The West-Indies Must Become Part of the United Kingdom! A Message to (Black) Britain

Today, former PM Gordon Brown returned to the political fray to make a call for a rethink of the union of the United Kingdom. In his call for reform of the union, Gordon Brown has argued that the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is unified in name alone and the Brexit vote has further severed the Union, making it more difficult to keep the fragile union together. He has argued that each of the regions, should have more devolved powers, to make their own deals with the EU and avoid the hard Brexit position of the current British Government.

I believe, like Gordon Brown, that we need to rethink the union of the United Kingdom but I have a somewhat different approach and argument. Whilst it is important that the nations of the United Kingdom find an effective way to deal with the issues that they have, I believe that there is another historical issue that must be considered. It is time for the United Kingdom to seek to integrate the West-Indian community of the Caribbean into the union of the United Kingdom. 

At present, Queen Elizabeth II is not only Head of State of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but also the Head of State of a number of nations in the Caribbean islands that we know as the West-Indies. The story of the West-Indies is well documented. Once the home of slave plantations, where predominately black African slaves were fiercely and ruthlessly exploited and transformed by white British slave owners and colonial masters. First as slaves and then later, as part of the British Empire's colonial expansion. During the process of slavery, African slaves were anglicised over a period of hundreds and years and became known as West-Indians. Until today, they are a predominately, dark-skinned population that share language, names, values, history and a Head of State with the predominately white British population of the UK. 

The people of the West Indies have been in a political relationship, at all different levels, over many centuries, with the United Kingdom. Not only as slaves and colonial subjects, but in other capacities too. Many West- Indians fought side by side with the white British population in WWII, and in the aftermath were invited to rebuild Britain as subjects of the British Empire. In the English language community, that I refer to as the "Anglosphere", the West-Indian people of the Caribbean have made valid contributions in music, art and politics to the expansion of the "Anglosphere" civilization and are firmly situated as part of the cultural, linguistic, intellectual fabric of the "Anglosphere". Considering that the population of the West-Indies share near as much in common with Britain as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and have an anglicised but dark-skinned population of more than 4.5 million citizens, it appears that there is no reason that the West-Indies should not be considered part of the United Kingdom. At 4.5 million citizens the population of the West Indies is larger than both Wales and Northern Ireland and almost as large as Scotland with 5.2 million citizens. 

In the past, migrants from the West Indies have not struggled to integrate into British society. They do not experience any of the language difficulties that migrants from the EU or other parts of the world may experience and the only difficulties that may have arisen have arose from an underlying racism that stems from segments of the British population not examining and understanding the people of the West Indies as part of the "Anglosphere" community and fundamentally British with a black face. Attempts by many, both black and white, to misrepresent skin as identity, rather than language and shared political framework has meant that the conversation around the integration of the West-Indies into the United Kingdom has not been on the table. Large segments of the British white population have imagined Britain as part of the European identity and experience whilst a number of well-known populist movements among West-Indians have imagined themselves as part of an African identity and experience. These imagined identities have been based on the concept of skin and racial heritage as identity rather than language. I think that this analysis misrepresents identity as it is structured in the world today.

If we look across the world, populations are part of language communities. These communities are more important than skin and racial heritage. Although it is true that language tends to be shared by those of the same racial heritage and skin complexion, it is not the skin complexion or the racial heritage that defines many identities around the world but the linguistic unity. When we speak of the Chinese, we may identify their geographical space and recognise their racial heritage but the unity of the Chinese nation does not depend on physical characteristics, it depends on the Chinese language. If you do not speak Chinese or have a Chinese name, then you are not Chinese. The Arab population is not defined in terms of racial heritage or skin but indicates a language community that share the Arabic language. Yoruba populations in Nigeria and Amhara populations in Ethiopia are both located in Africa but they are different language communities, which is partly why the dream of Pan-Africanism remains a distant dream. When we speak of the Francophone world that extends from France to its former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, it is the language and not the racial heritage and skin that gives Francophone populations their identities. The notion of Pan-Europeanism that has caused so much debate in Britain recently, like Pan-Africanism is doomed to failure, as the participants have imagined identity as skin, geography and racial heritage as more important than identity as language. 

In understanding Britain's identity we must develop an understanding of the "Anglosphere", as a international, post-racial, language community that is made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the West-Indies. Although the United States is independent from the British "Anglosphere" that is made up of the Commonwealth Realms, there is a "special relationship" between the US and UK. A "special relationship that is very much rooted in language.

In understanding identity across the world we are better placed by understanding the world as made up of the "Anglosphere", the "Chinese", "Francophone", "Germanic", "Yoruba" and "Amhara" world's and so forth rather than making racial heritage and skin complexion the indicator of identity. Using language as the indicator of identity forces Britain to have to rethink British identity and whether Britain should align itself with Europe or the "Anglosphere". It also offers us the opportunity to expand the remit of the United Kingdom to include a self-governing West-Indies. 

Many may consider this a project of recolonisation. I consider it to be a new post-racial configuration of British identity and geography. Whilst in centuries before it may have been more difficult to integrate the West-Indies into the United Kingdom, the communications revolution and the ease of travel has made the possibility of integration much more feasible. Just as the aforementioned have made the possibility of integration of the larger Commonwealth Realms greater, it has also made the possibility of integration of the West-Indies into the United Kingdom greater too.

The epic story of the slaves and colonial subjects of the West Indies,who eventually won their freedom and then self-governing independence must come to an end with an acceptance and recognition of West Indians as British people, Black Britain. I believe that it is a matter of justice and that Britain should make amends for the past by calling upon the governments of the West-Indies to consider the possibility. If they choose to accept the offer, we should accept them into the club with welcoming and opening arms. Offering free movement within the United Kingdom and eventual free movement across the emerging Commonwealth Free Trade Zone that will include the larger Commonwealth Realms. I believe that the Caribbean nations that I speak of should and would accept integration into the United Kingdom as an ultimate form of reparations. An issue that has been a controversial but well supported issue across the Caribbean and by West-Indian communities in Britain.

Though there will be naysayers, those who do not believe that the diplomatic wherewithal of Britain can manage to work with an extra 9 more states and a few British Overseas Territories in an already fragile union. There will be those that will argue, that to work with 9 disparate states would make considerable administration difficulties for the United Kingdom and they will not be wrong. A collection of 9 disparate states and a few British Overseas Territories could be difficult to manage.

To solve this issue we must look to the West Indies Federation that existed from 1958 to 1962. The West Indies Federation was a union of the British colonies of the Caribbean that collapsed after internal disagreements between the various states in 1962. After the collapse of the West Indies Federation, the nations of the Caribbean sought independence and began a collection of independence struggles that resulted in the various self-governing nations states that we see today in and outside of the Commonwealth Realms. Some of the nations that existed within the West-Indies Federation have now severed ties with the United Kingdom, such as Trinidad and Guyana but 9 states that include Jamaica, the Bahama's, Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis amongst others, still continue in a relationship with the United Kingdom with Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. It would be fair to say that whilst Britain could lobby for the Caribbean nations still in a formal relationship they would not be able to force these independent, self-governing states to come together as a federation. Neither could they be considered to be interfering in the administrative affairs of the region in an act of subdued colonialism. 

Then, the onus is on the populations of the West-Indies, both home and abroad, to lobby their governments for further integration of the Caribbean nations of the Commonwealth Realms into a West-Indian Federation, a federation that speaks with one voice. Then to seek further integration with the United Kingdom as a political body. With a large segment of the Scottish population desiring to walk away from the union, with Britain rethinking its political identity and relationships post-Brexit and political big-hitters such as former PM Gordon Brown calling for the nations of the United Kingdom to rethink the parameters of their relationships and how they operate. It is time to consider the loyal people of the West-Indies, who share so much in common with the United Kingdom, as potential partners in a new type of internationalist, post-racial United Kingdom.

Today, Britain and the population of the West Indies, must embrace a new concept of Black Britain and seek a new, post-colonial, decolonised relationship between the former coloniser and colonised. We must start a new chapter in our racial history. We must make amends for the past and unite to build a new United Kingdom. We must unite to pursue the Commonwealth Free Trade Zone and reignite the "Anglosphere" as a post-racial New World Order.

God Save Britannia!