Evidently E.T. Joshua and George McIntosh have been nominated for National Heros of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Vincentian reprinted an obituary of Joshua. I added some notes in brackets.
E. T. Joshua, Nominee for National Hero
Essay by Dr. Kenneth John First published in
The Vincentian 27/3/91. Reprinted 12/3/2006
EBENEZER THEODORE "PAPA" JOSHUA, a born
leader, a noble palriot and committed Vincentian
passed to the Great Beyond on Thursday, March 14,
1991.
lndeed, he died on the anniversary of the death
of Carib Chief Joseph Chatoyer and in the month
of the birth of both Hugh Mulzac and George Mc
Intosh, adding another dimension to support the
popular call for March to be named National
Heroes' Month.
Joshua was a colossus that bestrode the
political centre-stage at a critical time of our
development and one who contributed positively
to the shaping and moulding of modern St.
Vincent and the Grenadines.
Sigriificantly, Papa Josh saw active political
service from 1951 to 1979, from Adult Suffrage to
lndependence or, as Eric Williams puts it, "from
the time of the Colonial dirt-track to the
Independence Highway."
Joshua's political career can be neatly divided
up into three separate decades 1951 to 1960, 1961
to 1970, and 1971 to 1980 - embracing Joshua's
ministry of thirty years. His finest hours
undoubtedly fell in the first period when he lifted
the level of political awareness of the man-in-the-
street, raising his social consciousness to new
heights.
But when confronted by stark choices, the
second phase saw Joshua reneging on his early
promise, seeking out the lines of weakest
resistance and setting himself on a course leading
to decline, which accelerated in the third period
as the integzity and fortunes of the party took a
turn or the worse and the leadership finally lost
all credibility.
Joshua was part of George Charles' 8th Army
and Rate-payers Union that captured all eight
elected seats in the first elections under Adult
Suffrage 1951. The cutting edge of the group,
Joshua had won the North Windward
Constituency after Milton Cato had backed away
from the 8th Army.
During the 1950s Joshua was in his element.
He was the tribune of the people, championing
their every cause, real and imagined.
Living the simplest of lives, he rode his bicycle
around the town and, with wife lvy, walked from
village to village preaching the gospel of anti-
colonial politics and spreading the word of
militant trade unionism.
In thunder, lightning or in rain, Joshua held
his regular Wednesday
night meetings in Kingstown, and on other nights
wherever two or three were gathered in his name.
hammering home his message by constant
repetitiveness fired from a voice-box of gravel.
For their part, the masses enjoyed every nlinute
of it, as on their behalf Joshua challenged the
might of the Plantocracy, stood up to the colonial
authorities and defiantly twisted the tail of the
Establishment.
Always, Joshua remained in constant touch
with the grass-roots, talting the pulse of the
people, and his ear close to the ground.
One affernoon he would be at Mount Bentick in
North Windward pleading the cause of sugar
workers. Next "fore-day" morning he would be at
Richmond in North Leeward "opening" an
arrowroot field.
In "power" in 1957-61, Joshua behaved
"responsibly" concentrating on infrastructural
development, of which a feeder-roads and
schoobuilding programme together with the Arnos
Vale airport bear eloquent testimony.
After 1960, Joshua denounced socialism, and
his Government became more business-oriented,
self-centred, even corrupt - as writness the Public
Works scandal, waiving of Ministers' income tax
and issues surrounding the Deep Water Pier, the
building of which was a feather in Joshua's cap.
The P.P.P - F.I.A.W.U. became riddled with
internal strife. As his world crumbled around
him, Joshua became more conservative and
repressive. Among other things, Joshua made a
mockery of the Kingstown Town Board affairs and
resorted to unfair control of the streets for
purposes of demonstrations in order to
camouflage from the public view the obvious fact
of the reversal of his fortunes. He helped to
create an unsavoury political climate on the
approach to Statehood.
After Statehood 1969, the P.P.P's fortunes
dipped more sharply as Joshua struggled for
survival in political quicksands. He began to see
a communist under every bed. To him, the
Labour Party had gone Red and Mitchell was
Marxist. He cast aspersions on "The Black Power
Boys" in reference to the burgeoning movement of
Black consciousness on the upsurge in the early
1970s. Finally, Joshua embarked on a course
which, despite its short-term gains, could only
lead ultimately to his downfall.
First, he joined with Mitchell in
1972 purely as a tactic to buy time
and keep the Labout Party at bay.
Then in 1974, Joshua caused
consternation amongst his top brass
and panic in his rank-and-file when,
without consulting them, he
abandoned Mitchell and jettisoned
some of his most loyal and devoted
followers to enter into an unholy
Alliance with the Labolr Party which
for 25 years he had represented as the
very embodiment of evil.
Three years later Joshua, who
ranked foremost in the vangtmrd if
the movement for self-determination,
broke with Labour on the pretext that
the country was not yet ready for
lndependence. It was probably about
this time too, that he shook off the
"shakers" [Spiritual Baptists] and
joined the church of Latter Day Saints.
In the ensuing 1979 elections held
three months after the grant of
lndependence, the P.P.P failed to win
a seat, Joshua himself suffering
ignominious defeat in the former
P.P.P. bastian of South Central
Windward. S ix months later. drained
and battle-weary, a punch drunk Joshua
Threw in his political towel.
The story of Joshua represents the
classic case of the populist leader
whose magic was lost, whose spell had
bee broken and whose hold over
people therefore loosened as his
charisma waned, his native gift of
grace worn thin. Correspondingly. it
is the qtory of a once towering figure
who could not march with the times,
out-lived his usefulness and
eventually lost his direction. Finally,
it is the story of the leader who
became cut off from his roots and so
withered and died.
For our immediate purpose, the
significance of the story lies in its
similarity to that of another local .
hero George Mc lntosh, [the other
nominee for National Hero] whose
political biography has a roughly
parallel course. From embracing
radicalism to courting conservatlsm,
from espousing socialism to declaring
for capitalism, from affinity with the
folk to aloofness and isolation, from
mass support to total rejection. It is a
lesson which ought not to be lost on us.
Joshua has left us few concrete
structures worth mentioning. He has
not even left us a political party. For
the P.P.P was but an extension of his
own personality, an organism created
in his own image, a blown-up picture
of Joshua writ large. It could not
exist without him because they were
one and the same thing and to the
very end, Joshua remained a jealous
God.
But for all his faults weaknesses
and short-comings, Joshua has left us
a monument more lasting than
bronze. In the terminal state of
colonialism he bestirred the ordinary
man out of his lethargy my shock
therapy - making him alive to his
dignity as a worker and assertive of
his rights as a person. Joshua, in
effect, awoke a slumbering giant who
would never go back to sleep. For
that, we owe him an eternal debt of
gratitude and an assured place in the
pantheon of Vincentian heroes.
[It should be noted that The Vincentian
tends to favor the opposition, business-
oriented party (NDP) as opposed to the
left-oriented Unity Labor Party currently
in power.
Hymie Rubenstein, in "Coping With Poverty", quotes
John Hourihan's Ph.D. thesis (1973) as saying
"It is of more than passing interest to note that five
membrs of the present (1966) legislature--Joshua, Young,
Slater, Tannis and Lathum--have survived four elections
under varying labels. After the o1d 8 Army cnme tumbling
down like the pack of cards it was, Mr. Joshua formed his
PPP in whose saddle he has since remained unchallenged.
Young went over to PPP in 1954, joined the Labour Party
n 1955, departed to lead the PLM (Peoples' Liberation
%.f ovementl in 1957, and defected to become a top brass in
the PPP in 1964. Slater has been fairly constant. After a
short honeymoon with the 8 Army he remained an
independent until 1957 when he went over to the PPP to
whom he has ever remained faithful. After the demise of
:he 8 Army Tannis also remained fiercely independent
until 1958 when he joined forces with Labour, only to go
pver to the PPP during the '59 political crisis. Mr.
Lathllm, too, was an Independent member of the House
a ho joined the PPP in 1956, quarrelled with the leader-
ship, and enlisted in the ranks of the Labour Party in
1958. ......."
One has to remember that the former British Colonies were designed to provide income that could be used to establish a social position in England. At the end of colonialism they had no economy worth mentioning so all the local parties were anti-colonial with no other interests to differ about except who was earning an income out of politics. Reconstructing history to create "heros" isn't the esiest thing going. It was only recently that there has been an african-descended middle class that has reason to differ in terms of business and labor.]
