Edward Seaga
Independence is, first of all, the political status of a country which is sovereign, that is, free from political bonds which can exercise domain over its freedom. This status opens the doors of opportunity to enter into the halls of international bodies and sit with other free and independent nations as equals.
Jamaica did all that in the first year of Independence in 1962. But these new positions in global and regional settings did not arouse any deep inner feelings of a new identity, the way the national flag and national anthem did. The international linkages were too remote.
Coming closer to touching the soul of the people was the appointment of the first Jamaican, Sir Clifford Campbell, as Governor-General. This was enough to provide more than a tinge of national pride, but not an emotional explosion.
If Independence was to be truly meaningful to Jamaicans, it would have to be in ways that the people encountered in daily life, ensuring a more sustainable flow of pride.
This pride was the link to feelings of belonging to something and something belonging to them. In other words, it had to evoke an embraceable identity.
Independence created an expectation that some uplifting symbolism to arouse emotions was going to occur to make people feel that they had achieved a different personal, not just national status. Furthermore, because this would be a common feeling, it would bind all Jamaicans in unity, building towards a unified nation of people.
three divisive elections
Jamaicans had experienced three divisive elections in the period of less than four years: the Federal Election (1958); the General Election (1959); the Federal referendum (1961) and the Independence General Election (1962). It was, therefore, crucial to try to put all these political differences in the background and concentrate on the commonality of the people to remind them of a single identity as Jamaicans.
There is no aspect of life, other than tragedy, that pulls people together more than cultural activity.
In the first two years of Independence, an amazing concurrence of deliberate strategy and welcome coincidence of events followed that would create a march of pride.
Strategically, I drew on the previous experiences of intermittent localised festivals held over the years and the work of pioneers in dance, and music. They were limited in scope and dedicated to particular local events. I drew also on the wider repertoire of folk material to which I was exposed during my residence in Buxton Town and Salt Lane in my years of research by residing in the communities. I mixed them all and added further to the mixture, other cultural activities to create the most comprehensive festival in the English-speaking Caribbean and, perhaps, elsewhere.
The Jamaica Festival was born and launched at Independence 1963. It featured competitions in
Song and dance
Drama and literature
pottery and sculpture
painting and photography
food and drink (culinary arts)
Costumed groups, float parade and drum corp parades.
Later, a popular song competition and the Miss Jamaica contest were added.
There were thousands of participants mostly from schools, tutored by their teachers.
The annual Jamaica Festival became the cradle for our folk culture, some forms of which were disappearing. In earlier days, some folk art was no longer attractive spectator events. They had played themselves out by repetition without any imaginative improvements. Festival added the opportunity for creativity which, from the beginning, made folk culture come alive and grow year by year in new renditions. It was now a source of pride to identify with the cultural heritage of the country.
Bit by bit, the cultural identity of Jamaicans was beginning to take shape.
Earlier, Jamaicans began to compose their own music, inspired by the rhythm and blues, boogie and rock and roll beats of the American south. Soon, this flow of creativity went further. By Independence, the first Jamaican beat emerged - the ska. To say that it was a tremendous hit would be an understatement. The ska was not only music but dance. It created a revolution in both forms.
brand name for J'CAN music
From the ska came the rock steady and the reggae which is now the brand name for Jamaican music. There was an explosion of composers and performing artistes as if these talents were locked away in a cupboard waiting on a door to open.
The growth of Jamaican popular music, in which I had earlier played a part as a pioneer producer of hit records and, ministerially, as promoter to encourage wide acceptance, grew so rapidly that it became mainstream music internationally.
Jamaican musical stars became world-class performers known widely across the globe - Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, Dennis Brown - but none moreso than Bob Marley, whose classic album Exodus was later selected as the pre-eminent album of the 20th century by Time magazine.
But before reaching that pinnacle, two special achievements boosted Jamaican pride. A baby-voice singer Millie Small recorded a re-make of the Barbie Gay r & b hit, My Boy Lollipop, in 1964. It became the number one hit in England and number two in America.
(In 1966, Desmond Dekker repeated this achievement with his composition Israelites, the first Jamaican song to reach the pinnacle on the charts internationally).
The country was only two years old and already internationally recognised for its rich cultural identity. More was to come.
Dance was to occupy a premium spot. Soon after Independence, Rex Nettleford and Eddie Thomas created a National Dance Theatre
Company (NDTC) which introduced a professionalism and quality in performance that delighted Jamaicans who, again, were discovering that their country could be elevated to international levels in different forms of culture.
Just one year after, independence, Carol Crawford won the Miss World contest, earning for Jamaica the citation of producing the "most beautiful woman in the world". Jamaican pride was unbounded. The cultural identity of Jamaicans was now being fashioned in gold. But more was still to come.
Few areas of cultural activity identify a country more than its craft work. These are creations from the soul of folk society. Jamaica was lacking here. Its craft work was mainly dull repetitions of straw bags and hats and some rich embroidery work that showed little variation.
In 1963, again one year after Independence, I established Things Jamaican to lift craft work out of this doldrum. With international assistance in design, training and production, the foundation was laid for Jamaican craft work to reach a new level of achievement, which it did, leaving behind the souvenirs and memento trade. Jamaican craft eventually became fashionable items of dcor, table wear, dress wear and gifts which could be purchased, worn and presented with pride. Jamaican cultural identity was now being enriched with another area of creativity which would reach professional standards.
(Sadly, Things Jamaican exists no more. The factory was closed and converted into a prison, leaving thousands of craft workers who depended on its guidance, stranded).
Finally, the chapter of this remarkable first two years of a cultural revolution closed with a profound statement on our heritage. In 1964, with the assistance of Leslie Alexander, a prominent figure in the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and the concurrence of the family, I arranged for the body of Marcus Garvey to be returned home from the catacombs in London to be interred as Jamaica's first National Hero in Heroes Park. Garvey had left Jamaica at the end of the 1930s disappointed and broken hearted. Now he was returning home to adulation.
Pride in the achievements of Garvey as a leader among men who had defined and shaped race relations to uplift people of African descent everywhere, reminded Jamaicans of their African roots, their insufferable struggles for recognition and respect, how far they had come, and how much further there was to go.
In defining our cultural identity as the well-spring of pride in and belonging to a new nation, Garvey's re-emergence was a welcome recognition of a heritage that added sobriety to the joys of accomplishments in the remarkable trail of stellar achievements of a young nation only two years old.
As Garvey was the moral conscience of Jamaica, Louise Bennett was its social arbiter, using the language of the people to influence recognition of their society, folk society.
With humour and idioms of Jamaican patois, she cut against prejudice and pomposity by exposing the inner self of the people at all levels. Single handedly she transformed the language of folk culture from its remote existence to one which involved the entire nation in song and laughter. In so doing, she uplifted the disdained Jamaican "patois" from the backyard to the stage at home and abroad.
Much more occurred after 1964, the first two years of Independence on the creation of more cultural institutions and the promotion of folk culture but this presentation is focused only on the early years after Independence when there was an identity gap among the people and the strategy used to close that gap so as to create a national identity through cultural promotion.
The cultural identity of the Jamaican people has continued to be shaped until it has become the dominant theme in the definition of our national identity as a unique people. It is this concept of culture which makes it a most valuable influence in the lives of the Jamaican people.
n Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the UWI. E-mail: odf<\@>uwimona.edu.jm
