Of slavery and reparation

Lloyd B Smith Tuesday, February 27, 2007

This year marks 200 years since the official end of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade which lasted from 1441 to 1807. In real terms, 200 years is not a very long time so there are many vestiges of that most inhumane activity in Jamaica's social, economic and physical environment. Indeed, even after having becoming politically independent, our island home for all intents and purposes is still a plantocracy.

Lloyd B Smith

Indeed, if one were to go by what one sees and reads for the most part on the social pages of our leading newspapers, it would appear that "backra massa" is alive and well, and those who have been the primary beneficiaries of the legacies of slavery continue to rule the roost from the Great Houses.

For purposes of my current dissertation, let me hasten to add that being black these days cannot and should not be limited to the colour of one's skin. After all, there are some Jamaicans of fair or white pigmentation who are blacker than some citizens with an overdose of melanin.

Central Clarendon Member of Parliament Mike Henry, is by no means by appearance a black man, yet he is more black than many of the "roast breadfruit" pretenders out there who have chosen to be glorified house slaves or modern-day backras.

Kudos to Mike Henry for having taken the issue of reparation to Parliament, and commendations are due to our elected representatives as well as those who sit in the Upper House who have all wholeheartedly embraced his proposition (as if they had a choice)! But even as there is to be a debate in Gordon House on this critical issue seemingly devoid of any partisan overtones or undertones, the potent question that needs to be asked is, have we really come to terms with slavery? In this context, the Jews have done so with respect to the Holocaust and to a great extent, so too have South Africans in relation to Apartheid.

PERKINS... has been reported as saying that in many ways slavery has been a good thing - and maybe he is right

Often, slavery is brought up only when we want to place blame on the many negatives that plague us as a people. Talk-show host Wilmot "Mutty" Perkins, among many others, often refers to the "Willy Lynch" syndrome (the crabs in the barrel mentality) that has become part and parcel of our psyche. But the iconoclastic Mutty does not stop there. He has been reported as saying that in many ways slavery has been a good thing. And maybe he is right.

In the meantime, too many Jamaicans from all walks of life are beset with mental slavery. Too many Jamaicans have very little understanding of what the slave trade was all about, and so instead of dealing with it in the context of the liberation struggle, they opt for becoming like their former masters.

How else can we explain the current fad of bleaching? The perception that anything black is no good and that as a black man if you want upward socio-economic mobility, you must marry a white or fair-skinned woman (browning)?

So before we get all excited about reparation from Great Britain, we need to talk about reparation due to us from our many benighted politicians and private-sector moguls who have kept the majority of Jamaicans in a dark alley called mental slavery. Honestly, it is only the Rastafarian movement that has genuinely sought to liberate the Jamaican people. Of course, Marcus Garvey tried very hard too, but the "Willy Lynch" syndrome saw to his many dreams being trampled in the dust.

If slavery and reparation are to mean anything to the average Jamaican, then we must get back to basics. The Jews have ensured that none of their kind will ever forget the Holocaust. What have we done to deal with this critical issue of identity and self-actualisation? As Professor Rex Nettleford would call it, the "smadditisation" of our people? We don't teach Garveyism in our schools, Rastafarianism is still relegated to the back bench and we don't even have a slave museum!

Frankly, Jamaica has not reached its true potential because we are yet to deal with the psyche of the Jamaican people and the extent to which this has been influenced by the slave trade. It is such a great pity that after 200 years of so-called freedom we are still an enslaved people, albeit psychologically. In this context, should we get the reparation we seek, it will be squandered in the same way that we have wasted our patrimony.

To put it bluntly, our politicians and those movers and shakers who have aided and abetted others in the underdevelopment of this country must begin to repair the damage they have done.

They should start with the detribalising of the society, the extirpation of garrison constituencies, the restructuring of the Jamaican Constitution to ensure that there is in actuality equal rights and justice for every single citizen, and the revolutionising of the education system which will help to mould each young Jamaican into becoming "smaddy" of worth and substance. In other words, reparation must begin at home! Enough said.