In the wake of Caricom’s recent summit in St Lucia, it is worthwhile to look back at our history and examine the foundation of our regional architecture.

I recently found myself drawing on a deeply moving interview conducted by Sunity Maharaj of Caribbean Newsroom with writer Rachel Manley, the granddaughter of Jamaican National Hero Norman Washington Manley.

To be quite frank, it brought tears to my eyes as I envisioned what we could be today if we did federate. That emotional reality triggered a musical composition from me, but I also want us to, first, understand the map.

When Rachel Manley was a little girl, she used to sit with her grandfather looking at an old hurricane tracking map. He was a world-class mathematician from Oxford, a man who measured out the exact length of the nails to build his own home so it could stand up to a Category 5 storm. But when he looked at that Caribbean map he didn’t see isolated dots.

“Underneath the water, it is one solid land mass,” he would tell her. “And behind us is one solid history.”

To him, the West Indies Federation made total sense. It was pure logic. But logic couldn’t compete with political ambition and fear.

When his cousin, Alexander Bustamante, went up into the Jamaican countryside and told the rural voters that the smaller islands would “bleed us dry like a mother pig”, the dream broke. Jamaica voted no in the 1961 referendum, and the Federation died.

Rachel says the light went out in her grandfather that day. He never really came back from it. And then came the brutal punchline from Trinidad’s Eric Williams: “One from 10 leaves nothing.”

For an unvarnished look at the personal sacrifices, the insular political rivalries, and the enduring vision behind our first attempt at regional unity, stream Sunity Maharaj’s compelling interview with Rachel Manley on Caribbean Newsroom (Rachel Manley remembers her grandfather, Norman W Manley).

THE REALITY CHECK

Decades later, as our leaders gathered in St Lucia to discuss the future of Caricom, we have all the independent flags, anthems, and national pride we can carry. But look at where we are. We still have a hard time trusting our own institutions, and we still look across the ocean for validation.

Rachel shares a powerful story about her sister-in-law, who was fighting for her life in an under-equipped provincial hospital in Montego Bay. The hospital didn’t have a working ventilator. While US politicians were up in Kingston ordering the Jamaican Government to send Cuban doctors packing, a Cuban doctor was sitting by her sister-in-law’s bed, manually pumping air into her lungs for 20 straight hours to keep her alive.

That is the Caribbean reality. High-level politics up in the air, while ordinary people rely on survival and basic human kindness on the ground.

To bring this message home, listen to our new audio release, ‘If only de did federate.mp3’ (https://caribbeanbridges.substack.com/p/if-only-we-did-federate#media-6b5bf355-6e8f-4358-aa35-27a7525c1929)

The old mathematician was right. The water divides us, but the ground underneath is the same. Until we start calculating as a whole instead of fighting over the fractions, we will keep proving Eric Williams right: Ten individual zeros, still wondering why the light went out.

Julian Rogers is a veteran Caribbean journalist and communications consultant. He is the principal of Caribbean Bridges. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or mediarogers@gmail.com.

Julian Rogers.