Security officials in Jamaica are celebrating an almost 20 per cent reduction in the number of murders committed in 2024 compared to 2023. This glorification of statistical reduction in murders is frightening. It signals acceptance of the disregard for the sanctity of human life. It fails to address the ripple effects of the death of a loved one over criss-crossing social networks, across time and space.
The number of persons who died violently last year was 1,139. That is a whole heap of people. While it is laudable that interventions by security forces and social activists have resulted in the murder reduction, it remains disturbing that this achievement is counterbalanced by the enduring threat to citizen security. One thousand murders annually is the United Nation’s benchmark for a country at war. For decades, Jamaica has been engaged in what Rob Nixon calls “slow violence”. It is the kind of tragedy that happens silently, out of sight, skilfully masked by statistics.
What if the people who the statistics represent were from what is called “uptown” or the socio-economically privileged sector of the society? Would the minister of national security and the commissioner of police be as blasé about the death toll resulting from murders? How are the significant others who are devastated by the premature loss of loved ones coping with their grief? After the funeral and repast are over, then the process of picking up the psychosocial pieces begins for those left behind to mourn.
It is traumatic enough to think about public incarnations of violence like murders and robberies. However, slow-violence experiences are hidden from view and systematically eats away at the social fabric. Soon you begin to think that it is normal. Like the entitlement of position that enables some people who work in the health sector to treat people living with HIV (PLWHIV) with scorn. This violence may entail unauthorised disclosure of the positive diagnosis, refusing to serve the patient, exaggerating the practice of social distancing, using harsh tones when speaking, among a host of other inappropriate reactions.
A human rights approach to violence must also take into consideration that there is a political economy of justice, which creates one system for dealing with the rich and another system that is used for the poor. That split in the administration of justice is an act of violence in and of itself.
When the Berlin Wall was smashed in 1989, a group of us were having drinks and intellectual discourse in the Butterfly Bar. I was then studying at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. You can just imagine the multiple directions in which the contending arguments were flying. Gebru Mersha, a comrade from Ethiopia, said memorably, “After today, we will no longer write Marxism with a capital M.”
Various voices rose to contemplate what the failure of the Soviet Union might mean for global geopolitics, academic arguments, political thought, economic relations, gender identities, race relations, in a word, our existence. The war in Ukraine and the contentions regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is the sign of the chickens coming home to roost. Only extreme violence on Russia’s part could send the signal that the collective West is losing the battle for control of the borders of the Black Sea.
Since 1989, the turn to the political right and far right has become a norm, signalling the reinstatement of imperialism, capitalism, colonial-style political savagery, and out-of-the-closet narratives that signal the unabashed glorification of white supremacy. The map of Europe today shows this trend of right-wing extremism. The state of Israel, in an iron-clad relationship with the United States of America (USA), epitomises the convergence of racist, right-wing extremism and apartheid administration of colonialism. This violent ideological architecture enables the unabashed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in plain sight.
Incidentally, in Germany, the Israeli flag flies beside the European Union and German flags. This places all represented at the scene of the live-streamed crime of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. It is small comfort for Palestinians that after enduring Arab enslavement for a thousand years, Africa still faced the European genocide of African enslavement (the Maafa), which went on for four hundred years. The enduring legacy of this systemic violence has lasted until today. So their 75 years of undiluted terror under Zionist apartheid occupation may have a ways to go.
It is extraordinary that offering a critique of this conundrum is likely to upset those who want to maintain this dehumanizing status quo. Countries like Germany and the US that arm Israel to commit genocide also have legal mechanisms in place to sanction critics. The sanctions applied to students and academic staff of leading universities in the US who joined protests against the ongoing war against Gaza in 2024 haunts those who still have that rare resource called conscience.
Incredibly, the US’ Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, recently recognised the ongoing war in Sudan as a genocide while denying that the atrocities against the Palestinians constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Gaza has been described as the world’s largest open-air prison. It is run by the Israelis under an apartheid arrangement that is even more deadly than the horror story that was South Africa when it was ruled by the racist regime. Hamas’ violent response to Israel may be likened to the resistance struggles of people like Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle, who opposed enslavement in Jamaica. The violence used by freedom fighters to liberate themselves is justified as a legitimate response to oppression and exploitation.
I wonder if Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister of Canada may provide President-elect Trump with leverage to annex the beleaguered country as an extension of the US. Colonial violence writ large. Trudeau’s endorsement of mega corporations while the average Canadian was impoverished was regarded as a betrayal of the cause of social justice and constituting corruption. Classic forms of public violence.
Perhaps our prime minister will be inspired and throw in the towel to settle his grievances with the Integrity Commission. Of course, that may just be wishful thinking. How do you untangle investments in violence that serve the interests of a few while inflicting harm on the many?
Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com [2] and columns@gleanerjm.com [3]