“Objectives Met”: Randall Dolland Reflects on Grenada’s Inaugural Diaspora Homecoming and What Comes Next
For more than a week, Grenadians from across the world returned home to reconnect with family, rediscover the island and participate in a packed programme of activities celebrating the country they, their parents or their grandparents once called home.
But as Grenada’s inaugural Diaspora Homecoming begins to wind down, one important question remains: what happens next?
For Randall Dolland, Deputy Chair of the Diaspora Homecoming Committee, Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority and Project Lead for Project 500, the answer lies in transforming the connections made during Homecoming into something capable of contributing to Grenada’s development long after the celebrations have ended.
“This year, the real goal is about messaging,” Dolland explained. “Messaging the diaspora, messaging Grenadians. It’s not just about the diaspora; it’s also about Grenadians, because we have to do this collectively as one people.”
Speaking with Your Caribbean Guide on day three of the Diaspora Homecoming Forum, Dolland described the inaugural initiative as an important first step towards building a more structured relationship between Grenada and its global diaspora.
According to him, the longer-term objective is to better understand the interests, expertise and skills of Grenadians living abroad and create mechanisms through which they can contribute to projects being developed across the country.
“Once we are able to put together a list of whose interest lies where and bring that all together, then we’re able to create that database,” he explained.
From there, Dolland said, Grenada will be better positioned to connect members of the diaspora with projects requiring specific expertise and investment.
Those opportunities extend across housing, energy, agriculture and the creative economy, among other sectors identified as important to Grenada’s long-term development.
The approach closely reflects one of the central messages emerging from the Diaspora Homecoming Forum.
Throughout the three-day event, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell repeatedly challenged Grenadians abroad to see themselves not simply as visitors returning home, but as partners capable of helping the country achieve the ambitions outlined under Vision 75.
For Dolland, creating a database of diaspora expertise could help turn that invitation into a more organised system of engagement.
Rather than simply asking Grenadians abroad to contribute, the aim is to identify where their skills and interests align with the country’s needs and create opportunities for them to participate.
Dolland believes the inaugural Homecoming has already succeeded in beginning that conversation.
“We definitely believe that the objectives were clearly met,” he said.
He also pointed to the participation of prominent individuals of Grenadian heritage who returned for the celebrations and contributed to various activities.
“They came, they believed in the vision, they gave back, and we are very happy that they all bought in on it,” he said.
But as Grenada looks towards future Homecomings, Dolland believes the initiative must also find ways of strengthening the connection between the country and younger generations of Grenadians born abroad.
It was a subject I was particularly interested in.
As the daughter of a Grenadian father and the mother of a 10-year-old whose grandfather is Grenadian, the question of how second- and third-generation descendants fit into the Homecoming initiative is especially relevant to my own family.
According to Dolland, efforts are underway to make it easier for those descendants to obtain Grenadian citizenship and develop a stronger sense of belonging to the country of their parents and grandparents.
“We’re trying to make it easier so we can bring all of us into the fold,” he explained.
“When you come to a country like Grenada, you feel that connection to it, but you will leave also with that passport, with that citizenship, so that you don’t feel that sense of not belonging,” he said.
The aim, he explained, is to have the necessary changes in place by next year’s Homecoming, potentially allowing for a large citizenship ceremony during the 2027 celebrations.
If realised, the move could significantly reshape how Grenada engages with second- and third-generation descendants who maintain strong connections to the island but currently face barriers to obtaining citizenship.
A similar emphasis on the future emerged when Dolland reflected on his personal highlight of this year’s Homecoming.
With a programme that included the opening ceremony, excursions to Carriacou, island tours, concerts, community festivals, the Diaspora Homecoming Forum and Marketplace, Dolland admitted there were many memorable moments.
But for him, one experience stood above the others.
The spice tree planting initiative.
“I really got there, got into the soil, and it really boiled down to who we are as a people, as Grenadians, being the Spice Isle of the Caribbean,” he said.
For Dolland, planting spice trees was more than a symbolic Homecoming activity.
It represented an investment in Grenada’s future.
“We can’t be the Spice Isle of the Caribbean without spices,” he said. “We can’t continue to have that competitive advantage, sending our products across the world to flavour foods, if you don’t have the spices here.”
His comments echoed similar concerns raised by Prime Minister Mitchell during his Vision 75 presentation, when he called for the replanting of Grenada’s spices and greater investment in value-added production.
Dolland believes the trees planted during Homecoming represent the type of long-term thinking Vision 75 is intended to encourage.
“Eventually those trees will start producing for us and helping our economy,” he said.
But the ambition extends beyond growing more spices.
Dolland said Grenada must also transform more of what it produces locally rather than exporting raw materials and purchasing finished products made from those same resources.
“We want to start getting to the point where we are no longer exporting the raw goods and then buying them back on the market as finished products,” he said. “We want to keep all of that here in Grenada.”
For him, the act of planting trees that could continue producing decades from now demonstrated the importance of making decisions today that future generations will benefit from.
“In 25 years from now, those trees are bearing fruits, trees that we planted today,” he said.
“It’s that turning point where we realised that we were intentional about our spices.”
While initiatives such as the spice planting programme look towards Grenada’s long-term future, Dolland said the timing and structure of the Diaspora Homecoming were also designed to deliver more immediate benefits to the country’s tourism industry and local communities.
As Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority, he pointed to the decision to stage Homecoming during a traditionally slower period for tourism, when hotels and airlines have greater capacity.
“It was planned at this time of year because the hotels have occupancy. It was planned at this time of year because the flights have capacity,” he explained.
“It’s usually a lower period, and it’s good to have more people coming into the economy at this point and creating more economic activity.”
During my own Homecoming experience, I saw some of that potential first-hand.
From the Fishermen’s Birthday celebrations in Gouyave to the Mount Moritz Breakfast, Flavours In D Forest and the entrepreneurs showcasing their businesses at the Diaspora Homecoming Marketplace, many of the most memorable experiences took place within communities and created opportunities for visitors to interact directly with Grenadians.
For Dolland, that is community-based tourism at work.
“You’re seeing it. It is being demonstrated,” he said.
Although Tourism does not lead the Diaspora Homecoming initiative, Dolland said the sector’s involvement in planning ensures consideration is given to how the event can generate wider economic opportunities.
“This whole initiative has been sensibly planned for this time,” he said. “We take all of these things into consideration because it needs to benefit everybody.”
In many ways, that may ultimately be the biggest test of Grenada’s Diaspora Homecoming.
The success of the initiative will not be determined solely by how many people returned, how many events they attended or how much excitement was generated during the celebrations.
It will be determined by what happens next.
Whether the connections made become lasting partnerships.
Whether the skills and experience of Grenadians abroad can be connected with the needs of the country.
Whether second- and third-generation Grenadians develop a deeper sense of belonging to the island of their parents and grandparents.
Whether trees planted today become part of a revitalised spice industry decades from no, and whether communities across Grenada continue to benefit from the visitors who return home.
The inaugural Diaspora Homecoming may have been about bringing Grenadians back.
The greater ambition, however, is ensuring that their return helps move Grenada forward.
