“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds,” — Marcus Garvey
From I was in primary school, activists and disciples of Marcus Garvey have been trying to convince our education establishment to introduce the teachings of Marcus Garvey into our school curriculum. Since then, the country has made him a National Hero but little else. We are about to celebrate 63 years of Independence and I’m prepared to hazard a guess that the vast majority of our people can’t tell you much about the work, sacrifice and worth of this extraordinary Jamaican. In fact, he is more revered in other countries (certainly all over Africa) than in Jamaica, despite his National Hero status.
Sadly, after six decades of Independence, we are still no more mentally emancipated than we were in 1962. Even more troubling is that the current bunch of Jamaicans with political ambitions to run this country, surely do not have this on their agenda.
Anyone 50 years and older, who’s been living in Jamaica for much of their life, can testify to the fact that the character of the population has changed dramatically over the years. The obvious coarsening of sensibilities is prevalent throughout the society. The increasing urbanization and exposure to largely American media, in addition to the systematic under-education of our people, have robbed us of some special characteristics that made us Jamaicans. The second verse of our National Anthem asks for us to be taught a few critical things:
- True respect for all,
- Stir response to duty’s call,
- Strengthen us the weak to cherish,
- Give us vision lest we perish!
- Justice, truth be ours forever, Jamaica, land we love!
Sadly after almost six and a half decades of singing this and wishing and hoping, in so many ways we are worse off in all these areas than we were in 1962. The general lack of respect for each other, the lack of enthusiasm among most of our population regarding participation in our democracy, the increasing absence of vision and visionaries within the country’s leadership, not to mention the never-ending search for justice and truth, proving increasingly elusive. Indeed, many will sing and even shout “Jamaica Land We Love”, yet their hearts are really fixed elsewhere.
I will never forget the recent survey done among tertiary and high school soon-to-be graduates which showed 70 per cent of the respondents claiming that they would love to leave Jamaica upon graduation. No one factored in the reality that the country spent billions of its limited dollars to provide them with an education which should mean some semblance of loyalty to the country we claim to love.
The qualitative human capital decline in the society must be laid at the feet of the nation’s leadership. Afterall, it’s the leadership that determines and fashions a society’s culture, behaviour and outcomes. Emancipating ourselves from mental slavery, which still significantly hampers much of our progress, must start with how we prepare our people in our education system to be responsible and independent, proud citizens of the globe. Jamaica is and has always been a very special country in the region, even if we just focus on how it was inhabited during slavery, with Africans from so many countries in Africa, unlike our other Caribbean nations. Indeed, it’s the many different cultural influences that make Jamaica so complex and indeed challenging to manage.
As we now face yet another general election season, we must ensure that the individuals offering themselves for public leadership have a clear roadmap for where they plan to take this country as well as full knowledge of where we’re currently at. Sadly, five more years with the wrong leaders will not make us any more emancipated than we currently are.
In so far as our independence goes, we are more dependent on other countries than we have ever been in our history. One only has to take a walk in a typical supermarket which is usually bursting at the seams with foreign imports. Even the bottles and cans with Jamaican company labels are merely bulk imports rebottled and canned with foreign produce. Many of these products could and can be locally grown or developed, except that there are few local farmers or producers consistently providing them for the market.
Our lack of economic independence stares at us daily, with the ever-shrinking value of our currency and the ever-rising cost of living in an economy that, despite fake pronouncements, is seeing increased unemployment and poverty annually. Recent events in the USA should remind us of the critical importance of independence and the options it offers nations.
Since 1962 we’ve been singing, “Give us vision lest we perish”. Jamaica is now at a critical point in our history, when this line in our National Anthem is most urgent. It will take significant vision to get this nation out of the complicated places it has landed. We are talking about, the economy, state of crime and criminality, the poor health systems, substandard education approaches that reward regurgitation rather than stimulate the creative minds, high levels of public corruption, low levels of agricultural production, poor public transportation systems, increasing poverty levels and importantly, a rather apathetic populace who find it a chore to even go out and vote!. The #1 question to ask ourselves in this critical pre-election season is: Are the men and women offering themselves for public office, to take us into 2030, up to the task?
Happy and thoughtful 63rd anniversary, Jamaica. We have a long way to go. Much catching up to do. But let’s take some time and celebrate while we gather the national political will to make even greater strides going forward!
Justice, truth be ours forever, Jamaica, land we love!
