#BTColumn – The Black family in Caribbean society

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

By Lenrod Nzulu Baraka

On September 28, 2022 at approximately 3:10 p.m., I did something I have never done before since birth. After what can only be described as the proudest walk of my life, I shook the hand of a handsome, elegantly dressed young man as he in turn took the arm of an angelic looking young lady who walked beside me smiling in anticipation of what was about to unfold. Needless to say the angelic looking young lady was my daughter Kamalia and the handsome, elegantly clad young man was my soon to be son-in-law Kenny.

The officiating minister, Pastor Shane Butcher, began his short, but timely, charge to the couple with an anecdote that set the mood for the proceedings that would follow. After exchanging vows the couple spoke some words of endearment to each other.  They both spoke from the heart and cried as we their family and friends became embroiled in the current of pure emotion surging between the bride and groom. Rings were exchanged, the officiating minister pronounced them man and wife, then some saliva was exchanged between the excited couple.

It truly is a credit to the Black family that even after centuries of oppression and deliberate policies to destroy the Black family unit, thousands of young men and women like Kenny and Kamalia still brave the pessimism surrounding the institution of marriage and make the bold leap into the sea of matrimony. The Black family has proven to be as enduring as the sun and equally impossible to blot out from the firmament of our existence.

Perhaps one of the cruelest after-effects of slavery was the breakup of Black families, father, mother, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins were captured and separated from the kith and kin never to see their kinsmen again.  Family members fortunate enough to have been captured together and transported to the world that was new to the Europeans were often sold to different plantations.

Mothers who gave birth to children in the Caribbean would suffer the indignity of having their children savagely ripped from their bosoms and sold by unfeeling plantation owners, Black men were deliberately emasculated and forced to watch their children and women humiliated in the most inhumane ways. The number of mulattoes in the Caribbean would suggest that Caucasians had a field day with Black women in the Caribbean.

After emancipation in 1834, Black people were assigned to the most menial jobs and paid starvation wages.  Abject poverty no doubt negatively affected the formation of stable Black families in the post Emancipation period.  Plantation owners would rent plantation land to Blacks on the condition that they continued working on the plantations.  It was not uncommon for plantation owners to evict Black families from plantation land for the most frivolous of reasons.

The riots of the 1930s and the subsequent Moyne Commission slightly ameliorated working conditions in the Caribbean. Trade unions and Black political parties would eventually lead the islands of the Caribbean into independence and greater economic mobility. Improved financial circumstances proved favourable to an increase in stable Black family units. Caribbean governments should take a cue from this and work overtime to raise the standard of living of the Black masses since this will help to further stabilize the Black family.

In my first ever father of the bride speech I reflected on many of the moments in my daughter’s life that made me a proud father. I spoke about her scholastic achievement from primary to the tertiary.  It was a black visionary leader Errol Walton Barrow who paved the way for my daughter’s scholastic success. Prudent fiscal and monetary policies by past and present leaders in Barbados have helped to create a business environment that allowed my daughter to have options in the jobs offered to her.

My daughter and her husband are fortunate to be starting a family when the economic climate, though not as bright as it was in pre-pandemic days, has not yet reached its nadir. The new couple will hopefully still enjoy some of the perks made possible by the rise of Black governance in the Caribbean. I am not so hopeful for my grandchildren however.  Observable trends suggest that the Caribbean is in for a rough ride and that the generation that comes after my daughter will see some dark days comparable to the period between Emancipation and the Moyne Commission.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center.