The plot twist …
Written by Audra A. Diptée
Photo credit: Mark Morgan. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/mmorgan8186/17432845928/in/photostream/
In 1961, Trinidad & Tobago was the only British colony to have a Governor who was not white and Caribbean-born.
His name was Solomon Hochoy. He was born in Jamaica, of Chinese descent, and raised in Trinidad & Tobago.
Until recently, I thought he had no knowledge of Operation Legacy and British efforts to remove and hide documents before Trinidad & Tobago gained its political independence.
It was not an unreasonable assumption. The practice in other colonies was to ensure that only high ranking white British officials were reviewing the colonial files for Operation Legacy.
When I stumbled across letters from his office making it clear he was complicit in the removal and destruction of colonial documents (see the quote below), I was surprised. Perhaps even shocked.
No action has been taken on these files for some time … keeping them will only result in embarrassing correspondence hanging around … (Trinidad,1961)
In one letter, he wrote about starting the process as soon as possible, because he wanted to avoid “celebrat[ing] Independence Day with a holocaust of burnt … papers“.
The response from the colonial office was predictable (see below).
It is an excellent idea to make an early start on sifting papers … it would perhaps be a little unfortunate to celebrate Independence Day large with smoke. (Trinidad, 1961)
So it seems, I’m confronted with a plot twist.
Finding documents showing there were people of and from the Caribbean involved makes this an even more interesting story to uncover …
Do you have any thoughts about this post? If so, hit the reply button at the end of this page. I would love to hear your comments ….
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Amicalement,
Written by Audra A. Diptée
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Very enticing historical information. It has perked my curiosity about what happened before the Independence of Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹
I am not surprised by the words and actions of Solomon Hochoy at all. How else would he have been appointed as a Governor General of a colony if he had not shown the British how loyal he was loyal to them?
It always saddens me when I read of colonized people choosing to collaborate with a colonial power but it happened – even during slavery!. This is how the British were able to maintain power over thousands and thousands of people who outnumbered them.