It has been noted that Trinidad,
not Tobago, possesses a cycle of violence. From the time of Governor Sir Tomas
Picton, slave insurrection, official violence, torture, public execution,
public display of decapitated heads, public whippings (1,500 lashes for
desertion) from the army was meted out to both free and enslaved, military and
civilian, even to young girls, on through to slave poisonings on the estates.
This happened in a short period
from 1797-1805. Then the Port of Spain Riots of 1849 took place, when a British
regiment opened fire on a mob intent on destroying the Government building,
later the Red House, in protest of a law stating that the heads of debtors be
shaved in the same manner as convicted felons. The law was repealed. In the
1890s, the Canboulay Riots and the Hosay Riots took place. This was followed 54
years later by the famous Water Riots, when a mele ensued the burning down of
the Red House and 16 people were shot.
Just 35 years later, the country
experienced a general strike in which riots swept the city and protesting
workers were shot out of hand at various places around the country. In 1970,
Port of Spain’s Woodford Square again saw demontrations, riots and shootings. The
events of 1990 are well known. This re-occuring cycle of revolt, followed by
official reaction, has now become virtually inherited, involving basically the
same people for close to 200 years.
In the context of these articles, we will deal with events that led up to the Water Riots of
1903.
Crown colony rule was frustrating
for the general populance right accross the board. It was reepressive to the
lower classes, mostly black people, and it tended to debar upward mobility
confining the children of the ex-slaves to perpetual poverty. It was
humiliating to the coloured people and the white middle class, who, notwithstanding
the heroic attempts at educating their children and mindboggling and convoluted
endeavours to achieve and maintain European cultural moirees and a respectable
lifestyle, they were still ouside the pale and likely to remain there.
The upper class French creoles were
jealous of the English for their positions and power and smarting at the slights
dished out by people whom they considered to be beneath their social standing.
They were the grandchildren of the original aristocratic colonists who had,
after all, come here first. The Indians were completely out of the equation
socially and politically at this point.
In the closing years of the 19th
century, opposition to colonial rule became more general and in fact more
radical. What was mostly a middle class dissatisfaction evolved into movements
that attracted working class support.
Joseph Chamberlain, the Secetary
of State for the Colonies, the Govenor’s boss, brushed aside the reform
movements and turned down appeals for any form of elected representation in the
Legistlature, summing it up thus “Local government (falsely so called) is the
curse of the West Indies. In many islands it means only local oligarchy of
whites and half breeds - always incapable and frequently corrupt. In other
cases it is the rule of the negroes, totaly unfit for representative institutions
and the dupes of unscrupulous adventures.” He followed this up by ending the
token majority of local unofficials in the Legislative Council nominated by the
Governor.
He then moved on the Port of
Spain Borough Council. An elected body set up in 1853, it had served as an
important forum for local politicians, particularly the black and coloured
radicals, and was the only voice through which any national view could be
expressed by elected representatives. The conditions placed on the members were
tough and they voted not to accept these and, in effect, voted themselves out
of existence. Chamberlain ordered a Board of Commissions put in place to run
the city. It was felt that this amounted to “the killing of a school to teach
people to manage their own affairs.”
These were not significant issues,
however, to attract mass support. The young but vigorous Trinidadian Workingman’s
Association was much better able to do rally people around their causes, and so
too was th Pan African Association led by a London-based lawyer called H.S.
Williams. The next and sigificant link was forged by the creation of the Rate
Payers’ Association, comprised mostly of professionals and businessmen. This
group of taxpayers sought to act as a counter balance against arbitrary
measures taken by the government, particularly in the distribution of water in
the city. These groups acted, more or less, in an organised manner. The
grassroots, however alienated, poor and easily manipulated, were moved by the rhetoric
of Rate Payers’ Association’s principle speakers, Emmanuel Lazare,
Moresse-Smith and others. Those speakers urged them to assemble in Woodford
Square, outside the Red House, on the day when the new Ratepayers Ordinance was
supposed to be read. The purpose was to seek to prevent this reading. The Ratepayers’
Association’s radicals made a strenuous effort to excite the assembled crowds
against the Government. The outcome was a major riot during which the old Red
House was completely burnt down. Much of recorded history was forever lost in
this fire. Soldiers were called in, and 42 people were wounded, 16 lost their
lives.
