Lance Neita | The ‘emancipendence’ debate

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) has stirred up quite a hornets’ nest with their proposal for a reset of Emancipation and Independence day holidays, to be rolled into one extended weekend.

Such a reset, they suggest, would stem the reduced productivity that invariably follows the double dip holiday hangover “as many workers and businesses tend to bridge the gap between these dates with additional time off”.

It’s not the first time this argument has come to the fore. The double holiday in August was introduced 1997. A 1996 National Symbols Committee turned over the status quo and recommended the reinstatement of Emancipation Day on August 1, and the celebration of Independence Day on August 6, rather than on the first Monday of August.

The act, of course, was not without controversy. Then opposition leader Edward Seaga thought that the move would result in “the downsizing of the importance of Independence” and questioned whether anything would be achieved by the change.

Bruce Golding, then leader of the National Democratic Movement, was concerned about the number of public holidays and suggested that the two should be merged into one. But Prime Minister Patterson soldiered on, defending the recommendation as a “sharpening of focus and reawakening of consciousness”.

Granting of these holidays meant double time twice per week, and a likely drop in well-needed productivity.

For most business places it was stop and start, opening, closing, and opening again a couple days within a couple of days.

Senator Douglas Orane said it would affect productivity. In fact, the Cement Company reported a dip in production in 1997 attributed to the added holiday.

Notwithstanding, and as the PSOJ correctly points out in its press release, the two days, Independence and Emancipation, represent significant milestones in our history.

QUANDARY

But now here comes the quandary. The dates are oh so close. Look, for example, at this year’s holiday bonanza. Emancipation Day was on a Thursday. Then it was back to work on Friday, back to work on Monday, and then break for Independence Day on Tuesday, in the middle of the week.

Next year Emancipation Day lands on a Friday. So we roll into the weekend but then should return to work on Monday and Tuesday before taking off again on Wednesday for Independence. Is that where the hangover sets in?

This year poor Emancipation was left behind as Jamaicans switched their attention to the Grand Gala and athletics while Emancipation festivities receded into the distant past. Many thought that they were celebrating Independence during the Emancipation hangover.

We shouldn’t drop any of these holidays for the tired argument of too many holidays. That’s not the case, obviously. We have 10 holidays. Nepal tops the list with an impressive 39, Myanmar 32, and Iran with 26.

And no value to the argument that we already have double holidays on our calendar. Christmas and Boxing Day are back-to-back, while Good Friday and Easter Monday already roll neatly into one weekend package.

I think where the PSOJ and its supporters fell short is their failure to answer the question on what to do with the August 1 and August 6 dates which must stand on their own.

Both August 1 and August 6 must still be held sacrosanct and commemorated with significant ceremonies, flag-raising, church services, parliamentary sessions to ensure that the days be taken seriously and not used for idle beach and Caymanas and beer-drinking sessions, disguised as public holidays to enjoy what most people don’t know why.

The entire six days still remain for us to soberly observe their national importance with solemn, thankful, and respectful tributes and observations.

I am an August 1 and August born generation child with ‘ole’ time picnics, outings, sports days, family gatherings in my genes.

And even when Emancipation Day for a while was subsumed by the August 6 Independence celebrations 1962 to 1998, Jamaicans still continued to honour and observe August 1 in communities all over the country.

IMPORTANT DATE

For Jamaicans, the day is a very important date in our history as a people as it represents the time when our forebears were freed from the shackles of chattel slavery.

So on a day set apart from the jump up carnivals now associated with the holiday, let us each year spare a sobering thought for what took place in Jamaica on the night of July 31, 1834.

On that night, thousands of enslaved Africans flocked to places of worship all over Jamaica to give thanks for the abolition of slavery.

The journey to the West Indies was horrible. The ships were overcrowded and unsanitary, resulting in the breakout of various diseases. Many of them died. Others thought least likely to recover were chained, ankle by ankle, and thrown overboard, weighed down with cannon balls … alive.

Those who endured were then forced unto the plantations to begin their sentences of slavery, with multiple whippings, torture, and sexual abuse. Many were killed for daring to seek freedom. The enslaved African was now a mere chattel.

So here comes freedom in 1834 from all these unspeakable horrors. This was genuine, heartfelt, deeply emotional joy and thanksgiving celebrations: that overwhelming feeling of thanksgiving to the Almighty God who had intervened in the machinations of man and had finally “set the captives free”.

The Emancipation Day holiday as celebrated today can never fully pay tribute to or recall the passions and the immensity of the feelings that must have overwhelmed the Africans who that night were to hear the “proclamation of liberty to the captives”, and experience for themselves “the opening of the prison doors to them that were bound”.

We must not allow the sacrifices of our ancestors to be consumed by the wet and wild parties linked with holiday extravaganzas. Let’s have our weekend fun, and at the same time preserve August 1 and August 6 for sober reflection and tribute in honour of the unique and historical significance of those days. Lest we forget.

Lance Neita is a public relations professional, author and historian. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and lanceneita@hotmail.com