Panaphicism finds a fresh impetus on the Caribbean

Augustine Ogbo works as a doctor, examining patients in clinics across the bright Caribbean -Lussia.

When he returns to his house in the coastal city of Rodni -Bey, he is engaged in his second work -as the owner and solo boss -Kuhar Nigerian departure.

“Egus and Fofu soup, it’s more popular … They also love Jolof Rice,” says D -R OGBO, throwing a list of their customers’ favorite dishes.

29 -year -old from Nigeria – 230 million people – but the Atlantic Crossing for Saint -Lucia – 180,000 population – for a doctor’s study in 2016.

In 2022, he created his home conclusion by the name of African chops after his friends were asked at the Nigerian Nigerian tariff.

Now the departure is blooming, Dr. Ogbo tells the BBC, and not only because his customers on the island believe that the food is delicious.

“They know that we all have the same primordial origin. Therefore, in most cases, they want to contact this,” explains D -OGBO, adding that interest in African culture has grown “Extremely since it arrived almost ten years ago.

Saint -Lussia is not one in this phenomenon.

Throughout the Caribbean’s desire to re -connect with the population The African heritage seems to have intensified over the past few years.

People across the Caribbean express African pride by cultural funds such as food, clothing and travel, while governments and institutions on both sides of the Atlantic meet to establish economic ties.

Africa had a long presence on the Caribbean.

Much of the islands came from the enslaved West and Central Africans who were forcibly transported to the Caribbean by European merchants in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Slavery was abolished most of the Caribbean during the 1800s, while independence from European states is the next century.

The descendants of the enslaved people retained some African customs, but largely developed their own autonomous crops that differ from the island to the island.

In the past, large companies have been encouraged to promote African pride, according to Dorbren O’Mard, which manages the Antigua and Barbud reparation commission.

“It was especially strong in the 1930s and so, and then again in the 1960s – we saw a serious ejection of synchronization with (American) movement during this period,” he says, talking to the BBC on Antigua Island.

Mr. O’Mard believes that the Caribbean testifies to the new, more promising version of such a “Panopican” (the term used to describe the idea that African people should be combined).

“This has expanded outside the psychological and cultural topics, and we are now talking more economic, such as stronger transport ties between the Caribbean and Africa,” he says.

“We are in a different Pan-African phase, which will not decrease as before.”

The only thing that separates this wave of African pride from those who came earlier is social media.

Dennis Hovard, a teacher of entertainment and cultural enterprises at the University of West -Indies, says that a “significant” number of Jamaica connects with Africa through platforms such as Tiktok.

“People will learn more about the black story of slavery,” the BBC says from their home in the capital of Jamaica Kingston.

Mr. Hoard also indicates the global lift Afrobeats, the musical genre from Nigeria and Ghana.

He feels that the AFROBEATS popularity in Jamaica is partly the desire to connect with the continent.

“Through the music videos (Jamaica) see that some parts of Africa are similar to Jamaica and developed. We had the concept of Africa as this place behind, and this is a clean ground road … Music changes it.”

Asked about the opinion of some Jamaica commentators on the Internet – the fact that the islanders do not need to return their African heritage, because they have equally fair, strongly conquered Yamaan heritage of their own – Mr. Howard emphasizes that they are no different.

“All our culture is African, with a little spraying of Indian and European and Chinese. But mostly it is African. This is the most dominant part of our culture,” he says.

Those who are leaning towards their African heritage not just consume culture, but actually enter the flights and study the continent firsthand.

Tourism Office in Ghana – Once the main departure point to send Africans to the Caribbean – said the BBC, recently on vacation from the islands there has been a “noticeable increase”.

Similarly, Werner GRUNER, the Consul of South Africa in the Bahamas, says that in the last two years, his office has been observed by the growth of locals who go to South Africa, Ghana and Kenya.

“I see great interest in Safaris, and I think people are also beginning to realize that South Africa and other African countries are actually very well developed,” says Mr. Gruner.

Even Burkina -fos, economically fought with military power, which is not well known to tourism, apparently on the lists of some people. G -n o’mard says Because of the Panophican commitment of its leader Ibrahim Traory.

However, getting to the continent of the mother from the Caribbean, however, may be difficult and travelers are often forced to fly through Europe.

Earlier this year, in a speech in which she called herself a “daughter of Africa”, Prime Minister Barbadas Mia Motley called for the construction of “air and marine bridges” between Africa and the Caribbean.

“Let’s make these changes not only for the heads of state, but also for ordinary people who want to trade, travel and create a common future,” she said.

Key establishments such as the African Union, the African Development Bank (AFDB) and the African Bank of Export Iznost (Afreximbank), are working on a “trade” angle, holding conferences and creating a memorandum on understanding with its Caribbean colleagues.

Afreximbank says trade between two regions can jump from about $ 730 million (£ 540 million) to $ 1.8 billion (1.33 billion pounds), provided the right conditions will be reached.

But at the moment in Africa and the Caribbean there are several lowest indicators in the world for transport infrastructure, the quality of logistics and customs efficiency, the World Bank reports.

In an effort to cut trade barriers, this year, the Prime Ministers of Grenada and the Bahamas called on Africa and the Caribbean to launch the total currency.

Philip Davis Prime Minister Philip Davis told delegates at the Afreximbank meeting in Nigeria that they should “seriously” consider a single digital currency, while Dzic Mitchell Grenada said: “Such a move will symbolically and practically confirm our common identity not only as trading partners.”

Getting over 60 countries to coordinate and launch a standard system will be a difficult feat, but Mitchell said it should be done if the regions “take their own future”.

Returning to Saint -Lussia, D -ry Ogbo says his attempts to bring Egus, Fofu and Jolof to the locals -a small but designed contribution to the strengthening of relations between Africa and the Caribbean.

In June, Nigeria Bola Tinubu signed various cooperation agreements with St. Lussia during a state visit, and Dr. OGBO views the chops in Africa as an extension of this.

“I can say that I work in hand with the Nigeria government and even the Saint Fluian government to promote African culture,” he says.

Now the doctor and businessman are trying to move their food business to a full restaurant – and he hopes that the “cultural exchange” between Africa and the Caribbean also passes from force to force.

“It’s strange!” he says. “I’m really very excited about it.”