "stand up" for the rights of Dr Williams, but I dare say some of their views are merely lip service, given that Dr Williams is probably "spinning in his grave" knowing these people were at the helm when they destroyed his legacy of building up TT.

.............oh Noooooooooo

Where is dat Grenadian Che, I am never gonna hear the end of this one...

Dr Williams also stands accused

PNM spokespersons have accused UNC PRO Kirk Meighoo of rewriting history because of his assertion that PNM founder Dr Eric Williams was not TT's first prime minister.The irony here is that Williams himself was often accused of rewriting history to misrepresent facts by his academic contemporaries who established the foundations of Caribbean history.Elsa Goveia, the region’s first professor of West Indian history, in a review of Williams’ History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago, accused him of “omissions and hasty dogmatism,”, noting “the road to hell is paved with authoritative half-truths.”

K.O Laurence, whose A Question of Labour is the definitive text of Indian indentureship, described Williams’ book as “frankly partisan,” and warned that, “the nationalist politician has from time to time led the historian to serve dangerously.”The late Gordon Rohlehr, a literature professor who became better-known as a calypso historian, wrote that From Columbus to Castro, “cannot be safely used as the reference text it was intended to be, since the student has no immediate or removed means of checking either the facts or figures.”

By contrast, current UWI historians who have criticised Meighoo are ardent supporters of rewriting history, not to reveal new facts but to promote ideological agendas.Dr Claudius Fergus in public statements has pushed for the removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus and changing street names; Dr Jerome Teelucksingh in a Newsday column, asserted on no evidence whatsoever that Canadian missionaries murdered indigenous children in residential schools.

Letters to the editor...

Gosh....

Halliwell must be choking eating his apple crumble.

Reevaluating history and coming up with different interpretations are never a bad thing. And, as part of higher learning, new ideas should emerge, and some old ideas could be challenged and dismissed, if necessary. But, sometimes, we have to wonderer what is the purpose of some of these ideas. The Federation never declared independence from Britain; it was internal self government. After it failed, the islands, one after the other, sought independence from Britain. It is on that basis that Father of Nation concept emerged. That is when political independence was achieved, and sovereign nations were born. That is really what Prime Minister means to us. To bring up that at Independence time, added to all the other signals, including cancellation of celebrations under the guise of security concerns. The other nations may not adopt that reasoning, because the underlying purpose is not relevant to most. Eric Williams is the father of Trinidad and Tobago as a nation, no matter the attempt to rewrite history.

In reply to sgtdjones

I recall Dr.EW as Premier of TT and not Prime Minister,I suppose it;s a correct assertion that he wasn't the 1st PM of TT,well,well who bloody cares

In reply to granite

The main problem arising from this is that some people believe only their opinion counts and chastise anyone who disagrees.

Excellent comment, as you are open to various written historical document interpretations.

In reply to sgtdjones



the West Indian federation was not an independent set of islands. self governing, yes, independent, no. it was a union based on the efforts of british territories. if you asked for a passport in 1959, you would be given a british passport. Its like if you were a Singaporean citizen between 1947 and 1961. you would not be considered a Singaporean citizen, you'd be a citizen of the British Empire or, after 1961, a citizen of Malaysia. Only after August 9, 1965, would you be considered a citizen of Singapore. It is not calculus. Dr Eric Williams was the first Prime Minister of the independent nation state known as Trinidad and Tobago, and later the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Grantley Adams was the PM of a West Indian Federation under the auspices of the United Kingdom. The West Indian Federation's expressed purpose was to go into independence from Britain as a unit of what would be fmr british colonies. They didn't achieve that by the time Jamaica held their Federal referendum in 1961, which Norman Manley lost, meaning that JA would go on to become independent from the British crown in 1962 and that effectively signaled the end of the federation as Williams' said one from ten is naught.

On the matter of Dr Williams' book on the history of Trinidad and Tobago, I agree with you that no evidence has been discovered on Canadian missionaries murdering indigenous children in residential schools. that doesn't necessarily mean Williams' was lying. We both now know after extensive investigation by the Canadian government, that Canadian missionaries in Canada presided over the deaths of 4000-6000 indigenous children as residential schools in Canada. As recently as two years ago, 215 bodies were discovered on the site of one residential school, and survivors in the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission on this matter gave testimony that they witnessed children being beaten to death or disappearing under suspicious circumstances. It was also established during the TRC that the mission school system was rife with deaths that were not explained and documented cases of sexual predators in the mission school system. The Mission school system when coming to the education of indigenous children is exceptionally poor, so poor that the Canadian government saw it necessary to to implement a TRC that cost them $60 million dollars. Secondly, the colonial authorities would not have paid this much attention if deaths were happening. One planter horse whipped two East Indian women, one of whom died, and was only charged six pounds. The life of one East Indian woman, according to the then colonial authorities of Trinidad, was equal to six pounds. By the way, this woman, Labjadee, was kicked and whipped for three days. Another woman , Sahti died 14 days after a whipping from the son of a plantation owner, who was charged with manslaughter but released after the coroner said she died of natural causes. So while it is possible that Williams' could have been lying to shore up nationalistic fervor, it is also possible that Williams' could have been recounting word of mouth experiences from survivors that would not have been officially recorded and would have faded into history with the integration of the kalinagos into the Trinidadian state.

In reply to Jumpstart

Sir Grantley Herbert Adams was indeed the only Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation (1958–1962). However, being Prime Minister of the Federation, he technically held the office of Prime Minister for each individual territory, such as Trinidad and Tobago.

The West Indies Federation was a political union created to bring several British Caribbean colonies under a single federal government. Its role was somewhat like a centralized authority—similar in concept to a federation such as Canada, where you have one federal prime minister and separate provincial premiers.

Within the Federation, each island or territory still had its own local government with its own premier.

Norman Manley was Premier of Jamaica.
Eric Williams was Premier of Trinidad and Tobago.
Sir Grantley Adams was not Premier of his own Barbados at that time (that was Hugh Gordon Cummins); instead, he was elected as Prime Minister of the overall Federation.
Trinidad and Tobago, therefore, had Dr. Eric Williams as its leader (Premier); Adams’ authority rested at the federal level, not at the territorial one.
Instead, Sir Grantley Adams was more like a "federal leader" above the individual premiers of each island, Williams included.
Williams would have reported to him.
That’s why Trinidadians remember Eric Williams as their nation’s leader in that era—not Adams.

The issue you mention touches on a deeply painful chapter in Canadian history concerning the treatment of Indigenous peoples, particularly in relation to residential schools. These schools, primarily operated by the Roman Catholic Church , aimed to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture.

In reply to sgtdjones

The schools were run by the RC, Anglican, United Church of Canada and two were run by the Presbyterian church



From the site of the Presbyterian Church of Canada

In reply to sgtdjones

Grantly Adams was PM of an amalgamation of British Territories. The Federation was not an independent state, regardless of the names used. Think of places like Catalonia, Basque Country in Spain. High degrees of autonomy but are parts of Spain. The final law of the land is in Madrid, not in Barcelona or Bilbao. The first Prime Minister of Independent Trinidad and Tobago was Dr Eric Williams, just like Bustamante was PM in Jamaica, Barrow in Barbados, Nehru in India etc

In reply to sgtdjones


relevant criticisms.....at the time. What was not known about Williams' methodologies ay the time was that he was a historian willing to and having the means to travel to the source. In the foreword to the book Documents of West Indian History, Williams, who was given a grant by the Rosenwald Foundation, did not start his investigation in the West Indies, he started in Europe. A direct quotation from CLR James from this foreword.



The reason was simple. You would not find the documents that showed the relevance of the Caribbean to the 15th to 19th century global economy in a sugar mill in st kitts or a plantation house in Maraval. The Caribbean didn't even have a proper banking system then. You had to go to the source, which was the economic centers of Europe at the time: Paris, Bordeaux, Manchester etc. Dr. Cassandra Gooptar, following in Williams' steps, led an investigation by the The Guardian newspaper in London, and traveled to Manchester, the Caribbean and Brazil to uncover her findings. So if Williams writes something, it may not be backed by documents that are easily available, and in the 30s and 4s, they would have been almost impossible to find for a Caribbean based historian(Williams was at Howard University for the majority of the 40s so he would have had easier access to funding). You can argue about Williams' legacy as PM, but his work as a Historian was revolutionary, not only in terms of the arguments he put forward, but because of the methodologies that underpinned his research. West Indians are known for being crabs in a very tiny barrel and I'm sure it would have pissed off some West Indian academics that his range of source material was as varied as it was.



the accounts of the three east indian women flogged by a planter and a planter's son didn't come from Williams'. It came from a paper from Prof Bridget Brereton entitled The Historical Background to the Culture of Violence in Trinidad and Tobago.
https://sta.uwi.edu/crgs/february2010/journals/bridgetbrereton.pdf