Peter EspeutIN HIS column last Sunday, my colleague Hartley Neita was scandalised by the TVJ straw poll asking whether Black History Month should be celebrated in Jamaica or not. "Of course, we must" was his reply at the end of his column, as also must we celebrate the history of East Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, etc. And, after all, he says in the middle, "The fact is we celebrate Ash Wednesday, Easter and Christmas every year."
I'm not sure about that connection, but the fact is that Black History Month is not a Jamaican celebration, but a copy of the practice in the United States of America where people of African origin are in the minority about 10 per cent. Being in the minority, Afro-Americans feel that the contribution of their people to the creation of the superpower that the USA now is, has been undervalued; and therefore they need Black History Month to redress the balance. It is a profoundly political celebration. The implication is that for the rest of the year Americans can freely emphasise their Eurocentric history.
But are we in the same position? Jamaicans of African descent (whether in whole or in part) form more than 90 per cent of the population now and in the past. Which part of Jamaican history is not the history of Afro-Jamaicans? If in Black History Month we call to mind the great contribution of Jamaicans of African descent, who then do we talk about for the rest of the year? Columbus?
Let us not be ambivalent about this matter. If Jamaican history as found in the history books and as taught in schools is not the history of the vast majority of the Jamaican people, then it is counterfeit; and if this is the critique that Hartley is making, he should come out plainly and say so. If the history we teach our children is the history of the colonisers and slavemasters then some serious questions need to be asked. And the solution would not be to have Black History Month in Jamaica, but to rewrite our history!
VALID CRITIQUE
It may well be a valid critique. In the introduction to their 1998 book 'The Story of the Jamaican People', the late Sir Philip Manderson Sherlock O.M. and Dr. Hazel Eloise Bennett begin, "In this book, the authors tell the story of the Jamaican people from an Afro-Jamaican point of view The Jamaican people have never accepted what was presented to them as the history of Jamaica. The heroes of the British Empire are not their heroes." Like Hartley, when I was in school I learnt about the Plantagenets, the Stuarts and the House of Hanover, and about the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. Sir Philip and Dr. Bennett continue: "Their battlefields are in African-America, in Palmares in Brazil, in Accompong, the Great River Valley of Hanover and St. James, in Morant Bay, wherever African-American freedom fighters struggled for liberty."
And so when we learn of Tacky's Rebellion (at Easter) 1760, who is the hero? Is it Tacky, the great Asante prince of Frontier Estate, leader of the almost successful rebellion? His head was cut off and displayed in the Spanish Town Square on a pole (it was spirited away by night and given a proper burial). Or Zachary Bayley of Trinity Estate (and Custos of St. Mary) who after being warned by a faithful slave, gathered a force of "130 whites and 20 blacks" and went in search of the rebels? Is it Ballard Beckford (owner of Frontier) who sent two loyal slaves on horseback to Spanish Town to warn Lieutenant-Governor Sir Henry Moore? Who immediately dispatched two companies of regular soldiers and two troops of horse militia; and also called out the Scott's Hall and the Leeward Maroons to defeat the black rebels.
Do we mourn Mr. Cruikshank, slaveowner of Ballard's Valley estate and the other 60 whites who were killed by the rebels? Or Fortune and King-ston, two of the rebels convicted with Tacky, who were hung alive in irons in the Par-ade Square of Kingston as a warning to others? They were brave and determined men: one died after seven days, and the other lasted nine days!
Real history like this is powerful, for it throws up both heroes and traitors, on all sides. During Sam Sharpe's (Christmas) Rebellion of 1831, neither Barrett Hall nor Cornwall Estate (each with about 200 slaves) was burnt, because their owner, Richard Barrett (Custos of St. James), was a strong anti-slavery advocate a traitor to his class and his slaves would not allow it. Slaves from Green Park (Trelawny) were urged by rebels from St. James to burn down the factory and join the rebellion; instead they tied up the rebels and turned them over to the militia.
HEART-WRENCHING
Our real history is complex and heart-wrenching; we must draw lessons from it that speak to our identity as Jamaicans, as people only a few generations away from the plantation, whether in field or Great House. It must help us to analyse ourselves in the present and to decide where we want to be in the future.
In a Eurocentric country like the USA, maybe the best black people there can hope for is a Black History Month. I for one will not be satisfied with a Black History Month in Jamaica. I want the whole truth! Every month of the year! This is one of the problems of wholesale copying culture or anything from the USA. You rarely end up with something really relevant to your situation.
In the meantime, following Hartley's suggestion, maybe we do need to properly recognise the contribution of our minorities in Jamaica, with a Chinese History Month and an East Indian History Month, a Lebanese History Month and a Jewish History Month. If we don't, are we not being just as racist as the USA is, in its relation to people of African descent?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
