Trinidad and Tobago 50th Anniversary Book (editorial only)

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION
OFC T&T 50th + spine.indd 1 17/08/2012 14:30

P04-06 President message.indd 4 23/08/2012 12:08

B
y the end of the Second World War,
colonial peoples considered themselves
sufficiently equipped to become their
own masters and, in some parts of the
world, the struggle for independence was a
bloody one. The Mau Mau interventions come
to mind immediately.
Trinidad and Tobago’s story is quite different
and we were able to set aside strong political
rivalries and chart a peaceful course for
independence which was granted in 1962. By
that time, we were ready to take up the reins of
leadership and, having a cadre of well-educated
persons supported by a population which shared
the vision of independence, we set our course.
Our independence followed by our Republican
Constitution in 1976, set out the basic charter
by which we are guided and the institutions,
many of which were inherited from the previous
era, continue to provide the framework which
informs decision making processes, throughout
our systems of governance, with adjustments
appropriate to our circumstances being made,
from time to time. These institutions provide a
significant measure of stability which assists in
guiding us to fulfil our obligations to our people
in so far as their aspirations and expectations,
according to guarantees in our Constitution, are
concerned.Monitoringsafeguardsisanimportant
element which a vigilant population must see to.
Because of the practical involvement of our
local population in the various aspects of the
country’s life, be it the public service, industry
including energy, agriculture, particularly
primary products such as sugar and cocoa,
we have been able to move forward from the
umbrella of concessionary arrangements and
secure markets for our products. Moreover,we
have so structured our fiscal arrangements as
to provide a climate for investment that can
withstand the competition that arises from the
clamour of other developing countries for space
in the global environment.
This was a natural progression which had
and continues to have, at its root, the emphasis
placed on education. Long before we had
a system that provides free education from
nursery to tertiary levels – one of the few in the
world, if not the only one – education has been
central to our wellbeing. Scholarly achievement
dates far back into our short history and today,
Trinidad and Tobago is known, worldwide, for
its contributions to international law, medicine,
diplomacy and culture, inter alia.
The people of Trinidad and Tobago have
endured slavery and indentureship, placing them
firmly behind as a lesson in history that must be
well learned, with the determination that they
must never occur here again. The histories of our
two islands diverge, significantly, in terms of our
colonialpastand,inthatcontext,Tobago’shistory
of bi-cameralism predates that of Trinidad.
Culturally, there are differences based on the
colonisation of the islands, but we continue to
work towards maximum complementarity for
the benefit of the entire country. u
PUNCHING ABOVE
OUR WEIGHT IN
THE WORLD
FOREWORDS
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE 5
FOREWORD BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT
H.E. PROFESSOR
GEORGE MAXWELL
RICHARDS
President of the Republic of
Trinidad and Tobago

t It is not farfetched to surmise that we
derive our confidence from the fact that, while
we are generally respectful of others, we are
not awed by anyone or by any culture, for that
matter, because we have been a melting pot, as
it were, of so many peoples. Our indigenous
people, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe
and the Americas, have all contributed to
our population of some 1.3 million persons.
Diversity, in many forms, is at home here.
And so we quickly understand others, though
I cannot say that the reverse is true, and
consequently, the welcome embrace which we
extend to others is easily recognised.
In culture, we are surpassing. It is said of us
that, per capita, Trinidad and Tobago has more
creative talent than any other country in the
world. I am certainly not about to dispute that,
as I continue to be amazed at the creativity of
our cultural practitioners of every genre, at
home and abroad.
Our sportsmen and sportswomen are on the
rise. A few weeks ago we would have been proud
to speak of one gold medal spectacularly won, in
Montreal, in 1976, by Hasely Crawford. But 2012
and London have brought new rewards including
oursecondgoldfrom19year-oldKeshornWalcott
and three bronze medals in team relays. We have
not won a world cup in football, but we have made
history as the smallest nation to reach the finals
where, in Germany, our sportsmanship was highly
acclaimed, under the captaincy of Dwight Yorke
from Tobago, whose scoring record at Manchester
United made that club the shining star of British
and European Soccer, for many years. But then
there is cricket and our own Brian Lara holds
several records including that of 501 not out – the
highest individual score in first class cricket. He is
the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred,
a double century, a triple century, a quadruple
century and a quintuple century in first class
games in the course of a senior career.
All of this is played out, first of all here, in our
lovely, twin island State of Trinidad and Tobago
and we have taken our offerings abroad, sharing
with the world what we have crafted and enjoy
at home, uniquely the steel pan music. God
has truly blessed us with natural resources and
human resources that defy our size. We take no
credit for the geography, the flora and fauna,
with so much that is peculiar to Trinidad and
Tobago. But our people must be applauded for
who we have become, over time, and for the
countless ways in which they have assigned
themselves the role of ambassadors for Trinidad
and Tobago, unpaid, spreading the message of
the goodness of Trinidad and Tobago. They do
so with an ease and a bravado that is peculiar to
the Trinidad and Tobago person.
We have offered much, over the last 50
years,we yet have much to offer, and we welcome
to our shores all those who wish to experience
a different taste of the good life and to help us
to realise our full potential. I am proud to claim
Trinidad and Tobago as my country.
May God bless our Nation! ■
FOREWORDS
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE6
It is said
of us that,
per capita,
Trinidad and
Tobago has
more creative
talent than any
other country
in the world

P08-09 PM message.indd 8 22/08/2012 14:53

O
n August 31st, Trinidad and Tobago
proudly commemorates its Golden
Jubilee of Independence – 50 years
during which we have experienced
tragedy, triumph and transformation.
This commemorative publication offers
an insight into how we define ourselves as
citizens of a sovereign young Nation. From
our commitment to democracy and the rule of
Law, to our innate innovativeness and creativity
which has gifted the world the melodious
sounds of the steel pan and the colour and
vibrancy of our Carnival; we are a people and
a country with much to share, notwithstanding
our small size.
We remain a sterling example of political
stability, religious tolerance and economic
resilience. Our cultural diversity strengthens
rather than divides us, affirming our ability
to stand together and remain one People, one
Nation.Ourcitizensenjoytherightsandfreedoms
enshrined in our Constitution, consistent with
International policy and agreements. Without
hesitation I can state, “We can boast of our unity
and we take pride in our liberty.”
As a citizen or national of Trinidad and Tobago,
when you peruse the pages of this book, you will
immediately recognise that there is much for
us to celebrate on this historic occasion. If you
are a foreign national, I invite you to allow this
publication to awaken you to a country of varied
faces and facets, now striding confidently into
another 50 years of robust development.
Fellow citizens, we have now come to a
defining moment in our history. How shall
we choose to approach our next 50 years of
Independence?
I believe that to continue to prosper, we must
rise above partisan agendas in the interest of the
greater national good. Yes, there will be conflicts
and challenges, but ultimately out of these
struggles we must accomplish lasting growth
and development.
The world is moving in a different direction,
dominated by several emerging economies,
providing opportunities for new alliances and
broadening the scope of our economic strategies.
The old partnerships now co-exist with new-
found, developing relationships. This is a bold
new world of more complex and sophisticated
methods of doing business. This is the world we
must be prepared to step into to take our place
on the world stage.
I believe that we are up to the challenge.
Our best days are yet to come. But we must
work together – the public and private
sectors, members of civil society, workers and
their unions, young persons, senior citizens,
individuals. Let us not focus on what might
divide us and instead, with determination and
loyalty, rise together to ensure the prosperity of
our nation and the happiness and success of all
our citizens.
May God Bless our great Nation, Trinidad
and Tobago.
Happy 50th anniversary of Independence! ■
RISING TOGETHER
TOWARDS GREATER
PROSPERITY
FOREWORDS
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE 9
INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON KAMLA
PERSAD-BISSESSAR
Prime Minister of the
Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago
P08-09 PM message.indd 9 22/08/2012 14:53

T
he opportunities for Trinidad and
Tobago (T&T) presented in this 50th
anniversary publication provide an
insight into who we are at 50 as we cross
the digital divide and seek to embrace a bold
new world of possibilities. This is not so much a
scholarly production as an informative one, yet
its content will provide scholarly material for
many researchers who would wish to inquire into
the various aspects of life in T&T presented here.
One can never cover all aspects of life in T&T
by subject headings, but you will find that the
coverage is indeed broad by perusing each article
to examine its content and context. From calypso
and chutney to constitutions and commerce, the
contributors have all presented their own unique
insights into T&T over the last 50 years.
However, this is not intended to be an exercise
in history, important as that may be; rather it
is designed to examine what has happened as
part of a navigational aid to gauge where we are
headed as a country and as a society.
The building of a nation is not the task of
governments alone, but more so the task of its
people,whetherrepresentedindividuallythrough
the sheer strength of their personal contributions
or channelled through their NGOs, or their wider
civil society groupings and associations.
At Independence the Mighty Sparrow talked
about a model nation, but the real challenge
that faced us then was whether this multi-racial,
multi-religious and multi-cultural society could
survive as a whole. Many of the fears back then
were about the need to superimpose a dominant
Western-Christian view of the society in order to
retain control and provide stability in a milieu of
different racial, religious and cultural practices
which had been regarded as inferior in the
colonial period.
Thosefearshavebeenproventobeunfoundedas
the formation of an Inter-Religious Organisation
(IRO) with a rotating chairmanship demonstrates
that inclusion does not have to be decreed by
domination of one over another. The tolerance
that comes from mutual respect is a priceless
commodity in any cosmopolitan society.
In the sphere of politics, the fear of any other
organisation besides the People’s National
Movement (PNM) holding power in our society
witheredawaywiththefirstchangeofgovernment
in 1986 after 24 years of independence. Who
would have thought that the names of those who
had always been associated with the opposition
(as that term came to imply anyone who was
against the PNM rather than the more traditional
understanding of those who did not have a
majority in Parliament) would be entitled to hold
office as ministers of government?
The fact that the swearing-in ceremony for
that new government (the National Alliance
for Reconstruction) in 1986 had to be delayed
because there was no copy of the Bhagvad Gita
to be found at President’s House captured the
enormityofthechangethathadcometoTrinidad
andTobago.Forthefirsttime,thesocietywasable
to remove one layer of fear that had gripped it by
virtue, not of the PNM, but rather the concerns
of its British colonial authorities that brought a
variety of immigrants to Tobago and to Trinidad
and created a social order of disadvantage and
division in its wake.
Perhaps the PNM were the first beneficiaries
through the perpetuation of those fears, but
afterwards, the fears manifested themselves in
other ways. Our first political change had not
even started properly and already there was a
documentary on Channel 4 in the UK that spoke
of dark clouds hanging over us as a nation in early
1987. Fortunately, we have survived all of that
scaremongering and we have gone on to have
four more changes of government in which the
PNM returned to power in 1991 and 2001, while
new political forces, namely the United National
Congress (UNC), captured power in 1995 in a
coalition and in 2010 in a coalition.
The social uprising of 1970 and the attempted
overture
forewords
Trinidad & Tobago 50 Years of Independence12
connecting the dots of who we are after 50 years
dr hamid ghany
Senior Lecturer
and Former Dean,
Faculty of Social Sciences,
UWI, St Augustine
Campus, Trinidad
P12-13 Hamid overture.indd 12 23/08/2012 16:43

coup in 1990 were two events that challenged
the stability of the State, but we survived. They
all comprised arguments for social justice and
equality and involved different administrations.
The argument about social justice continues
even today, as a movement has been formed
to advance the cause, yet it seems that in the
developing society that we are, the cause will
continue to have a place in the national dialogue.
How much political support it will garner will
be a factor in how it can tap into the psyche of a
nation whose unemployment rate has decreased
and whose opportunities for further investment
suggest a brighter future over the horizon.
The so-called racial divide has manifested
itself in voting behaviour patterns, yet the
sociological foundations of the society are such
that we have moved from cultural domination
by an Afro-creole outlook at Independence to a
policy of multiculturalism at 50. That transition
has taken place far more easily than has been the
case in many other developing societies, thereby
suggesting that we have no innate desire to fight
over an agenda of genuine unity, as opposed to
struggling against one of domination.
Our energy and hydrocarbon industries
have contributed in no small measure to our
development. However, there has been a debate
about whether heavy industry or economic
diversification into tourism, light manufacturing
and services is where our future prosperity lies.
These debates will continue while our oil and gas
reserves are depleted with the passage of time. All
of the tourism articles in this publication have
addressed the fact that this area of economic
activity has not been adequately developed over
the last 50 years.
Perhaps, they are pointing to the fact that there
is great potential in our future for the diversified
development of a tourism-driven approach that
is not based on the stereotypes of what so many
believe tourism to be.
The challenge to the heavy industry approach
comes from the articles on greening the
economy and sustainable development, which
all point to a new way of doing things. That
is the wave of the future that can be caught by
embracing opportunities for entrepreneurship
that are waiting for a new generation – one not
necessarily wedded to the idea of state control
of the economy, but rather its facilitation of a
different kind of development in culture, sports,
film, services and agriculture.
The calypso art form and our steelband
developmentwillprovidetheenergyfornewvistas
of social commentary and cultural appreciation
that can drive this nation forward.
Some would have us tear up our colonial past
and try to build upon the resultant emptiness and
others would want to rewrite our history to recast
its main characters.
This publication does none of the above. It has
afforded a space to such a diversity of writers
that Trinidad and its elder sister, Tobago, are all
adequately covered. Indeed, the very foundation
of our being as a twin-island state still needs
to be understood by many so that we can truly
appreciate what a gem we are together with the
rough edges that still need to be cut. ■
13
The tolerance
that comes
from mutual
respect is
a priceless
commodity
in any
cosmopolitan
society
Trinidad Tobago 50 Years of Independence
Flying proudly after 50
years: the National Flag
of Trinidad and Tobago Photograph:StephenBroadbridge
P12-13 Hamid overture.indd 13 23/08/2012 16:43

S
ix years ago on a street in Croydon,
South London, I spent a pleasant
afternoon in a shop that sells electronics
and unlocks cell phones talking to a
Sikh and his sons. The Sikh was the owner of
the shop, his sons the managers. I had dropped
off an item to be repaired; and part of the repair
process required me leaving my name and
phone number on the repair item. When I’d
first entered the shop I only met the sons. Polite
young men, very willing to help someone who
was clearly a visitor to their country. When I
returned an hour later to collect my package the
eldest son asked me to hold on, then he brought
out an elderly gentleman, obviously his father
from the resemblance. His dad wore the turban
that identified him as a Sikh, in accented English
he pointed to the slip of paper I had left my
information on and asked, “This is your name?”
I smiled because I knew immediately where the
conversation would lead to. I nodded, and he
motioned me to a corner of the shop with chairs
and offered me a cup of tea. My first question
to him was, “You ever heard about Indenture?”
Thus began a two hour story about the diversity
of Trinidad and Tobago.
Diversity is a word that can be used to
describe almost every aspect of Trinidad and
Tobago. This twin island republic is home to
features that are both old world and new, as well
as continental and island. Our very topography
helps to define our diversity, with Trinidad being
a continental island with much in common
with mainland South America; whilst Tobago,
made more so from limestone coral shares
more in common physically with the rest of
the Caribbean archipelago. The diversity of the
islands’ topography of course has implications
for flora and fauna. But the diversity I am most
interested in is of course culture.
From Pre-Columbian times both islands had
diverse populations with varying traditions and
practices. Trinidad because of its geographic
proximity to South America has long been
a hub and transshipment point between the
mainland and the wider archipelago. As a
result the settlement patterns of the island’s
Amerindian population reveal that it wasn’t
as simple as two ethnic groups settling here:
namely Caribs and Arawaks. Rather, there were
several Amerindian civilisations at various
stages of development, which of course means
complex cultural systems. Complex cultural
systems would continue to be a norm for both
islands in the colonial and post-colonial eras.
Though Europe made contact with both
islands in 1498, their eventual colonisation and
development happened at different times and
at different rates. Throughout much of the 16th
and 17th centuries when Trinidad was a colonial
backwater, Tobago was coping with European
powers fighting over her. It was only from
1783, with the Cedula of Population between
France and Spain that Trinidad’s development
as a colony really took off. The introduction
of indentured labour in the mid-19th century
to bolster the changing labour systems after
Emancipation also had a distinct impact on the
culture of Trinidad. Inter-island immigration
also played a role in further diversifying the
population and culture of the islands. As a result
of these different colonial histories the two
islands have very distinct cultures. Tobago has
a strong Protestant background due to its strong
Dutch and English heritage, whereas, Trinidad,
despite eventually belonging to Britain from
1797, still has a strong Roman Catholic influence
that is very much evident on the island.
Colonialism exists in the meeting and
domination of people and cultures and as a
result the country is a multi-ethnic and diverse
one. While, as with any other mixed space
there are tensions, the mixing and synergising
of cultures are evident in much of our material
cultures, notably music, language and food.
The musical forms that exist in Trinidad and
A Tale
of Diversity
identity
Trinidad Tobago 50 Years of Independence16
Conversations in Croydon
Rhoda Bharath
Lecturer,
Faculty of Humanities
and Education,
UWI, St Augustine Campus,
Trinidad
P16-17 Rhoda Barath.indd 16 23/08/2012 10:22

Tobago are varied and many, from the Anglo-
Afro-infused styles of Tobago’s Tambrin, the
Spanish influenced Parang, the Euro-Afro
mixture of the Calypso, the East Indian-based
folk songs called Chutney and the Soca that
has incorporated influences from Europe,
Africa, India and even the United States. The
music of Trinidad and Tobago is as fluid as the
personalities of its people.
The Trinidad English Creole, documented by
Lise Winer, and the Tobagonian English Creole,
written about by Valerie Youssef and Winford
James are two examples of how dynamic and
distinct the languages of the two islands are.
Tobago’s creole has strong West and Central
African syntactical structures tempered by
English influences, while Trinidad’s creole has
evolved from an Afro-Euro French patois that
has been gradually converted to English that is
heavily flavoured with Arabic, Bhojpuri, Hindi,
Urdu and Yoruba words.
If the local forms of English don’t yet have you
exhausted, the array of cuisine will. Trinidad
and Tobago boasts a cuisine that is as diverse as
its heritage. From Tobago there are traditional
dishes that are heavily African-influenced like
tom tom (pounded plaintain) and konkonte
(cassava foo foo). This doesn’t mean that you
won’t find Asian and Arabic food on the island.
Trinidad, however, hands down boasts a much
wider assortment of foods.
On that afternoon in Croydon, I recounted
this, and much more, the many festivals that are
celebrated here, for one thing. But Trinidad and
Tobago is too complex a place to explain over
one cup of tea. ■
17
If the local
forms of
English don’t
yet have you
exhausted,
the array of
cuisine will.
Trinidad and
Tobago boasts
a cuisine that
is as diverse
as its heritage
Trinidad and Tobago: a
land of many colours
PhotographbyStephenBroadbridge
P16-17 Rhoda Barath.indd 17 23/08/2012 10:22

T
he Portuguese came to Tobago and
Trinidad as early as the 17th century,
including groups of Portuguese Jews,
Catholics and Protestants. For over 140
years, from 1834 up to 1975, the ancestors of
the modern Portuguese community in Trinidad
and Tobago hailed mostly from the archipelago
of Madeira, starting from 1846 (the earliest
shiploads came from the Azores in 1834). At
first, the Madeirans left their homeland either
in search of economic relief (Catholics) or
fleeing to a religious haven (Presbyterians).
They emigrated to various locations throughout
the then British Caribbean as migrant labourers
and religious refugees, particularly Guyana,
St Vincent, Antigua and Trinidad, because of
economic and social conditions in Madeira in
the 19th century, and because of the centuries-
old relationship between Portugal and England.
The twentieth century also saw emigration of
Portuguese directly from Madeira, and also
via Guyana, St Vincent, Antigua and St Kitts
and other territories as a result of ongoing
chain migration of communities and families,
and those entering business partnerships here.
Important communities settled in Port of Spain,
Arima, Arouca, Chaguanas and San Fernando,
with a few Portuguese in Scarborough. In
2011, the Madeiran Portuguese Community
of Trinidad and Tobago celebrated their 165th
Anniversary of the arrival of the first Madeirans
in Trinidad in 1846.
Recalling the presence of the Portuguese in our
nation today are over 100 Portuguese surnames
(and some surnames have also become street and
other place names), including those associated
with the Jewish Portuguese. Surnames include
Abreu, Affonso, d’Andrade, Cabral, Carvalho,
Coelho, Farinha, de Freitas, Fernandes,
Gonsalves, Gouveia, Jardim, Lourenço, Luz,
Mendes, Mendonça, Netto, Nunes, Pereira,
Pestana, Quintal, Rodrigues, Serrão, dos
Santos, de Silva, de Souza, Teixeira, Vieira and
Xavier, and many more, many of them famous
names in the world of business. The spelling,
if not the pronunciation, has for the most part
been preserved. Interestingly, the Portuguese
have been mentioned in various calypsoes,
such as Pharoah’s Portuguese Dance, and those
mentioning businessman J.J. Ribeiro, calypso
recording pioneer Eduardo Sá Gomes and
politician Albert Gomes, and in skits and plays,
for example the 1905 Portuguese Shop in George
Street, and latterly, the 1992 Ah Wanna Fall.
Unlike descendants of other nations, the
Portuguese have not contributed much in the
way of food and drink, preferring instead to
adopt national dishes as their own. At one time,
however, they were the bakers (JV Coelho,
Francisco de Freitas and Jardine) and rummakers
to the nation. Among the latter, the most
outstanding of all was José Bento (JB) Fernandes,
whose name still lives in various quality rum
brand names. Portuguese food items that have
survived include the Christmas carne vinha
d’alhos (calvinadage or garlic pork), bacalhau
“cod” dishes (some even suggest that buljol may
be derived from bacalhau), bolo de mel (a famous
Madeiran molasses cake), cebolas de escabeche
(pickled onions; escabeche also gave us ceviche
and escoveitch), malassadas (Shrove Tuesday
pancakes), and more. Luso-Trinbagonians and
others of Guyanese origin generally remember
much more, because of the fact that the 19th
century Portuguese community was 10 to 15
times bigger than that of Trinidad’s.
In pre-Independence Trinidad and Tobago,
Albert Maria Gomes was perhaps the most
outstanding Luso-Trinidadian. In 1931, he
launched The Beacon, successor of the magazine,
Trinidad. (The Beacon group included Ralph
de Boissière, CLR James, Alfred Mendes and
others.) In 1945 he was elected to the Legislative
Council, winning the seat formerly held by
Mayor Arthur Cipriani, and the following
year, he was elected to the Executive Council.
THE PORTUGUESE
OF TRINIDAD
AND TOBAGO
identity
Locating an important minority
Dr jo-anne Ferreira
Lecturer in Linguistics,
Trinidad
P18-20 Joanne Ferreira Portugeuese.indd 18 23/08/2012 10:32

In 1950, Gomes became the virtual first Chief
Minister of Trinidad Tobago, and Minister of
Labour, Industry and Commerce up to 1956. He
was leader of the conservative Party of Political
Progress Groups (POPPG). From 1958, he
served as a member of the West Indies Federal
House of Representatives, which dissolved with
the breakdown of the Federation in 1962. He
made his mark in politics to the extent that that
political era was referred to as “Gomesocracy”
and he was undoubtedly one of the country’s
more colourful and controversial federalist
politicians. After POPPG’s defeat at the polls by
the People’s National Movement (PNM), Gomes
took the defeat very hard and left Trinidad to
live in England.
Gomes will always be remembered by the
Shouter Baptists, among others. In 1951, he
asked the Legislative Council to appoint a
committee to look into a repeal of the 1917
Shouters Prohibition Ordinance (which denied
Shouter Baptists freedom of religious expression
for 34 years). Gomes also strongly supported
the Steelband movement and Calypso. After his
defeat at the polls by Eric Williams (he was born
in 1911, like Williams, just over 100 years ago),
he remains sadly forgotten by the majority of
our populace, in spite of his role in the recent
pre-independence history of the nation. This
patriot published his autobiography, Through
a Maze of Colour in 1974, and four years later
published All Papa’s Children, a novel about the
Portuguese community.
As an independent nation, the country has
recognised several members of the Portuguese
community, through awards of the following
national honours to: Roger (Gomez Sheppard)
Gibbon (Humming Bird Medal (Silver)
for Athletics – Cycling, 1969, with many
accomplishments starting at age 17), Peter
Carvalho and Harold (Sally) Saldenah (both
awarded the Public Service Medal of Merit
(Silver) for Carnival Development, 1972),
Edmond G. (D’Olliviera) Hart (Humming
Bird Medal (Gold) for Carnival Development,
1973), Charles de Freitas (Public Service Medal
of Merit (Gold), 1975), Hugh Ferreira (Public
Service Medal of Merit (Gold), 1976), Lady
Enid dos Santos (Humming Bird Medal (Gold)
for Voluntary Social Work, 1978), Maria Nunes
(Humming Bird Medal (Gold) for Sport, 1980),
Ignatius Ferreira (Humming Bird Medal (Silver)
for Community Service (also recognised by the
Government of Portugal in 1991, having being
appointed Grau de Comendador: Class Order
of Commander), 1980), Sr Paul D’Ornellas
(Public Service Medal of Merit (Gold) for
Education, 1991), Hilary (Larry) Angelo Gomes
(Humming Bird Medal (Silver) for Sport, 1992),
June Rita Gonsalves (Humming Bird Medal
(Gold) for Community Service, 1992), Stephen
(Pereira) Ames (Chaconia Gold Medal (Golf),
2004), and Carl de Souza (Public Service Medal
19
In pre-
Independence
Trinidad and
Tobago, Albert
Maria Gomes
was perhaps
the most
outstanding
Luso-
Trinidadian. He
made his mark
in politics to the
extent that that
political era was
referred to as
“Gomesocracy”
Photograph:PariaAchive
Albert Maria Gomes: one
of TT’s more colourful and
controversial politicians

of Merit (Gold), posthumously, 2004). National
awards also went to Ovid Owen Fernandes,
Rupert Mendes, Neville Miranda, Nora Florence
Franco, Raymond “Atilla” Quevedo, Augustine
“Rock” Ribeiro, and Rene Serrao.
The TT Sports Hall of Fame also recognised
Carl de Souza (Weightlifting, 1985), Roger
P. Gibbon (Cycling, 1985), Hilary (Larry)
Angelo Gomes (Cricket, 1985), Gerald (Gerry)
Gomez (Cricket, 1985), Compton Gonsalves
(Cycling, 1985; Mr Gonsalves was the founder
of the TT Cycling Federation), Joey Gonsalves
(Football, 1985), Gerard Ian Jardine (Hockey,
1985), Sir Errol dos Santos (Administration,
1987), Marjorie Paddy Fernandes-Williams
(Hockey, 1995), Deborah (Mendes) O’Connor
(Badminton, 2000), Gene (João/John) Samuel
(Cycling, 2000), and Silvano Gomes Ralph (All
Rounder, 2000). Sports figures include Lio de
Freitas, David (Pestana) King, Silvano Gomes
Ralph, Matthew Nunes, Carlton Franco and
Ryan Mendes. In 1994, Gerry Rodrigues became
the World Masters Open Water Champion in
Montréal, Canada, and Robert Ames set a golf
record at Palmas del Mar in 1995.
In the area of literature, Jean de Boissière
claimed that the Portuguese of Trinidad created
what little there existed that was genuinely of
Trinidad in the Trinidadian literary scene (at that
time, the 1940s). Portuguese Trinidadians such
as Alfred Gomes and Albert Gomes, members
of the famous Beacon group produced their
works in English (not in Portuguese, which was
the language of their parents and grandparents).
Modern contributions in the humanities and the
arts include a compilation of memoires published
in 1988 by one of the last Madeiran immigrants,
Mrs Maria Mónica Reis Pestana, originally of
Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, Madeira, later
of St Joseph and Mt Lambert, a film about the
Portuguese community by Mary Jane Gomes,
Angel in a Cage (1999), and the publication of
The Autobiography of Alfred Mendes 1897-1991
(Michele Levy, UWI Press, 2002).
In 2002, BC Pires selected as one of three
West Indians in Guha’s The Picador Book of
Cricket (the other two were C.L.R. James and
V.S. Naipaul), celebrating the finest writers of
cricket literature, and in 2003 Cecilia (Coelho)
Salazar was awarded the Cacique Award for
Most Outstanding Actress (with other awards
in following years). Ms Salazar most recently
portrayed the patriot Gene E. (Teixeira) Miles,
who was also of Portuguese descent (born in
1930, died in 1972). Beauty pageant winners
include Christine Mary (de Silva) Jackson was
selected Miss Amity at Miss Universe 1975, and
Gabrielle (De Freitas) Walcott, 2nd runner up
at Miss World 2008. In 2011, Hayden Ferreira
was selected as one of 50 distinguished alumni
of UWI, St Augustine.
In the area of music, John (João) Ernesto
Ferreira was inducted as a pioneer into the
Sunshine Awards Hall of Fame (Steelband
Music, 2008). Singers and composers include
Lord Executor (Philip Garcia), Stephen Ferreira,
Marcia Miranda, Gaston Nunes, and others.
Luso-Trinidadians have also contributed to
religion, giving several clergy to both the Roman
Catholic and Presbyterian churches. In 1989,
Fr John Mendes, son of João Mendes of Ponta
de Sol, Madeira, was ordained Bishop of Port-
of-Spain. The doctors, lawyers, soldiers, and
entrepreneurs, are too numerous to count here.
In a remarkably short space of time, the
Portuguese community quietly and unobtrusively
spawned a number of eminent sons and daughters
of the soil, far out of proportion to its relatively
smallsizeandagainstallodds,andhascontributed
beyond its fair share to the progress of this
nation. They remain small in numbers but great
in influence and occupational status. The vast
majority of Portuguese descendants have become
inseparably interwoven with other ethnic groups,
to form the total picture that is unmistakably and
irrevocably Trinidadian and Tobagonian. ■
identity
In a
remarkably
short space
of time, the
Portuguese
community
spawned a
number of
eminent sons
and daughters
of the soil,
far out of
proportion to
its relatively
small size,
and has
contributed
beyond its fair
share to the
progress of
this nation

A
fter governing St Kitts and Barbados
with one set of political institutions,
one language and one established
religion, Trinidad in 1797 appeared
too poly-ethnic, poly-religious and polyglot to
be considered worthy of British institutions.
Crown Colony, it was said, was the best they
deserved and, indeed, that is what they got.
It just might be that it was precisely this
polymorphic culture which upon independence
attracted so many foreign social scientists to
ask the question: can such a society be made
into a nation? Among these were Vera Rubin,
Daniel Crowley, Gordon Lewis, M.G. Smith,
Harry Hoetink, Yogendra Malik, Morton Klass,
and Ivar Oxaal. In Trinidad, Lloyd Braithwaite
had already published his classical study of the
island’s stratification system.
At the centre of gravity of all this theorising was
astudydoneinEastAsiabyaBritishCivilServant,
J.S. Furnivall. In his 1948 book, Colonial Policy
and Practice, Furnivall described societies which
he called “plural” or “segmented,” in other words,
societies composed of multiple ethnic groups
each holding on to their own religion, culture and
ways of life. As Furnivall put it, “they mix but do
not combine.” They meet and interact only in the
market place and even there, there is a division of
labour along ethnic lines. What kept such a society
together was the Metropolitan government with
its umbrella of colonial institutions. Could these
plural societies hold together once that colonial
over-lordship was removed? It was this “plural
society” model which caught the imagination of
many a social scientist and Trinidad seemed to
fit the description. Even V.S. Naipaul made use
of it in those books which had Trinidad as his
setting. In his 1962 travelogue commissioned
by the-then Premier Eric Williams, The Middle
Passage, Naipaul describes Trinidad as a place
without a community. “We were of various races,
religions, sets and cliques … Nothing bound us
together except this common residence … [and]
our Britishness, our belonging to the British
Empire which gave us our identity.” (p43) Naipaul
develops this theme of segmentation even more
strikingly in his essay, The Baker’s Story in his 1967
anthology, A Flag on the Island. In that story race
defines function to such an extent that even an
enterprising Afro-Trinidadian baker has to hire a
Chinese-Trinidadian to man the front office.
This interpretation was pursued by those
social scientists who argued that Trinidad was
characterised by a social and cultural pluralism
based on institutional divergences where groups
of differing race and religion look inward for
their strengths and orientations at the expense
of the whole. This cultural segmentation existed
even while these groups lived in close economic
and demographic interdependence. Because
there was no consensus on norms, it was illusory
to believe that the society was moving towards
a national community through a process called
“creolisation.” Clearly the most significant
theoretician of this school was the Jamaican
M.G. Smith whose many writings on the subject
became available in 1965 under one cover, The
Plural Society in the British West Indies. It was
also very much the theme of anthropologists
who studied primarily Indian Trinidad. The
American Morton Klass’ 1961 book, East Indians
in Trinidad: A Study in Cultural Persistence and
the Indian Yogendra K. Malik’s, East Indians in
Trinidad (1971) were two of the better studies on
the island’s cultural pluralism.
Many others, however, belonged to the
“consensus” school and argued that there was
a process of homogenisation taking place in
Trinidad and Tobago as in the West Indies.
They hewed close to the theoretical premise
(a major one in Western sociology) that all
societies are held together by certain “functional
prerequisites” arguably the most important of
which is the sharing of common values and
goals. Without this consensus on norms and
values the society would atomise and destroy
Foreign Social Scientists
Look at Trinidad at
Independence
identity
Understanding Creolisation and assimilation
dr Anthony Maingot
Professor Emeritus
of Sociology,
Florida International University
P22-23 Anthony Maingot.indd 22 17/08/2012 17:51

itself. To this group the trend in Trinidad was
toward the “creolisation” of society, defined as
an expanding reserve of values increasingly
being tapped by and serving all members of the
society regardless of race or religion.
Major exponents of this interpretation in one
form or another were R.T. Smith (British Guiana,
1962) and Vera Rubin, Daniel Crowley and Lloyd
Braithwaite, all in Vera Rubin (ed), Social and
Cultural Pluralism in the Caribbean in Annals
of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 83
(1960). Rubin would do a path-breaking study of
youthfulattitudeswhichrevealedhowdifferences
in social class engendered differences in plans for
the future. Rubin’s study was published in 1969
as We Wish to be Looked Upon. Quite a different
approach to social homogenisation in the area
was advanced by Dutch sociologist H. Hoetink
who argued that there was a growing consensus
on the physical characteristics (the “phenotype”)
acceptable to those in the society; thus, more of
a colour than a racial homogenisation. Hoetink’s
essays were later collected in his 1967 book,
Caribbean Race Relations: The Two Variants.
The cultural homogenisation or “creolisation”
thesis found strong support in the work of an
accomplished British historian, Donald Wood.
His 1968 book, Trinidad in Transition, revealed
his support for the creolisation thesis:
“If neither the East Indian nor the Negro
Creole was ever greatly attracted to the culture
of the other, yet it is also true that neither felt
that the other way of life was oppressive or a
danger to their own values. Indeed, as time
went on, the process of creolisation which had
caught in its toils all settlers in the Caribbean
… began to mould even the Indians.” (p301,
Emphasis added).
This theme of “creolisation” as a process of
shared tolerance and peaceful coexistence was
picked up by an American, Ivar Oxaal, in a truly
important work, Black Intellectuals Come to
Power (1968). To Oxaal there were two societal
processes occurring simultaneously in Trinidad.
With Daniel Crowley and the “consensus school”
he believed that there existed in Trinidad a social
process he called “plural acculturation” which
explained why and how the conglomeration
of racial and cultural mixtures had learned to
appreciate the way of life of several other groups
so that a “fluid yet stable system of inter-group
relations is maintained.” Part of this process was
the belief in that slow but inevitable “creolisation”
of the whole population. Interestingly, Oxaal,
who calls this a major ingredient in middle class
Creole ideology, appears to have understood that
he might be overstating his case. He hastily turns
to describe another process which he feels should
not be lost sight of:
“At least equally important as plural
acculturation in keeping Trinidad society at a
relatively low pitch of inter-group conflict is a
pervasive state of mind which might be called
plural disassociation, which is characterised by
the attitude – a cardinal tenet in the philosophy
of the Trinidadian – that each should attend to
his own affairs and not go ‘interfering’ in the
business of other groups.” (p23-24)
Taken together, these descriptions of Trinidad
society underscore the fact that by the date of
Independencetheislandhadexperiencedaprocess
of assimilation which may or may not have
included total creolisation. The critical centre of
gravityoftheassimilationprocessistheacquisition
of citizenship, in other words, becoming a full
member of the national community. One does not
have to “creolise,” or acculturate to every aspect
of another’s culture, in order to respect everyone’s
social and political rights and freedoms. The social
science debate over pluralism vs creolisation which
began50yearsagoshouldcontinue.Weshouldnot
lose sight, however, of that on-going process which
was launched 50 years ago – that of becoming full
members of a national community of citizens. It is
the strong bond of shared citizenship which holds
the plural society together. ■
23
The critical
centre of
gravity of the
assimilation
process is the
acquisition of
citizenship, in
other words,
becoming a
full member
of the national
community
P22-23 Anthony Maingot.indd 23 17/08/2012 17:51

T
rinidad is an island-state 15 miles off
the north-east coast of South America,
with continental characteristics, its
flora and fauna being continental. Its
first inhabitants, the Amerindians, migrated
from the nearby mainland. In the succeeding
years and centuries they were followed
by a succession of immigrants from other
continents, Europe, Africa and Asia, and, as
might have been expected, each new wave of
immigrants found themselves in confrontation
with the former settlers.
The few Spaniards who settled in the island
from 1592 onwards, forcibly subdued the
Amerindians, then had them working in
encomiendas before settling them in the milder
missions, managed by Franciscan priests.
But the easy-going Amerindian culture and
the hammock and the ajoupa enchanted the
Spanish psyche.
From 1778 to 1790 the King of Spain
issued proclamations (Cedulas) aimed at the
development of forested Trinidad, granting
lands and very favourable trading terms to white
Catholics (and to some extent free coloured)
who were citizens of nations at peace with
Spain. In practice, these new immigrants were
mainly from the French West Indian islands
(and a few Irish settlers) who brought with them
their negro slaves. In just a few years the once
almost uninhabited island had thriving estates
of cotton, coffee, cocoa and sugar.
There was, at first, opposition to the new
settlers from the few Spanish colonists, but this
was speedily settled by the remarkable Spanish
Governor of the island (from 1784-1797) Don
José María Chacón. He also entrusted a coloured
estate owner, de la Forrest, with the formulation
of a lenient slave code for the many slaves being
imported to develop the estates. Though there
was some dichotomy between law and practice,
it meant that in Trinidad there was established a
tradition of more benevolent relations between
master and slave than existed in other West
Indian islands.
The numerous French settlers and French-
patois-speaking slaves brought to Trinidad a
colonial French culture: “Mere numbers apart, it
is not too much to say that the style and tone of the
society was and remained, predominantly French
... French wines were drunk, French food eaten,
French dress worn. At public balls French waltzes,
minuets and country dances were all the rage.”
The slaves and free coloured spoke a French
patois, flavoured with colourful proverbs and folk
law.Thenewplacenamesintheislandwerenearly
all French. Carnival, an import from Martinique
and the French islands, where the French carnival
from Nice had become inextricably mixed with
African rhythms and traditions while acquiring
a special Antillean flavour, in Trinidad was
adopted and further adapted to become a truly
Trinidadian institution.
ISLE OF IMMIGRANTS
- CONFRONTATION
TO COOPERATION
identity
unity in diversity, by father anthony de verteuil, cssp
In just a few
years the
once almost
uninhabited
island had
thriving
estates
of cotton,
coffee, cocoa
and sugar
A young English boy,
approx. 1900s, from
the collection of the
Stone Family
Photograph:PariaArchive
P24-25 Father De Verteuil.indd 24 22/08/2012 13:54

Then, in February 1797, a British force led by
General Abercromby captured Trinidad from the
Spanish, and in 1802 the island was formally and
finally handed over to British rule by the Treaty
of Amiens. British merchants and capital helped
to open up the island’s trade. A few Italians,
Corsicans and Germans also set up shop in the
island. Along with the long resident French they
were classified by the newly arrived British as
‘Aliens’ and religious differences also came more
and more to the fore. With the emancipation
of the slaves in 1838 and the foreclosing of
mortgages,mostFrenchcreolesandfreecoloured
estate owners were ruined, and their estates went
for a song to British capitalists.
In 1840 the Anglican Church became the
Established Church in Trinidad, and the
paramount influence of Charles William
Warner (Attorney-General from 1844-1870)
saw English law imposed on the Colony and
Anglicisation in education introduced. The
French creoles, almost 100 per cent Catholic,
strongly opposed the British ‘takeover’ of
the island. Up to 1870 there was intermittent
confrontation between the groups, based almost
entirely on religious differences but after that
date cooperation gradually took root.
From this earlier period there remain up
to today the places of worship of the various
Christian denominations built at great sacrifice
by their adherents, with occasional help by
the government: the Church of St Joseph (in
the old Spanish capital of St Joseph), and in
Port of Spain, the Catholic Cathedral of the
Immaculate Conception, Trinity Cathedral and
the Church of All Saints (Anglican), Hanover
Street Chapel (Methodist), Greyfriars and St
Anns Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), St
John’s Baptist (Baptist).
Education was embraced by these various
Christian denominations from the 1840s,
beginning with primary schools which operated
paralleltothegovernmentschools.TheCatholics,
the Anglicans and the Presbyterians by 1900 had
all numerous primary schools. The Catholics
were the first to launch into secondary education,
with the foundation of St Joseph’s Convent for
girls in 1836 and St George’s College for boys
in 1840, which gave way to St Mary’s College in
1863. From 1870 the government was favourable
to the giving of assistance to these schools and
the system of Denominational schools working
hand in hand with the government grew, in spite
of many a crisis, into the present system.
The coming of the East Indian Immigrants
from 1845 onwards (and a few Chinese)
introduced a new equation into the religious,
cultural and social milieu of Trinidad. Many
difficulties had to be overcome but eventually
there was cooperation in every sphere including
the eventual foundation of the IRO (Inter
Religious Organisation) to embrace the various
religious bodies. ■
25
As might
have been
expected, each
new wave of
immigrants
found
themselves in
confrontation
with the
former settlers
Little girl dressed in
the Martiniquan style,
approx. 1880s. From
a souvenir album that
a traveller would have
bought of faces and
places of their sojourn
Photograph:PariaArchive
P24-25 Father De Verteuil.indd 25 22/08/2012 13:54

T
he performance of peoples of African
descent in the post-Independence era
has led many to wonder why the spirit of
entrepreneurship which seemed to be in
abundance after Emancipation in Trinidad and
Tobago was not sustained. Many blamed Eric
Williams and the developmental policies which
the PNM pursued after it came to power in 1956.
Lloyd Best has argued that Williams’ pursuit of
the Arthur Lewis-inspired “industrialisation by
invitation” policy was largely responsible for the
collapse of black entrepreneurship in Trinidad
and Tobago:
“We got into an awful muddle with Caroni
and sugar. We relied on Lewis’ programme of
industrial development, inspired in its way….The
programme destroyed any number of emergent
farmers, budding tradesmen, craftsmen and
entrepreneurs in the East-West Corridor, all for
a grandiose, incompetent state sector of poorly
conceived projects, impossible to sustain even if
the boom had not collapsed so ignominiously.”
(Express, December 19th 1998).
Best further argued that Williams’
historical error was to opt for the subsidised
“entrepreneurship” of expatriate investors rather
than promoting indigenous entrepreneurs, a
choice which would have yielded political as well
as economic dividends. To quote his complaint:
“The PNM never built up the sugar issue in
such a way as to secure the support of the large,
rural, racially distinct subculture. This omission
made the essentially urban-created party
vulnerable by keeping the door open to another
power grouping based on the rural subculture...”
Best argued that a policy which de-emphasised
the plantation and encouraged and sustained
Indian entrepreneurs would have helped to deal
with the ethnic disunity which prevailed in the
new state. Williams was however convinced that
the retention of the plantation in conjunction
with the policy of seeking to attract branch
plants of American and European firms with
tax holidays and other concessions was the best
available option for Trinidad and Tobago. In his
view, it made no sense to destroy the plantation as
some UWI radicals were suggesting at the time.
As he told a PNM Convention in 1966, “the best
policy in the national interest is the production of
sugar as efficiently as possible whilst redundant
workers are settled on government lands to grow
food crops.” (Nation Sept 14th 1966).
Dr Williams and The Black Power Crisis of 1970
Williams could have switched to the self-reliance
option which was in vogue among some left wing
nationalistsduringthe’60s.Itishowevernotevident
that the strategic conjuncture would have allowed
for the success of this initiative. In fact, substituting
food and other crops for sugar succeeded nowhere
in the Caribbean, not even in Cuba which in fact
sought to increase sugar production.
In 1970, however, radical Blacks in Trinidad
and Tobago took to the streets in their thousands
to protest what they perceived as their economic
powerlessness. Their spokespersons complained
thatTrinidad and Tobagohadsecuredits political
independence from Britain and now had all the
trappings of independence – a flag, a national
anthem, and a coat of arms – but the people
had no say in how the country was managed
economically. The “commanding heights of the
economy” were owned by foreigners.
Many groups were involved in the protest
movement.TheNationalJointActionCommittee
(NJAC) which emerged as the dominant protest
group, wanted nothing less than a complete
takeover of the economy by the people. It
wanted a clean break with imperialism and white
economic power. NJAC catalogued in detail
the extent to which the Trinidad economy was
owned by foreign and local whites:
“There is not much left for us to scramble over.
The Government under pressure from the people
is engaging in some tokenism. They took a piece
of Tate and Lyle, (the major sugar company) on
BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN POST-INDEPENDENCE
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Identity
the eric williams legacy
professor
selwyn ryan
Professor Emeritus,
Trinidad
p26-32 selwyn ryan.indd 26 24/08/2012 14:07

hire purchase, they bought a token bank and a
token share of oil, they say. Nothing meaningful.
And we can’t even claim these things for Black
People... When the Government invests in oil
and sugar, they are going to joint ventures with
the foreigners; they are wasting our money to
finance the pillars of a system which is anti-black.
These companies operate as parts of large multi-
national corporations. They base decisions on
whatisinthebestinterestofawholeinternational
complex. So all this foolishness about setting up
boards with a local chairman is game-playing,
because we know that none of the important
decisions are made here anyway. What we want is
ownership and control, not ownership in name.
We are too much in need to be overpaying these
peopleforcompanysharesaspoliticalgimmicks.”
(Slavery to Slavery 1970).
NJAC rejected the PNM’s attempts to promote
black business as a “trap:”
“Black capitalism disguises white control just
as Black government disguises colonialism. It is
insultingtoBlackpeopletotellusthatweshouldbe
contented with a little co-operative here and a shop
or store there on the fringes of the economy, when
we know that this country is ours. Black business
will have to operate within the rules of the system
which means all our basic problems remain.”
Offers of share-holding in foreign companies
were also viewed as a disguise that did nothing
about the problem of control.
“There is no point in putting ready cash in the
hands of people who will just use it to exploit
us more effectively. Important decisions are not
made by the local branches of foreign firms. The
‘game’ of promoting ‘black-faced management
...as buffers between white controlling care and
the Black dispossessed workers’ is seen as further
evidence of the contemptuousness of the white
power structure…They like to put Black people
as public relations officers and in other positions
where they have to confront the workers and the
public with decisions taken by their white bosses.
27
NJAC said little
or nothing of
consequence
about small
indigenous
business.
Its focus
was on the
foreign owned
sector which
it wanted
nationalised.
Williams
answered
NJAC’s
charges,
denying that
he neglected
the problems
faced by
Blacks
Trinidad and Tobago’s
first Prime Minister,
Dr Eric Williams

This policy is for us to curse the Black stooge
instead of the White exploiter. Even when a Black
man is made some manager or assistant manager,
they empty the post of what little substance it had
so the Black man carries the title without the
responsibilities. This is the process we observe
whenever an office formerly filled by a White
expatriate is given over to a Black man.”
NJAC was clearly not concerned with
minimum programmes. It wanted the “whole
bread for the historically dispossessed.”
“We need to destroy…the system from its very
foundations...to get out of our economic mess
(and) build a new society. In this new society,
the people, educated by their revolutionary
experience, will decide what will be produced
and what technologies will be utilised. They
will also understand that they will have to make
sacrifices and give up acquired (imposed) habits.
“If we want the white man’s goods, we have to
use his technology and his capital...and have his
technicians running things for us. We remain
slaves, unemployed, suffering.” (ibid)
NJAC said little or nothing of consequence
about small indigenous business. Its focus was
on the foreign-owned sector which it wanted
nationalised. Williams answered NJAC’s charges,
denying that he neglected the problems faced
by Blacks. Part of his problem was that he had
to take note of the fact that he was the leader of
a state consisting of two major ethnicities. As he
said in a nationwide broadcast:
“Weconsciouslysoughttopromoteamultiracial
society with emphasis on the economic and
social upliftment of the two major disadvantaged
groups. Our goal had always been Afro-Asian
unity. We have [nevertheless] consciously sought
to promote black economic power. We have in
five years created 1,523 Black small farmers over
the country. We have encouraged small business
without too much success in manufacture and
tourism. We have sought to promote fishing
cooperatives.” (May 23, 1970).
In “Perspectives for a New Society,” the PNM’s
post-1970 development plan, four sectors were
identified, the foreign private sector, the public
sector,thenationalprivatesector,andthepeople’s
sector. Williams rejected socialism and any set of
policies which vaguely resembled what was being
done in Cuba. He however felt that there had to
be a shift towards policies which privileged public
ownership and involvement in the country’s
economic development by nationals.
Williams did not have much confidence in the
indigenous commercial class which was mainly
white, “off white”, or mixed. These elements were
accused of not being “risk takers” and of having
a “commission agent mentality.” They were
accused of preferring to buy and sell imported
goods rather than produce substitutes or new
products. As Perspectives complained:
“Just as the dispossessed need to cast off their
attitude of dependence on the Government,
so too do many business people have to cast
off their inferiority complex vis-a-vis the large
international corporation, and come to realise
that they are capable of doing much of the job
of developing the country...Do they belong to a
Williams
rejected
socialism
and any set
of policies
which vaguely
resembled
what was
being done
in Cuba
Identity
Prime Minister Dr Eric
Williams inspects a guard of
motorcycle police
AllphotographscourtesyofPariaArchive

The “people’s
sector” was
hailed as
the PNM’s
“revolutionary”
answer to the
demands of
black radicals
that the
dispossessed
sons of African
slaves and
Indian bonded-
servants
should be
encouraged
and helped
to own a
piece of their
patrimony
country of the Third World or do they belong
to the metropolis? It is in the last analysis, a
question of identity.”
While Williams was not unequivocally
committed to small business in the years before
1970, he did encourage Indians and Africans
to go into agriculture, light industry, transport,
distribution and construction. Much to their
distress, he indicated to businessmen that blacks
should be given a “handicap” to allow them to
catch up with would-be competitors, a view
which they rejected. Several black contractors
were nevertheless given preference over British
companies in the construction industry whenever
the state was responsible for the project as was the
case with the construction of the University of
The West Indies and The Federation Park housing
estatethatwasbeingbuilttoaccommodateofficials
associated with the Federal Government. The
“Rasta” plaited “Drag Brothers,” who concentrated
on leather and other crafts in the early seventies,
were also assisted as were several cooperatives.
Williams also paid some attention to black
would-be farmers who claimed they wanted to
go back to farming but could not get suitable
lands in the urban areas. Some were settled by the
Ministry of Agriculture on crown-owned lands
previously occupied by the American military
at the bases in Wallerfield and Cumuto. The
declared aim was to address the twin issues of
increased food production and black alienation
from the land and urban drift. The project failed
disastrously. Most of the settlers abandoned
the lands which they sold or sublet to Indian
farmers and entrepreneurs. Blacks found it much
more productive to purchase and operate taxi
cabs than to cultivate virgin lands. They also
complained that they did not get the kind of
technical, financial and help with marketing that
they had been promised.
Many blacks however found it easier and indeed
more economically worthwhile in both time
spent on the job and remuneration, to obtain
employment on the various “work for votes”
projects generated by the PNM. Interestingly,
the special projects were not only expected to
provide short-term jobs, but also to stimulate
entrepreneurship among urban youth. This
howeverneverhappenedtoanysignificantdegree.
Over time, project work became associated in the
publicmindwithpoorworkethic,idlenessandlow
productivity. By the end of the 1970s, the “make
work mentality” had contaminated and corrupted
the work ethic in the larger society, to say nothing
about the national wage structure. No one would
accept jobs with wages lower than that obtained by
project workers. Small-scale enterprise, whether
owned by Blacks or any other group, could not
survive for long in that environment.
The “people’s sector” was hailed as the PNM’s
“revolutionary” answer to the demands of black
radicals that the dispossessed sons of African
slaves and Indian bonded-servants should be
encouraged and helped to own a piece of their
patrimony. While the concept was not defined in
ethnically specific terms, there was an informal
understanding that the state, controlled as it was
by a party with a black political base, would give
special attention to blacks who wished to get
involved in business. It was also assumed that the
twonewlyestablishednationalcommercialbanks
that had been established by the state and other
local investors in the wake of the 1970 crisis – the
Worker’s Bank and the National Commercial
Bank – would help to provide venture capital
to this burgeoning black business elite. It was
likewise assumed that existing agencies such
as the Industrial Development Corporation,
the Development Finance Corporation, the
Management Development Centre and the
Agricultural Development Bank would help by
providingfinancialmanagerialandotherservices
that would compensate to some extent for the
lack of inherited capital, knowledge of the market
and business know-how that characterised the
black community.
29Trinidad Tobago 50 Years of Independence

To concretise this commitment to the small
man, 1970 was declared “Small Business
Year”. A small business unit was established
in May 1970 as a department of the Industrial
Development Corporation in accordance with
a cabinet directive and given TT$2.5 million
as seed money. Its main goal and function was
to promote growth among the nation’s small
business enterprises. With the formation of the
Small Business Unit came a formal definition
of a “small business,” that is, units whose
capital investment was TT$50,000 and under,
represented by land, building, leasehold property,
machinery, plant and equipment, stock-in-trade,
work in progress, and furniture (in special cases).
Enterprises with investments of over TT$50,000
up to TT$100,000 were also to be included.
Some positive results came of this effort on
the part of blacks to break into the business
sector. Quite a few rode the petrodollar boom
and achieved a measure of success. Significant
breakthroughs were also recorded in the
construction industry, in the merchandise retail
sector (appliances, household furnishings,
clothing, and so on), in the service sector (taxis,
car rentals, bars, clubs, restaurants, accounting,
janitorial services, valuation), and small
supermarkets, to name a few of the niches in
which they were to be found.
Many blacks also achieved successes in the
construction industry and “suitcase trade”. They
flew to Panama, Curaçao, Miami and New York
and returned with suitcases full of merchandise
whichtheysoldinboutiques,inthe“People’sMall”
on Queen Street, Port of Spain, or on sidewalks
in commercial centres in competition with
merchants belonging to other ethnic minority
groups, the Syrian-Lebanese in particular, who
complained of unfair competition. Many blacks
however complained that the Syrians, who had
themselves started as suitcase traders, were
now seeking to deny them use of the route that
they had taken to become established. Vendors
in the “People’s Mall” claimed that the police
often raided the mall looking for drugs. The real
agenda, in their view, was the ongoing economic
war between Syrians and black entrepreneurs.
Only a few of the companies belonging to
the newly emergent entrepreneurial group of
all ethnicities survived the drastic downturn in
economic activity that characterised the 1980s, a
downturntriggeredbythe1986dropinproduction
levels and the price of crude petroleum from
US$26 to US$9. Most of those who survived were
a shadow of their former selves. Many collapsed
and either went into receivership or disappeared
completely. Given their recent entry, blacks as a
group were unable to sustain their efforts. Only
119 of the 335 co-operatives that existed in 1984
remained active. The “Drag Brothers” continued
tooperate,butfewgrewbeyondmeresurvival.The
creation of a facility for them on Independence
Square was a reaction to the demand of young
blacks for space in the centre of town to produce
and market their craft. It however quickly became
a haven for crime, drugs and other forms of
dysfunctional activity, and served to disfigure
downtown Port of Spain. Williams regretted the
The Workers’
Bank and
the National
Commercial
Bank were
also enabled
to secure
mortgages for
new customers
to build or
buy their
own homes
Identity
Black Power demonstration
outside The Royal Bank
of Canada, 1970

31Trinidad Tobago 50 Years of Independence
initiative, which was to be later demolished by a
successor PNM administration.
Could Williams be blamed for what happened
to the black enterprise project? Such an allegation
would be historically unfair. Black West Indians
generally did not see small business as the
preferred way out of joblessness and poverty.
That was not an option to which many aspired.
As the assumed successors to the colonial ruling
class, their vocational aspirations lay elsewhere.
Their reference group was the white collar official
in the state or commercial sector. Some saw
the answer in massive migration to Britain, the
“Mother Country,” Canada, the United States, or
some form of unity with them. To some extent,
Williams shared that view. Writing in The Negro
in the Caribbean (1942), he argued that the future
of the Caribbean was both an internal and an
external problem. The external problem was that
the United States had to take responsibility for the
economic wellbeing of the islands. In Williams’
view, the Caribbean was geographically and
more importantly, an American economic lake.
There was no traditional homeland to which one
could return and rebuild. America’s “Manifest
Destiny” was to exercise economic trusteeship
responsibility for the islands for “whose miseries
it is in part to blame.” The Americans however
had no desire to undertake that responsibility.
Speaking on behalf of Americans during
negotiations related to the Destroyers for Bases
deal in 1941, Roosevelt made it clear that America
would not welcome 2 million black West Indians
coming to America and sitting on its doorstep.
If it cannot be argued that Williams was
responsible for crippling black enterprise, it can
nevertheless be said that he contributed greatly to
its demise in the period after 1970 by pampering
blacks with patronage and various make-work
activities, thereby removing what was left of the
incentive to work. Williams was however caught
in a demographic and political trap. He was in
thrall to the Westminster system in which parties
are forced to compete for the peoples’ vote. Given
the competitive nature of the party system and
the memories of 1970, Williams was forced to
compete for the votes which were on purchase if
he wanted to retain political power. The events of
1970 and the elections of 1976 and 1981 loomed
largeinhisconsciousness.Hethusfeltitnecessary
to pander to the ambitions and expectations of
the upwardly mobile black middle class and the
underclass that his government had nurtured.
He was also a victim of the plantation-
generated cultural attributes of the black
community which fostered attitudes of
dependency, attributes which he himself had
recognised. As he remarked in Perspectives:
“Because of their long history of economic
dependence on metropolitan countries, the
people of the Caribbean have never been forced
to utilise their own resources. We have preferred
to view our material progress in terms of
handouts from the metropolis – handouts of aid,
of capital investment or sheltered and preferred
markets…We have never fully looked inwards.
And when we do, we look to the government as
a source of handouts.”
Could Williams
be blamed
for what
happened
to the black
enterprise
project? Such
an allegation
would be
historically
unfair
In the red: Barclays Bank
DCO, decorated for
Independence Day, 1962

Blacks believed that they were entitled to
the jobs and positions formerly held by the
expatriates. This feeling of entitlement dogged
the society from the early stages of self-
government and independence where education
was viewed as a way of improving one’s chances
of being selected to fill the positions vacated by
former colonials. Certification was an access
pass to jobs formerly held by the colonials.
This access to position without a strong sense
of commitment to the wider society not only
encouraged mediocrity but fuelled the tradition
of corruption in high office.
Apart from being a vehicle for some to achieve
status and wealth without work, the very role
of government had a deleterious effect on the
work ethic. Helped along by the seasons of great
wealth generated from energy resources, the all-
pervasive state quickly morphed into a centre
for distribution of the oil-generated national
patrimony rather than an agency for development.
The net effect of the make-work programmes
was negative on the work ethic. If according to
Williams “Massa Day Done,” Williams was seen as
the new political “Massa” whose historic role was
to “run something” to the sons and daughters of
the former slaves. They wanted him to distribute
their “grandfather’s backpay.” His emphasis was
therefore on consumption and distribution rather
than on production which would have required a
postponementofgratification.Ontheachievement
of Independence in 1962, Williams gave the
nation three watchwords, Discipline, Tolerance
and Production. While there was much success in
the area of ethnic tolerance, much was left to be
desired in the areas of discipline and production.
Many mistook ‘The Massa Day Done’ rhetoric to
mean that in the New Day dispensation, one was
entitledtobesustainedbythestate.Thesewerenot
among the positive aspects of the Williams legacy.
This aspect of the Williams legacy came in the
form of state-provided school places in the so-
called prestige schools for the social elite, places
in the comprehensive and vocational schools for
those who were accessing secondary education for
the first time, make-work jobs, low or middle class
housing, subsidised public transport and other
utilities, board memberships and shareholding in
enterprises which the state had acquired. Williams
fussed, but he knew that in order to ensure the
electoral turnout that would deliver victory, he
would have to be the Godfather. He was painfully
aware that once the masses had become used to
living in a “freeness state”, he would have to ensure
that that lifestyle was sustained. Moreover, since
sugarwasnolongersociologicallyoreconomically
suitable as a commodity for a modern Caribbean
state, one had to rely more on oil and natural
gas, and concentrate on iron, steel and the other
symbols of modernity. He felt that iron and steel
had made Great Britain a great nation, and that
that was what would make Trinidad and Tobago
great. To satisfy those needs and those ambitions,
the state would have to be the default entrepreneur
notthelittleblackorIndianman. As Williams told
agroupofstudents,theywerebeingcalleduponto
build the future modern state:
“The ’80s must surely belong to you. I urge you
to accept that role, that challenge with the same
determination, the same sense of discipline, with
the same attitude towards productive hard work
that your parents and indeed your grandparents
had in the ’50s and ’60s, and the decade before
that. Where our ancestors toiled in the field
producing sugar under conditions of slavery,
and under conditions of indenture, you will have
an opportunity to produce steel of the highest
quality to generate electricity.” (Press Release,
Office of the Prime Minister, 4 February 1980.)
Thestate-centricmodelsthatWilliamsenvisaged
were Mao’s China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore,
Malayasia, and the Soviet Union, not those very
few states which were facilitating and promoting
small-scale enterprises. Williams wanted to catch
up with History, and to do that, he felt he had no
choice but to use the state as his instrument. ■
If it cannot be
argued that
Williams was
responsible for
crippling black
enterprise,
it can
nevertheless
be said that
he contributed
greatly to
its demise in
the period
after 1970 by
pampering
blacks with
patronage and
various make-
work activities
Identity

B
usinesses are usually founded by
remarkable individuals who have
vision, ambition and energy. They
create institutions that outlive
them and they, themselves, become legends.
One man to whom all of the above apply is
Wilfred Sidney Knox, who may be seen as the
most outstanding businessman in Trinidad and
Tobago in the latter half of the 20th century.
Following in the footsteps of Sir Gerald Wight,
an entrepreneur and industrialist who brought
brewing, manufacturing,
shipbuilding and many
other ventures into
existence in the pre-
Independence period,
Knox, in company of a
coterie of other young men
who each operated within
their own spaces, following
in his footsteps, succeeded
in putting into place the
platforms that took an
independent Trinidad and
Tobago’s business sector
out of, and forever away
from, the business model
that had been established
here more than one
hundred years before.
That older model had
been founded on the
twin-islands’ agricultural
economies, grown from both the sugar and
cocoa industries, which formed the bedrock
of the society and shaped the culture and
indeed the very nature of what is meant to be
“a native of this place”. These economies were
buttressed from the 1930s by the dynamic
growth of the petroleum industry, wherein as
in both the sugarcane and cocoa industries,
these islands pioneered developments of
world-changing commodities.
Sidney Knox was among the founders of the
modern conglomerates, which in the wake of the
collapse of the Federation of the West Indies in
1962, worked towards and were partly responsible
for the creation of the Caribbean Free Trade
Association, CARIFTA, the precursor of the
Caribbean Community and Common Market,
CARICOM. Knox’s larger-than-life personality
drove this original, creative and adventurous
individual, who shared in the modern
entrepreneurial spirit that dominated the post-
World War II period in the
western democracies.
Knox’s return to his
island home after serving
in the Royal Air Force put
upon him the pressure
of making the important
career choices that
many young men of his
generation had to face.
In his case, it was fate or
fortune that took him
into the engineering and
motorcar sales firm of Neal
Massy, and placed him
in the fortunate position
of coming under the
influence of a thoroughly
modern individual,
Charles Massy.
Knox’s quick-witted,
keen-spirited and ambitious
personality, buttressed by a strong competitive
instinct, drove his career over the succeeding forty
years to the top of Neal Massy and also took the
conglomerate to its full potential.
With his drive and energy, Knox, assisted by
a team of intelligent, resourceful and ambitious
young people, ensured that several of the older
family firms, if in name only, survived as a
result of the conglomerate structure created
by Neal Massy. The acquisition by Neal
sidney knox and
the birth of the
conglomerate
HISTORY
33
Entrepreneurship and local industry in the heady days post-Independence
TRINIDAD TOBAGO: 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
W. Sidney Knox CMT,
LLD (hc), former
Chairman of Neal
Massy Holdings
GÉRARD A. BESSON HBM,
Historian and Author,
Trinidad
P33-35 Gerard Besson Knox HISTORY.indd 33 22/08/2012 13:50

Massy of several of Trinidad and Tobago’s long-
established businesses contributed to a much-
needed feeling for security and permanence in
the face of fast-paced and rather frightening
political and social changes taking place in the
country and the world beyond.
Continuity in business, perpetuated by Knox’s
business model, also ensured that international
business contacts and goodwill survived into
the post-independence period and beyond.
There cannot be any doubt that Knox’s business
model for expansion, and his pursuit of quality
service and best practices in management in
Trinidad and Tobago and in the Caribbean, were
of significant importance, particularly in the
closing decades of the 20th century. He set and
maintained the highest standards. Sidney Knox’s
vision and leadership style – brash, forceful,
outspoken, peppered with the salty language that
his sailor’s heart expressed without fear or favour
– have earned him a wide-ranging reputation as
a no-nonsense businessman.
Some of his notable colleagues in Trinidad
and Tobago’s post-Independence emerging
modern business sector were Ralph Gibson,
who piloted the first take-over in Trinidad and
HISTORY
TRINIDAD TOBAGO: 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE34
Knox’s larger-than-
life personality
drove this original,
creative and
adventurous
individual,
who shared in
the modern
entrepreneurial
spirit that
dominated the post-
World War II period
Top: The Neal Massy
Automotive Building,
Morvant, in the 1960s
Bottom (left-right):
Charles Massy,
George Phillips and
Ralph Gibson

35TRINIDAD TOBAGO: 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
The growing
conglomerates of
post-Independence
Trinidad and
Tobago provided
employment,
improved working
conditions and
gave training and
scholarships to
their employees
Top left: Sir Gerald Wright
Top right: Thomas Gatcliffe
Middle: Ken Gordon
Bottom: Nazir Ahamad
Tobago when McEnearney’s took over Alstons
Limited, as such creating the first conglomerate;
Thomas Gatcliffe, Chairman of Angostura and
independent Senator; Nazir Ahamad, founder
of Southern Sales; Ken Gordon, the Chairman
of the Caribbean Communications Network;
Geoffrey Inglefield, Chairman of NEM Finance;
and George Phillips and Cyril Greenidge of
Neal Massy.
Their businesses – and the growing
conglomerates of post-Independence Trinidad
and Tobago – provided employment, improved
working conditions and gave training and
scholarships to their employees. All this
contributed in no small way to the retention
of the county’s middle class, which served to
keep the intellectual capital from migrating
completely in the years after Independence and
during the economic downturn of the 1980s.
Trinidad and Tobago’s vibrant new private
sector, which to a considerable degree was
created by Sidney Knox, also served to raise living
standards in terms of perceptions of quality,
competitiveness, productivity, value and service:
All necessary in the free enterprise system. At
the 50th anniversary of Independence, it is our
pleasure to bow to this truly great man to whom
many thousands of us owe so much. ■

A
s our nation celebrates five
decades of independence
on 31st August 2012,
one is sometimes led to
wonder what life would have been like had we
never been blessed with the economic bounty
of the petroleum industry. Indeed, a great deal
of hardship may have been our lot as well as
the absence of the many public privileges we
sometimestakeforgranted,sothataswecelebrate
this pivotal milestone, the Ministry of Energy
Energy Affairs takes a reflective look at the local
oil industry in the period from its inception up
until the moment of independence in 1962.
Independence of an economic nature may have
beeninthethoughtsofCaptainWalterP.Darwent
when he drilled what was to become the first
producing oil well in the island in 1866. Indeed,
the presence of petroleum had been realised
some time prior to this significant occurrence
since British geologists Messrs Wall and Sawkins
were commissioned to compile a comprehensive
geological survey of the island by the Secretary
of State for the Colonies a decade earlier. While
primarily concerned with the investigation of the
presence of mineral coal and manjack (a high-
quality asphalt), the surveyors noted the presence
of petroleum in the famous Pitch Lake, which
even then was being commercially exploited, as
well as in the tertiary shales of the south coast.
Kerosene was already being distilled from the
asphalt of the Guapo region and was commonly
known as ‘pitch oil’.
The possible existence of petroleum in
the area attracted the attention of Captain
Darwent, who at the time was resident in
Port of Spain with his family. Darwent, a
veteran of the Apache Wars in the USA, was
convinced that the area around the Pitch Lake
held commercially viable quantities of ‘black
gold’. He travelled to New York in 1864 and
through much perseverance attracted venture
capital to incorporate the Paria Petroleum
Company in 1865. After much trauma, the
company was formed and equipment acquired.
This was done for an additional US$6,300 in
local shares, purchased by some of the most
powerful businessmen in the island. The firm
had no board of directors, being managed by
the shareholders themselves and the President,
Captain Darwent. He was sure of the viability
of the enterprise, and was not daunted by the
detractors who scoffed at the venture.
Darwent was so certain that the project would
yield great returns he purchased thousands
of wooden casks to hold the oil. These were
stacked in an empty lot near San Fernando Hill.
This energetic man then moved his equipment
by steamer to La Brea. Prospecting around the
area, he discovered seepages of oil on Aripero
Estate, a defunct sugar plantation. Darwent
erected a steam engine, and a crude wooden
rig. He struck a rich oil sand at only 200 feet,
but the pressure of gas was so low he could
not get the oil to the surface. He tried using
dippers attached to a cable but this was abortive
since the clayey soil often collapsed, filling the
bore. The failure to produce oil in marketable
laying the foundations
of the modern
energy industry
HISTORY
A brief history of Trinidad’s oil sector up to 1962, by Angelo Bissessarsingh
This was a time
when monumental
tasks were
performed and
wealth drawn from
primeval forest
P36-39 Angelo Bissessarsingh HISTORY.indd 36 23/08/2012 10:38

amounts caused the Paria Petroleum Company
to collapse. Darwent himself was disheartened.
He contracted yellow fever and died at La Brea
in 1868, just one year after striking oil. The hunt
for black gold died with him until nearly five
decades later.
MajorRandolphRustwasoneoftheluminaries
of Trinidad’s history, being a man of many parts,
and had come out to Trinidad in 1882. In the
1880s, a surveyor mapping the southeastern
coast noticed seepages of oil in the Guayaguayare
forest. He sent a sample to England, only for it to
be returned with a terse note which said that the
sample had to be fake since it was too pure. By
1893, Rust, who had been bitten by the oil bug,
wasinthesameforestlookingattheseepages.The
land was owned by a Chinese merchant named
John Lee Lum who had a thriving provision
business in Port of Spain. Rust was sufficiently
convinced of the commercial possibilities of oil,
and unlike Trinidad’s first driller, undertook
to provide financing for his enterprise before
drilling. Backed by Lee Lum, Rust entered into
a partnership with the Walkerville Whisky
Company of Canada to form the Canadian Oil
ExplorationSyndicatein1901.By1902,Rustwas
ready to begin drilling. Since there was no road
access to the area, manpower and equipment
were sent to Guayaguayare by steamer and then
ferried four miles up the Pilot River on rafts
and canoes where a site had been cleared and
levelled by hand. Erecting a rickety wooden and
iron drilling rig, powered by a steam engine,
Rust and his men struck a rich oil sand at just
850 feet. The recovery process was even cruder
than the drilling apparatus. A large well was dug
and a pulley system installed, on which drill pipe
dippers were dipped in the pooling oil and then
dumped into wooden barrels which were then
loaded on canoes and taken to the mouth of the
river. Some of the oil was drained off to a metal
holding tank, while still more was poured into
an earthen sump or pit.
In the infancy of the local oil industry, as
many as 300 small companies were registered
before 1920 to prospect for oil, many of which
never even got off to a start for want of capital.
Arthur Beeby Thompson, a geologist, was
prospecting in the Guapo area in the period
1909-10 and came to the determination that
37
In the infancy of the
local oil industry, as
many as 300 small
companies were
registered before
1920 to prospect
for oil, many of
which never even
got off to a start for
want of capital
Above: Walter Darwent’s
Aripero well, drilled 1866,
pictured 1890s

vast quantities of oil lay under the surface. The
successes of Thompson and the establishment
of a refinery by United British Oilfields Trinidad
(UBOT) at Point Fortin in 1912 made the
lands from La Brea to Point Fortin exceedingly
valuable. These lands were former sugar estates,
founded by French settlers in the late 1780s.
By 1850, most had been abandoned and the
area returned to the woods, with the exception
of small patches of peasant cultivation by
the ex-slaves and their descendants of the
estates. Particularly rich deposits existed at
Perseverance Estate, a large cocoa plantation at
Vance River, Guapo
The frontier of jungle and disease confronted
by the drillers was arduous. This was a time
when monumental tasks were performed and
wealth drawn from primeval forest. Fyzabad was
developing as an oil area almost simultaneously
with Guapo and Point Fortin. Apex Oilfields
Ltd, led by the formidable Colonel Horace
Hickling (who was to become one of the most
powerful men in the island and a Member of the
Legislative Council) also began acquiring lands
at Forest Reserve, Fyzabad, both from peasant
cocoa proprietors and by lease from the Crown.
Most of these lands had to be cleared for the
erection of drill sites, housing camps, refineries,
roads, pipelines and the entire infrastructure
necessary to make the extraction of oil feasible.
Roads in particular were vital to the industry, as
the use of the motor car was imperative, not only
for rapid ease of movement, but also for visiting
Port of Spain and San Fernando. For example,
Trinidad Leaseholds had fields at Barrackpore
nearPenal,andalsoatFyzabad,morethan20miles
away, as well as a refinery at Point Fortin, another
18 miles from Fyzabad. Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd
had also erected a refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre on
the remnants of three sugar estates it acquired in
1912-13. A good road network was vital. In the
infant days of the industry, the bulldozer was
still unknown and most of the work of clearing
the forest and levelling trajectories for roads fell
to an amazing class of labourer, now forgotten
in history, called the tattoo gangs. Tattoo gangs
consisted of both men and women, who lived as
peasants near the area of development. The men
were powerful with an axe and hewed thousands
oftreestomakeclearingsintheforest.Thewomen
would cull the underbrush with cutlasses before
firing the whole. Logs would be dragged by oxen
(later crawler tractor) parallel to each other and
smeared with a layer of gravel and clay to create
corduroy roads.
A similar scene was occurring far to the
north where Alex Duckham was establishing
Trinidad Central Oilfields in 1911 at Tabaquite,
which was the only oilfield which sold gasoline
by the drum to motorcar owners, the drums
being sent by train to Port of Spain via the
railway. A sad incident occurred in 1928
when the Dome Oilwell No. 3, a privately
owned concern, exploded killing the owner
and fifteen others. It was a sobering reminder
of the dangers of the oilfields. For the white
HISTORY
For the white
expatriates, neat
bungalows and
clubhouses provided
an idyllic life amid
the forest of oil
derricks, but the
average labourer
sweated for less
than 50 cents a day
Drillers at an
early wellhead

expatriates, neat bungalows and clubhouses
provided an idyllic life amid the forest of oil
derricks, but the average labourer sweated for
less than 50 cents a day. It is this disparity in
wages and living conditions which brought a
fiery Grenadian oilman named Tubal Uriah
“Buzz” Butler into a headlong confrontation
with the powerful Colonel Hickling at Fyzabad.
Viewed as a serious threat, many attempts
were made to arrest Butler, culminating in an
incident wherein the arresting officer, Corporal
Carl King was hideously burnt to death by a
mob, which sparked the ‘Butler Riots’ of 1937.
Butler was partially forgotten however, when
the threat of World War II loomed large in 1939.
World War I had caught Trinidad’s oil industry
in its infancy, but now, our petroleum resources
were a vital asset for the Allied forces in Europe
which demanded every drop they could get
for the stand against the Wehrmacht of Adolf
Hitler and Nazi Germany. The Bases Agreement
was signed by American President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill in 1941. It spelt an end to a way of life
which had persisted for two generations. Faced
with the onslaught of the Nazi war machine and
the terrible threat of German U-Boats lurking
in the Atlantic, the Allied forces consolidated
their resources in a united front which saw
England receiving 50 outdated destroyer vessels
for the seriously weakened Royal Navy in return
for permitting the United States military under
a 99-year lease to erect bases in its Caribbean
colonies. Trinidad was of immense strategic
importance because of its petroleum fields and
refineries which, at one time during the war,
supplied the majority of the fuel needed for the
Allied forces in Europe.
Fuel was rationed locally while the refineries
at Point Fortin and Pointe-a-Pierre worked
non-stop. Convoys of tankers, escorted by
armed vessels, left Trinidad on an almost daily
basis, yet in 1942 a U-Boat managed to sink
two cargo vessels in Port-of-Spain in spite of
all precautions, including a vast submarine net
stretched across the Bocas Drago. Pointe-a-
Pierre especially was protected since it provided
most of the aviation fuel for the Royal Air Force.
When the war ended in 1945, the oil industry
wasfacedwithshrinkinglandresources.In1955
a successful oil well was drilled offshore near
Soldado Rock by Texaco, which had acquired
all the assets of Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd, amid
much public furore at a ‘Yankee’ company’s
ownership of the largest portion of domestic oil
holdings. In that year, the Trinidad and Tobago
Electricity Commission opened a huge power
plant at Syne Village, Penal, which was fuelled
by natural gas supplied from an underground
reservoir – a first for the nation. In 1962, the
largest oil drilling platform in the world drilled
as many as 36 wells in our waters, signalling a
new era for the petroleum industry as well as
for Trinidad and Tobago, which on 31st August
that year, won its independence from Britain
and was free to chart its own destiny. ■
39
In 1962, the largest
oil drilling platform
in the world
drilled as many
as 36 wells in our
waters, signalling
a new era for the
petroleum industry
DeLong jack-up barge
off Trinidad’s West
coast, 1960s

T
rinidad and Tobago, during
50 years of independence,
has been transformed from
a rural tropical backwater
to an almost fully developed country, facilitated
in great part by the oil and gas with which the
country is amply endowed. There is great cause
for satisfaction and for a look back at business
life over the past 50 years.
To the businessman the oil boom of the 1970s,
followed by the bust of the early 80s, returning
to the boom years of 2001 to the present time,
has been a roller coaster ride which has created
economic giants in the private sector as well as
erased those companies which were less adaptable
to the changing economic conditions of the times.
Before Independence the businessmen of
Trinidad and Tobago lived in the business
environment of “British rule where the role
of the state was minimal and limited to the
provision of law and order, security, provision of
basic infrastructure and the collection of taxes.”
(Spackman) This was a situation that changed
dramatically in the early decades of independence.
The politicians of the newly independent
country of Trinidad and Tobago, newly charged
with the heavy responsibility of improving
the lives of the population, looked to external
development models to inform their choices of
economic policies. Their politically formative
years had been influenced by the policies of the
British Labour Party under Clement Atlee which
was elected to government in Britain with a
sweeping programme of Nationalisation during
the years 1945-51.
As the Socialist Worker No. 1864 issue of
August 16th 2003 records: “The Atlee government
inherited wartime policies of rigorously controlled
prices and profits...Planning commissions
determined what could be produced. Movement
of currency and capital was controlled. In office,
it set about nationalising the Bank of England,
coal mines, electricity and gas, railways, British
Airways and other sections of the economy.”
This incursion of government into what had
previously been the domain of the private sector
was attractive to the government of the day and
the claiming of “The commanding heights of the
economy” and the institution of “The planned
economy” together with “Redistribution” became
watchwords for aspiring politicians as well as
those in office.
Any suggestion that the economy should best
be left to “The Market” rather than the planning
skills of economists was considered ludicrous and
unworthy of debate. The economic models which
informed the successful development of the “Asian
Tigers”, of which Hong Kong and Singapore were
comparable to Trinidad and Tobago, was ignored
as being not suitable to the culture and style of
government of this country. Indeed, a suggestion
from Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of
Singapore made some years later, when the
economic success of the Asian Tigers, as against
the travails of the Caribbean independent states,
was obvious, that Trinidadians should play less
“Mas” and work harder was met with derision.
Having rejected the models of the newly
emerging Asian countries, Trinidad and Tobago
from state
control to the
marketplace
HISTORY
A businessman remembers, by Everard Medina
Trinidad and
Tobago eagerly
accepted the model
of development
proposed by
development
economist Professor
Arthur Lewis
A typical Trinidadian
office in the 1960s
AllphotographscourtesyofPariaArchive
P40-42 Everard Medina HISTORY.indd 40 23/08/2012 10:36

eagerly accepted the model of development
proposed by development economist Professor
Arthur Lewis. The strategies adopted by the
government were: “The introduction of careful
licensingprocedurestominimisetheuseofforeign
exchange on essential imports and investment
outside the CARIFTA/Caribbean area.
To elicit a greater export effort from
manufacturers who enjoyed duty free
concessions from raw materials. To adopt new
procedures that would ensure that the country
received and had available for use of all earnings
from exports. In other words the state had
become involved in all aspects of the economy.”
(Bissessar and Hosein: “The role of the State in
the economic development of Trinidad and Tobago
with special reference to the petrochemical sector”).
The implementation of those policies was
to involve the businessmen of Trinidad and
Tobago, from the humble shopkeeper to the
managers of large enterprises, in what can
only be described as white-water rafting on the
rapids of Independence, learning to operate
their businesses in a time of economic upheaval
and social experimentation. But the Chinese
symbol for crisis also means opportunity and
there was a lot of money to be made and a lot of
money to be lost on that turbulent river.
Taxation. The businesses of the day had to
work in an environment of taxation almost to
a confiscatory level, 50 per cent at the margin.
Price controls were instituted ostensibly to
protect the consumer from what was described
as greedy retailers. This resulted in shortages
and black markets. There were government
forays into the importation of food, specifically
onions and potatoes, in an attempt to reduce the
price to the consumer by bypassing the much
maligned as useless “middle man”. It was soon
apparent that government was not up to that
task as evidenced by tonnes of rotting onions
and potatoes on the docks.
Import substitution. A popular strategy of the
time which encouraged local industry to supply
goods which would otherwise be imported;
they were protected from competition from
imports by negative lists. The theory was
that, given protection in their early formative
years these industries would eventually grow
up and become strong and able to compete
41
Ever so often, calls
are made for a
return to some of
the failed policies
of the 1960s. Those
who forget the
past are doomed
to repeat it
The all-powerful
Treasury
P40-42 Everard Medina HISTORY.indd 41 23/08/2012 10:36

Trinidad and Tobago 50th Anniversary Book (editorial only)

Trinidad and Tobago 50th Anniversary Book (editorial only)

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