Andrew Sage

So, James is...

American, British or British American, depending on how we want to order that.

And I'm Trinidadian, as you may or may not be able to tell.

But in Trinidad, there are actually a lot of Grenadians and descendants of Grenadians.

Between our islands, there's been a lot of population exchange, mostly in one direction.

But we're here to talk about a notable point in the history for my neighbouring island, Grenada.

If you missed part one, you should go and give it a listen.

The gist is that after drawn-out efforts to gain independence, Grenada finally did so in 1974, but unfortunately under the rule of Eric Gehry, an oppressive fixture of politics that the people wanted out.

The underdog, the New Jewel Movement, led by Maurice Bishop, pulled off a bloodless coup while Gehry was at a UN meeting in New York.

And thus, the People's Revolutionary Government was formed, led by Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

They managed to stay in power from 1979 to 1983.

So today we're talking about what they did in that time and what happened next, including the infamous US invasion that is so often a footnote of history and its aftermath on the people of Grenada that lasts up to this day.

Once again, the research for this episode leans on Grenada Revolution and Invasion by Patsy Lewis et al., along with None Shall Escape by Joseph Edwards, a.k.a.

Fundy.

So, fresh off the victory of the New Jewel Movement, the temperature of the populace was varied, but excited.

You had people who had genuine revolutionary aspirations, people who were passionately anti-imperialist, and then the people who just wanted better healthcare and education and didn't really care where or who it came from.

And on that note, I would say that it's something that often flies under the radar or escapes awareness in the discourse because the most passionate, the most invested, the most prominent voices are all that we tend to hear.

The vast majority of people pretty much go with the flow.

You know, they keep their heads down, their focus tends to be on their immediate needs, their immediate interests.

And you have the ideologues,