Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, says at least four more names are expected to be added to the list of National Heroes.
Gonsalves said recommendations would be made to the governor-general to have Ebenezer Joshua, Robert Cato, Dr. J.P. 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, while Dr. Eustace started the Intermediate School in 1926 at the height of colonialism. McIntosh was a politician, advocate for the black working class, and a pharmacist, born March 6, 1886.
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 decolonization 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 while St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been pushing for reparation since 2014, the history of genocide and slavery by the Europeans has left this 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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