On the 47th Anniversary of our Independence from Britain on 7 February 2021, Grenadians, and allies both at home and in the diaspora met on a virtual forum titled “Reclaiming Grenada’s Cultural Sovereignty.”
The forum was coordinated by The Grenada 2050 Project and featured scholarly presentations by Dr Nicole Phillip-Dowe, Professor Martin Felix, and moderated by Dr Paul Clement.
During the forum, there was spirited discussion over the offensive names and symbols that litter Grenada’s cultural landscape and heritage. One such symbol is the royal insignia worn by Governor-General Dame Cécile La Grenade, the British monarchy’s representative in Grenada. The insignia of the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George “depicts the archangel St Michael trampling the neck of Satan.” Undoubtedly, this insignia represents nothing more than the white supremacists’ belief that the white man is good and superior, and the black or dark-skinned man is bad and inferior.
Attendees were appalled and disgusted upon seeing the racist image depicted on the medal. Buttressed by the escalating global rejection of the use of objects and symbols that normalise black peoples’ continued degradation, The Grenada 2050 Project wrote to our Head of State by email on 1 March and again by regular mail on 1 April 2021 strongly recommending that the Governor-General follow her other Caribbean counterparts and immediately cease using the royal racist insignia of the Order of St Michael and St George. On both occasions, we furnished a copy of the letter to the Prime Minister and the President of the Senate.
To date, we have not received a response from our Head of State or any top government officials. This lack of response is unacceptable, unreasonable and insensitive, and we urge the Governor-General to do the right thing and immediately suspend the use of the racist medal.
Would our ancestors want us to honour and glorify the European racist tyrants who trampled them with more than boots on their necks in our country today? We think not. This insignia is offensive towards descendants of our African ancestors, and we as Grenadians must stand together to demand that our Head of State reject the use of this racist medal without further delay.
We cannot stand by any longer and allow our Head of State to perpetuate a history of national oppression, horror, and violence.
The Grenada 2050 Project
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The GG is not the representative of the British monarchy in Grenada. It is the representative of the Grenadian monarchy. In all matters relating to Grenada, the Queen is Her Majesty the Queen of Grenada, not the Queen of the UK. The insignia is definitely unfortunate and should be modified to avoid these types of connotations, but there are a lot more important issues to focus on than this.
The insignia is irrelevant..stop the nonsense in this day and time . Here we the pandemic is ravishing the entire killing black, white, and brown people and someo fools get together sweating over an insignia..Really!!
It is not irrelevant to me. In light of our history as a slave colony where our ancestors ( our family members) were terrorized and turned into beasts of burden for 300 years, I think is pitiful that some of you on here are willing to accept this image of our continuing racial economic and social oppression. Laws passed in UK and America make it right to physically kill black people at will..in the way depicted on that insignia. Trade laws passed in UK, Europe and America ensure that, deliberately, our goods cannot be sold to them at a fair price..so we are economically crushed the way the black man is crushed by the white angel. The poor standard of education in Grenada means that so many of us remain ignorant and oblivious to the facts.
Mr Campbell, I agree with your final sentence. It clearly applies to you. The rest of your post is bollax.
Grow up and be nice to each other. This is what the church says about this image: https://archbishopcranmer.com/order-st-michael-st-george-racist-honour/
The church talks a lot of bollax about everything.
If the angel was black and treading on a white man would you even bother to comment?
Killing anyone is against the law in America.Regardless, is of skin color. It’s the an angel stepping on Satan. Seek mental health if you think it means anything else. The world is just going backwards. They need to focus on fixing the countries rds and healthcare systems not this nonsense. It’s racist in itself to make everything about race. I wouldn’t care what color the angel was as long as he killing Satan. Jesus died for all. Stop this ridiculous hate.
Who you gonna have as head of state? Another Robert Mugabe?
Would you rather the image was reversed? A black Angel attacking a white devil? Or even a black devil attacking a white angel???
Keep the queen and rejoice in the great culture as it is.
Jen Jen 2 hours ago
“Hey why don’t you put your energy into PROTECTING the island from total destruction of its environment like what is happening at LEVERA with the chinese destroying this RAMSAR site??? The insignia is irrelevant if there is no island to represent. This is such a petty thing you care about in relation to what is ACTUALLY HAPPENING on Grenada that requires your attention.“
While I agree that the destruction of Levera is an immediate concern, so too is the need to get rid of all these vestiges of our brutal enslavement and colonial past. It is also appalling that to this day these reminders of our painful history have somehow been normalized and accepted by many who are still mentally trapped. So the liberation of our minds that would compel us to clean out these ugly reminders of our painful past from our culture, is of paramount importance-as is the protection of Livera from destruction by the Chinese. I’m sure we can multi-task. Don’t you?
Surely the answer is to remove the Queen as head of state?
Hey why don’t you put your energy into PROTECTING the island from total destruction of its environment like what is happening at LEVERA with the chinese destroying this RAMSAR site??? The insignia is irrelevant if there is no island to represent. This is such a petty thing you care about in relation to what is ACTUALLY HAPPENING on Grenada that requires your attention.
https://www.ramsar.org/sites-countries/managing-ramsar-sites.
Interesting. I wondered when someone at the “top” with influence would say something. When I see the GG receiving this medal last year many of my counterparts posted on social platforms speaking to the insult of it. No surprise though. While slavery has been abolished on paper, and we are not in physical shackles, the damage that was done mentally has many of our people thinking there is nothing wrong with a medal like that.
Europe and the white folks see us as inferior to them. If they didn’t, why keep the medal? What’s worse is, we allow them to keep treating us that way. If we are independent why do we need a representative of the qeeun (GG) on island? Why is she still on our money? Why when she or someone from the “royal family” comes to island we take our children and line them up in the street to wave to our “superior”? Don’t we understand that this is still part of massa mentality?
Time to wake up Israel, no that these are our enemies and they won’t stop until the black messiah returns.