Jamaica At 50: So much more than Bob Marley and Usain Bolt....

By Lindsay Johns for the Daily Mail

Published: 10:16 GMT, 6 August 2012 | Updated: 14:25 GMT, 6 August 2012

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Jamaica, a small island in the Caribbean which has exported greatness to the world in a multiplicity of guises. So, in a piece in which I will be exhorting you to look beyond the traditional, stultifying clichés about Jamaica, let me revert to the oldest and most ubiquitous at the outset, and say (by way of ironically subverting it, of course) let the sweet reggae music play and the Red Stripe flow!

I should disclose before proceeding, as is customary on such occasions, the fact that I am somewhat partisan, due to a strong, personal affiliation to the island and its people. I feel blessed to say that many of the people who have shown me sincere, deep and lasting love and friendship in my life have been Jamaican - a fact for which I am truly grateful.

To employ a very useful (but much over-used) phrase, we urgently need a paradigm shift in the popular consciousness when it comes to the way we perceive Jamaica. There is so much more to this island and its remarkable people than Bob Marley, reggae music, clouds of ganja, Rastafari, Mary Seacole, sandy beaches and Usain Bolt. To not do so is to do a gargantuan disservice to Jamaica and its people.

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Misconception: There is more to Jamaica than reggae music, sandy beaches and a chilled out vibe

For all its problems, of which it has many, and to which none but the most foolhardy, churlish or mendacious would not admit, Jamaica is a beautiful island and Jamaicans undoubtedly their greatest (and most marketable) export. Jamaicans are an immensely loving, loyal, intelligent, straight-talking people, for the most part devoid of cant. They are also a very proud, dignified people who, after triumphing over much adversity in their often tumultuous island history, have accomplished many great things on the world stage.

Forget for now, if you will, the tired clichés and facile, limiting stereotypes so often used by those expatiating on Jamaica. Forget the supposed penchant for ganja (in fact, most middle-class Jamaicans and non-Rastafarians cannot abide the stuff - further proof, if it were needed, that race is the prism through which class is so often seen).

Forget, if such a thing is not tantamount to treason, mellifluous reggae music, its thumping base, its infectious, feel-good melodies and the ubiquitous, dread-locked Robert Nesta Marley, whose immediately recognizable (and highly lucrative) iconic, global image now adorns both the bedroom walls of paupers and princes.

Forget too, if such a thing is humanly possible when we are in the grip of such unbridled Olympic fever, the superlative sprinter, world record holder and now 2012 Olympic 100m champion Usain Bolt. His magisterial display last night and his ever-growing slew of gold medals are both truly astonishing and of course deserving of much applause. He is a colossal spirit and a fine ambassador for his country, but nonetheless momentarily banish him from your thoughts as quickly as he runs.

Famous faces: Bob Marley and Usain Bolt may have put Jamaica in the global spotlight, but there's more to discover about this Caribbean island

Forget for the time being too the high annual murder rate (over 1000), the persistently atrocious level of social inequality, the trillion dollar debt, the internecine politricks (as Jamaicans are want to call it), the unashamed cronyism, the political jerrymandering, the pigmentocracy which still unofficially operates and the shameful over-reliance on tourism.

Forget even, if possible, the nauseatingly virulent strain of homophobia which runs through certain echelons of Jamaican society (as it does, to be fair, in many other societies around the world) which was brought to the world’s attention in the early 90s in the songs of ragga singers Buju Banton, Shabba Ranks et al. Such flagrant homophobia is as anathema to me as a humanist as it is to many right-minded Jamaicans.

Example: Colin Powell was the first black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Secretary of State

Instead, focus on the plethora of literary, cultural and intellectual figures of international stature and renown which Jamaica has spawned and bequeathed to the world. Think of Cudjoe the Maroon, the 1700s slave revolt leader whose cunning and resilience helped to defeat both the Spanish and the English. Think of Paul Bogle, the Baptist deacon and leader of the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion who stood for freedom and paid the ultimate price. Think of Claude McKay, the Harlem Renaissance poet whose potent lyricism uplifted a greatly burdened and oppressed people. Think of Marcus Garvey, the 1920s Black nationalist leader whose affirmations of self-worth instilled a generation with much needed confidence and hope. Think of Stuart Hall, the Oxford-educated sociologist and cultural theorist. And think too of Colin Powell, the first black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Secretary of State, to name but a few of her most successful and universally lauded sons. Not bad for an island which is only 144 miles long and 44 miles wide!

It is high time that such poets, thinkers, intellectuals, soldiers and leaders took their rightful place along side (or even ahead of) singers and sportsmen in terms of the public perception of Jamaica. In short, Jamaica needs an urgent re-branding. Cool is all well and good, but cool on its own is essentially limiting, and, if taken to its logical conclusion, actually imprisoning.

Whether independence has been successful for Jamaica is another question altogether. Many could argue (quite convincingly, I should add) that it has not been. But that is another discussion for another time, and one which I am not well-qualified to judge.

What I can judge however, is that Jamaica’s greatest export is Jamaicans themselves. They have fearlessly travelled across all four corners of the globe, imbued with a pioneer spirit worthy of Tennyson’s Ulysses. This spirit, in many respects quintessentially Jamaican, is worthy of massive exultation and unbridled admiration. Forged in the inhuman crucible of the Middle Passage and nurtured in the misery of the brutal sugar plantations, theirs is a feisty, indomitable recalcitrance in the face of oppression and adversity, one which every sentient man should admire. Theirs has been to travel across oceans in search of a better life, pushing back boundaries and yearning for more, “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” It is truly such attitudes which have helped to raise the human spirit to new zeniths.

Here in the UK, we should underestimate the deep and enduring impact of Jamaica on our cultural psyche at our peril. From the imperious but ultimately doomed Jimmy Cliff in The Harder They Come to the yellow, black and green colours of the Jamaican flag (now to be found on tracksuits, vests and trainers alike), from the impact of patois on standard English (the linguistic trend of Jafaikan – pretending to be Jamaican when one speaks, in an attempt to claim the cultural kudos and highly prized “cool” associated with being Jamaican) to the culinary delights of the national dish of ackee and saltfish – all have left an indelible imprint (for better or, in the case of Jafaikan, for worse) on British society and its mores.

Windrush: The generation that arrived in the 1950s and 1960s resolutely gave their all for Britain but were in many ways failed by the nation

But what of Jamaicans in the UK? How have those who came here in the 1950s and 1960s, invited by the motherland to do her menial jobs, to toil as nurses, clean her houses and work on her buses, subsequently fared? The truth, if we are honest, is not that well. The Windrush generation who arrived (somewhat elegiacally) with hope in their eyes and a devotion to the ideals of the mother country in their hearts, resolutely gave their all for Britain, often by working long hours in poorly-paid jobs, whilst at the same time being met by despicable overt hostility and disgusting naked racism.

Again, if we are honest, the Windrush generation were in many ways failed by a nation which ostensibly rejected them and duly spurned their offspring. Even worse, they were failed by an educational system which unfairly and erroneously labelled their sons and daughters as nothing more than troublemakers and natural athletes, and in so doing tragically placed a limit on their achievements, by telling them that they would never amount to much more than footballers, singers or athletes (in short, a subtle propagation of the pernicious old lie that black is solely physical, as opposed to cerebral).

That was then and thankfully much has changed for the better since those days and Britain in 2012 is far more accommodating of difference than arguably at any other time in its history. Moreover, there are some stand-out success stories in the UK. For example, Lord Morris of Handsworth, the first black secretary of a British trade union, Diane Abbott, the first Black British female MP and Sir William Atkinson, the super head-teacher famed for transforming comprehensive schools, to name but a few, are all of Jamaican descent.

Back home, Jamaica’s economy has undoubtedly suffered from the “brain drain” to the US and Canada. Successful, educated, middle-class Jamaicans are now enriching those countries’ economies like never before. Many still send money back on a weekly basis, but few return to the land of their birth, or the land of their forefathers, for more than a two-week vacation in the sun, often in an all-inclusive on the north coast.

With the ever-increasing Americanization of the Caribbean coupled with the ever-increasing desire to step down from the Commonwealth and claim back judicial power from the Queen, challenging times certainly lie ahead for the tropical island once so beloved of Errol Flynn and Ian Fleming.

Paradise: Jamaica is a small island - it's only 144 miles long and 44 miles wide

But as Jamaicans around the world today officially celebrate the 50th anniversary of their island’s independence, let us salute the sheer prowess of this formidable Caribbean island and applaud the strength of character and the mental fortitude of its people. They have endured much and equally have achieved much.

To conclude, let us focus on the Jamaican national motto: "Out of many, one people." A truly diverse range of cultures, races and religions are seamlessly bound together in their island narrative. We have much to learn in this country from their (mostly) harmonious fusion and from their incredibly strong and potent national identity. It strikes me that Britain could do far worse than to adopt such a unifying and inclusive motto, at odds with the deeply divisive doctrine of multiculturalism hitherto propagated by those in power in this country.

Whatever the next fifty years holds for Jamaica, however arduous her journey has been thus far, or however tough it will be on the road to come, no matter what vicissitudes she has encountered on the rocky road of independence or has yet to face, let us today congratulate her and her people on their achievements and wish them the very best for the future. Happy anniversary, Jamaica! You might be likkle, but you are certainly talawa.

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