Happy Independence Day, Jamaica. But Are We Truly Independent?

I must agree with Dr. Michael Abraham’s article published in the Gleaner a few days ago that we’re not really an independent nation. Yes, it is customary on August 6 for us to celebrate our freedom from British colonization. But freedom extends beyond the fact that we are no longer under British rule. While I’m happy that the slaves then fought effortlessly for our freedom, with the current state that our country is in, I’m convinced that Jamaica would be better off today if we were still a member of the British colony. Eventually, slavery would have been abolished. However, our ancestors rushed to secure independence and 52 years later we are left to live with the consequences of their actions.

Ever since I began taking History lessons in high school, each year when ‘Emanci-pendence’ approaches, I pause to reflect on Jamaica’s achievements since the day we became an independent nation.

While we’ve achieved quite a bit since 1962, I believe that based on the resources that Jamaica has, we should have been at a much better place by now. Slavery may be over and the shackles have been abandoned, but mentally we are still chained to some of the ideals that our then slave-masters hammered into our heads. As a matter of fact, it may have been easier for us to escape from the physical shackles that held us than to free ourselves from our mental bondage. Let’s take the following into consideration:

1. Britain has abandoned their buggery law; however, we have made ours a ‘hot off the press’ topic of discussion in the last election. I’m baffled at the extent to which we have gone with this issue.

2. The Europeans introduced the concept of religion and have now separated Church and State; however, we have failed miserably at doing so. While our captors have moved on, we are still living in a 19th-century time warp.

3. We are still struggling with embracing our ethnicity. The issue of skin tone has caused a debate in our country. In fact, many have distanced themselves from their African heritage. We continue to give preference to persons with a lighter complexion. In light of this, many have resorted to skin bleaching. Our police force allows its female members to sport Eurocentric hairstyles but has banned  the Afrocentric dreadlocks. Have you ever seen a dreadlocked police officer in Jamaica?

With regards to whether or not we are truly emancipated from mental slavery, every four years we see where the masses of political loyalists continue to support and re-elect leaders and parties that recurrently fail them; forgetting the multitude of lies, broken promises and scandals in the past. Politicians continuously lie to us by stating that “this government is for the poor” when, realistically, we  have yet to be delivered from our depressing socio-economic quandary and the only  people that are consistently put first are politicians and fervent supporters  affiliated with parties in power.

Successive administrations have repeatedly failed to motivate, inspire and lead by example. Instead, many have spent their time in office empowering their constituents with a sense of entitlement, where handouts are expected and utilities such as electricity are seen as an intrinsic right to be accessed for  free. We have allowed them to brainwash us into accepting unethical,  dishonest and illegal activity and have permitted them to instill into us an ‘a nuh nutten’ mentality.

So, as we celebrate 52 years of Independence this year the question still lingers on my mind, have we emancipated ourselves from mental slavery? Are we truly an independent nation? We need to awaken from our slumber and cast aside our mental shackles. It is time for us to take our  leaders to task, to stop accepting  mediocrity and slackness as the norm and to make a commitment to unselfishly  do all that we can to develop and elevate Jamaica land we love.

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