Victoria Falls, Delices Buy Dominica products
Home
Welcome Message
Prior Issues
Feedback
Current Issue
Contact Us
Advertise
About Dominica

Spiderline

In the Spotlight
Karina Leblanc: World Class Goal Keeper
John Moorhouse: Extreme Sports Cyclist

Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences
National Development Fund
Rosie Douglas Foundation

Become A Sponsor
The Dominican provides a unique opportunity to advertise to the thousands of people who access this free site daily, while becoming a sponsor of the site. For additional information, please

Inquire Here


Volume No. 1 Issue No. 68 - Tuesday April 19, 2005
Dominica Has a Color Problem
by Dr. Irving Eipigh Pascal


Nowadays in Dominica, our daily wardrobe choices have become �identities�. I notice that when I wear blue or red or green people comment.

It seems that �I� suddenly become invisible in their eyes.

Instead I�m replaced by a color-coded, party-political identity; uwp-ite, labour-ite, freedom-ite. Friends tell me they make a conscious effort to wear �neutral� colors.

Blue, red and green have become definitional. They�re suddenly more than just colors.

They do more than indicate what political party you may support. They �identify� you and mark you as friend or foe.

The use of colors in political symbolism is not new. On the killing fields of ancient politics where power was brokered primarily through war (or the threat of violence), colors were often used to distinguish one army from the other.

The practice continues. Typically, less bloody, modern day equivalents occur as team colors in sports.

Nevertheless, whether it is war, sports or politics, the use of color to identify opponents, enemies or �the other side� only accentuates division and conflict.

It dehumanizes us by reducing people to oppositional existences.

Blue flags and red flags (and to a lesser extent green&red and green) litter the aerial landscape making of our Nature Isle a war zone of coloured flags.

And who will cleanse it? As I travel through the country, I ask myself who really benefits from this escalating �color-consciousness�?

I realize that 500 years of physical, mental and economic oppression tend to make us feel somewhat uncomfortable with our identities, as people of either African or Kalinago descent.

Empowering information is kept to a minimum and negative images and stereotypes are still regularly used against us whether on the streets or in the media; moreover, we often buy into them ourselves.

Small wonder then that we so easily accept the blue, red or green �identities� that those purveyors of influence enthusiastically promote. What does it really mean to be a uwp-ite, or a labour-ite?

What does it mean when someone can say that �their father was a freedom-ite, they were born a freedom-ite and will die a freedom-ite�? How silly can we get.

Who benefits from these blue, red and green identities? Who benefits from the buying and selling of the colored party-political �identity� paraphernalia i.e.billboards, flags, t-shirts, caps etc.

Ultimately, the profit (political and economic) largely goes to the economic heirs locally and overseas of those people who bought and sold my ancestors.

The same people who falsified my ancestors� identity in similar ways in an attempt to control them and make them docile. Color was also used against them.

In Dominica, the imposition of party colors to the level of static identities (uwp-ite, labour-ite, freedom- ite) is troubling.

I find it objectionable how these political identities are used to divide and rule a people who share common histories and common interests regarding how to make a living in an economic environment that is especially hostile to agricultural production and self-definition.

Colors are a means of non-verbal communication and have been utilized in the modern political arena where voter illiteracy was high.

What this means is that political parties tend to downplay engaging with voters through meaningful dialogue in forums that allow for exchange, learning and sharing of information on policies and plans.

Instead they resort to mega-rallies where the main objective is a colored-body-count, name calling and labeling � no questions asked, no answers given.

The danger of fabricated party-political identities means that we turn a blind eye to people; to shared interests, to common futures, to the possibility of working together.

The mind of the beholder sees color, cockroaches,mosquitoes(animals you can easily crush) and other labels instead of sister, brother, neighbor, merchant and farmer. History has shown that depersonalizing and objectifying people makes it much easier to commit acts of physical and non-physical violence against them.

This is how the Transatlantic slave trade was legitimized. More recently, the massacres in Rwanda have been linked to the systematic depersonalization of one group by another.

In my opinion only a small manipulative elite truly profit from such political strategies which emphasize antagonistic pseudo-identities.

In the process the �psyche� of the Nation is infected and permanently scarred; and when the fallout comes it will be our poor brothers and sisters who have internalized these identities who will suffer the most.

I suggest if we are so �colour conscious� we should be praying �Blacks and Kalinago,God loves us too,� since our actions suggest we believe the contrary.

May the spirits of my ancestors be pleased.


Comments about this article? Email:
editor@
thedominican.net
Telephone:
1-703-861-9411
Fax:
1-202-589-7937

Volume No. 1 Issue No. 68
Near Invasion of Dominica
Crucial Elections
Color Problem in Dominica
Nassief Sambos Uncle Toms
Alleyne Uncle Toms
Dr Pascal & Angelo Alleyne




Subscribe Now
Subscribe to our newsletter, and receive updates by e-mail.

Subscribe


  | Home | Welcome Message | Prior Issues | Feedback | Current Issue |
| Contact Us | Advertise | About Dominica | Privacy Policy |

� Copyright 2002 TheDominican.Net.
Designed by Caribbean Supplies -- All Rights reserved