Noel

Our history in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean is peculiar. When the majority of our ancestors lived in Africa just before the rape of that continent, the tribal system was well established. The novels of men like Chinua Achebe, and James Ngugi give us a keen insight into the life and times. In each village there were strong men who defended the village against all incursion.

It is this mentality that we brought with us to the Caribbean when we were forcibly dragged here and it has lived with us, in us. So the slave revolts were effective because on each plantation, the descendants of these 'tribal warriors' led the others. This was also the key to the success of the maroons.

After emancipation, in the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica, the Canboulay Riots of Trinidad and other significant events in the Caribbean, the brunt of the rebellions lay with these 'warriors'. Local issues, too, were still referred to these local leaders who helped to solve problems and defended the community against intruders.

In the early 20th century, the 'emancipated' people of the Caribbean still bore the yoke of colonialism. In this period the attempt was made by our colonial masters to lessen the power of these 'warriors' who still emerged as from an atavistic memory. This was done by the systematic denuding of black leadership by accepting the brightest among them into schools and educating them into believing - the colonial master was indeed a saviour: his culture, his language, his religion, were superior and all that was black was mere ignorant savagery. Again, an insight into this is given to us in novels like The Wine of Astonishment, In the Castle of My Skin, The Hills Were Joyful Together and The Dragon Can't Dance.

Then came independence. Unlike others, we waged no tremendous open battles to win our freedom. It was 'given' to us. We were educated to believe, once again, that it was the largesse of the colonial master. So after good "Queen Victoria set we free", good Queen Bess was giving us independence after kindly preparing us for it.

Relationship

So the masses of our people, despite the celebrations, did not really feel "free" and "independent". We did not, as nations, believe we were now on our own and had to chart our own destinies. We had replaced the white ruler with a black one but our attitudes to political leadership never changed. We did not believe we all had to "put our hearts and hands together" to build a new nation. We simply expected the new black leaders to carry on providing for us in the same way the colonisers did. So our relationship to the power structure did not change.

The police, for example, had always been a symbol of the power of the oppressor. In the past, their role was to keep the masses in line. As the classic movie The Harder They Come disturbingly reveals, these attitudes did not change after independence. The police were still seen as 'Babylon' the oppressor (and they sometimes saw themselves in this way as well).

To too many of us, our elected leaders were to "do somepn fi wi". It was not stewardship we expected but 'ginnalship'. Those for whom we voted repaid us by giving us pay for doing little work, giving us handouts and "seeing bout" us. He, in return, would line his pockets. Many of us never even considered the idea of building a nation.

We have not yet come to terms with this fact. The communities still turn to 'area leaders', to solve community problems. Volunteerism is community-based, not nationally, we are having problems to internalise the new thrust in local government which empowers the recognised community-based organisations and entrusts them with the tools of governance.

System restructure

In order for us to truly gain independence and give ourselves a chance at the magnificence of which we are capable, we need to revisit our attitudes to ourselves, our religion, our language, our music, our food, our dance. There needs to be a deeper, more fundamental 'restructuring' of our education system; our social leaders need to rethink their attitudes to our language; we need to engage, in a serious way, with those persons who write and perform our popular music; we need to look more seriously at what we call 'roots' plays; we need to give independence to the Jamaican spirit.

Keith Noel is an educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.