THE word Diaspora gained prominence from its usage with regard to the
scattered Jews. The term relates to the people who identify with the
nation of their forebears, and still attach themselves through culture
in a way that affects their world view, and subsequently, their
identity.
The Jewish Diaspora was impactful enough to represent an offence to
Hitler, his Nazis, and countless others who begrudged their wealth,
talent and success. The events of the Holocaust is the by which all
genocide is referenced. This nation has more influence and impact on the
world than its size would suggest.
And so does Jamaica.
The truth of Jamaica is that our greatness, our influence and, indeed,
our destiny is to, as our pledge states, play our part in advancing the
welfare of the whole human race. We will have practised our greatness to
phenomenal levels in many areas: the Arts, sports, academia, religion,
entrepreneurship, and all the professions in-between.
Now that we are 51 we must confirm, build on and protect this legacy. We
must plan not only for the next three or four years as we are wont to
do. We must build for the next 15, 50 and 100 years. I am sure that the
practice of working hard for a promised land that may never be entered
by the present nation is a mindset embraced by the Jews and other
civilisations whose legacies seem to have been secured.
So, alongside the necessary rituals which mark Emancipation and
Independence, we must reframe our thinking of ourselves as a nation to
include more of whom we call, Professor Nettleford style, the Jamaican
Diaspora. With about 3 million Jamaicans within the Diasporas of the
USA, The UK, Canada (including Maroon descendants at Nova Scotia),
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Colombia, and all the continents
and nations of the earth, it is time that the virtual, borderless nation
of Jamaica begins to think of itself in larger terms.
There is nothing worse than a great person or nation “smalling up
itself” to be accepted by those who he nor she sees as peers, or worse,
as superiors. It is neither profitable nor sensible to be less than you
are to meet the low expectations of those whose opinions we esteem over
our own. I think we have done too much of that over the last 50 years.
This is why I am excited that the Earl Jarrett-led Jamaica National
Building Society — through an initiative led by Paulette Simpson, senior
manager, corporate affairs and public policy in the UK, and Dr O'Neal
Mundle, lecturer at the UWI School of Education — have put on for the
third year a Caribbean Cultural Awareness Camp for the children of the
Jamaica Diaspora in the UK. The project engages a team of eight Jamaican
facilitators, who, through the performing arts, administer an
arts-based curriculum with the aim of leading the children, ages eight
to 18, into a deeper sense of identity through the engagement of their
heritage. Her Excellency Aloun N'dombet Assamba, Jamaican high
commissioner to the UK and Jamaica Diaspora UK, led by Celia Grandison
Markey are supportive partners without whom this project could not
survive.
The amazing thing is that, at the end of this two-week intensive, the
campers mount a full-length production in which they teach what they
were taught to large audiences in London, Reading, Wales, and
Birmingham. Their parents and grandparents who were born in Britain are,
through this production, taught their own heritage by their own
children. In this 65th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush
which carried the first migrants to the UK, they have found clues for
this great diasporic civilisation of six million that Jamaica has
become.
Six million. Hmmmm.
Growing pains mean that we may have to go the road alone. Interpret that
however you wish, but none of the world’s powerfully successful nations
are without a period in their narratives when they walked the road
alone. We must decide where this independence is going.
One thing’s for sure. It is good to be here. But we cannot stay here.
So in this year of celebration of our 175th anniversary of full freedom,
may we remember and honour our ancestors, not just through monuments of
words, but rather through deeds great and far-reaching. Let us create a
new trajectory.
Up you mighty race. Accomplish.
hugh.douse@gmail.com
August 06, 2012
Jamaica Observer
