There are almost no Caribbean political icons with the ability to lead, inspire and unite the disparate Caribbean nations.
Every Caribbean country has a long history of charismatic leaders whose mythology is planted deep in the national psyche, but these are almost never shared internationally with Caribbean neighbours, even now in our global village. It's as though the unspoken war of supremacy which works silently throughout the islands prevents a natural leader from rising up and being accepted as the regional voice.
Few Antiguans will have heard of Marcus Garvey, few Cayman islanders recognise the name of Eugenia Charles, though all of them will know Bob Marley. Marley was not a political leader, he was a charismatic musician rooted by his religion and the only Caribbean individual to win the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations. So Caribbean cultural icons can be made to rise above all things, but it seems political ones cannot.
So Caribbeans look beyond their regional neighbours for their icons and every single one knows who Martin Luther King was. And now there is Barack Obama. As soon as Obama was elected there were "Obama" Roads and Highways, Obama Stadiums and Parks springing up like a rash of chicken pox all over the regional body.
A recent song by a group rejoicing in the name of "Yo Majesty" contains the words "Obama is the dream that Martin Luther King had," and many in the Caribbean believe in this. It seems that the collective Caribbean peoples have pinned a metaphorical Obama magnet up on their fridges and he is now part of the expectations for a better life in the Caribbean.
Why does the region have this tremendous, I can only call it "adoration" for Obama?
Is it the colonial island background, a boy reared in a state which used to be a sovereign nation? For Hawaii was an independent Pacific kingdom until, at the end of the 19th century, the sons and daughters of protestant missionaries encouraged the USA to invade the Pacific archipelago. Having no army, Hawaii was quickly taken, the queen was imprisoned, and the country was ruled from Washington without ever a plebiscite of the inhabitants. For those who do know this episode of American history - as Obama does - it's a constant reminder of how the maxim Might is Right is often assumed by nations which believe that they have a divine mandate. The USA, like Spain, Holland, Denmark, France and Britain in the Caribbean ... all share a history of believing their nation's imperialism was ordained by God.
Perhaps its the beautiful, masterly almost fundamentalist oratory which brings him so close to the Caribbean heart? Senator Obama's presidential rhetoric showed him to be an accomplished preacher. It's almost as if this speech was a sermon on a Bible text that was not formally announced before the sermon. Hebrews 10:23, which reads: "Let us continue to hold firmly to the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful." There were a few other old testament allusions in that speech.
Obama is a Christian as are the majority of Caribbean peoples. Their faith and physical signs of, often very simple worship, are an important and active part of daily Caribbean life. It goes along with a clear understanding that no matter how many people attend worship or what statement of faith appears on its money, no one nation has the divine right to dominate another.
The Caribbean nations are probably one of the biggest racial and ethnic mixes in a small area in the world. Asians, middle Easterns, Asians, Europeans, Africans, indigenous tribes and Americans are political and economic leaders throughout the region, and so many of them as well as all of the poorer Caribbean nations, are treated with suspicion and distrust by the US administration. Perhaps the hope is that under Obama there will be a curtailing of suspicion and condemnation of countries which, for good reason, choose not to subscribe to the American ideal of faith. Obama after all "follows a man who at his birth possibly received gifts from Iraqis, during his life enjoyed the company of Syrians and en route to the cross was helped by a Libyan."
Perhaps its the mixed genes? The Caribbean peoples are such a racial melting pot, that perhaps its this that has struck a chord and vibrated through the cultural soul of the region. "Of course Obama is black. And he's not black, too," says an article in Associated Press. "He's white, and he's not white, too. Obama is whatever people project onto him. ... He's a lot of things, and neither of them necessarily exclude the other."
Whatever it is, Obama, rightly or wrongly is the new shining beacon of hope here on the sun bathed islands of the Caribbean Sea.
On the 20th January he will accept the tangible instruments of office, and many more intangible instruments, including a mantle woven with people's dreams of happiness, especially here in the Caribbean.
And if in concentrating on fixing the broken "American Dream" of his own nation, he forgets or is forced to ignore all those millions to the south, beyond the continental shoreline?
Well in the words of George Bernard Shaw: "A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth."
Happy New Year!
