The Tribune

By FELICITY DARVILLE

WHEN Marcus Mosiah Garvey visited The Bahamas from November 19-20, 1928, he made a prophecy about The Bahamas that, to me, is finally being revealed. He spoke to hundreds of Bahamians who braved the pouring rain to hear him speak on the Southern Recreation Grounds. There, he said in essence, that Bahamians would be the last to catch on to Pan Africanism, but the first to do something about it. Last week, the 31st Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM) and the third edition of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) was held at the Grand Hyatt, Bahamar, Nassau Bahamas. Afreximbank’s historic decision represents the first time that the AAM was held in the Caribbean.

During the conference, held June 12-14, 2024, major agreements were signed for The Bahamas. They include a $1.86m agreement with Afreximbank for the Grand Bahama Afro-Caribbean Marketplace which will include the revitalisation of the International Bazaar. Another is an agreement to provide a $30m term loan facility to the Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) to bolster its trade finance operations and provide essential support to indigenous business organisations in The Bahamas.

It is heartwarming to note that this paper for which I write, The Tribune, thanks to its forebears - Leon Dupuch and his sons Sir Etienne and Eugene, used their platforms to agitate for equal rights and justice, and an end to discrimination in The Bahamas. Their efforts helped paved the way for the rights of black people that Garvey fought for - and the opportunities still unfolding today.

Amidst the major deal signings between Afrexim Bank and Caribbean and African countries, I was deeply moved by the address given to AAM2024 and ACTIF by Pamela Coke-Hamilton. She gave me hope for the possibility of the success of AfriCaribbean trade, which is critical to Pan Africanism, and she tempered it with the work that would need to be put in to achieve such long- awaited and fought for success.

Mrs Coke-Hamilton is the executive director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a multilateral agency which has a joint mandate with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

She told conference attendees that ITC’s newest research with Afreximbank shows that trade between Africa and the Caribbean holds enormous potential. The research, which will be published shortly, shows that $1.8bn in trade for goods and services annually is possible by 2028 - just four years away!

If achieved, it would have a magnanimous impact for African and Caribbean peoples, especially considering that to date, less than 0.1 percent of African exports go to the Caribbean, and less than threepercentofCaribbean exports go to the African continent.

What is promising is that the ITC is committed to supporting small businesses so they can compete and engage in trade. Consider- ing The Bahamas’ small population compared to many other African and Caribbean countries, this kind of support is critical.

“The ties between Africa and the Caribbean run deep, and it’s these ties that can and must carry us through some of the biggest threats that we face, especially in today’s polycrisis world,” Mrs Coke-Hamilton said.

Threats like climate change, supply chain disruptions, food insecurity, environmental degradation, and pandemics are real ones that The Bahamas knows all too well. In order to face these threats, trade opportunities like the ones presented through AAM2024 and ACTIF are vital.

According to Mrs Coke-Hamilton, trade agreements like those achieved on Bahamian soil this week are one way to help bring down barriers and open new opportunities.

“We’ve already got useful precedents that show us what works and what can be improved, such as the economic partnership agreements in both regions with the EU,” she advised.

“And while we need to come together to understand what an African-Caribbean trade framework could look like down the line, we can and must do more to improve economic integration within these two regions themselves, developing value chains further and seeing where the pain points are.”

“Too often, poor logistics infrastructure is getting in the way of greater trade both within Africa and the Caribbean and between them. Both regions score the lowest on the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, and unless we invest more into changing that, then even our best efforts at spurring greater inter-regional trade and investment will be for nought.”

The ITC is helping to lay the framework to make the $1.8bn possible. It has a new project underway to support greater food security in the Caribbean. It also has a dedicated programme called One Trade Africa to ensure that small businesses - especially those led by women and youth - can take full part in “one of the most transformational trade agreements to be negotiated in a generation” - the African Continental Free Trade Area. Together with Afreximbank, ITC has trained close to 10,000 Small and medium-sized enterprises.

“It’s why we are launching a new project with the Afreximbank to turbo-charge trade and investment between Africa and the Caribbean,” Coke-Hamilton advised.

“Together, we will focus on developing five priority value chains that have major potential for inclusive and sustainable economic transformation, led by the two regions’ small businesses, while tackling food ITC executive director Pamela Coke-Hamilton on a panel with AfreximBank president and chairman professor Benedict Okey Oramah security and other risks we face. These are minerals and metals, wood, paper, rubber, plastics, processed food, and animal feed, along with travel, including tourism, and transport.”

What moved me about Coke-Hamilton’s presentation was more than just the hope she offered, knowing that major organisations such as the IT Care focusing on an area near and dear to me - Afri-Caribbean unity and economic empowerment. Her words touched deeply because I could see myself in her.

Pamela Coke-Hamilton was born and bred in a small town in the middle of Jamaica, known for the natural resource bauxite, called Mandeville. She, like many Caribbean women, had to overcome all of the challenges of small town living in order to achieve the big dreams we have inside. We know that education is a major factor in achieving success, and we utilise whatever resources we have to gain knowledge and consume information about the greater world around us.

She attended the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Mona, Jamaica, where she graduated in Economics and International Relations. The passion for which she speaks of Caribbean and African unity on international platforms today, was fuelled right on the campus at Mona, where she studied with Caribbean people from around the region.

“Going to UWI completely transformed my life trajectory,” she told me.

“I left Mandeville and went to an American school - a public high school. Up to that point, my entire frame- work was modern based.”

“When I got to UWI, it was the first time I truly understood Caribbean integration; I truly under- stood our history; I truly understood the vision, and what Pan Africanism was about.”

The young Pamela, filled with her own personal lofty goals, met people from all of the Caribbean islands on campus, where she stayed in Irving Hall. Friendships were forged - some lasting to this day.

“My experience at UWI completely changed how I saw myself and how I saw the regional vision,” she said. “It drove my decision to enter the Jamaican foreign service, and it drove how I engaged in terms of representation for the Caribbean. It was foundational in who I am today.”

Who she is today, is a powerhouse in international trade. From UWI, she went on to study law in Washington, DC, at Georgetown University Law Centre.

In 2007, Coke-Hamilton served as Director of Trade, Tourism and Competitive- ness of the Organization of American States (OAS). A year later, she gave evidence to the United States International Trade Commission about Caribbean trade.

From 2011 until 2019, Coke-Hamilton served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA), where her transformative work is noted. During her time in office, she established a “Caribbean Exporter of the Year” and a “Women Empowered through Export Platform” (WeXport). The platform addresses the disadvantages that women-owned firms experience in accessing markets.

In July 2020, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Coke-Hamilton as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), the position she currently holds. The ITC notes her extensive work with the private sector and academia across African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to build trade-related institutional strength within member States.

Coke-Hamilton was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the West Indies in recognition of her work to help establish a masters course in International Trade Policy.

From that small town in Mandeville, Pamela Coke-Hamilton has soared to make an international impact, never forgetting her roots.

“I don’t need to tell you all about the more painful parts of our shared history,” she said at the conference in Nassau last week. “Of the slave trade that ripped families apart and cost countless lives, and whose effects have rippled across generations to this day.”

“For all of us here, myself included, that’s part of the very fabric of who we are. But from the more painful parts of our history, we can see clearly that a new story is emerging. A story of creativity. A story of resilience. A story of a global Africa, where the depth and breadth of its diaspora is fully on display.”

“And that is what we can already see here before us, in the streets where the world-renowned Junkanoo festival takes place, in the straw art that this city has become known for, and in the crafts and folk art that have rightly earned Nassau a place in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.”

“Nassau is also a city that has a long tradition of celebrating small businesses, and it’s no surprise that it is this year’s host of the 2024 AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum and the first Afreximbank Annual Meetings to ever take place in the Caribbean.”