It is clich� to say that an individual's passing marks the end of an era, yet this is exactly the case with Makandal Daaga, whose political career was forged in a time when issues of identity and equity were far more volatile than they are today.
Daaga was the leader of a just cause, and the National Joint Action Committee was a political party that was founded on the activist principle of social justice.
This passion and principle sustained both Mr Daaga and NJAC in the decades after the issues of 1970 were, if not settled, at least quieted. In that context, Daaga joins the small pantheon of political leaders in T&T who never won an election yet wielded social and intellectual influence.
To be sure, he and NJAC technically had a place in the Government in 2010 as part of the five-party coalition that made up the now-defunct People's Partnership. After that electoral victory, Daaga was appointed as a "Caricom ambassador plenipotentiary," which is the closest he ever came to holding an official post. But the three NJAC members who contested that election did so under the banner of the Congress of the People, with Daaga himself contesting Laventille West where, unsurprisingly, he got a mere 2,725 votes compared to the victorious PNM candidate who got over 10,000 votes.
Yet the black or Afrocentric consciousness, which may be more deeply rooted in communities like Laventille than elsewhere in T&T, is a direct consequence of the 1970 Black Power protests. In a national address that year, then-prime minister and PNM founder, Dr Eric Williams, said, "The fundamental feature of the demonstrations was the insistence on black dignity, the manifestation of black consciousness and the demands for black economic power," adding, "if this is Black power, then I am for Black power."
This was in effect an uncharacteristic concession by Dr Williams, whose political pre-eminence was then uncontested.Whether the impact of Black Power was on balance positive or negative is, from a historical and sociological viewpoint, still an open question.
However, as shown by the responses from all quarters to Mr Daaga's passing, the national narrative is that the protests had purely meritorious effects on the society. Certainly, the events of that era catalysed race consciousness for both the African and Indian descendants.
Ironically, Mr Daaga himself was vilified by many Afro-Trinbagonians for joining with the UNC-led PP coalition, ostensibly on the basis of that party's corruption, but many of his critics also saw his decision as a race betrayal as well.
Additionally, during the 2010 election campaign, the late Patrick Manning even called on Mr Daaga to issue a "letter of comfort" to Roman Catholics, harking back to NJAC's entry into the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception during a march–a political attack which only proved that the PNM was worried about Daaga's appeal.
Indeed, the decision by the UNC to include NJAC in the coalition showed that, as a political calculation, NJAC's image lent credibility to racial harmony. This is a direct consequence of Daaga's approach to race politics in T&T, in which he always included the Indo grassroots.
Mr Daaga became a reclusive figure post-1970, yet it is a tribute to his initial leadership and his allies that NJAC did not disintegrate. Even after he and his main deputy Khafra Kambon parted ways, with Kambon forming the Emancipation Support Committee which became more visible to the public than NJAC and the recipient of State funding, NJAC persisted and sustained itself.
Makandal Daaga has thus left an enduring legacy for T&T, not only in the political organisation he helped form, but in a national consciousness that continues to grapple with the crucial issues he and his compatriots raised nearly a half-century ago.
