St. Kitts is a thousand-plus miles from the United States in the eastern Caribbean, between Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. The largely Black former British colony is now the permanent home of Randall Robinson, former president of TransAfrica, a human-rights organization that focuses on improving America’s foreign policy toward African and Caribbean nations. But it wasn’t a search for beauty or Caribbean roots (his wife, Hazel, was born in St. Kitts) that drove him to pack up and leave the Shepherd Park section of Washington, D.C., in 2001. In a conversation with journalist and author Ellis Cose about his new book, Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man From His Native Land (Dutton, $23.95), Robinson, 62, makes it clear that he left the United States because he feels there’s something deeply wrong with the way its Black citizens are treated. Ellis Cose: What prompted you to leave America?
Randall Robinson: America is a huge fraud, clad in a narcissistic conceit and satisfied with itself, feeling unneedful of any self-examination nor responsibility to right past wrongs, of which it notices none. It’s the kind of fraud that simply wears you out. E.C.: How long did you contemplate leaving before you actually left?
R.R.: My wife and I talked about leaving for four or five years. We needed to know that our daughter, Khalea, 14, could make a comfortable transition. And she has. In 2000 I gave TransAfrica board members notice of my transition. It was time for me to step down. At the same time, we began to clear land that my wife has owned in St. Kitts since she was 16. We were prepared to build our home here. E.C.: You haven’t given up your American citizenship. But do you worry that you might not be as effective as you could be in the United States speaking on issues that you care about? R.R.: I’m still active. I lecture and continue to write. E.C.: Were you influenced by others who went the expatriate route, like W.E.B. Du Bois, who left America in 1963 and died in Accra, Ghana, the same year, or Stokely Carmichael, who spent his last 29 years in Conakry, Guinea?
R.R.: I never thought about what others had done before me nor will I now. I made a decision in accordance with my own life. E.C.: Is it fair to say Quitting America is an indictment of Whites that goes back to Columbus?
R.R.: I think that’s fair. It can be useful if it causes Whites to try to better understand contemporary consequences. And it would be useful to Blacks if it causes us to remember what happened to us and so many others in the world. The book’s theme has to do with the behavior not just of America, but also of Western Europe’s attitude toward the Black and brown world during the last five hundred years. E.C.: What, if anything, do you miss about America?
R.R.: Nothing. I’ve always felt comfortable throughout the Black world. I’ve cared about Haiti because I’m Haitian. I’ve cared about Nigeria because I’m a Nigerian. I’m a South African. I’m a member of the whole group, and I’ve always felt at home among them. So there’s been no culture shock at all here for me. I’m at home. For more great Black History Month reads, pick up the February issue of ESSENCE. |
