Contributed
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| Michael Spence |
What Are We Really Celebrating? Jamaica is ranked the second poorest and among the most violent countries in the Caribbean.
Today, an estimated 1 million or more Jamaicans live as squatters, without legally secure land or housing. On August 1, 1838, there were 450,000 emancipated Africans in Jamaica.
188 years later, we have to ask: what exactly are we preparing to celebrate in August? Ninety-eight per cent of the population are descendants of enslaved Africans. Yet, we collectively own no more than 5% of the Jamaican economy. Land, capital, and real economic power remain concentrated elsewhere.
Is this the “Independence” we mark each August? Real emancipation and real independence will only begin when we confront this. It starts with reparations. It starts with abolishing squatting. Every human being has a right to a livable space, to land, and to economic participation.
Let that happen, and then we can speak of freedom, emancipation, and independence.
Since the 1494 Spanish arrival, our history has been marked by milestones that promised liberation but delivered little for Afro-descendants:
- 1655: The British arrival
- 1838: Emancipation
- 1962: Political Independence
From 1838 to today, those promises have largely eluded the descendants of slaves, so what are we celebrating in August 2026?
Song and dance without socio-economic and political independence is not freedom. It is participatory scamming of a people.
Freedom is participatory. Without ownership, without land, without equity, it isn’t freedom at all.
Michael Spence
Michael Spence is a graduate of Cornwall College and the University of the West Indies. He is a trained teacher, a sociologist, and a writer for Bark Di Trute.
Micspen2@hotmail.com
Rhatid this is an.eyeopener never thought of this scam so deeply.
ReplyDeleteWhat a calamity pn.Afro descendants of slaves.
Thanks for this conscious thought we are still in slavery.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this eyeopener Spencey.
ReplyDeleteGwaan Bark di Trute.
ReplyDeleteDon't be selfish. Share the post with others.
ReplyDeleteIndeed! Freedom in the mind. Whrn we Afrikan people begin to love self, honor our Afrikan Ancestors and repudiate the markings and imposed belief systems our enslavers. And this begins with transvestite ehite jesus and everything we have been forced to accept about he who never existedñ. If you cannot see that ask yourself what is the link between our so-called leaders' desperation to promote the religion of white or Arab supremacy among the poor and disenfranchised? Is it because they want an easyntool to manage and manipulate us or because they truly want us to be free? And be aware many of them are highly educationally trained. They know bettee than to think there is or was a flying transvestite white zombie Aryan walking around the Middle East, etc. Our freedom begins when we own our minds!
ReplyDeleteI can't see why us Black people can't do now what our slave owners should have done years ago. Every adult Jamaican, should have ownership of a piece of property. This is one way of ensuring that the foolishness happening in our real estate market doesn't continue.
ReplyDelete