Hartley Neita

We are a people of contradictions. These past two weeks we have come together briefly as the West Indies, and been hugging our Trinidadian, Barbadian, Guyanese and other Caribbean colleagues, and dancing and singing One Love with them.

Soon, we will be forgetting being brothers and sisters under the sun. We will be Jamaicans again and will be beating these temporary friends at athletic meets, and swimming, hockey, football and table tennis tournaments.

Oh, how tempus fugits!

We could have been playing in this 2007 World Cup tournament as Jamaicans. And, perhaps, the other Caribbean countries could have been the West Indies. Fate, however, decreed otherwise.

A confusion about who and what we were created a political turmoil in the Caribbean between 1955 and 1962. Like Italians who once held general elections and changed governments almost every six months, we went to the polls five times in that seven-year period. There was a general election in 1955 which was won by the People's National Party. Three years later elections for a Federal Parliament of the West Indies were held. One year later, a general election for a Jamaican Parliament was held. Then two years later we went to the polls again in a referendum to decide whether Jamaica should remain in the Federation or not. The vote said no, and less than a year later we were called on to vote for the party we wanted to lead us into Independence. The choice went to the Jamaica Labour Party.

Looking back at that time in our history, it seems as if we were being ping-ponged to and fro by our political leaders. In 1955, we were British subjects. We sang the British National Anthem and waved the Union Jack. Then in 1958, we became West Indians. We had a flag (designed by a Jamaican), but had no mational anthem. We even participated in the Olympics as the West Indies, yet in the regional games we were individual countries. Three years later we said "Jamaica, yes; Federation, no" and we were once again British subjects singing and waving British emblems. One year later we became Jamaican nationals with a flag and an anthem of our own.

Threats of secession

We were yo-yos.

By then there was a University of the West Indies, even though Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados took unto themselves a campus each of their own. And we also had a West Indies cricket team. What of these? Every time the West Indies selectors 'dissed' our cricketers, like when they did not select Maurice Foster on one occasion, we threatened to secede. The voice of reason then was Norman Manley's who publicly prayed that Jamaica's secession from the Federation would not break up the West Indies cricket team.

And we even got rid of two Guyanese lecturers at the university and tear-gassed the students en masse when they dared to misbehave in downtown Kingston.

So, let us enjoy and glory in the peace and love of Caribbean togetherness. A plague, too, on those who secretly wished, or spoke out of one corner of their mouths, hoping that the Cricket World Cup tournament would flop. They are echoes of the same voices who questioned the wisdom of building the National Stadium in 1962 until they found themselves preening and hobnobbing in the Royal Box with Princess Margaret and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson.