The Politics of Racist Hegemony in Trinidad and Tobago (Revised)

This work first published in 2010 is now revised by adding two chapters: one on Dr. Keith Rowley, former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago and the other on the present prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago since April 2025, Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC. This work is a deconstruction of the political thought of nine politicians of Trinidad and Tobago from the 1950s to the 21st century. Of the nine politicians studied four attained the status of being prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago. These are: Dr. Eric Williams, Basdeo Panday, Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Dr. Keith Rowley. The political discourse of these nine politicians were chosen from their personal writings and their recorded and published speeches including the Hansard of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. Deconstruction of selections of this material unearthed the discursive concepts, the worldview and the order of power of a discourse of racist hegemony where the two major non-white races of Trinidad and Tobago view each other as the enemy race which they must exert hegemony over through control of the State. This discourse of racist hegemony is in fact rooted in and is the underdeveloped child of white supremacist North Atlantic enlightenment discourse which assails and relentlessly problematises the psyche of both non-white races at war with each other. These two non-white races are then the Other’s Other at war with each seeking the affirmation of massa relentlessly. This discourse has evolved from the 1950s to the stage of embracing Apocalypse in the third decade of the 21st century for that is all it can generate organically given its origin in white supremacist discourse embraced by two black races in Trinidad and Tobago.