Letter of the Day | PSOJ’s proposal is ill-conceived
Published:Friday | October 11, 2024 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica’s (PSOJ) proposal to amalgamate Jamaica’s Emancipation Day and Independence Day into a consolidated national public holiday is both ill-conceived and offensive to those of us who are descendants of enslaved peoples. If accepted, such a proposal will diminish the significance of Emancipation Day. As a nation, our sense of identity continues to be eroded. Instead, we should be seeking how to add Sam Sharpe and Chief Tacky days as both freedom fighters were instrumental regarding our emancipation.
Unfortunately, our ‘Jamaicaness’ and ‘smaddyness’ are once again the sacrificial lambs for economic purposes and this is troubling given the linkages to the period of enslavement that lasted over 350 years rooted in the transatlantic slave trade. Many of us continue to suffer from post-traumatic slave syndrome and are unaware.
The PSOJ’s proposal is permissible in a culture where the teaching of history education is not compulsory. While the nation’s focus is correctly on the STEM subjects we ought not to discount the value of subjects such as social studies, civics, religious education and gender and development. The subjects are important is terms of addressing the myriad of social issues within the society. Sadly, many in the society are not aware of the struggles to full freedom which came at a high price. The price of freedom was rooted in the sweat, blood and scars of our enslaved ancestors. The society should resist any and all efforts to lessen such sacrifices.
Perhaps, this is where the masses realise the realities concerning the intersection of race and economic power and how such variables merge to keep the masses in their ‘place’ on the “plantation”. We have never really left the plantation. The exchange of labour for a salary for the masses (black) is still very much in favour of the owners of capital (white). All post-slavery societies still operate along a hierarchical plantation system. A system of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ and rooted in injustice with multiple manifestations.
The idea of ‘smadditisin’, or becoming recognised as somebody, was originally developed by Jamaican philosopher, Charles Mills, and published in the Caribbean Quarterly Journal in 1997. For Mills ‘smadditisin’ refers to the struggle to have one’s personhood recognised in a world where, primarily because of race, it is denied. Smadditisation is derived from the Jamaican vernacular word ‘smaddy’, (somebody). Professor Rex Nettleford was concerned about the state of the Jamaican culture in particular when he spoke about “the coarsening of our sensibilities” which bemoans the lack of sophistication within the culture. As a society we should be aiming to strengthen our institutions which connect the past to the future. We should be interrogating the horrors of enslavement and colonialism in our post-slavery society with the purpose of educating the younger generations of their history. Perhaps, the PSOJ should use their influence and leverage to lobby for the compulsory teaching of history education.
WAYNE CAMPBELL