17-Year-Old Writes Opinion Piece on SVG’s Dark Past

The views expressed herein are solely those of the writer.

By Kenneil Bess

Time to Rise

I am Kenneil Bess, a 17-year-old Vincentian, and I stand before you with a burning desire for justice, truth, and pride. Today, I speak not just for myself but for the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines—a people who have suffered for too long under the weight of silence. A people whose true history has been buried, erased, and rewritten.

The time has come. The time has come to remember. The time has come to rise.

Let us begin with the truth. This land, the land we call St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is not just a paradise. It is the Land of Genocide.

In 1797, after our Garifuna ancestors fought valiantly against the British in the Second Carib War, they were not just defeated—they were destroyed. More than 2,000 Garifuna—men, women, children—were brutally exiled to the barren island of Baliceaux, where they suffered from hunger, disease, and the unrelenting cruelty of colonial forces. The British sought to erase them. To wipe out their culture. To crush their spirit. This was not merely a battle—it was an act of genocide.

And yet, despite their best efforts to exterminate them, the Garifuna survived. They endured. They fought on. Their spirit lives within us today, for they did not vanish. Their blood runs through the veins of every Vincentian who refuses to forget their sacrifice.

But the Garifuna were not the only ones who were targeted by the colonial powers. We must also speak of the Spiritual Baptists. When our African ancestors turned to their faith to survive the horrors of slavery, the British saw it as a threat—a direct challenge to their power. In 1912, they passed the Shakerism Prohibition Ordinance, banning the Spiritual Baptist religion, our most sacred form of worship.

They hunted our people down. They threw them in jail. They tried to break our spirit, to force us into submission. But we did not break. For decades, Spiritual Baptists were persecuted, their worship criminalised. And still, they rose. They defied the oppressors and continued to worship in secret, continuing a tradition that speaks to the strength of our spirit.

We cannot forget that this was not an isolated incident. It was a deliberate act of cultural annihilation—a strategy of erasure, designed to rob us of our African roots, our traditions, and our identity.

Today, we stand at the crossroads of history. The chance for us to reclaim what is rightfully ours is before us. In 2009, we had the chance to stand as a republic, to free ourselves from the shackles of the British monarchy, to finally take our place among the free nations of the world. But we failed. We failed because we were divided. We failed because we were too busy fighting each other instead of fighting for the future of this nation.

But I will not fail. I, Kenneil Bess, a young Vincentian, stand ready to lead. I will be the Prime Minister of this country. I will lead not with fear, but with strength. Not with division, but with unity. I will lead with the truth. And the truth is this: We are a people born of resistance. We are a people born of sacrifice. We are a people who will never bow down again.

This is the moment. The time to rise has come. We will no longer be oppressed. We will no longer be silenced. Our land, the Land of Genocide, will no longer be a place of mourning, but a place of victory, a place where our ancestors’ sacrifices are honoured, and their spirit is alive. Our future is ours.

I call on every Vincentian—every child of this soil—to stand with me. Stand with me as we rise against the forces that seek to divide us. Stand with me as we fight for a future rooted in truth, pride, and unity. We will not forget the past, but we will move forward with strength and power.

This land is ours. We are not defeated. We are not broken. We are the children of warriors, survivors, and leaders who faced death with courage and defied the forces of oppression. And now, we will lead.

The time is NOW.