When I migrated from Jamaica in 1979 to America, the word diaspora was not in my vocabulary. With the recognition and the introduction of ‘diaspora’ that was meant to forge a deeper relationship between Jamaicans at home and abroad, I have watched the treatment of Jamaicans overseas go from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Sadly, we have no one to blame but ourselves – home and abroad. We in the diaspora have failed to coalesce on our own and form our own diaspora organisation to advocate for Jamaicans overseas and for Jamaica.
In 2004 after much consultation and planning, the former Prime Minister Percival James Patterson and the late Senator Delano Franklyn convened the first biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Kingston. Through the overseas missions, the government of Jamaica invited Jamaicans to attend a conference of epic proportions. The political affiliations – Jamaican or foreign – were not asked or known of the attendees. Persons were chosen based on their work for Jamaicans in their respective adopted homes, and for Jamaica. It was not without controversy, because people who were not invited were upset.
The conference was an intense couple of days at the end of which resolutions were voted upon and decisions taken, including the election of seven advisory board members to represent the interest of the various regions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I was elected to represent the Southern United States. The attendees felt true engagement – debate, voting, decisions.
Fast-forward to 2024 – a full 20 years later – and a complete reorganisation of the Diaspora Advisory Board has taken place, now renamed the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council. The council now has 30 members, with 16 appointed by the minister of foreign affairs and the remainder elected within the diaspora.
In the 2023 diaspora elections, the results published showed that the representative for the Northeast United States received 91 votes, the Southeast United States received 737 votes, and the Mid West representative received 157 votes. While no one knows the number of Jamaicans living in America – it is estimated to be close to one million, after 20 years 91 votes from the Tri-State and other states in the Northeast, which begs the question of whether the council represents the diaspora. This and the reconstitution of the Diaspora Advisory Board has been a bone of contention between persons in the diaspora and the ministry.
As the 10th biennial conference looms, there is much activity about the diaspora. This is not new – it is a pattern across governments.
What is new, however, is a group that has emerged at the end of 2023 that is clearly at loggerheads with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jamaican government in general. While persons on social media label this a People’s National Party-led uprising, the person who signs the letters publicly said that he is a Jamaica Labour Party supporter and that the group is non-partisan.
The group has taken two points that are of concern to Jamaicans at home and abroad, crime and corruption, and made it their lynchpin. They have circulated letters written to Jamaica’s US ambassador and threatened public action if they were not met with to discuss their demands. This group uses the government’s diaspora logo and, as reported in the media, allegedly registered the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council name in the United States. The group has also scheduled their first biennial Diaspora Conference to be held virtually on the same dates as the government’s 10th biennial conference in Jamaica in June, 2024.
Full disclosure, I have stopped attending the Diaspora Conferences, because they have been a series of presenters who take up almost the entire time allotted for a segment, leaving no room for engagement – government ministers begging and others from the diaspora bragging about what they have done.
Every person has a legitimate right to, as is said in America, “petition their government for a redress of their grievances”. However, valid concerns about crime and corruption in Jamaica, coupled with heavy-handed tactics on the one hand and the ministry’s public spat with a concerned group of Jamaicans in the Diaspora on the other, do not help Jamaica or Jamaicans. Government has a responsibility to listen to all concerns about Jamaica, especially when you come to the diaspora and beseech people to “engage”. All Jamaican nationals at home and abroad are entitled to an audience with their government, no matter the position they hold.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is staffed with the country’s diplomats. Don’t tell me that nuhbady in that ministry nuh have the diplomatic ability to have met with the disgruntled group of Jamaicans before we got to this point? Don’t tell me that nuhbady in the Diaspora group said that having a parallel Diaspora conference was petty and would sow confusion?
Time the pettiness ends, and grown people with all sorts of letters after their names act with professionalism.
And, on that note, the current junior minister in foreign affairs with responsibility for the diaspora chose to use social media to cover the pictures of the prime minister who created his position, and the first female prime minister of Jamaica – while he was in the diaspora, and he still has a job?
This is the level to which pettiness has descended among all persons who should know better.
Dahlia Walker-Huntington is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States. Send feedback to info@walkerhuntington.com [2]