Afreximbank, the pan-African trade bank with assets of nearly $40 billion, is championing closer trade and economic ties between Africa and the Caribbean. Recently the Bank took its annual meetings to The Bahamas where more than 30 African and 12 Caribbean states spent three days rediscovering ancient cultural ties and forging new economic deals.
But before the two regions embark on what is expected to be a transformational journey into a shared economic future based on shared historical and cultural ties, the initiative needs the buy-in of citizens on both sides of the Atlantic. Africans and their long-lost relatives in the Caribbean need to be reintroduced to one another, delegates said at The Bahamas meetings.
Otherwise, the efforts by leaders would amount to talk-shop fodder, the kind of right-sounding tokens that result in little but are hailed profusely at the time of the meetings.
The estimated $50 million in sales expected to emerge from the planned Afro-Caribbean Marketplace would not occur, because of apathy or disinterest by citizens on both sides. The billions of dollars already invested, planned for or in progress from the Afreximbank to the Caribbean would potentially find little buy-in, while the planned flights between the two regions would also find themselves under-used.
In The Bahamas, it became clear that as the leaders debated how to move closer together, the creative sector had already laid the groundwork of familiarity, shared culture, common struggle and ambition between the two regions.
Ordinary Bahamians and other Caribbean citizens may not know who the President of Namibia is, but they know who Burna Boy is. The jet-set Nigerian superstar is amongst the most popular artists of any kind in the Caribbean, together with his contemporaries such as Davido.
At a festival held at the end of the Afreximbank meetings, another Nigerian superstar, Flavour, proved to be a hit, while South African amapiano pioneer, DJ Maphorisa, had usually uptight delegates, eating out of the palm of his hand during a cultural night.
Charlotte Dipanda, KES the Band and other artists from both sides of the ocean also proved popular and familiar.
“People here know many African artists and in fact the music is quite similar,” said Sandra Miller, a Nassau, Bahamas taxi driver and “tour guide”.
“Many young people love that music and it’s quite popular at various events.”
Music, particularly the genres developed by Africans since time immemorial, goes beyond the notes. It carries emotions, cultural history and stories as well as values and norms. As a store of shared memories, African music has been used to soothe, help relax or call to arms.
It is one of the primary teaching tools African used to educate the next generation.
This is why Caribbean artists such as Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Culture and others found such deep resonance and success in Africa.
Their music not only taught Caribbean citizens about their African heritage, the divisive slave trade and the true motherland, it also passed down the aching to belong.
“My grandmother taught us a song long ago, which involved giving cattle for a wife,” said Patrick Williams, a hotel security guard.
“We don’t do that in The Bahamas, but I remembered that song when I married my wife and wondered where my grandmother got it from.
“I guess the song was from our roots back in Africa.”
Whether it’s Bob Marley’s music, which coincided with and resonated with the freedom struggles much of Africa was facing in the 1970s, or the “new wave” of Burna Boy, DJ Maphorisa and others boosting the tourism and party atmosphere of the modern day Caribbean, the shared cultural ties are evident. And they are providing the basis for the closer trade and economic links.
“I know slave drivers just don’t care,
They just don’t care
Africa’s the richest place
But it has the poorest race
And to me it’s just a disgrace
Just a disgrace
Africans don’t wait too long
We gotta fight ‘cause it’s not wrong...” – Peter Tosh, Not Gonna Give It Up (1983)
