I am certain that my sense of “Caribbeanness” was thoroughly kneaded into the dough of my Jamaican soul by Erskine Sandiford, the former Barbados prime minister. 

You see, he was one of the five unforgettable Bajans who taught me at Kingston College, the renowned Jamaican high school. Two of them taught me Latin, while two Bajan priests were responsible for my RE. In either the third or fourth form, Mr Sandiford taught me History. He was a kind and compassionate man, and to my Jamaican ears, like most erudite Bajans, he used the preposition “UPON” more frequently than we do. It was just last Saturday afternoon, as I was putting the finishing touches on my newspaper column aimed at today’s CARICOM leaders, that I carefully crafted the words, “I might digress on this painful irony.” It made me reflect on how many people I know in the eastern Caribbean would instinctively change that line to “I might digress upon this painful irony.”

In my case, the influence of stressing “upon” originated from one of my Bajan Latin teachers and certainly from my revered Mr. Sandiford. In that moment, I recalled the sound of his voice and the wiry Bajan who taught me to embrace my Caribbean identity. I celebrate Erskine Sandiford, and I celebrate what Bajan teachers did for me and others in these Caribbean lands. Thank you, Mr.Sandiford. Fortis!