Uniting Africans, Indians
Yvonne Baboolal
Published: 9 May 2010
Trinidad Guardian

Makandal Daaga helped engender a spirit of African/Indian unity during the 1970s Black Power Revolution and he can achieve the same thing on an Opposition election campaign platform. This is the belief of Kafra Kambon, who met Daaga at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in the 1960s and was a cohort during the Black Power Revolution. Kambon, who broke away from Daaga’s National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) in 1983 and now heads the Emancipation Support Committee, recalled the spirit of African/Indian unity in the 1970s. “Daaga, born and bred in Laventille and educated at St Mary’s College and UWI, headed a movement that started in the urban African area of Port-of-Spain and reached the plains of Caroni,” he said.

“There was an ideological dimension to it that drew the Indians.” Kambon said while Daaga, born Geddes Granger, changed his name to an African one and wore African clothes, for him Black meant non-White in the 1970s when Whites still ran the show in T&T. Kambon recalled the Caroni March of March 12, 1970, when Daaga and his group marched from Port-of-Spain to Couva in a demonstration of solidarity with the Indians. “It was a defining moment of the Black Power movement. A group of largely Afro-Trinidadians marched to Caroni and into Chaguanas and to Couva. “People lined the streets and schoolchildren were brought out. There was a large Indian audience in Chaguanas and, particularly, in Couva.” Kambon said Indians came out despite threats by then sugar leader, Bhadase Sagan Maharaj, and warnings by the police to lock up their businesses and homes and stay indoors.

RIGHT: Daaga at a political meeting in his heyday.

Kambon feels Daaga will make a difference on the Opposition platform. “He will make a difference in how people perceive the unity aspect of the platform.” Further, Kambon feels there is not another platform speaker like Daaga. “When he speaks, he connects. He will be an asset to the alliance.” During his maiden address at the UNC’s meeting in Fyzabad three weeks ago, Daaga asked supporters to put their right hands across their hearts and say, “I am the Government!” He asked them to repeat it, louder. Kambon said this is 1970s ideology.

“It’s not about dismissing the idea of leadership. It means that you don’t just hand power over to the leader. Participation has to continue.” Daaga also told the large crowd that his dream was fulfilled. “Never again would you be servants in your own country. This land is yours. Hope has been realised.”

Laventille roots strong
Daaga’s mother was a regular, poor Laventille woman, Kambon, who visited the Granger’s home often, recalled. “But she was full of pride and a very strong-willed person. Daaga was very bright and went to St Mary’s College but grew up in Laventille and saw the oppression.” Daaga, close to 70 now, still lives in Laventille. Kambon said he was leader of the Students Guild at UWI in 1966 and made a lot of difference among students and even the community. Kambon said under Daaga’s charge, students went to disadvantaged communities and taught classes and affiliated with the trade union movement. “Lots of little groups were formed in 1968 and 1969, like the Black Panthers, Afro Turf Limers and the National Freedom Organisation led by Chan Maharaj.

Challenging racism
A racist incident at Sir George Williams University in Canada led to the formation of NJAC in February 1969, Kambon said. “At the same time, Canadian banks in T&T were not hiring Indians and Africans.”
Kambon said Daaga, with the support of community groups, challenged imperialism and racism. Under his leadership in the Guild, students blocked the Canadian governor general from entering the campus, raising a hornet’s nest in T&T. Social unrest grew and on February 26, 1970, there was a solidarity march with some 200 people who demonstrated in front the Canadian Embassy and were beaten by the police.

They stormed Imperial Manshop in Port-of-Spain, owned by the White Montanos, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic Cathedral) where they reportedly draped the statues in black. “By then, the crowd had grown to thousands,” Kambon recalled.
“Businesses shut their stores. There was a mood of ‘power to the people’ in the country.” The marchers were arrested and jailed and a state of emergency was declared in T&T. The Caroni March followed shortly after. “Black brothers from Belmont and Laventille marching to Caroni wanted to say to the Indians, ‘we embrace you’, and to cement the unity that was growing,” Kambon said.