Lance Neita | Is George Headley already forgotten?

The prime minister touched on highly strung nerves when he said last month that two of our beloved icons Louise Bennett and Bob Marley were being considered for a new order, that of National Icon.

Not so, cry out the would-be image makers. We already have eight levels of national honours, with the order of National Hero at the top. Why create another tier when the National Heroes Award can include the cultural quotient benchmarked in this proposed National Icon Award.

As it now stands the Order lacks a clear definition of the criteria for selecting National Heroes beyond “service of a most distinguished nature”.

Our present seven National Heroes earned recognition based on their personal sacrifices, in some cases their lives, to free Jamaica from the shackles of slavery and to lead their country out of colonial dependence into independence.

Theirs was the epitome of “distinguished service” that helped to build a nation, define our national psyche, helped to shape Jamaica’s international image, and foster national pride.

But there is no reason why we should not extend the Order beyond that kind of active nation building fulfilment to embrace iconic contributions in art and culture, engineering, academia, agriculture, education, and health, and industry, and sports.

DIVERSIFICATION

As an example for diversification, the international and prestigious Nobel Prize Foundation awards six coveted prizes annually to persons whose works are considered to have been of the greatest benefit to humankind during the preceding year.

The prizes all bearing the same level of distinction are granted in separate fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, and economic sciences.

The current debate provides the opportunity to similarly expand our National Hero horizons to include the cultural contributions so ably bequeathed to us by Bob Marley and Louise Bennett.

Bob as the man has done more for Jamaica than any other human being in terms of reggae and tourism. More than any other person or National Hero he has made Jamaica a household name worldwide. One Love was named song of the millennium by the BBC.

These are strong arguments in favour of a National Hero Award, although Bob would ever have regarded himself as a National Hero. He was too confident in himself and his mysticism to believe that he needed or deserved the official accolade of heroism when he already had the peoples’ award for same in his lifetime.

And in a separate category, we continue to miss the boat by not utilising our sports achievements, models, stories and legends for nation building. Think of what it would do for Jamaica, and for cricket, if we were to make George Headley, arguably the best cricketer ever produced by the West Indies, a National Hero.

TREASURED NATIONAL ICON

Now the fact is that in his time Headley was already a treasured national icon, the people’s hero, and was accorded the classical treatment of songs, poetry and prose that garlands the names of those who have been created icons by their own people.

Headley was a living legend who was loved not just for his brilliance on the field, but because by his dignity, quiet demeanour, sportsmanship, discipline and application. The masses saw him as representing their struggles to gain a foothold in society based on performance and commitment to excellence rather than privilege or colour.

Crowds flocked to get a glimpse of him wherever the West Indies team docked while playing a series, be it Bridgetown, Port-of-Spain, Georgetown, or Kingston’s No. 3 pier. The masses saw him as representing the hopes and aspirations of thousands of his countrymen whose dreams of independence and nationhood in the 1930s and 1940s were slowly being defined by his exploits and incredible achievements.

As a mere boy of 19, he astonished the cricket Establishment when he made his first double century (211) in his first international series against Lord Tennyson’s XI at Melbourne Park in 1928.

He went on to make 176 in his first Test against England in 1929 in Barbados, followed by two centuries of 114 and 112 in the third at Bourda, Guyana.

He continued to make century after century against the best of Australia and England, recording an average of 60.83, with his Test career unfortunately interrupted by World War II.

But it isn’t just for his cricket that we should honour him. In achieving his phenomenal records, he opened the eyes of West Indians to opportunities and achievements hitherto only dreamed of, and at levels thought to be reserved for the wealthier class.

In an earlier article I wrote: “how the emergence of the West Indies as a Test-playing region in the late 1920s and 1930s coincided with the political and cultural movement that marked the early stirrings for independence across the British Caribbean.

“For example, Headley’s centuries in his first international series in 1928 resonated well with Marcus Garvey’s call for dominion status (political independence) for Jamaica in 1929. The political movement on the one hand, and the advancement of cricket on the other, continued to grow in the 1930s with the New York based Jamaica Progressive League spearheaded by W.G. McFarlane, Wilfred Domingo, Adolphe Roberts, Norman Manley and Richard Hart proposing national self-government for Jamaica in 1937, and Alexander Bustamante giving a powerful voice to the labour movement in 1938.

“Then came that epochal moment in cricket history that capped that eventful decade with Headley’s immortal 106 and 107 at Lord’s in that famous Test in 1939.”

Headley being designated a hero may just provide a reference for those who wish to discover what makes great sportsmen tick, that it’s not just dexterity with bat and ball, but developing a character that can handle crowd adoration with maturity, rise to the occasion, love the game, and defend the hopes and ambitions of our individual nations.

The Jamaica Cricket Association would do well to actively support his elevation to the Order of National Hero. It would be a mighty shot in the arm for reviving interest and support for cricket. It would also provide an enduring example to our nation as a reference model for sustained application, discipline, and the ability of the human will to triumph over challenges.

Which is what the Order at this most supreme level is meant to instruct and to motivate.

“Let all men charge and raise their glasses high

Each drink to him whose name shall never die

Yes, Headley shall henceforth be our cricket cry.”

– Lipton Swapp, Daily Gleaner, March 3, 1930.

Lance Neita is a public relations professional and author. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and lanceneita@hotmail.com