Political Uncertainties And Natural Disasters ...

Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies

ISSN: 1369-801X (Print) 1469-929X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riij20

Political Uncertainties And Natural Disasters: Montserratian Identity and Colonial Status Tracey Skelton To cite this article: Tracey Skelton (2000) Political Uncertainties And Natural Disasters: Montserratian Identity and Colonial Status, Interventions, 2:1, 103-117, DOI: 10.1080/136980100360823 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/136980100360823

Published online: 01 Jun 2011.

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situations P O L I T I C A L U N C E R TA I N T I E S A N D N AT U R A L DIS AS TERS M o ntserr at ian Id enti ty and Co lon ial Statu s

Tr a c e y S k e l t o n

Nottingham Trent University

Montserrat v olcano identity colony independence culture

When a violent and unpredictable volcano erupted on the small Caribbean island of Montserrat the implications for the people who lived there were to be profound. Not only was this a natural disaster which forced people out of their homes and, for many, away from their island, it was also a point of conflict of political and cultural identity. Montserrat is a British Dependent Territory (BDTO) and Montserratians currently have no formal citizenship rights. However, the constitutional status of the BDTOs is the subject of a British Government White Paper published in March 1999. The potential changes to be introduced are that all residents of BDTOs (not just those in Gibraltar and The Falklands) will have British Citizenship and that the territories are renamed simply as British Territories. It is a reinscription of colonialism which at the same time is constructed around a political rhetoric of partnership and mutual concerns with positive futures. Indeed, the rewriting of the constitutional arrangements between Britain and the BDTOs is very much a reflection of the desires and political articulations of the majority of people who reside in these remnants of colonialism. The majority of Montserratians have lost everything they have ever owned, they have lost their homes, their villages, and communities have been totally destroyed. Two-thirds of the island lies under molten rock and ash, and the

interventions Vol. 2(1) 103–117

(ISSN 1369-801X print/ISSN 1469-929X online) Copyright © 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd

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devastation is intense. Yet, literally, out of the ashes, Montserratians, those who remain on the island and those who have relocated to other places, are maintaining their cultural identities and forging new ones as a resistance to the profound damage wrought by the natural disaster. This essay explores the cultural, political and constitutional fall-out which has revolved around this colony, the local Montserratian Government, the British Government, neighbouring Caribbean island states and the Montserratians themselves.

I n t ro d u c t i o n

1 I draw upon this descriptive term for Montserrat from Jamaica Kincaid’s excellent essay on Antigua in which she charts the continuities between British colonialism, contemporary political corruption and neglect, and tourism (Kincaid 1988).

In July 1995 a dormant volcano on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat ‘woke up’ and triggered a chain reaction of movements, decisions and life changes for the resident population of just under 11,000. One of Britain’s oldest colonies, up to that point Montserrat was little known outside the Caribbean. A quiet and relatively prosperous ‘small place’,1 Montserrat had good levels of employment, high standards of health care and education provision, an estimated per capita income of over £2,000 per annum, and boasted one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean for its population as a whole. The awakening of the volcano brought Montserrat to international attention, and along with it signicant issues concerning the status of Britain’s twelve remaining colonies, now called British Dependent Territories Overseas (BDTO). In the wake of this new mapping of their island within international proles, Montserratians themselves also had to reread their own position within world orders in terms of both their political status and their cultural identities. The losses and privations ensuing from the volcano have been compounded by the realization that they were effectively stateless, they were not legal citizens of anywhere, even though their identity and sense of self was very rmly Montserratian. As a result of the eruptions, both geographical and political, that have marked the island since 1995, Montserrat provides a focused site for questioning the debates and issues around continuing colonialism and colonial status in a postcolonial world. During the 1990s (in all cases pre-empting the British Government White Paper on the constitutional relationship between Britain and the remaining Dependent Territories published in March 1999) there have been a range of publications which have considered the position of the Caribbean colonies vis-à-vis Britain and the era of decolonization (Connell 1994). The historical contexts and contemporary cultural and political positions of this continued colonial relationship are complex. All remaining colonies are legacies of empire and imperial wars, and therefore, from a historical point of view, British rule is now morally indefensible. The British Government’s position is that any BDTO can become independent if a majority of the population wants independence. However, for the most part BDTOs are small islands

M O N T S E R R AT I A N I D E N T I T Y, C O L O N I A L S TAT U S

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Tr a c e y S k e l t o n or territories inhabited by people who in part identify themselves as British, constitutionally operating with various forms of self-rule. Research has found that desire for independence is minimal in the remaining British colonies, and that in fact most colonies wish to deepen their connections with Britain (Connell 1994; Connell and Aldrich 1992; Marlow 1992). Connell, Aldrich and Marlow have effectively synthesized key features which affect the remaining Caribbean colonies, and Montserrat in particular. An important and, in the context of this essay, central feature of continued colonial status is that it is desired by the majority of the populations on the islands. The political elites, who are most in favour of independence, have failed to win the overwhelming support of their electorates. Why is it that people want to remain a colony and what are the conicts they face? The remainder of this essay explores this question in the case of Montserrat and shows that far from being content with the present situation, Montserratians want to see signicant changes in their relationship with Britain but they would like such a transformation to be around a newly dened colonial status which gives them more rights, most notably the right to British citizenship. Here it is important to demonstrate the factors at play in people’s minds over the subject of colonial status. The island has a secure political history and status which is attractive to external investment. Most Montserratians feel that the island is too small to become independent and currently lacks the infrastructure and skilled personnel to support and run the country as an independent nation (Connell 1994; Fergus 1989; Marlow 1992). Montserratians are also mindful of the ways in which political power corrupts, and they fear oligarchies and oppressive political gures who maintain power through corruption and exploitation. They feel that the Governor is a stabilizing and balancing inuence in the island which maintains a healthy two-party democracy. Principally, Montserratians feel that without substantial economic improvements, independence would bring severe poverty which for the majority is too high a price to pay, especially when they compare their own standards of living (prior to July 1995) with other independent states in the region. However, they are also very aware that to be a resident of the French départements of Martinique or Guadeloupe which, like all French colonies, are constitutionally a part of mainland France and therefore of the European Union, is to have many more rights and economic benets than they have as a British colony. Such anxieties about their relative status in relation to Britain were exacerbated as the volcanic crisis exploded. The Montserrat volcanic crisis is not simply a case of natural disaster. The island’s ambiguous and fragile political situation as a British colony has compounded the harsh realities of living with a volcano. The volcanic activity threatened, and has ultimately destroyed the east, the south, and the capital town of Plymouth, areas in which the majority of the island’s population



2 ‘Ground’ is the term often used by Montserratians to describe the land which they either cultivate or use for grazing their livestock. It is likely to be land which has been passed down through the generations or land which is rented for agricultural purposes. ‘Ground’ often lies in relatively small patches within the new forest growth on, or close to, former plantation lands. The land is held in great affection, and is a facet of identity and sense of place for many of the islanders (see Skelton 1996).

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resided. Plymouth was a thriving town with all the municipal functions, schools, medical, commercial and industrial activities taking place within its environs. The east, south and central areas consisted of agricultural villages, although most people had paid work in Plymouth (Skelton 1996). The north of the island, which is much dryer and less fertile, was ultimately designated as a zone safe from volcanic activity although ash was regularly blown over the region, and the west became a buffer zone, with the boundary line moving either side of the town of Salem depending on the intensity of volcanic activity. Since 1995, 74 per cent of households in Montserrat have had to relocate. They have witnessed superheated ash and rock cover their cherished landscape and ‘ground’ at phenomenal speeds (often up to 100 mph).2 Members of their communities have died, either as a direct result of the volcano or indirectly through different living conditions and the stresses of the situation. Thousands of people have had to live in makeshift accommodation, either in shelters, churches, schools, or crammed into the houses of relatives and friends. Communities, families and partnerships have been separated and scattered through dislocation and migration. Around 4,000 of the original 11,000 people have steadfastly chosen and fought to stay on Montserrat. For many others, tensions in the shelters and/or their fear of the volcano was so deeply felt that they left the island. In the initial stages migration was relatively local, and often temporary, to the neighbouring islands of Nevis and Antigua. From August 1997 onwards, more people relocated to the UK. For some, from the eastern villages, the difculties of shelter life were so great that they contravened government orders and returned to the danger zones. This was how nineteen people were lost, burned to death, during an intense and sudden pyroclastic ow due east down Mosquito Ghaut, on 25 June 1997. These were the rst deaths caused directly by the volcano and they effected a major change in the attitudes of the Montserratians, the local government and the British Government. They also occurred at a time of signicant shifts in the constitutional status for Montserratians and formed part of a transformation in the designation of citizenship for the remaining British Dependent Territories Overseas. I wish to explore this issue in the case of Montserrat and show that this is a more complex and problematic situation than is commonly recognized.

H i s t o r y a n d c o n s ti tu t i o n a l s t a t u s Montserrat was so named by early Spanish explorers; the original inhabitants, Caribs and Arawaks, named the island Alliouagana (Fergus 1975). The island was colonized in 1632 by the English but the earliest European settlers were Irish Catholics, eeing persecution in Virginia (USA) and St Kitts (in the Caribbean), and many place and family names are Irish in origin (Messenger


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Tr a c e y S k e l t o n 1994). The island was taken by the French twice and the Irish on the island sided with them each time against the English, but Montserrat was rmly English from 1678 onwards. The island was subjected to plantation agriculture and the barbarism of slavery; African slaves were brought in from 1654 onwards to replace Irish ‘servants’ expelled by the English because of their resistance (Messenger 1994). The plantations grew mostly sugar, sea island cotton and limes. Since it became a British dependency in 1632, Montserrat has been hesitant to explore networks of government outside colonial rule. In the late nineteenth century, after 200 years of representative government, it became a crown colony, allowing the British Government greater control. Its most recent constitutional or legislative act which dened its relationship with Britain was in 1960 when the island gained more self-government, although not independence as in other English-speaking islands (for example, Jamaica and Trinidad in 1962). When the Federation of the West Indies as a political entity collapsed in 1962, Montserrat declared that it did not want associated statehood: an alliance with St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla, with St Kitts in charge. The island opted out of the Federation and remains one of the oldest British colonies (Connell and Aldrich 1992; International Development Committee 1997). The population of the island is now predominately of African descent. Although the island was rst settled by Irish settlers there were relatively few interracial unions, unlike in the Spanish and French colonies, and almost all Montserratians describe themselves as black and/or African. There was a small expatriate population prior to the volcanic crisis, largely from the USA and Canada, who purchased land or housing in specically designated sectors of the island. These were mostly wealthy retired business people who had bought their ‘place in the sun’. Some remain on the island, not least because they are involved in business enterprises or voluntary action connected to the crisis. Very few of the expatriates have permanent residence status. At the time of the volcanic eruption, Montserrat was a British Dependent Territory Overseas, created by successive British Acts of Parliament which progressively dened and redened the former lands of Empire and distinguished between New and Old Commonwealth nations in terms of immigration law and denitions of citizenship through patrial status (the so-called ‘grandfather connection’). This difference was clearly racialized: ‘New’ meant black – India, Pakistan, Jamaica, Nigeria, etc., whereas ‘Old’ was associated with white – Canada, New Zealand, Australia. Montserrat was part of the New Commonwealth but, unlike residents of the Falkland Islands, living on a BDTO did not provide British citizenship for Montserratians. In fact people did not technically have citizenship at all. They were not British and Montserrat, not being a nation-state, could not confer state citizenship on the people residing there. Montserratian passports look similar to British ones apart from the letters



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BDTO. As those leaving after the volcano discovered, despite popular belief that they were British, Montserratians, faced with entry at Heathrow or Gatwick, had to join the non-EU citizens line and would receive ‘visitor’ stamps in their passports. For those who wrote ‘British’ on their landing form the message was clear – a line was drawn through it at immigration and they had to apply for visas to visit other European Union Countries. Montserratians, therefore, lived in a constitutional limbo, not British in law and yet British in terms of colonial status. Montserratians elected their own government, seven MPs, but had a governor as resident representative of the Queen. Posts connected with legal, police and economic matters were held by British men (as they always have been) employed by the British Government through the Overseas Development Administration, and after May 1997 the Department for International Development (DfID). Internal decision-making was largely the responsibility of the elected minister but the Governor was responsible for external affairs, internal security, public service and the judiciary and could intervene in internal matters when it seemed necessary, and particularly in times of emergency, such as September 1989, when Hurricane Hugo hit the island, and currently through the volcanic crisis. When Hurricane Hugo struck in late 1989, commitment to remaining a colony of Britain was strengthened as people saw the UK Government pour so much support and nancial aid into the island and Montserratians worked alongside Royal Navy ofcers who came to help with the clean-up and rebuilding. However, they also recognized the support from other Caribbean islands as workers came to help with the recovery process. It is signicant to perceptions of political operations among Montserratians that in the postHugo era, when external help and support was so evident, internal corruption took hold. Montserratians were appalled as the Chief Minister, John Osborne, used his own ship to clear debris and was accused by the opposition party of charging almost four times the appropriate fee; they saw mattresses stacked up inside the Chief Minister’s warehouse while voters for the opposition party were left sleeping on oors. Perhaps the most well-known scandal, immortalized in typical Montserratian style through single-message T-shirts, was that of galvanized sheeting. USAID surveyed all the properties which needed galvanized sheeting for roong; they sent in the exact amount needed. The sheeting was distributed through a minister loyal to the Chief Minister. In the constituencies of his party, people were able to replace roofs of their houses and outbuildings and build substantial chicken coops. In the other constituencies people remained with no roof over their heads. The T-shirts simply asked ‘Where De Galvanise?’ Osborne lost the next election and pro-independence debates seemed to die away. The volcano, however, has stimulated renewed debate about constitutional and citizenship rights. Needing to make decisions about whether to stay or remain on the island, people began to recognize the full implications of their


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Tr a c e y S k e l t o n 3 These BDTOs are as follows: in the Caribbean – Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Caymen Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos; elsewhere – Ascension, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Pitcairn Islands, St Helena and Tristan Da Cunha (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are also dependencies of St Helena). There are also territories with no indigenous population: British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It should be noted however, that in one territory, the British Indian Ocean, there had been an indigenous population but it was forcibly removed by the British Government in the 1970s to provide the US Navy with a ‘facility’. More than 2,000 people who had lived on the islands that constituted this territory with generational roots going back over two hundred years were removed from their homes, their jobs nished, put into boats and relocated to Mauritius (Winchester 1985). With such a history of forced removal,

in-betweenness in relation to legal status. They could travel to the UK but had no legal right to enter and had repeatedly to apply for special leave to remain. It is now clear that Montserrat’s uncertain position throughout the early part of the volcanic crisis was as a result of the general Conservative policy of the British Government towards the BDTOs, and especially a rather populous one in China. When Hong Kong was returned to the Chinese, the political space was created to debate the status of the twelve remaining BDTOs.3 The volcanic crisis in Montserrat began in 1995, Hong Kong went back to Chinese rule in 1997, and it was clear that any constitutional changes could not (would not) be made until after 1997. Montserratians therefore had to wait until the largest BDTO population was no longer under British jurisdiction for a decision to be made about their own legal and political status. In the face of potential island-wide destruction, Montserratians were tiny players in a bigger constitutional game. Not until nineteen people were killed was a substantial decision made to change the law to allow Montserratians leave to remain in Britain. In July 1997, the British Government gave Montserratians right of abode which included the right to find employment. The Government also set up the assisted relocation package scheme whereby people received help towards the cost of travelling to the UK and were awarded grants to help towards their costs of resettlement. The British Council also provided fees and grants for people wanting to embark upon study and training programmes in the UK. Once in the UK, Montserratians have had a considerable amount of support with accommodation and help with benefit claims, although there are many cases where Government policy has clearly not filtered through to DSS and DfEE practices, as many Montserratians were turned down for benefits to which they were legally entitled. Unlike other refugees, they have not had to go through lengthy processes of being given refugee status or exceptional leave to remain, nor have they been denied state welfare support. In material and economic terms relocation to the UK has been a positive option. Emotionally, culturally and socially it has been very painful. Most people who moved to the UK did not want to leave their island or the Caribbean. Many felt forced by economic and physical needs. They want equality within the British system and a recognition of their rights and needs from the British Government, but the majority long to return home. The volcano also had an impact on the internal politics of Montserrat. Although there was a recognition that the British Government had provided £54 million in aid, there were serious questions about where that aid was going. Montserratians felt that decisions were being made over their heads and there was a sense of political turbulence. When two chief ministers appeared to be unable to persuade the British Government to provide what the people wanted – much more direct help than they were receiving, and


and the evacuation of Tristan da Cunha because of a volcano

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clearer decision-making about the future – they lost their jobs. In the course of three years, the ordinarily politically stable Montserrat had as many chief ministers.


A s s i s t a n c e w i t h i n th e C a r i b b e a n re g i o n in 1961, it was understandable that Montserratians feared the rumours of total evacuation throughout the period between 1995 and 1998.

The way in which Montserratians have been accommodated by neighbouring Caribbean islands has been determined by international political bargaining. As well as being a British colony, Montserrat is also in the unusual position of being part of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). At certain points in time, notably 1989 when Hurricane Hugo hit and during the current volcanic crisis, Montserrat has received help from both the British and also neighbouring English-speaking Caribbean islands through the auspices of these formal organizations. Located within this network of alliances, Montserratians have felt that they had the best of both worlds: strong and important relationships with their Caribbean neighbours and the nancial and political security of support from Britain. However, the reality of assistance after the volcano has demonstrated inconsistencies in the levels and motivations for support. Post June 1997, migration to the neighbouring islands of Nevis and Antigua increased as people took advantage of the relocation package provided by the British Government of £2,500 ($10,000EC) per adult and £500 ($2,500) per child. The median monthly income at the time of the Montserrat Social Survey taken in November 1997 was EC$1,000. Couples with children were the best off with EC$2,020 per month. Elderly households were the lowest with just EC$200. The relocation package represented between ten and ve months of household income, paid to people who had had to relocate, rent furnished accommodation and buy new consumer durables. Food and commodity prices in the Eastern Caribbean are as high or higher than those in the UK. Furnished properties for rent are few, generally expensive and often in very poor condition. Many Montserratians on other islands, especially in Antigua where they are still seeking work, are in acute nancial distress. Moreover, over 1,100 households still on the island have property which is in the exclusion zone, 19 per cent of these are still paying charges for the property and 12 per cent are still paying mortgages (Montserrat Social Survey 1997: 5). They cannot visit or make use of the houses in any way, nor can they remove any of their belongings from them; several insurance companies have refused to pay compensation. All of the English-speaking islands of the Eastern Caribbean and Jamaica offered a range of support to Montserratians. Through an integrated network organized by the Red Cross, people on neighbouring islands took children


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Tr a c e y S k e l t o n into their homes, in some cases for over a year to provide schooling. All the islands gave permission for Montserratians to stay and to seek work. The majority of Montserratians went to the independent islands of St Kitts/Nevis and Antigua, although some went to the Dependent Territories of Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. In the case of Nevis, the local government there treated Montserratians sympathetically and could identify with their ambiguous status. As part of the independent twin island nation of St Kitts and Nevis, the latter has been persistently neglected by St Kitts which treats Nevis like the poor relation or as its own colony. Aware of the problems of housing and high rents, the Nevisian authorities offered to provide land for the Montserratians to build their own homes and asked the British Government to provide funding for materials and resources. The British have refused, saying that all aid will be directed to Montserrat alone. This is a policy which has not been implemented in the case of Antigua. For Montserratians who have gone to Antigua, the situation is, like the Antiguan Government dominated by the Bird oligarchy, riddled with corruption, messy and exploitative. Montserratians are paying extremely high rates for very poor accommodation. They cannot get jobs because many jobs are handed out through political nepotism and Montserratians do not have the right to vote in Antigua. Nevertheless, once a signicant number of Montserratians had moved to Antigua, the government demanded that the British Government provide nancial aid. The Antiguan Government received the waiving of aid/loan repayments due to the British Government of £1.25 million; a development grant of £3 million for health and education projects which replaced a scheduled aid loan of £2 million; and £1 million of grants for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises for the Montserratian Community in Antigua. None of the £3 million, however, has taken the form of direct support for Montserratians, despite the fact that, for example, a clearly identied need is for nancial help for pre-school child care to enable mothers to nd work because they now lack the support of an extended family.

B r i t i s h s u b j e c t s ? M o n t s e r r a t i a n c u l tu r a l i d e n t i t y As a result of the recognition among Montserratians of their ambiguous political and cultural status, a more ambivalent attitude towards Britain emerged. What pained many Montserratians was that they felt they had been good British citizens. They realized that such loyalty appeared to go unnoticed by the country of which many Montserratians felt themselves to be a part. Interestingly, Montserratians could be both highly critical about the ways in which matters were handled by the British and Montserratian governments and yet still feel grateful for the support the British gave.



4 The material for this essay is taken from more than fty interviews conducted with Montserratians and with those whom I have called ‘expert personnel’, that is those with direct responsibility and decision-making powers in all aspects of the volcanic crisis. The interviews were conducted throughout May, June and July 1998 (see Skelton in Fergus and Howe (UWI 2000)). I rst went to Montserrat in 1986 and lived in Harris village in the east for almost a year to conduct research for my Ph.D. (Skelton 1989). I have returned to the island several times since for research and personal visits. Knowing the island before the volcano was a signicant link between myself and the people I interviewed and helped assure people that I was genuinely interested in them as Montserratians rather than getting involved because of the natural disaster. Funding for the research was provided by the HSBC Small Grants Scheme administered by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).

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Well, I just want to thank the British Government for helping us – we are so grateful for their help, they gave us food, from the very beginning they send in helicopter, all kind of big plane that we never see before landed with food for us. They sent all kind of ofcials here to nd out our problem, we are grateful to them. . . . If we didn’t have the British Government . . . if we had been independent then we would have been poor, very poor. (Amy, Montserrat)4

Yet alongside the gratitude there was real anger and uncertainty. The time of greatest anger and fear was late 1996 to 1997 when people had been living in shelters for over a year with no prospect of change. Inertia, contradictory interpretations of the scientic evidence in relation to a safe zone in the north, and accusations from the Minister for International Development, Clare Short, that Montserratians wanted ‘golden elephants’ made Montserratians furious and vociferous. They demonstrated in the then established alternative capital of Salem (which had to be evacuated in mid-1997) and phone-in programmes on Radio Montserrat were heartfelt and angry. The demonstrations were lmed and broadcast on the BBC in the UK but were presented as a group of men wildly shouting, waving their arms about and drinking from beer bottles. In a later discussion about British citizenship on BBC Radio Four with face-to-face recorded interviews the message was more clearly articulated. One young man argued that it was not a case of Montserrat simply taking continually from Britain but that this was a situation of need in which Montserratians required support to be able to help themselves rebuild and recover. As he clearly stated, Britain had taken a great deal from Montserrat over the years: all through the slavery years Montserratians gave their labour and died for Britain producing sugar, cotton and such, now we need some little help they say they not gonna give, no man, that’s not a fair situation, Britain got what it wanted from our island, now is time to give back what we helped to create in the rst place. (Today Programme, BBC Radio Four, 17 March 1999)

This rewriting of the colonial pact which foreground’s Britain’s responsibility to make reparation provides a provocative framework for a consideration of the Montserratian’s desire to remain in a colonial relationship with Britain. The crisis brought about by the volcano has also raised new issues of loyalty and responsibility within Montserrat, and a more complex version of allegiance and dependency in relation to Britain has emerged. There are still exhibitions of loyalty to Britain and ostensibly to the Crown in Montserrat. Montserratians are pragmatic and, while critical of the ways things have been done and frustrated about what has not been done, they acknowledge the importance of Britain in their future development. For Montserratians it was not contradictory to be critical of the British Government or of Montserratian


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Tr a c e y S k e l t o n Currently I am directing a project (funded by Nottingham Trent University) which is investigating the relocation of Montserratians in the UK cities of Nottingham and Leicester.

Government and yet participate in the Queen’s birthday ceremonies. Such ceremonies and events held at Government House are seen as a chance to dress up and be part of the celebration just as much as for St Patrick’s day in the south which commemorated both the saint’s day and the planned St Patrick’s day slave rebellion of 1768, which was discovered before it began (Messenger 1994; Skelton 1996). Montserratians seem to be able to hold together two national identities – both British and Montserratian, both Caribbean island and European colony. One of my interviewees expressed her feelings thus: I am a Montserratian, no matter where I go I will still be a Montserratian. I feel so because I have not lost my country, my country is still there, I still feel I have been brought up a Montserratian, our culture is still here, so I haven’t lost anything really, I’m a Montserratian . . . it’s different though. (Cassie, Montserrat)

In June 1998, the celebration of the Queen’s birthday was held on the small patch of at land in Gerrald’s where the helicopter, which transports government and British ofcials, lands. Here, huge tents (which had originally been used to house evacuated people until the rst storm blew them down and terried the people cowering beneath them), now used for administrative purposes including the distribution of food vouchers and cheques, apped and cracked in the wind. The Governor stood bedecked in white with a plumed helmet, anked by Montserratian government ministers. The Montserrat Volunteer Force, the Red Cross, nurses, the police, scouts, guides and other uniformed groups marched and paraded to the beat of drums and pipes, past the platform where the Governor saluted them. Everyone then stood to attention as the National Anthem was played. The crowd was large, in fact the majority of the remaining population was there. Although most people identify as Montserratian and are proud of that heritage, they also feel that the presence of the Governor is an important one to maintain balance and calm on the island. In addition, many Montserratians are aware of the relative poverty and poor levels of infrastructure present in the neighbouring independent islands of St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Dominica, St Lucia and Grenada. Only Montserrat’s other immediate neighbour matches their own standards of housing, amenity provision and quality of roads, and this is the French Département d’outre mer of Guadeloupe.

C o l o n i a l s t a t u s i n a p o s t c o l o n i a l w o rl d : t h e i n d e p e n d e n c e d e b a t e The debate about independence has rumbled on for some time in Montserrat, most notably through the 1980s when John Osborne was the Chief Minister. In a 1985 edition of the journal Parliamentarian, Howard Fergus reported on the constitutional ‘in-betweenity’ of Montserrat. The article



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records specic issues which had made Osborne increasingly impatient with the island’s colonial status but demonstrated that it was unlikely he would be able to convince the population to vote for independence in a referendum. During the 1980s Britain made it clear that it would be happy to grant sovereignty to Montserrat if that was what the majority of the population wanted. Fergus’ article makes it clear that the majority did not. The business community used Montserrat’s colonial status as a selling point for investment, as it implied stability and security. Ordinary people were concerned about the potential abuse of power within a small island. Others felt that the island was not ready for independence, it had a fragile economy, the public service needed imported expertise at certain times and infrastructural improvements (Fergus 1985: 8). In 1994, prior to the volcanic eruption, Thomas Fitzgerald and Howard Fergus conducted a study on the island to identify the major elements which dened Montserratian national identity. They found the following: Montserratians in 1994 saw their country as a small, unique island paradise in the Eastern Caribbean that functioned to make them feel secure, a safe haven from the general unruliness of the outside world. The country was perceived, rst and foremost, as ‘home’ characterised principally as an island of tremendous beauty, calm and tranquillity. . . . Faced with economic woes, looming natural disasters (which ironically proved to be only too real) and lacking a sufciently strong intelligentsia, the implications of these ndings make it difcult to imagine Montserrat achieving independent nation status from Great Britain in the near future. (1997: 66–7)

The economic characteristics of Monserrat prior to the volcano also provide a context through which to read these ndings. Montserrat’s Gross Domestic Product was $132.13 million EC (approximately £33 million) in 1994. The GDP for 1995 (the volcano began in July 1995) was $122.08 million EC. The island had not received budgetary aid (which means nancial support to pay wages and salaries and run the ofces of government, etc.) since 1981. It received just under £1 million annually in development aid from the British Government prior to the crisis; there were negotiations to reduce this for the year 1996. Hurricane Hugo hit the island very severely in 1989 and damaged about 90 per cent of all island property. The UK provided about £16 million in aid to redevelop the infrastructure, and individuals were able to claim losses against their insurance. The island quickly recovered from the damage of Hugo and by 1995 was in budgetary surplus. The then Chief Minister, Reuben Meade, informed the Foreign and Commonwealth Ofce in February 1995 that ‘he hoped to achieve independence by the year 2000, although there is little evidence of a wish for independence on the part of the population as a whole’ (International Development Committee 1997: 39). This division between the Chief Minister’s political aspirations towards


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5 Of course it is important to remember that there are relative successes of independence in the English-speaking Caribbean, notably Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Here standards of living and political stabilities demonstrate positive results of development processes which have provided improved standards of living. However, both economies retain a signicant amount of international debt and per capita income is substantially below that found in prevolcanic Montserrat. The levels of vulnerability within the global economic system faced by independent states is greater than those faced by colonies, whether or not they are in receipt of direct aid. Montserrat had

independence and the lack of support for such plans among the island’s population clearly pre-dates the enormous economic benets which Monserratians have received from the British Government in respect of their status as a BDTO. Montserratian calls for independence which were reported and debated in some black intellectual circles in the UK in the early 1990s, notably the production team of the Bandung File broadcast on Channel 4 in which Darcus Howe was heavily involved, did not really exist in Montserrat. Similar arguments against independence were presented in Bermuda during its 1995 referendum on colonial status. The referendum result showed an overwhelming majority (73 per cent) in favour of remaining a colony. At the time of the Bermuda vote, newspaper articles and radio talk-shows in its near neighbour, Jamaica, raised questions about what independence had given Jamaica. Jamaica has a larger population and more natural resources than Bermuda, but the arguments were that where Jamaica has rising crime rates, extremely high rates of unemployment, political instability, intense levels of violence and debilitating urban and rural poverty, Bermuda has high standards of living for the majority of its population, economic and political stability, and very low levels of unemployment and violence. For these commentators, the advantages of remaining a colony seemed preferable to an independence which effectively forced them into a dependent and exploited position within the global economy (Amanda Sives, Personal Communication, April 1999).5 A signicant change is due in the constitutional status of Montserrat and the remaining British colonies. In March 1999 the British Government released a White Paper which examines the concept of a ‘partnership’ between Britain and its ‘overseas territories’. It emphasizes the ‘long-standing and important’ relationship between Britain and the BDTOs and the fact that they form an important part of Britain’s national and international identity. The paper argues that the relationship is an important one for the territories, at the same time maintaining their own ‘individual characters and diversity’.6 The theme of the paper is to establish mutually benecial partnership for ‘progress and prosperity’. The current Labour Government sees the rewriting of the constitutional relationship with the remaining ‘colonies’ as part and parcel of its movement towards ‘modernization’ and ‘renewing the framework of Britain’, as well as forging a new international role. The paper instructs the territories to ‘embrace reform and modernization’ and so ensure a partnership which is ‘effective and efcient’, ‘free and fair’ and based on ‘decency and democracy’. Earlier consultation had shown that residents of BDTOs were interested in British citizenship and the rights of residence in the UK, although they did not want reciprocity, i.e. that people from mainland Britain would have the right to reside in the territories. The new partnership identied in the White Paper is based on four principles: self-determination;



moved out of dependent economic status in 1994, and 1996 was to be its rst year without receipt of the annual £1 million in grant aid from the British Government. 6 Where words and phrases appear in single inverted commas they are taken from the introductory statements of the White Paper. 7 The legalizatio n of homosexuality in line with British law is one area where Montserratian popular opinion articulates a negative reaction to the White Paper. The majority of the population strongly reject the idea of homosexuality being legalized. The arguments are often couched in terms of colonial imposition and cultural oppression.

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mutual obligations and responsibilities; freedom for the territories to run their own affairs as far as possible; and commitment from the UK to help the territories develop economically and provide assistance in emergencies (White Paper, 1.19). (In June 1998 the Government of Montserrat (GOM) announced that Britain had agreed to provide £75 million over a three-year period, thus rendering Montserrat Britain’s second largest recipient of bilateral development aid after India.) As part of its commitment to the partnership, Britain will appoint a Minister for the Overseas Territories, consider extending British citizenship to those who wish it, ensure the territories adopt internationally regulated nancial standards and guide the territories on developing compatibility processes in relation to human rights, notably the ending of the death penalty and legalization of homosexuality between men above the age of consent.7 However, although the White Paper and the preliminary consultations continue to be debated (see Black 1998a, 1998b) the contemporary situation in relation to Montserrat’s status remains as that described before the discussion of the White Paper. Such contradictory relationships between Britain and Montserrat demonstrate the complexity which constitutes the present-day condition of colonial status in a postcolonial world in which a global structure reduces the autonomy and security of small island states. Certainly the issue of continuing colonialism in this small place is a more complicated and involved affair than an economic bargain. The acts of cultural negotiation discussed above testify to the emotional investment in the historic attachment to Britain. Nevertheless, the choice of the Monterserratians not to pursue political independence and to remain a colony in the late 1990s does need to be read within the context of such bargains, both economic and political. It would certainly appear that the positive economic characteristics of colonial status both directly (in terms of aid) and indirectly (in terms of political stability) have meant that political independence is not an urgent issue for Montserratians. Nevertheless, it is a curious politics of belonging in which remaining a colony appears to be a positive choice for Montserratians in a postcolonial world. It is one which it remains difcult to interpret from a postcolonial perspective, as it complicates the assumption that all colonial territories ipso facto seek independence. Moreover, the example of Montserrat forces us to reconsider our understanding of the paradigm of coloniality by positioning the issues of reparation and assent alongside the benets of economic support and political stability. Montserratians, soon to be legally British citizens, now rmly dependent on Britain and likely to remain a British colony for years to come, remain at the same time convinced of their own separate identity.


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My heartfelt thanks go to all the Montserratians who helped me with my research. Montserratian generosity of time and support, people’s openness and warmth never ceases to amaze and reinvigorate me. I would particularly like to thank Alison Donnell for her hard and supportive work on various drafts of this essay.

R e f e re n c e s Black, I. (1998a) ‘Deal gives 100,000 British passports’, Guardian, 14 July. —— (1998b) ‘Colonies welcome right to passports’, Guardian, 16 July. Connell, J. (1994) ‘Britain’s Caribbean colonies: the end of the era of decolonisation?’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 32(1): 87–106. Connell, J. and Aldrich, R. (1992) ‘Europe’s overseas territories: vestiges of colonialism or windows on the world?’, in Hintjens and Newitt 1992. Fergus, H. (1975) A Short History of Alliouagana, Montserrat: University of the West Indies. —— (1985) ‘Problems of constitutional “inbetweenity” in Montserrat’, Parliamentarian 66(1): 5–8. —— (1989) ‘The Montserrat independence issue: will conservatism continue to prevail?’, Caribbean Affairs, 2(3): 143–51. Fergus, H. and Howe, G. (eds) (2000) The Montserratian Volcano Crisis, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. Fitzgerald, T. K. and Fergus, H. (1997) ‘National selfimage on a Caribbean island: Montserrat, West Indies’, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 22(2): 55–67. Her Majesty’s Government White Paper (1999) Britain and the Overseas Territories – A Modern Partnership, London: House of Commons, March.

Hintjens, H. M. and Newitt, M. D. D. (eds) (1992) The Political Economy of Small Tropical Islands: The Importance of Being Small, Exeter: University of Exeter Press. International Development Committee (1997) Montserrat: Report, London: The Stationery Ofce. Kincaid, J. (1988) A Small Place, London: Virago. Marlow, D. (1992) ‘Constitutional change, external assistance and economic development in small islands: the case of Montserrat’, in Hintjens and Newitt 1992. Messenger, J. C. (1994) ‘St. Patrick’s Day in the other emerald isle’, Eire-Ireland 29(1): 12–23. Montserrat Social Survey (1997) Statistic Department, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Montserrat. Skelton, T. (1989) ‘Women, men and power: gender relations on Montserrat’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. —— (1996) ‘ “Cultures of land” in the Caribbean: a contribution to the debate on development and culture’, European Journal of Development Research 8(2): 71–92. —— (2000) ‘Leaving home: Montserratian migration, and relocation within the Caribbean’, in Fergus and Howe 2000. Winchester, S. (1985) Outposts, London: Hodder & Stoughton.