Dr Rita Pemberton

Tobago's independence journey was preceded by a wave of optimism after the declaration of Chief Minister Dr Eric Williams that he assumed full responsibility for the future progress of the island.

This came after the first turbulent years in the relationship between the islands after the imposed union in 1889 and 1899, and seemed to provide a new direction.

In keeping with the declaration, a five-year development plan, estimated to cost $9,600,000 for infrastructural development, was launched. This promised to take Tobago out of the development wilderness and associated economic doldrums in which it had been mired for the first half of the twentieth century.

In 1957, Dr Williams said, 'Tobago's development is necessary to illustrate to the West Indies and the world outside our capacity for self-government and taking care of our own affairs.'

To its people, this was a signal that the years of neglect, against which James Biggart and APT James had so vociferously campaigned, were finally going to be over. Independence, which stimulated national pride, offered much hope.

But over the six decades, Tobago's experiences varied from the initial hope and expectancy to distress and disappointment.

The declaration of independence was barely a year old when Hurricane Flora released its fury, destroying everything in its path and undoing the measures the new government had implemented.

The Development Fund was immediately replaced by a programme of reconstruction which centred on restoring services, providing relief to homeowners, road reconstruction and the constructing new government buildings. The restoration work was a boon to the unemployed, who enjoyed the extended bonus of overtime work because of the urgency of putting the island back onto a path to development.

This proved the bane of agriculture in Tobago.

Hurricane Flora created a disaster zone. In addition to destroying lives, homes and buildings and interrupting all government services, the hurricane was most deleterious to agriculture.

Forest trees were stripped of their undergrowth and many were damaged. Cocoa and coconuts, the mainstays of the economy, as well as the subsistence agricultural sector, were particularly badly hit. Trees were decapitated, splintered or uprooted, and the immortelles which provided shade for cocoa trees were blown down. Not only were all the standing trees and crops, both young and old, destroyed, but the blast from the 110-mph winds left everything parched and brown.

Rejuvenating the agricultural sector was very difficult because of the destruction of young plants and the unwillingness of the younger element of the population to endure agricultural work.

Agriculture was seen as too laborious and the low remuneration could not compare favourably with what could be earned on government jobs for shorter work hours.

The Williams government established a Crash Programme, later reformulated as DEWD, Special Works, URP and CEPEP, to generate employment and offered limited wo