Dame Mary Eugenia Charles would have been one hundred years old today had she been alive. The Dominican political icon was born on May 15, 1919, and though she is now deceased, her legacy will linger for the foreseeable future.
The former Dominica Prime Minister, Dame Eugenia, is known for a number of firsts. She was the first political leader of the Dominica Freedom party, the first female Prime Minister of Dominica, the first Black woman to lead an English Speaking Caribbean island state and Dominica’s first female lawyer.
Dominican-born political philosopher, Alex Bruno, noted that “Prime Minister Charles did not just lead the government, but she radically reinvented her nation following decades of social and political turmoil.” The Dominican leader won the respect of U.S. President, Ranold Reagan, for her leadership in a 1983 Grenada upheaval, when as leader of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), she stood side by side with Reagan to address the world on matters relating to a military intervention on the Caribbean island and restore democratic order in the face of socialist encroachment in Grenada.
Charles saw parliament as a medium for self-reliance and she used the space to echo the need for “free and responsible professional or community institutions” (Dr. Honychurch, The Dominica Story). During her time in office, Charles played a lead role in the establishment of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and spearheaded other socio-cultural linkages and partnerships involving the United States of America and other big global states.
The leadership of Dame Eugenia opened up Dominica to international trade and aid. Barriteau & Cobly (2006) express that “there is a tendency to speak of Dame Eugenia more as a charismatic commanding character than as a policy maker;” but Charles had been known by other less flattering names.
Dame Eugenia’s retired from electoral politics in 1993 to make way for a new leader and later died on September 6, 2005. May 15, 2019 marks 100 years since the birth of this Dominican leader.
