A necessary conversation between the Prime Minister and Rayneau Gagadhar

Last week, as Grenada marked African Liberation Day with unusual prominence, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell reflected on the long shadow of history, observing that for too long African-descended peoples had too often been received “as labour and not as people, as subjects and not agents of civilization”. Whatever one’s politics, it was a meaningful sentiment. In a country whose people are largely of African descent, African Liberation Day invited reflection – on dignity, memory, resistance and the enduring effects of slavery and colonialism.

A week later, viewers to the Bubb Report heard discussion of Pope Leo’s apology for the Catholic Church’s role in transatlantic slavery. However late – here was an acknowledgment – by the Pontiff that slavery was not merely an unfortunate chapter of history but a system of subjugation and dehumanization – legitimized and encouraged by the Church. Which made what followed on Dr Bubb’s podcast, all the more jarring. Appearing shortly after the discussion on apology, slavery and reparative justice, businessman Rayneau Gajadhar, speaking about labour shortages, stated, “That is why the Africans came to our region, and that is why the Indians came to our region. It is because the natives at that time still did not want to work and produce, so they had to bring people in to do it.”

Rayneau Gagadhar continued, “Are we saying that the people of the time were smarter than us… to know that if you are to develop the country, develop industry and make things better for the islands at the time, the only way that you do it is to bring foreigners in to make it happen?” To be fair, Grenada – like much of the Caribbean – faces real labour challenges. Employers complain, often times with justification, about shortages in construction, hospitality and technical fields. Serious discussion about wages, productivity, migration, training and workforce development is necessary. But serious discussion cannot begin with historical distortion.

Africans were not brought to the Caribbean because “natives did not want to work” as Gajadhar grotesquely claims. Calling Indigenous people lazy (“refusing to work”) ignores the truth of colonization.  And as for Africans who were kidnapped and trafficked across the Atlantic, under horrific conditions and forced into slavery to enrich plantation economies and European empires, such comment by Mr Rayneau Gajadhar should be a matter of serious concern.  Africans brought to the Caribbean were not imported labour; they were enslaved human beings. Nor should Indian indentureship be casually reduced to just a simple ‘labour’ issue, either. While distinct from slavery, it was part of an unfair system where people were recruited, transported and bound to labour under deeply restrictive conditions.

This is not about inflaming racial division. Quite the opposite. Grenadians of African, Indian, mixed and every other background share a common history shaped by migration, labour, struggle and survival. But if we are serious about social cohesion, we cannot normalize narratives that casually reduce slavery and indentureship to workforce policy or imply that Caribbean people -then or now – are somehow culturally disinclined to work. And this is not the first time such sentiments have surfaced. In Saint Lucia, Mr Gajadhar previously made remarks, in his homeland, criticizing public employment programmes, suggesting that social assistance and temporary employment schemes risked creating dependency across generations. Critics argued then, as some may again now, that such comments reduced complex realities – labour market failure, educational mismatch and under-investment in communities – to questions of personal character.

Now, in Grenada, a familiar pattern appears to be repeating itself: labour shortages framed primarily as a failure of local people rather than as a broader economic and policy challenge. What makes the latest remarks troubling is not simply their inaccuracy, but their timing. Within days of Grenada elevating African Liberation Day and hearing calls, by Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, himself, to remember people not merely as labour, but as human beings shaped by history and struggle, the country heard a prominent St Lucian businessman speak of Africans and Indians being brought because people “did not want to work”. One need not oppose development to find this troubling. Some Grenadians will support asphalt plants, quarries and industrial expansion. Others will oppose them. Citizens may disagree about Woodford or any other project, and in a democracy they should.

But support for roads, investment or development should not require silence when powerful people advance careless or historically distorted ideas about labour, slavery or Caribbean people themselves.

Indeed, at a moment when Grenadians are already debating industrial development, environmental concerns and the responsibilities of public authority, the wider silence surrounding remarks like these becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile. The larger question is not only what Rayneau Gajadhar says. It is whether Grenada’s leaders -having rightly invited the country to reflect on African Liberation Day, dignity, historical truth and the humanity of our foreparents – believe these remarks warrant reflection and response.

Prime Minister Mitchell reminded Grenadians that African-descended peoples were too often treated “as labour and not as people.” Those words mattered. They spoke to dignity, memory and national self-understanding. In that spirit, and respectfully, this may be an appropriate moment for Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell to weigh in – not to inflame division, but to help clarify the values Grenada seeks to uphold and the care with which we speak about histories that still shape who we are. At a minimum, a thoughtful response would offer reassurance that history matters, dignity matters, and that those asked to carry the burden of development are still seen – in the fullest sense – as people and not merely labour.

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