Joan Williams, former local host, looks back to go forward

(This is a reproduction of the article appearing on the front cover of the hard copy of "Bookends" on Sunday 18th November 2017. Bookends which is the book review section of the Jamaica Observer, is edited by Sharon Leach.)

Jamaica had its share of activists during the 1970s. Several of them have written about their experiences in that heady period of political tribalism.

Add Joan Williams to the mix.

On October 21, Williams launched her memoir, Looking Back.. ...the Struggle to Preserve Our Freedoms, in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

She told the Jamaica Obsever that she was influenced to revisit her firebrand years of the 1970s, after years of observing "apologists" for the Michael Manley government revising history.

"Reading so many versions written by those who were behind the Socialist thrust and seeing how they try to sanitise what really took place, I had to record my own experiences for I have never found anything that told the other side of the story," she said.

 'Looking Back' focuses mainly on the Seventies, a divisive decade that saw then prime minister Manley experimenting with democratic socialism. He was fiercely opposed by the right-leaning Edward Seaga, head of then main Opposition Jamaica Labour Party.

Williams, her husband and infant son returned to Jamaica from Canada shortly after Manley was elected prime minister in 1972. They were drawn to his passionate campaign of change for working-class Jamaicans and were members of the PNP at one stage. 

They switched allegiance to the JLP in 1974 when Manley declared democratic socialism as his government's mantra. Williams, like many Manley critics, details some of the period's tragic incidents such as the 1976 State of Emergency and Green Bay affair of 1978.

She lays blame for these and other atrocities at Manley’s feet.

The JLP also comes in for criticism, particularly Seaga whom she blames for alienating some of the party's most talented members because of his autocratic leadership.

"I am driven by a 'Jamaica first' attitude, so if I see a party acting contrary to what I consider to be the best interest of the country, I take immediate exception" said Williams. She notes that the PNP and JLP "have failed Jamaica miserably".

The book, her fourth, is not all politics. A chapter revisits the death of her son Thor in 1995. He was visiting Jamaica from the United States when he was shot and killed in St Andrew.

Twenty-two years later, Williams is still affected by the incident, especially as initial media reports about the incident said Thor was shot after attempting to rob someone.

"It was very tough to write about my son's murder. He was the first of my two children and my only son, and after 22 years the pain and bitterness remain as severe as it did in 1995," she said.

Separate chapters are dedicated to persons Williams respected; talk show hosts Anthony Abrahams and Wilmot 'Motty' Perkins.

She recalls the early days of groundbreaking radio show, The Breakfast Club, which she started with Abrahams, who died in 2011.

There is a revealing recollection of the fiery Perkins' battle with cancer, to which he succumbed one year after Abrahams's death.

'Motty Perkins was number one; he was never intimidated by anyone. Tony Abrahams was another. He was absolutely brilliant and I salute him most for revolutionising morning radio," she said.

Williams believes that, had Manley retained power for a third term in 1980, Jamaica today would resemble two of its regional neighbours.

"l used to look back and regret my days of activism and the sacrifices I had to make, but after I travelled to Cuba in 2014 to meet relatives, and saw how browbeaten and disillusioned the people there were, I regret nothing for I could never have survived in the type of society the socialists were trying to impose on us during the Seventies," she said. "Every day, I hear the news coming out of Venezuela which mirrors the madness we went through in the Seventies. I thank God we escaped what would have been a fate worse than death."

— Howard Campbell

Nb. Looking Back is available in paperback and ebook format at;
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Alooking+back+by+joan+williams&keywords=looking+back+by+joan+williams&ie=UTF8&qid=1513357246

https://youtu.be/LvUJXyiJKKM