No closure to slavery

By Peter Espeut

The justification one hears put forward for the lotto scam is that it is a form of reparation for slavery and other social sins being exacted by Jamaicans. This, of course, cannot be justified on any grounds, for the liability associated with the enslavement of Jamaicans cannot be placed at the feet of gullible elderly Americans, even if they are white.

But what occurs immediately to a sociologist hearing this argument is that the very fact that this justification would be put forward at all is an indicator that Jamaicans have not yet come to closure with the fact of slavery and its modern consequences. Clearly, under the surface, fires of discontent are burning.

Jamaica is one of the most unequal societies in the world - by any indicator: income distribution (Gini coefficient), educational attainment, land distribution, power and status, access to justice, treatment by agents of the State, just to name some of the more obvious ones.

Few dispute that these factors have their origin in the system of chattel slavery, where the life chances of masters and slaves were radically different. This system was legally and formally brought to an end 18 decades ago, all well and good. But it is one thing to legally end the injustice of slavery, and quite another to create a just society, to achieve restorative justice, sometimes called reparative justice.

Slavery was, after all, an offence against the enslaved persons. Sons of Africa were torn from their homeland in chains, and brought forcibly to a foreign land and had a foreign language and culture forced upon them. Legal freedom surely was only the beginning of establishing justice; some form of compensation was payable, not just in cash terms but also in terms of educational and occupational opportunities. The former slaves should have been elevated to a social status equal to their former masters, who had so shamefully subjugated their fellow human beings.

But what actually happened after Emancipation was itself quite shameful: the former slavemasters were compensated (to the tune of millions of pounds sterling) for the loss of their property, while the real victims of slavery got nothing! In fact, if they refused to work for their former masters for a pittance, they were turned out of their homes, and driven away from the place where their navel strings were buried, and alienated from the graves of their parents and grandparents.

Slavery was a crime against humanity for which no one was punished - except the victims themselves. The slaveowners held on to their property, and with their compensation money were able to, largely, retain their high socio-economic status over the decades, whether in Jamaica, the British Isles or elsewhere.

Today, the descendants of slaves live in deep rural poverty and in the ghettos of Kingston, Spanish Town, May Pen and Montego Bay where garrisons and gangs flourish (and from where the lotto scam is mostly perpetrated).

PRODUCTS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT

Without a doubt, a profound sense of injustice pervades this land, most of the time bubbling underground, but from time to time erupting in dysfunctional and countercultural behaviour. Jamaica is almost defined by cultural forms which represent a rejection of the normative European-derived culture: Rastafarianism, reggae, dancehall, Patwa, ghetto fashion, a noisy disturb-my-neighbour approach, sexual aggressiveness, and, yes, crime, violence, and racial and class tension.

So when Vybz Kartel and Gaza Slim sing "big up de scamma" because "me call it reparation", there is fire under the smoke, but we have to look carefully. When scamming foreign white people is not frowned upon, when robbing the rich to give to the poor is considered justice, when getting contracts and waivers through political contacts is considered business as usual, and when breaking bank and traffic lines are considered acceptable ways of getting ahead, indeed, as a people we suffer from "moral degenerative syndrome," as Dr Anna Kasafi Perkins calls it.

But moral degeneration did not begin with the lotto scammers. And sexual profligacy did not come from Africa. The Jamaican Establishment did not handle Emancipation well (it accepted it grudgingly as an imposition from Whitehall), and even today pays the descendants of former slaves scant respect. Our pork-barrel politics, substandard education system and the behavior of our security forces are ample evidence of this.

Jamaica will never be the place of choice to raise a family and conduct business as long as social injustice is woven into the fabric of Jamaican society. Maybe one day the Americans will come here and put an end to the lotto scam; but no one from outside can build a just society for us.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.