A Welcome Apology

Easter 2022 bought what I consider a most welcome announcement in Jamaica, one which will improve on how we discuss one very important aspect of our history and heritage from now on.

No, I am not referring to the numerous headlines saying; “he is risen,” as that is stale news and not at all factual!

What I am citing is the revolutionary story which the majority of the media fraternity in Jamaica ignored, except those at the Jamaica Observer.

They carried it under the banner headline “Maroons finally say sorry.”

The earth-shattering word in that story in my book is, ‘finally,’ as for centuries, the Maroons in Jamaica have sought to either deny the treacherous act of their ancestors or ignore it.

Oh yes, the Maroons have an outstanding history and this is so highly respected by us that Queen Nanny was elevated to the position of National History.

Incidentally, they are not however the indigenous Jamaicans as some have belatedly claimed, for the only people who can fill that bill are the Tainos.

The fact is, the original Maroons were enslaved Africans who  were brought to the island by the Spaniards. Cherishing their freedom though, they escaped to the hills after the British defeated their Spanish enslavers in 1655.

From strategic points, they conducted guerilla wars for some seventy years.

Because they couldn’t be defeated, the British offered them a treaty which included; their own lands and limited autonomy. Also included in the agreement though, was a commitment that they would help the British forces defeat other slave uprisings and return escaped slaves to the plantations.

The Observer story reported; It took almost three centuries, but on Good Friday 2022 the Maroons of Jamaica apologized for their sordid role in crushing popular anti-slavery uprisings and forcibly returning runaway slaves to hellish conditions on British-owned sugar plantations, sullying their storied history.

Two of the more well-known black rebellions put down by the British colonial forces with the solid support of the Maroons were that led by West African slave Chief Takyi of St Mary in 1760 and Baptist Deacon Paul Bogle of Stony Gut, St Thomas, in 1865. Bogle and his key ally George William Gordon were hanged but later named national heroes of Jamaica, and just two Fridays ago, April 8 was officially declared Chief Takyi Day, henceforth to celebrate the freedom fighter credited with the first slave uprising in the Caribbean.

“We regret the hurt and sufferings caused from such actions. We take total responsibility on behalf of our ancestors,” said paramount chieftainess and Queen of the Maroons Gaamang Gloria “Mama G” Simms, the woman now occupying the seat once held by Queen Nanny of the Maroons, the only female among the seven national heroes. “…We realise that we cannot undo the past, but we can remedy the situations through reconciliatory actions that will repair the damage and rebuild trust so that these behaviours will not be repeated,” continued the Maroon spiritual leader in a press statement, according to the Observer.

Mama G

It is the refusal by previous Maroon leaders to admit that treachery and apologize, which has caused numerous other Jamaicans of African ancestry, to remain bitter against them.

Maybe if they had been honest in celebrating their history, more of us would have been more understanding and forgiving, for indeed Africa has never been a unified black continent, as it has always been tribal loyalties not color that remained supreme.

However, while forever boasting about their courageous feats, previous leaders have rubbed salt into the wounds by denying the ‘treachery’ of their ancestors.

Until now.

This long-awaited apology therefore makes Mama G a very special Maroon leader indeed.

Hopefully her courage and honesty will temper the attitude of the pretenders like Chief Currie of the Accompong Maroons, (a little village in St. Elizabeth) who has belatedly been trying to rewrite history to the point of declaring that they were given sovereignty by the infamous treaty!

Yes, the Maroons have a proud legacy to celebrate and now that Mama G has finally admitted that they also had feet of clay, maybe we can all now proudly embrace our motto ‘out of many one people’ as we continue the journey to make Jamaica one of the greatest nations on earth.

 

 

American/ Russian interefernce in elections

Even if the Americans have themselves had a record of sometimes “interfering” in elections in other countries, they have every right to be upset that Russia interfered in their presidential elections, as all the intelligence agencies have agreed happened. Interestingly, president Trump has time and time again, chosen to believe Putin's word, although he is ex and probably still KGB, while dismissing the evidence provided by 17 of his own intelligence agencies, but that's another issue.

Anyway, the difference between what the Russians did to the USA in their democratic elections and normal "interference,"  is that the US and Russia are currently the two most powerful superpowers in the world and if one can gain unchallenged influence throughout the world because it has its surrogate in power as the head of the other superpower, it would be terrible for the rest of us. 

Especially if the one that ends up with total power is Russia!

For Russia is by no means a liberal democracy and thus their holding sway over what happens in smaller and weaker states would be tragic for people in the free world, who could see the freedoms to which they had become accustomed, being gradually diminished.

I have been there and speak from personal experience on the front lines.

This was during the cold war era in my small island of Jamaica which lies only 90 miles away from Cuba. We were forced to go through four years of turmoil because the democratically elected government of the day decided it preferred the Cuban system of government and the socialist philosophy to the Westminster system of government under which it had gained power. And the Cubans were only too happy to assist them in every way possible to  take away our freedoms. For after all, Jamaica being the largest and most influential island in the English speaking Caribbean, would give them great leverage in their quest to have the then USSR dominate the entire region.

So we saw our island being flooded by thousands of Cubans supposedly coming in to assist in agricultural development and the health service. They however were under the command of a general named Ulysses Estrada who was allegedly the head of their intelligence agency, the DGI. Also assisting the Cubans but covertly, was the Russian KGB and I know that as a fact as I did have an encounter with one.

On the other side was the American CIA which had allegedly heeded the opposition party’s cry for help, but they apparently operated very covertly, for although I was often on the frontlines, I never encountered a CIA agent on the ground.

However, I say without apology THANKS TO THE AMERICAN CIA FOR ASSISTING US, FOR IF THEY HADN’T, JAMAICA TODAY WOULD PROBABLY BE LIKE VENEZUELA where food shortages, hyper-inflation, no press freedom, government sponsored aggression and the silencing of the opposition are the order of the day.

Worse yet, we could be like Cuba itself. I have visited that country four times since 1980, because of its physical beauty and the fact that I have close family there. Their life is one of absolute misery and the younger ones who were born after the revolution, do not even know that there is an alternative world in which people can criticize their government, read and write what they want or even better, get a passport and travel to any place they wish, as long as they have the money. Sad.

I therefore thank the Americans for “interfering” and assisting us in defeating the Cuban DGI and Russian KGB in the elections that followed our four year period of turmoil…1976-1980.

For reducing the world to a position where one of the two super powers dominates totally because it succeeded in putting its surrogate in power, is extremely dangerous for the entire world. For what Lord Acton said in the 1800’s is still relevant today. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The Poor in Cuba versus the Poor in Jamaica, Haiti etc.

I could never live in a communist country as I value my freedoms too much. However, after visiting my family in Cuba over the Easter holidays and seeing in general how the Cubans live, I am convinced that the poor there have much better living conditions than the poor in either Jamaica or Haiti.

My little cousin Brian

To begin with, there is no vulgar gap between the rich and the poor there as most people are poor but most importantly, they are not starving and their health needs are looked after.

My cousin there lost her home in 1963 to hurricane Flora and was given a two bedroom flat in a two storey building and she has never had to pay a cent for living there. Granted because they do not own it, they do not paint it or look after it but it is solid and comfortable.

Further she has all the lifestyle diseases that most of us get with old age, eg. diabetes etc and she gets total free health care and pays very little for medication. In addition, she gets a extra half liter of milk every other day to ensure that she is getting good nutrition.

 In Cuba too, education up to university level is free and the only thing the parents have to pay is the a small fee for the uniforms. Granted a doctor only starts at about Can $30 per month when he graduates, but at least he has a great education and therefore possibly a good future because he is educated.

In Jamaica and Haiti if you are sick and poor, by the time you get medical attention you are dead after living a life of constant pain and no one cares whether you starve or not and getting medical attention or even the simplest operation is as hard as winning the lottery.

Yes there are beggars in Cuba but few and far between and in the general, the people look far healthier than our poor do. Yes wages are low but basics including transportation and food is subsidized so people eat well.

Cuban adults and teens are very responsible too as you do not see them walking around with a string of uncared for children as you see here and in most Latin American countries. While the government does not restrict the number of children people can have, they offer free contraceptives and abortion and because the people recognise that they do not have much, they do not breed indiscriminately but have only one child or two at the most two and because they do not have  a slew of kids stressing them out, they really cherish them.

I was felt so warm all over as I watched the parents drop off kids at a kindergarten near us and the fathers hugged and kissed their kids, even the boys as they watched until they were safely in the school yard. Of course they dropped them off on bicycles or walked, but they were there for them  all the way and you could feel the love and see how much they cherished their kids.

Yes poverty is all over the country there as it is here and in Haiti but at least in Cuba, poverty is not a sentence to perpetual suffering and I suspect, that having grown up not knowing what freedom is, when they migrate it is for the same reason that out people migrate and that is to try and get by better, economically.