Dominica should push a Creole Caricom Agenda

The Time Has Come for the Caribbean to recognise Its Cultural Centre of Gravity

The recent admission of Martinique as an Associate Member of CARICOM and the accession of French Guiana shortly thereafter mark one of the most significant developments in Caribbean regional integration since the creation of the Community itself. These events are not merely administrative enlargements of CARICOM; they represent the beginning of a new geopolitical and cultural reality in which the Caribbean is finally beginning to acknowledge itself beyond the boundaries inherited from colonialism.

For decades, CARICOM has been perceived largely as an English-speaking organisation. Yet geography, history and culture tell a different story. The Caribbean has never been divided by language as much as it has been divided by colonial administration.

Today, the inclusion of Martinique and French Guiana brings the French-speaking Caribbean into the institutional life of the Community in an unprecedented way. Should Guadeloupe eventually follow, an almost continuous Creole archipelago would stretch across the Eastern Caribbean, linked not only by geography but by language, music, family ties, commerce and shared historical experience.

This is where Dominica must assume leadership.

Dominica's Unique Position

No CARICOM member is better positioned than Dominica to become the bridge between the English-speaking Caribbean and the French Creole Caribbean.

Dominica is geographically situated between Martinique and Guadeloupe. It has centuries of economic exchange with both islands. It shares a French-based Creole language with them while functioning officially in English. Few Caribbean societies understand both worlds as naturally as Dominica.

This unique position should no longer be regarded simply as a cultural curiosity. It should become a national diplomatic strategy.

A Creole CARICOM Agenda

Dominica should advocate a regional agenda based upon the recognition that Creole civilisation is one of the strongest unifying forces in the Caribbean.

Such an agenda could include:

- Greater mobility for artists, teachers and students throughout the Creole Caribbean.

- Recognition and promotion of French-lexicon Creole languages as legitimate regional languages alongside English.

- Joint educational programmes among universities and schools.

- Greater cooperation in tourism through multi-island Creole heritage routes.

- Expanded ferry and maritime transport linking the Eastern Caribbean.

- Cooperation in agriculture, fisheries and environmental management.

- Common disaster preparedness and emergency response.

- A Caribbean digital archive preserving Creole language, music and oral traditions.

- Joint promotion of the Caribbean's creative industries throughout Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Music Already Created the Caribbean

Ironically, musicians accomplished decades ago what politicians are only now attempting through treaties.

Long before governments spoke of regional integration, Caribbean musicians travelled freely across linguistic frontiers.

Cadence, Cadence-Lypso, Biguine, Kompa, Zouk, Bouyon, Calypso, Reggae and other musical traditions ignored colonial borders.

Artists collaborated.

Bands toured.

Songs crossed languages.

Audiences never asked whether a rhythm belonged to the English, French or Dutch Caribbean.

Music demonstrated that Caribbean identity is larger than colonial administration.

This history should now become public policy.

Haiti and the Emerging Creole Majority

Perhaps the most remarkable consequence of this enlargement concerns Haiti.

Although Haiti's political circumstances have often limited its participation in regional affairs, it remains one of CARICOM's most important members. Haiti is the largest Creole-speaking nation in the world.

When Haiti is considered together with Dominica, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana—and with the widespread use of French-based Creole languages across the Eastern Caribbean—it becomes increasingly evident that the Creole world represents one of the largest cultural communities within CARICOM.

This does not diminish English.

Nor does it create competition among languages.

Rather, it acknowledges a demographic and cultural reality that has always existed but has rarely been reflected in regional institutions. CARICOM therefore has an opportunity to recognise itself not merely as an English-speaking organisation with French-speaking neighbours, but as a multilingual Caribbean civilisation in which Creole occupies a central place.

Beyond Colonial Geography

The Caribbean inherited political frontiers from Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Those frontiers served colonial administrations. They did not necessarily reflect Caribbean civilisation. Regional integration should therefore move beyond the geography of empire toward the geography of culture.

The Caribbean Sea has never separated its peoples.

It has always connected them.

Dominica's Responsibility

Leadership is not always measured by population, military strength or economic size.

Sometimes leadership belongs to the society best positioned to understand different worlds.

Dominica possesses that rare advantage.

Its bilingual heritage.

Its Creole identity.

Its historical relationships with Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Its long tradition of cultural exchange.

Its musicians, educators and intellectuals have all contributed to building bridges across the Caribbean.

Dominica should now transform that experience into regional policy.

A Vision for the Future

The admission of Martinique and French Guiana should not be viewed as isolated constitutional events.

They represent the beginning of a wider Caribbean conversation.

The next generation of CARICOM should seek to become not merely an economic community but a genuine Caribbean civilisation, one that recognises its linguistic diversity, celebrates its shared cultural inheritance and develops institutions that reflect both.

The future of Caribbean integration may therefore depend less upon the languages inherited from Europe than upon the Creole cultures created by Caribbean people themselves.

For perhaps the greatest lesson of Caribbean history is this:

The sea does not separate us. It links us.

And perhaps the next chapter of CARICOM will be written not only in English, but increasingly in the many voices of the Caribbean's Creole civilisation.