But independence for Williams went even beyond the political and the economic into what has been called the psychological, that is, the ability, and above all, the willingness to think for oneself and, to the extent possible, to seek and achieve self-reliance, as Julius Nyerere attempted in Tanzania with indifferent success.3 It strikes me, ladies and gentlemen, that Williams’ greatest disappointment lay in what I think he saw as his failure to have Trinidad and Tobago and the region attain, or even come close to, either economic or psychological independence. Well before political independence he had perceived the dangers and pitfalls, and in his History of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, which he published on Independence Day, August 31, 1962, he wrote scathingly about the individualism around him.4 If independence is one of the two principal themes that emerge from Williams’ writings and speeches, the second, intimately linked to the first, is his dedication to the Caribbean region. “Caribbean” for him meant not only the English-speaking Caribbean but the region as whole. A lecture by Reginald Dumas to the 14th in the Annual Eric E. Williams Memorial Lecture series
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 00:48:02 +0000
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