Hartley Neita
BELIEVE IT or not, but there are two generations of Jamaicans who have no idea of what apartheid was, how Jamaica could have been divided between black and white as it was in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and to a large extent, the United States, and to a lesser extent, England. And it was not just a matter of the separation of the white and black races, but it was the consequential actions implemented to enforce this division physically, socially, culturally, politically and mentally.
The fact is that we Jamaicans were fortunate in not going into that divide. Indeed we almost got there at various times in our history, and but for many, many reasons, and because of many, many people, apartheid barely affected our lives. Under slavery, of course, there was the division. And the men and women who were in that bondage suffered from beatings, more savage than what the Iraqis met under Saddam Hussein or their present American overlords. Many were hanged, some were stuffed in iron cages and left to swing in the air to be pecked at by John Crows and burnt by the rays of the sun and by the bars of the cages. Some were beheaded, their heads mounted on spikes in public places such as at South Parade in Kingston.
Slavery, of course, ended, not only because of the patronage of a few decent and articulate Baptist and Moravian white preachers, but also because of slave leaders like Tacky and Sam Sharpe, and of course the Maroon warriors, Nanny, Cudjoe and others. And there was also the cunning of the slaves themselves who knew the art of sabotage. The death of slavery did not put an end to the atrocities meted out to the free blacks after Emancipation, and the subtle scorn with which the indentured Chinese and Indians who replaced the Africans on the cane plantations, were treated. They, too, had their cunning, and in addition were innovative, supportive of each other, and so survived.
WHITE AUTHORITY
Except for the Irish, the Scots and the Germans who were clannish few white women from England wanted to live in Jamaica. The English owners and attorneys of property therefore cohabited with the blacks, creating the first brownings. They, like George William Gordon, and black men such as Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, Alexander Bedward, and men like Howell who gave birth to Rastafarianism, and the men eligible to enter the Legislature, became visible leaders who were not afraid of white authority. There were also professionals like Norman Manley, O.T. Fairclough, Noel Nethersole, trade unionists such as Alexander Bustamante, Florizel Glasspole, Ken and Frank Hill and Richard Hart, poets and writers like Roger Mais, Edna Manley, George Campbell and J.E. Clare McFarlane, women like Una Marson, Sandra Kong and Leila Robinson, and our succeeding Prime Ministers who singly and together gave Jamaican black men and women the confidence to see themselves as people of mental, cultural and spiritual property, So that when the revolution of 1938 came, the Daily Gleaner's correspondents in scores of villages across Jamaica could fill three full pages of the newspaper on one day with one and two column inches of reports of men deciding that enough was enough and that it was time for them to share a better percentage of the pleasures that the managers and owners of the enterprises they worked in enjoyed.
SUBTLE DISCRIMINATION
They had to fight the subtle discrimination which existed in the church, schools, the government service, sports organisations, hotels, banks, business places, the Police Force, and other institutions. The fight against racial prejudice started here, and then it became international. So, when Jamaicans heard that the possession of a Bob Marley's "Stand Up for Your Rights" record carried a prison sentence of about ten years, means and ways were found to smuggle copies to the South Africans. The fight, however, is not yet over. What is now happening to the prisoners in Iraq is a demonstration of prejudice against people who are thought of as lesser beings who are not necessarily human. When we are told if we do not behave ourselves according to the gospel of the US State Department, our visas to enter God's country will be denied, you had better know that this ruling comes because of the superiority of prejudice.
The world forgets history at its peril. Each new generation has to be taught about what happened to their ancestors. The older generation must also be reminded about what took place in their younger years and of how they fought, winning or losing. If this learning does not take place, mottos like our 'Out of Many, One People' will become meaningless.
So, from time to time in future columns, as the Editor allows me the opportunity of this column on Sundays, I intend to write some of this story. It's one of heroism, of tragedies, of sacrifices, of sadness and joy, and of glories. And it needs to be told.
