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St Vincent PM suggests four new names for National Hero status

Published:Tuesday | August 2, 2022 | 9:57 AM
Gonsalves: “We have talked about this enough.  It is time to act…and I intend to and the Cabinet intends to because we have done it in the proper consultative manner."

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says at least four more names are expected to be added to the list of National Heroes.

Gonsalves said that recommendations will be made to the Governor General to have Ebenezer Joshua, Robert Cato, Dr JP Eustace and George McIntosh “join Chatoyer in the pantheon of National Heroes”.

Joshua served as the chief minister from 1956 to 1967, Cato was the first prime minister from 1979 to 1984, Eustace started the Intermediate School in 1926 at the height of colonialism, and McIntosh, who was born on March 6, 1886, was a politician, advocate for the black working class, and a pharmacist.

Gonsalves, speaking at an Emancipation Rally over the weekend, said a committee had been established to consider the names of women as National Heroes.

“We have talked about this enough.  It is time to act…and I intend to and the Cabinet intends to because we have done it in the proper consultative manner,” Gonsalves said, adding that this is critical to the process of decolonisation and the move towards real independence.

“He said the move also continues with the renaming of places with colonial names and a strategic push towards reparations for native genocide and slavery.

Gonsalves said that while St Vincent and the Grenadines has been pushing for reparation since 2014, the history of genocide and slavery by the Europeans has left the country “with a legacy of underdevelopment and you (the Europeans) have to make payments to help us deal with the legacy of underdevelopment today.”

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