At the beginning of July, President Paul Kagame paid a six-day visit to the Caribbean, first to attend a meeting of CARICOM, the Caribbean Community (akin to the East African Community) to mark its 50th anniversary, and later the Bahamas independence anniversary celebrations.
The news must have left many Rwandans wondering: Where on earth is the Caribbean? Never heard of the place. Why is our president going to such a place? These are not idle questions. Many, in Rwanda, indeed do not know where or what the Caribbean is.
There are few exceptions, of course, and even fewer of those can name the countries that make up the region.
Some might name Jamaica. It is perhaps the best known. It has produced some of the region’s most famous celebrities in many fields. For instance, it is the home of Bob Marley and reggae, music and birthplace of Rastafari and associated things like ganja (holy weed according to adherents).
It has also produced Usain Bolt, the multiple 100 and 200 metres Olympic and world champion and current holder of the 100 metres world record, and a galaxy of star women sprinters at the same distance.
Haiti? Many Rwandans would be familiar with that one, mainly because of natural and political disasters that have ravaged the country for long. It is the reason Rwandan peacekeepers were deployed there. But problems persist, which is why President Kagame once again offered his country’s support in finding a durable solution to the issues there.
Maybe they know about Barbados, at any rate those who follow the news closely, courtesy of the prime minister. She makes some very powerful and compelling arguments on important global issues, especially those that touch the developing world. That has earned her admires here.
And the Bahamas, to which the president paid visit to take part in their independence anniversary celebrations? Well, the popular image is that of an endless blue sea, wide, wide beaches with a lot of sand, the wind blowing through palm trees, and a lot of sun. And, of course, the colourful beach attire. The image comes to us courtesy of western media and cinema and tourism brochures.
Cricket lovers could have heard of the famous West Indies Cricket team and would be familiar with their maroon playing kit. The more knowledgeable about the sport would have heard of the exploits of such legends as Clive Lloyd (Guyana), Viv Richards (Antigua) and Brian Lara (Trinidad), and still playing Chris Gayle (Jamaica). All of them are captains of the team at different times.
Again, for those who follow world news, the image that comes to mind is that of breathtakingly beautiful islands, but periodically pummeled by seasonal hurricanes and almost laid to waste. There is another image, though, of tough, resilient people who have seen worse than the annual pounding by nature and lived. To survive the brutal, forceful transatlantic dislocation, they had to be.
Beyond any of this, most Rwandans would have to search the world map and even then would not know where to look. It is a sort of ignorance that they share with many other Africans.
Of course, the Caribbean is more than fun and sun, reggae and ganja, and the fastest human beings on earth. It is more than a collection of tiny states in or on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, most of them islands, with equally small populations, in their thousands, not millions. But they more than make up for the small numbers with prodigious talents in various fields.
First, these countries have very close historical ties to Africa. Most of their population is of African descent, violently transplanted there. In this sense, they are kin.
Some of them played a leading role in developing the political consciousness of Africans, especially during the anti-colonial struggle. People like George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, and the American W.E.B. Du Bois, were some of the initial force behind the formation of the pan-African movement and indeed organised its earliest congresses. Marcus Garvey is particularly remembered for his Back to Africa movement and attempts to make black people financially independent.
As President Kagame remarked in his address to the CARICOM meeting on July 5, "many intellectuals and professionals from the Caribbean served in Africa in the years after independence in helping to build our new institutions”.
That history seems to have been forgotten, and with it, the close links with Africa. That might change. President Kagame’s visit could signal the beginning of reconnection of links. Indeed, he urged that this be done, not just in intention and rhetoric, but also in a concrete, practical manner, if for nothing else, in self-interest.
African and Caribbean countries have similar vulnerabilities and can best survive in an international climate that is not always friendly and a natural environment that is no longer predictable by forging closer cooperation.
There are signs of new ties between Rwanda and some Caribbean countries that seem bound to grow stronger. Shall we see a continent-wide reconnection with our kin across the Atlantic? Some are already talking about growing South-South cooperation. It certainly makes sense.