40 years of what?

Peter Espeut

I WAS a young boy at Independence 40 years ago, and like so many others, I was full of nationalism and pride. "We're out to build a new Jamaica" we sang at school, and it was with pride that we sang the Jamaica National Anthem for the first time. I was too young to appreciate the short-sighted choice my parents' generation had made - independence instead of Federation - or to foresee the misuse of power in the name of "Independence" and "Sovereignty" which would follow.

There was no doubt that British colonialism had held back Jamaica's educational and industrial development, and much else. Prior to internal self-government in 1944, the British made little effort to establish high schools in Jamaica. Their intention was that all important civil service posts would be held by Britishers or by colonials trained in Britain. The lot of Jamaicans was to labour on the plantations. All high schools in Jamaica prior to 1944 were private, owned either by trusts (e.g. Munro, Titchfield) or the church (e.g. Calabar, St. George's). Internal self-government saw the establishment of the first government high schools, and the University of the West Indies.

The British pursued a policy of developing their home economy first. No industrial process which could be performed in the UK was allowed in colonies like Jamaica, to ensure that British voters got as many jobs as possible - and the best paying jobs; even with internal self-government, the manufacture of sugar was taken only to the point where the product could be sent to Britain; only brown sugar was made in Jamaica, and we had to import refined white sugar - our own sugar - from England! One of the first acts after Independence was to open a sugar refinery in Jamaica to produce our own white sugar. We did not prosper under colonialism, and the dream was that we would prosper with independence.

And it was possible: Barbados did it! They are much smaller than we are, with much fewer resources and much less potential; but today Barbados is a First World country! All Barbadians can read and write, and go to high school. Why couldn't we have done that? We could have, but we weren't trying. If we are honest forty years later, we will have to admit that we have not made the most of the opportunities that political independence provided.

A recent opinion poll has indicated that 53 per cent of adult Jamaicans believe that Jamaica would have been better off today if it had remained a colony of Britain. This shows what people remember most about our latter days as a colony: despite restricted social opportunities there was less crime, and the economy was growing as the bauxite/alumina and tourism sectors were taking off. And I suppose many Jamaicans see prosperity and social peace in the few British colonies which remain: the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands, Bermuda, etc. If Independence means crime and poverty, then maybe colonialism was better, some seem to be arguing.

I suppose this is the wisdom of hindsight. If we had remained a colony with the same wide racial and social divide as in 1962, it is likely that Jamaican society would have exploded. Independence gave us hope that better might come, and postponed the social explosion. Independence was expected to right the wrongs of colonialism, in which Jamaica was run as a private club serving the wants of the powerful few. Colonial Jamaica was an artificial society, assembled to produce crops which could not grow in the metropole; plants were introduced and labour was transported to achieve the goal. In this "new day", the Jamaican plantation was to be run for the benefit of the labourers.

But it never happened! Jamaica is still a private club serving the wants of the powerful few; the faces of the few have changed, but the social and economic cleavages in Jamaican society are greater than in 1962. We have the eleventh largest gap between the rich and the poor of all the countries in the world (Gini co-efficient), and the fastest growing gap in the world! Those who have managed our independence have not righted the wrongs of colonialism; they have even managed to perpetrate new wrongs!

Since independence political power has been used to develop an education system which has perpetuated inequality. In the first 25 years of independence, JLP and PNP governments built 70 "junior secondary" and "new secondary" schools and only two "high" schools. The plan was for Jamaican children to fail the Common Entrance Examination to enter these schools. No white South African racist could have planned the "separate development" of poor, black ­ mostly rural children ­ more effectively! No wonder the majority of the electorate have rejected these two merchants of inequality!

Since independence, political power has been used to divide Jamaican from Jamaican. Public lands and lots in government housing projects have been distributed by both PNP and JLP along political lines to create political garrisons, defended by political thugs carrying political guns. Plum jobs in the public service have been distributed to party favourites, such that Jamaican elections are fought for high stakes: fame and fortune, and life itself! Jamaican Independence is a study in how power has been used to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Executive Director of an environment and development NGO.

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