Dahlia Walker-Huntington | Jamaican diaspora and our high schools

“Purple! I have never seen you wear purple nail polish!” exclaimed my Vietnamese nail tech who has been doing my nails for about 10 years. I sighed as I now had to explain the obsession with purple of my Kingston College friends and that I was choosing purple in solidarity with their Big Purple Session this past Saturday in Florida.

Full disclaimer: I attended all girls’ high school Alpha Academy in the 1970s, and it is a stone’s throw away from North Street. We Alpha Girls were always caught in the rivalry between the two North Street boys’ high schools – our brother school, St George’s College (blue and white), and the purple and white school, Kingston College. So back in the day, you were either a George’s girl or a KC girl – meaning your preference for boyfriends. Since I was not allowed to date in high school, my preference was only in my head, and admittedly, it was for STGC.

Having lived in the United States for 40-plus years, I have developed deep, close friendships with several KC Old Boys, so much so that once, a man accused my husband of being a KCOB and denying it because ‘he’ “… knew that two KCOBs and yuh wife a close, close fren”. My husband went to Dinthill Technical High School in Linstead, far away from Kingston, and he had a hard time convincing this man otherwise.

BORDERING ON OBSESSIVE

I explained to my nail tech that Jamaicans are passionate, bordering on obsessive, about their high schools and the significance of the colour purple. That unlike Americans who identify with their colleges, it is high schools where Jamaicans form lifelong bonds and become families. Living in Florida for over 40 years, I have witnessed the burgeoning of the alumni associations that now number over 50 in the state. They are held together as a group by the Coalition of Jamaican Alumni Associations of Florida. In New York/North east United States, where there is also a large Jamaican presence, they have the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations, USA, with about 60 member schools. On any given weekend in Florida or New York, there is a successful alumni-sponsored fundraiser. When an alumni event takes place in Florida or New York, past students from all over the world journey to be with their classmates. Many schools now make an entire weekend out of the activities.

The alumni associations provide an outlet for gatherings that are safe spaces for persons in the diaspora to gather and reminisce about a Jamaica they long for and allow a tremendous amount of fundraising for the schools and Jamaica. I can safely say without seeing the books of these associations that millions of US dollars have been donated to schools in Jamaica over the past 20 years. From sponsoring students’ daily expenses, to books and uniforms, to vehicles, to buildings – you name it, and the diaspora alumni associations have given back to Jamaican schools.

Most of us recognise that we are who we are and that we can navigate all over the world because of the excellent foundations we received from attending high schools in Jamaica. Whether it is the rigour of a solid, thorough education, the manner in which we were taught to carry ourselves, or the respect for authority – we got it. Many are compelled to give back to the next generation of Jamaicans because as “old girls” and “old boys” we know first hand the value of a good education, at home and abroad.

Make no mistake, we also want to have a good time, and this results in alumni associations being among the most successful organisations in the diaspora.

EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED

This desire to see education be the vehicle for mobility in Jamaica makes us extremely disappointed when we see corruption and allegations of fraud and the breakdown in behaviour in our schools. We watch and read about children being beaten over shoes, fights over relationships with adult men, the lack of accountability for government funds, and we grieve. We fiercely celebrate academic and athletic successes of our current batch of students.

I enjoy attending alumni gatherings that are not my own high school because I can be an observer. I note at all, including this past weekend at the KC Big Purple Session, how the past students greet each other with hundred-watt smiles. At the Big Purple Session I saw doctors, lawyers, military, mechanics from uptown, downtown, and country mingling and greeting each other with this familiarity that comes from being in the trenches with each other. Whether they studied together for exams, had to endure the same exacting teacher, or used to eat a ‘drinks’ and a patty together, they shared a common bond once they entered the gates at North Street. The love for their institution and all of us for ours is unbreakable.

Kudos to all the alumni associations in the diaspora for continuing to keep your alma mater’s colours flying high, for the camaraderie shared with your brothers and sisters, and for your continued commitment to your homeland and the next generation of Jamaicans.

One KC old boy summed it up this weekend when after being introduced to him I asked if he ‘attended’ KC. He said that he graduated – he never left. We all want to be Forever Young as proclaimed by Wayne Wonder.

Dahlia Walker-Huntington is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States. Send feedback to info@walkerhuntington.com.