Basil Jarrett | Anancy and corruption

AN UNFORTUNATE side effect of the global village that we now live in, aside from that insidious creation called social media and the apparent speed with which pandemics get around nowadays, is the slow and steady erosion of our unique Jamaican culture. The recent kerfuffle over SOJA’s Grammy Award is just the latest example of another one of our unique cultural creations being adopted, some say misappropriated, by the rest of the world. Reggae music has not only become more accessible to foreigners, but is also undergoing its own metamorphosis, to the point where I don’t even know what qualifies as a reggae or dancehall beat any more. But it’s not just our music that we might be losing. We are also possibly losing, in many ways, what it means to be uniquely Jamaican. Take my children, for example. The only arachnid frame of reference that they have is Spider-Man. The Peter Parker variety, that is. I don’t know if I was more shocked or embarrassed that neither of them was able to recognise Anancy or repeat for me even one Anancy story. Either Anancy left the building the same day that Jonkanoo, jackass corn and blue drawers made their exits, or I’ve been derelict in my duties as a Jamaican to ensure that our culture survives this era of TikTok, Instagram and SOJA.

But this is not a children’s story. On the contrary, this is about Jamaican adults and their love affair with Anancy. No, not with stories of Anancy and Brer Rabbit and Brer Tacoomah and Brer Dog. This love affair is a lot less obvious, but a lot more dangerous. You see, Anancy is more than just the scheming spider who was always tricking the aforementioned Brer Rabbit, Brer Tacoomah and Brer Dog into getting what he wants. The fable of Anancy is rooted in stories of resistance and rebellion on the Jamaican plantations during the days of slavery when Anancy, the character, not the insect, was brought to Jamaica, along with slaves from West Africa, via the transatlantic slave trade.

Anancy stories became a part of oral tradition on the plantation, as the little trickster developed a reputation for outsmarting and outwitting his more powerful opponents through his cunning, creativity and quick thinking. Anancy became a symbol in Jamaican folklore of the struggles of the Jamaican people against racism, slavery and ‘backra’. Following slavery, Anancy stories were told during the nights in the free villages as the former slaves began the arduous task of building a new life as free people. While Anancy wasn’t uniquely Jamaican, it is believed that Anancy thrived here mostly because Jamaica had the largest concentration of Ashanti slaves in the Caribbean.

So Anancy is quick-witted, cunning and intelligent, beating the odds and tricking the bigger, more powerful oppressors into getting what he wants. Over the years, Anancy came to personify these qualities of the survivalist and became a folk hero, loved and admired by Jamaicans.

ANANCY THE HERO

But before we rush to squeeze Anancy’s head on one of the new banknotes coming out shortly, consider for a moment that it is this love affair with Anancy that must share some of the blame for our current love affair with corruption. You see, Anancy’s reputation as a trickster and con man may point to a direct link to how we as Jamaicans tackle the problems of life that we face. So just as Anancy had to outsmart the larger animals in the forest, such as lion, snake, monkey and Tacoomah, we, too, now have to outsmart the police, the taxman, and the poor, unsuspecting pensioner in Greenbow, Alabama. With devastating consequences. Constructs like rule of law, good governance, taxes, accountability, transparency and principle are now seen as mere irritants and, like the plantation owner, must be circumvented and beaten.

And yes, I know, this is so typical of Jamaicans. To blame their problems on anyone but themselves, even a poor, fictitious, pot-bellied arachnid. But bear with me for a minute. Consider, for example, how we treat and view white-collared criminals as opposed to those of the pilfering, pickpocket variety. Ask yourself which you’d rather be caught doing … embezzling or defrauding millions of dollars from government coffers, or with your hand in someone’s pocket on a downtown minibus, relieving him of a measly $50 bill. With regard to the former, you probably couldn’t even imagine what that punishment would look like since, well, no one knows what white-collar jail looks like. But in the case of the latter, I’d bet you that same $50, that your imagination didn’t get you past the moment you realised you couldn’t outsprint all 80 passengers baying for your head. And that’s the problem with Anancy. There’s an almost-sympathetic, somewhat apologetic, a-bit-upset-but-not-terribly-so attitude to the trickster who gets caught with his hand in the till. Just look at how we treat our two-legged Anancies from the Second City. We’re somewhat OK looking the other way while we take their champagne and Airbnb rental money, but may have a hard time accepting blood-soaked cash from those who make a living in a similarly criminal but slightly more offensive manner.

Again, I’m not blaming our high corruption index or the thriving lotto scam on Anancy. But as we seek to come up with solutions to some of our major societal problems, it may be instructive to look at how we have, over the years, become mentally inured to the gamesmanship employed by the corrupt and the conartists among us.

Perhaps, however, there is hope. If, for example, we are to accept that Anancy is to be blamed for so much of our corruption ills, then the fact that our kids are being raised with no idea of who he is, or what on earth is a Tookamah, means a reduction in our high corruption index may be coming soon. Don’t be so quick to break out the champagne yet, though. I don’t know what’s the bigger existential threat. Anancy the spider? Or these infernal TikTok videos.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and chief executive officer of Artemis Consulting, a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.