(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
It’s the story of pain, tragedy and rebirth.