[1]COVID-19 illustration [1] by Prachatai on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 [2].
COVID-19 was undoubtedly the topic [3] that dominated news headlines this year. In the Caribbean, however, the pandemic served to exacerbate already existing issues, including societal inequities and gender-based violence — but it also allowed regional netizens the space to create and reimagine their collective future.
Here's a recap of some of our most engaging stories of 2020…
COVID-19
From travel bans [4] to declining tourism [5], the Caribbean — like the rest of the world — was forced to readjust [6] in an attempt [7] to stay safe from the virus [8].
Several Caribbean countries initially closed their borders [9] (some, like Trinidad and Tobago's, remain closed [10]), and regional governments began imposing quarantine restrictions [11].
Behavioural changes were slow to take hold, however. Jamaica encountered problems with overcrowding [12] in public shopping areas, and there were several reports of the police breaking up parties in Trinidad and Tobago, even as public health regulations [13] limited congregating in large numbers. The inconsistencies guiding such police actions contributed to online discourse questioning [14] whether there was a double standard at play in the enforcement [15] of COVID-19 protocols.
The ripple effects of COVID-19 restrictions — economic [16] and otherwise [17] — soon began to take effect. Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, experienced [18] a rise in reports of domestic violence during the country's initial lockdown period, and the economic gap seemed all the wider [19] once school went online, leaving many students without access [20].
Just as in a war, the battle [21] against COVID-19 was full of advances [22] and retreats [23], including the early cancellation [24] of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2021.
The pandemic also brought out people's creativity, however, both in the kitchen [25] and via an online extempo initiative [26] in which singers and musicians sent messages of safety and solidarity. One regional netizen even began applying design thinking [27] to the question of how the Caribbean can best prepare for a post-COVID-19 world.
Black Lives Matter
Following the May 25 murder of George Floyd, an African-American man, at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States-based Black Lives Matter movement was thrust into the global spotlight.
In the Caribbean, Floyd's death raised important questions [28] of the region's own deeply-rooted racism [29] and colonial legacy.
The #BLM movement inspired — across the region [30] — calls to remove statuary that many felt [31] robbed Caribbean people of the right to tell their own history. In Barbados, these efforts culminated in the official removal [32] of a statue of British naval officer Horatio Nelson for his role in the transatlantic slave trade.
From Jamaica [33] to the north of the archipelago to Trinidad and Tobago [34] at the south, there were also calls for greater police accountability [35] and prison reform [36].
While there were several [29] missteps [37] with businesses trying to capitalise on the public interest created around the #BLM movement, there were also attempts [38] at discussion [39] around race.
In Guyana, however, after a long [40] and drawn-out elections impasse [41], in which the incumbent government, predominantly appealing to Afro-Guyanese voters, was accused of trying to rig the results in its favour and keep out the opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) — which has a primarily Indo-Guyanese support base — from office [42], ethnic tensions were rife, culminating with the brutal murder [43] of two young men.
After its own bitterly contested election, many social media users suggested [44] that Trinidad and Tobago's own racist underbelly was on display.
#BlackLivesMatter also helped catapult the region's right to slavery reparations into the international spotlight. Buoyed by the success of The University of the West Indies signing a historic GBP 20 million ($24,308,500 United States dollars) reparations agreement [45] with the University of Glasgow in 2019, the Caribbean continued [46] to make its case [47] for why reparations are necessary [48].
The environment
As the pandemic put regional concerns into sharper focus, one of the most pressing [49] continues to be the environment. It is a cause regional social media users rallied around this year, from the celebration [50] of Earth Day [51] to the recognition of World Environment Day [52].
There were several encouraging milestones when it came to championing the environment, from the passing of Belize's Fisheries Resources Bill [53], hailed [54] as “a model for how to manage marine resources,” to the vibrant youth activism [55] against proposed limestone quarrying in an ecologically sensitive area of Jamaica.
Activism also triumphed when it came to raising public awareness [56] about the environmental threat [57] posed by a listing Venezuelan oil tanker [58] anchored in the Caribbean Sea.
Even as Jamaican environmentalist and author Diana McCaulay's wrote a dystopian novel [59] that warned of what the region, and the world, may look like in the future as a result of the climate crisis, there were glimmers of hope [60] that the Caribbean [61] could help to overcome [62] such a fate.
Gender-based violence
Violence against women and children [63] continued to plague the headlines from the start of 2020 [64].
Some activists made the link [65] between violence [66] and how Caribbean cultures regard and treat women, calling sexism “one of the most dangerous biases.”
Trinidadian comedian Simmy De Trini used online platforms [67] like Facebook to turn such gender bias on its head, while writer and university lecturer Amilcar Sanatan drilled down [68] into the ways in which Caribbean men are socialised and how they can help end the violence.
Caribbean literature
The region's literary talent was a bright spot in 2020 — the year that the Bocas Lit Fest, well regarded as the Caribbean's premier literary festival, celebrated its tenth anniversary. Just as the pandemic hit, Bocas published its longlist [69] for the 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and also kept cooped-up netizens occupied by crowdsourcing [70] “the 100 Caribbean books that made us.”
Founder of the Bocas Lit Fest, Marina Salandy-Brown, was also awarded [71] an honorary fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature for helping to bring Caribbean literature to the world.
Caribbean authors experienced great successes [72] this year too, with many of them being nominated for [73] — and winning [74] — international literary prizes.
Global Voices had the pleasure of featuring quite a few of them, including Roger Robinson [74], Ingrid Persaud [75], and Brian Heap [76].
Farewells
Finally, the Caribbean bade farewell to many of its greats this year.
Barbados lost three major luminaries, each in different fields of endeavour: poet Kamau Bathwaite [77], cricketing legend Everton Weekes [78] and former prime minister Owen Arthur [79].
Within just five months of each other, Trinidad and Tobago lost the cultural bastions of brothers Tony [80] and Dennis Hall [81], and Jamaica mourned the passing [82] of pioneering reggae singer/songwriter “Toots” Hibbert, whose death was widely reported as being COVID-19 related.