Paul Bogle and violence

September's dramatic reduction in the murder rate by some 40 per cent should put to rest the prediction that honouring Paul Bogle in 1965 would lead to increase in violence.

In 1965, Earl Thames, United Church pastor and Rhodes scho-lar, while commending the effort at developing a national image and spirit, said that the emphasis on the Morant Bay rebellion has elevated violence to a new status in our history. He colourfully stated: "We have elevated Bogle above Gordon, Malcolm X above Martin Luther King." (The Cross and Machete, 34). For Thames, the Morant Bay rebellion was a deliberate violent act, executed by Bogle, the commemoration of which has had, and will have, disastrous consequences. And it would appear that Thames was correct, because from 1965 to 1999 the murder rate grew rapidly each decade (Rebellion to Riot, 84).

However, this September 2010 figures, along with those since June, have shown conclusively that the murder rate can decline, and that there is no casual relationship between Paul Bogle and violence.

The murder rate and violence in society have more to do with well-organised and well-funded gangs that have easy access to guns and ganja for illicit purposes. And as Owen Ellington, commissioner of police, said in a recent interview with Cliff Hughes on TVJ's 'Impact' programme, the focus on dismantling gangs is paying rich dividends.

Violence

We should not blame Bogle for our present-day violence. And neither should we pretend when we become violent that we are following in the footsteps of Bogle.The Cross and the Machete has meticulously shown that Bogle was not a violent man. That book counters Gad Heu-man's classic work, Killing Time, which argues that Bogle had murderous intentions and that they were executed.However, The Cross and Machete argued from archival material that Bogle was motivated by his Native Baptist Church which had a different interpretation of the Bible and understanding of God when compared to the English missionaries. There is other evidence that Bogle was a man of peace, including walking 40 miles to seek audience with the governor and engaging in a peace march the week before the ill-fated one. Furthermore, the one in which Bogle and his followers engaged in self-defence was originally a march in which there was singing, dancing, music and merrymaking, hardly features of a man on a murderous mission.

Edna Manley's sculpture of Paul Bogle normally situated in front of the Morant Bay courthouse "evokes the crucifixion". The horizontal stretch of the bent arms reminds one of Jesus on the Cross, and Manley blending the cutlass with the cross showed she, a daughter of a missionary, understood that for Bogle and his followers, religion and politics were interrelated and the use of the machete was not necessarily inconsistent with the claims of Christianity.

Christian martyr

In addition, Jesus, according to the Christian faith, died on behalf of others, and Manley in evoking that memory, is placing Bogle as a martyr for the Christian faith.Perceiving Bogle as a Christian martyr in 1965 when many Jamaicans did not see him as a Christian much less a Christian hero, meant that Edna Manley was way ahead of her time.Manley was saying that Bogle sacrificed his life for his suffering people.

Former councillor in St Thomas, Constantine Bogle, a descendant of Paul Bogle, said that Edna Manley's statue of Bogle has the potential to be the equivalent to United States' Statue of Liberty.It is a powerfully symbolic statue.

Let Bogle inspire us to engage in peaceful protest against injustice and only defend ourselves when under attack, believing that Daniel's God will deliver.

Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'The Cross and the Machete: Native Baptists of Jamaica - Identity,Ministry and Legacy'. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.