By Peter Binose

Reading the SVG Government website I came across a description of Montgomery Daniels heritage. “The Hon. Montgomery Daniel was born in Sandy Bay to James and Sybil Daniel, parents of native Carib Indian descent”.

The thing that gets me about this arrogant man is what he once said “my forefathers never came on a ship in chains”. More recently he said “I am not a Garafuna”.

Well if he was not from African stock how come he looks walks and talks like a Negro? Which made me think about the saying “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

All these utterances about himself tell me a number of things about him. He is ashamed of being a black man. He is ashamed of the probability that somewhere in his ancestry is an African slave that came to the Caribbean in chains. He is ashamed that some of his ancestors were Negro’s. In fact it’s most likely that most of his ancestors were black, because if most of them were Kalinago he would not look like a Negro.

All this not wanting to be in anyway associated with black ancestry is an insult to all black people. The denial is also a gross insult to the Kalinago and the Garinagu. So in reality what is Monty if he is none of the above, is he the result of a hospital mix up of babies? Is he a Martian or some kind of mongrel, a cross between a German Shepherd and a Boxer?

The one thing that none of us know as human beings, particularly here in SVG, exactly what race all our ancestry was. Some of us may have Kalinagu, Spanish, French, Scots, escaped Irish slaves from Barbados, escaped African slaves from many of the neighbouring islands, African slaves rescued from shipwrecks, English, and much later East Indian, Portuguese and Kru Africans. Perhaps even a little of everything.

Michael Jackson went to great lengths to change the appearance of his face, he had his Negro shaped nose remodelled, bleached his skin and straightened his African fuzzy hair on a daily basis. Surgeons speculated he also had a rhinoplasty, a forehead lift, cheekbone surgery, altered his lips, and had a cleft put in his chin. By 1990, he had undergone around ten procedures. Jackson’s skin was a medium-brown colour throughout his youth, but, starting in the mid 1980s, his skin gradually grew paler through what was widely considered to be skin bleaching and changing of his features to appear European. According to Jackson biographer, Jackson began making his nose smaller around the same time his skin became very gradually lighter and that he was using the over-the-counter skin-bleaching cream called Porcelana to achieve the lighter skin.

But Monty you will be interested to know what also made him white was an illness called vitiligo, the skin whitens because of the disease. So Monty there is hope for you, you can have a procedure or two or get ill. Monty the problem is that you do not look Kalinago or European at the moment, just Negro, so if you don’t want to be a black man you must make a choice.

What I do not understand is why on earth he cannot describe himself as mixed race; surely there is nothing wrong with being who you really are?

The Gonsalves of Madeira just hate being related to sea captain Antonio Gonsalves who started off the Atlantic slave trade. They also like to try and deny that they were related by marriage to Christopher Columbus, what is wrong with these people; surely there is nothing wrong with being who you really are? It’s all historical fact so why try and hide it.

Then I wrote about Nanny Straker, a black Vincentian lady that kept slaves. I asked Louis Straker to fill in the family tree that links him to Nanny Straker; surely there is nothing wrong with being who you really are? Straker just needs to remember his roots; it’s a tradition for Africans to sell Africans, so Nanny Straker was only carrying on a family tradition. His father and now his son were/are big in preaching the Christian message, so why not be real Christians and big up and tell us about Nanny Straker, as Christians we will forgive you Louis.

I find it very strange that we have a white prime minister who states he is the blackest man in Saint Vincent, yearns to be black, and wants to be black. Who doesn’t realise that he is insulting black people, or maybe he does.

Then we have a black man that wants to be yellow, claims he is not a black man, yearns to be yellow, and wants to be yellow. Who doesn’t realise he is insulting both Caribs and black people.

Monty perhaps you are descended from a Viking raider

In the ninth century a Viking raider called Gomeric had his men row south until they reached Normandy in the north of France. He was the son of Ingvar Ragnarson and his name meant “powerful man “. He settled in the Calvados area and fortified a hilltop on which to live. This was known as Mont [mount] Gomeric and in a few generations became the family name of Montgomery [or Montgomerie]

Please Monty don’t tell us you’re really a Viking because no one will believe you, even they were not black, and certainly not yellow.

Got to go now, but Monty my boy, if you keep your head shaved and keep it close shaved you can hide your frizzy African hair. A little bleaching cream and stay out of the sun, perhaps even going as far as only going out after dark. But the nose and lips will require some surgery from someone like Michael Jackson’s surgeon. Then the game of pretend will become more credible when you look in the mirror, because none of us really care what or who you are, but obviously you do.

You can breathe again now Monty, I am not going to mention your failure as Minister of Agriculture, when your ministry destroyed agriculture by failing to spray the bananas at the right intervals. No I will not mention that Monty.

I am reserving what I think about your new stint as Minister of Housing, It doesn’t look good so far, but let’s lay that to one side for the time being.

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