THE EDITOR, Sir:
This is the land of my birth. This is Jamaica, my Jamaica, this is the land of my birth" --Eric Donaldson
ARE SOME rights, like that to a name, a mother tongue and citizenship, etc., not inviolable? As an Afro-Jamaican I was appalled to read the letter by Tabitha Service (Gleaner, Thursday, Sept. 12) in response to Vernal Bankersingh's concerns about Jamaica being treated as the "Black man country."
While Mr Bankersingh, by referring to the British handing over Jamaica to us (as if it were theirs in the first place), unwittingly disrespected the memory and history of the Taino inhabitants who first possessed this land, his question whether the 'black man' is the owner of this land is justified. Similar to the presentation of Jamaica as a 'Christian country,' the presentation of the island as a 'black country' excludes others who, by virtue of birth and/or citizenship, have as much right to represent Jamaica as any 'black man.' I would be the last person to downplay the importance of the African heritage to Jamaican and Caribbean identity. As shapers of that identity, Afro-Jamaicans have a right to claim and defend it. We also have a right to claim this, the land of our birth, as truly ours.
What we don't have the right to do, however, is to pretend that we have exclusive claims to it. Neither do we have the right to pretend that other Jamaicans, whether they are of Asian, European or Arab descent are less Jamaican than we because, through no fault of theirs, their forebears were not enslaved (I assume that having enslaved ancestors gives some of us special status?!?!).
As I understand Mr Bankersingh's concern, it was precisely regarding this point of the representability of those Jamaicans whose ancestors did not come from Africa. Afro-Jamaicans may be the majority population here, but that does not give us the right to ignore or devalue the contributions of Jamaicans of other ethnic backgrounds whose blood, sweat and tears also helped to build this little piece of land.
We cannot make an effective challenge to the injustice of exclusion and intolerance with 'majority rule' as our motto. We might be a majority here today, but tomorrow we could very well be the minority somewhere else. It is downright dangerous for people of African descent to believe that majority status gives us the right to exclude others. It suggests that we have learnt very little from history. The right to citizenship is inviolable.
I am etc.,
R. ANTHONY LEWIS
roanthony@yahoo.com
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Via Go-Jamaica
