tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/jamaica-7637/articlesJamaica – The Conversation2024-02-05T19:39:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2202132024-02-05T19:39:15Z2024-02-05T19:39:15ZFrom rebel to retail − inside Bob Marley’s posthumous musical and merchandising empire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571230/original/file-20240124-17-ohjhpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=456%2C130%2C4794%2C3343&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Marley performs at a 'Viva Zimbabwe' independence celebration in April 1980.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jamaican-reggae-musician-bob-marley-plays-guitar-as-he-news-photo/1369621696?adppopup=true">William F. Campbell/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The long-awaited <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajw425Kuvtw">Bob Marley biopic “One Love”</a> will highlight important moments in the musician’s life – his adolescence in Trench Town, his spiritual growth, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-night-bob-marley-got-shot-203370/">the attempt on his life</a>. <a href="https://w1.mtsu.edu/media/scholar/profile/18">But as a music industry scholar</a>, I wonder if the film is yet another extension of the Marley marketing machine.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/24/bob-marley-funeral-richard-williams">Marley died in 1981</a> at the age of 36. He’d achieved a level of mainstream success unrivaled by other reggae acts, and he did so while challenging global capitalism and speaking to the oppressed.</p>
<p>This image, however, is fundamentally at odds with what has happened to Marley’s name and likeness since his death. </p>
<p>Now you can buy <a href="https://shop.bobmarley.com/collections/bags/products/cannabis-print-backpack">Bob Marley backpacks</a>, <a href="https://shop.bobmarley.com/collections/accessories/products/bob-marley-collage-jigsaw-puzzle">Bob Marley jigsaw puzzles</a> – even <a href="https://shop.bobmarley.com/collections/misc/products/song-pattern-flip-flops">Bob Marley flip-flops</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ajw425Kuvtw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for ‘One Love.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The accusation of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/sellout-how-political-corruption-shaped-an-american-insult-220520">selling out</a>” could once seriously threaten an artist’s credibility; the insult <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jul/26/why-is-selling-out-ok-now">wields far less power</a> in an era when an artist’s survival <a href="https://www.gemtracks.com/guides/view.php?title=what-is-a-music-endorsement-deal&id=1011">often depends on sponsorship and licensing deals</a>. Meanwhile, a deceased artist’s ongoing earnings are left in the hands of others.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, when a musician as revered as Marley – and whose songs were suffused with messages of liberation, anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism – becomes so commercialized, it’s worth wondering how this happened and whether it threatens his artistic legacy.</p>
<h2>On and off the record</h2>
<p>In its 2023 list of highest-paid dead celebrities, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/10/30/highest-paid-dead-celebrities-2023-michael-jackson-elvis-presley-whitney-houston/?sh=2f411dd1504b">Forbes placed Marley in the ninth slot</a>, right behind former Beatles front man John Lennon. According to the publication, Marley earned US$16 million – or rather, his estate did. </p>
<p>Marley’s business affairs are now <a href="https://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/us-showbiz/inside-bob-marleys-fortune-huge-29112952">controlled by family members</a> – the estate – who have made deals with various merchandising and marketing partners, with all parties sharing in the profits. The commercial power of Bob Marley’s name generates the royalties earned by the estate, though precise percentages are not publicly available.</p>
<p>One posthumous musical release, in particular, has been a gold mine: Marley’s “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4qsXcmAgPNSliu6oMQGOQ9">Legend</a>” compilation album. </p>
<p>Released in 1984 and featuring mainstays like “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRkfqH1r714">Could You Be Loved</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7SYBk-nRiQ">Three Little Birds</a>,” it’s the most successful reggae album of all time. It has sold over 15 million copies in the U.S and has spent more than 800 nonconsecutive weeks on the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/">Billboard 200</a>. Collectively, its tracks have accounted for well over <a href="https://worldmusicviews.com/bob-marley-the-wailers-lead-spotifys-most-streamed-reggae-artist-for-2023-three-years-in-a-row/">4 billion Spotify streams</a>, and its phenomenal success is a key reason that the private music publishing company Primary Wave, which is backed by investors such as BlackRock, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/primary-wave-acquires-share-bob-marley-publishing-catalog-blackrock-blue-mountain-music-8094231/">spent over $50 million</a> to buy a share of Marley’s publishing catalog in 2018. </p>
<p>A series of other albums have been released after Marley’s death. These include “Natural Mystic” (1995); the pop and hip-hop crossover “Chant Down Babylon” (1999); “Africa Unite” (2005); “Uprising Live!” (2014), which features his final concert appearance; the polarizing electronic mashup “Legend Remixed” (2013); “Easy Skanking in Boston ’78” (2015); and the curious “Bob Marley & the Chineke! Orchestra” (2022). </p>
<p>The “Legend” album has earned more than these later releases combined. But the material absent from that record speaks volumes.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/arts/music/chris-blackwell-the-islander.html">his 2022 autobiography</a>, Chris Blackwell, the former head of Island Records, the label that brought Marley’s music to mainstream listeners, revealed that “Legend” had been carefully tailored for white mainstream audiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A red, yellow and green record featuring the face of a contemplative man with dreadlocks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571216/original/file-20240124-27-7nwrye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Legend’ is the most successful reggae album of all time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/still-life-of-a-of-a-limited-edition-record-of-bob-marley-news-photo/78869226?adppopup=true">Bob Berg/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It achieved this by prioritizing songs centered on themes of love and peace, rather than those about Marley’s revolutionary Afrocentric politics and Rastafarian worldview, which appear on records such as 1979’s “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_(Bob_Marley_and_the_Wailers_album)">Survival</a>.”</p>
<p>On that album’s second track, “<a href="https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-zimbabwe-lyrics">Zimbabwe</a>,” Marley commends the country’s freedom fighters in their battle against the oppressive Rhodesian regime, declaring, “Every man got a right to decide his own destiny”; he rails against the forces of exploitation and division in “<a href="https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-top-rankin-lyrics">Top Rankin’</a>” and “<a href="https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-babylon-system-lyrics">Babylon System</a>”; in “<a href="https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-survival-lyrics">Survival</a>,” he hails the African world’s “hopes and dreams” and “ways and means”; and “<a href="https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-wake-up-and-live-lyrics">Wake Up and Live</a>” is a clarion call to spiritual and political awakening.</p>
<p>These tracks don’t appear on “Legend.” In fact, none of the tracks from “Survival” do.</p>
<p>And so four decades after his death, Bob Marley remains the world’s top reggae artist. But it’s his lighter, less controversial fare that’s established him as a global superstar.</p>
<h2>Merchandising a mystic</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/02/04/spotify-grammys-songwriters-payment-musicians/">In an era of minuscule music royalties</a>, a large portion of that $16 million in earnings also comes from merchandising, which has further watered down Marley’s revolutionary politics and spiritualism. </p>
<p>Thanks to what two writers called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/22/marley-natural-legacy-marley-debate">the Disneyfication of all matters Marley</a>,” you can now buy <a href="https://marleycoffee.com/">Bob Marley-themed coffee</a>, <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/news/ben-and-jerrys-one-love-ice-cream">ice cream</a> and <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/bob-marley-marley-natural-beauty-botanicals-jamaica">body wash</a>. There’s <a href="https://www.thehouseofmarley.com/">sustainably sourced, Bob Marley-branded audio equipment</a>, in addition to <a href="https://primitiveskate.com/collections/bob-marley">a line of Bob Marley skateboard decks</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Colorful boxes featuring cartoon drawings of Black men smoking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571217/original/file-20240124-25-woxyjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marley-branded nicotine vape cartridges are displayed next to Snoop Dogg vape cartridges at the 2022 Vaper Expo in Birmingham, England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/disposable-flie-vapes-featuring-snoop-dogg-and-bob-marley-news-photo/1431608678?adppopup=true">John Keeble/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cannabis brand <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/marley-cannabis-brand-launch-6866955/#!">Marley Natural</a> shows how the Marley name has become commercially intertwined with corporate America.</p>
<p>It’s funded by the American private equity company <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-30110235">Privateer Holdings</a>, which the Marley family had approached to gauge their interest in collaboration for the product’s release. The creators of the Starbucks logo <a href="https://www.hecklerbranding.com/names-by-ha">were hired to design the logo</a> for Marley Natural, further underlining the venture’s commercial ties. </p>
<p>Aside from the obvious fact that these associations pay no heed to Bob Marley’s anti-capitalist messages, I find it bitterly ironic that the private equity firm calls itself “Privateer.” <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/golden-age-piracy">Privateers</a> were commissioned ships involved in plundering and murder across the Caribbean. They are among the “old pirates” Marley sang about in his mournful “<a href="https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/4003768/Bob+Marley/Redemption+Song">Redemption Song</a>.”</p>
<p>While the Marley family <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210607005453/en/Marley-Natural%C2%AE-Flagship-Cannabis-Retail-Store-to-Open-at-the-Bob-Marley-Museum-in-Jamaica">claims that Bob would have approved</a> of the cannabis enterprise, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/22/marley-natural-legacy-marley-debate">critics see indiscriminate mass-marketing</a>.</p>
<p>The artist’s popular songs and lyrics have also been adopted as marketing tools to sell products that bear little relation to Marley’s music and message. </p>
<p>In 2001, his daughter Cedella, who runs parts of the estate, released a fashion line called Catch a Fire. The name comes from the Wailers’ first international album, which the group released in 1973. On it, tracks like “Slave Driver,” “Concrete Jungle” and “400 Years” connect the poverty of the present to the injustices of the past.</p>
<p>Can T-shirts and other apparel help spread these messages? Perhaps. </p>
<p>But it’s hard to argue that Marley-themed <a href="https://www.cedellamarley.com/portfolio/2015/11/23/cedella-marley-launches-a-new-sauce-line">hot sauce</a> does.</p>
<h2>The reel situation of ‘One Love’</h2>
<p>Critiquing any aspect of Bob Marley’s legacy can elicit defensive responses. The estate <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/bob-marley-75th-birthday-billboard-cover-story-interview-2020-9363748/#!">has long portrayed</a> the rampant commercialization of the Marley name and image as an important way to sustain and spread the artist’s ideals.</p>
<p>However, I think it’s important to ensure that the artistic and cultural values embedded in his music do not become clouded in a haze of consumerism. </p>
<p>While many of the commercial enterprises tied to his name reportedly raise <a href="https://bobmarleyfoundation.org/">money for Jamaican youth</a>, I’d hesitate to say that this serves as a complete counterbalance to the erosion of Marley’s messages.</p>
<p>The “One Love” movie backed by Paramount Pictures – <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8521778/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm">with four Marleys listed as producers</a> – will certainly extend the mythologies and harsh realities of Bob Marley’s all-too-brief life, which was <a href="https://www.skincancer.org/blog/bob-marley-should-not-have-died-from-melanoma">cut short by melanoma</a>. But it’s also a massive international marketing vehicle for the sale of even more officially branded merchandise.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the fact that people so eagerly buy products plastered with Marley’s face and words reflects the profound connection he continues to have with his listeners. But on the other hand, it’s difficult squaring Marley – a symbol of post-colonialism and anti-capitalism – with branding collaborations and private equity firms. </p>
<p>His music means so much more. And his anti-imperialist messages, as warmongers threaten basic human rights around the world, are perhaps needed now more than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Alleyne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How did a musician whose songs were suffused with messages of anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism become so commercialized?Mike Alleyne, Professor Emeritus of Recording Industry (Popular Music Studies & Music Business), Middle Tennessee State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164752023-11-07T19:01:44Z2023-11-07T19:01:44ZHow unionization is empowering Jamaican domestic workers to demand decent work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558102/original/file-20231107-25-rcwoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C38%2C1226%2C852&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jamaica has the potential to become a regional leader in advancing decent work for domestic workers thanks to unionization efforts. Members of the Jamaica Household Workers' Union pose for a photo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jamaica Household Workers' Union)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-unionization-is-empowering-jamaican-domestic-workers-to-demand-decent-work" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In thousands of households across Jamaica, domestic workers do the work of cooking, cleaning, gardening and caring for children, the elderly and people with disabilities. </p>
<p>While this work is essential to the functioning of the economy and to the well-being of many Jamaican families, domestic workers often experience low pay, poor working conditions and informal work arrangements. Due to their isolation in the home, they’re also vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_802551.pdf">Estimates put the number of domestic workers in Jamaica at around 56,000, 80 per cent of whom are women</a>. </p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2016/9/jamaica-ratifies-domestic-workers-decent-work-convention">Jamaica ratified</a> International Labour Organization Convention No. 189, the Domestic Workers Convention. The landmark convention is the first international legal instrument to recognize domestic work as equivalent to all other kinds of work <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_214499.pdf">and is founded on</a> “the fundamental premise that domestic workers are neither ‘servants’ nor ‘members of the family’ nor second-class workers.” </p>
<p>Jamaica is one of only 36 countries to have ratified the convention. To its credit, the Jamaican government has made progress toward making decent work a reality for domestic workers, <a href="https://jis.gov.jm/national-minimum-wage-moves-to-13000-june-1/">including by raising the national minimum wage</a>.</p>
<h2>Decent work deficits persist</h2>
<p><a href="https://brocku.ca/social-sciences/labour-studies/wp-content/uploads/primary-site/sites/147/Black-and-Marsh.-2023.-Acheiving-Decent-Work-for-Domestic-Workers-Online-version.pdf">A study I conducted with Lauren Marsh, of the Hugh Shearer Labour Studies Institute at the University of the West Indies,</a> has been published to coincide with the seventh anniversary of Jamaica’s ratification of the convention. It finds that domestic workers continue to experience deficits in decent work.</p>
<p>Without government action, we fear that progress toward achieving decent work for this marginalized, but essential, workforce will stall. </p>
<p>We surveyed more than 200 domestic workers, held focus groups and interviewed key stakeholders in government and civil society. </p>
<p>Overall, we found that while domestic workers are generally covered under Jamaica’s labour laws, many experience an “enforcement gap” — the difference between the rights and protections established in law and those that are actually respected by employers in the workplace. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman walks along a shopping strip." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558106/original/file-20231107-15-aslw9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman shops in the historic downtown of Falmouth, Jamaica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And while the <a href="https://jis.gov.jm/domestic-workers-encouraged-to-sign-up-for-nis/">Ministry of Labour and Social Security is sensitive to the challenges facing domestic workers,</a> it currently lacks the capacity to adequately promote and enforce compliance with labour standards in the sector. </p>
<p>Furthermore, far too many domestic workers lack awareness of their rights. Just over half of survey respondents said they were not aware of any laws that protect domestic workers in Jamaica. This finding is troubling, as workers’ awareness of rights is key to their realization. </p>
<p>Domestic workers are generally frustrated with Jamaica’s slow pace toward making decent work a reality in the sector. For instance, nearly 90 per cent of domestic workers surveyed believe the government doesn’t adequately inform domestic workers of their rights; 82 per cent would like to see the government do a better job at enforcing laws that protect domestic workers. </p>
<h2>Raising awareness</h2>
<p>There is some good news. The <a href="https://jhwu.org/">Jamaica Household Workers’ Union</a>, with 7,280 members across 13 chapters, has done excellent work in raising domestic workers’ awareness of their rights and protections. </p>
<p>We found that domestic workers who are members of the union are more likely than non-union domestic workers to contribute to Jamaica’s social security scheme, twice as likely than their non-union counterparts to possess a written employment contract, making enforcing rights easier, and are far more likely than their non-union counterparts to be aware of their labour and social security protections. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1673375581176741888"}"></div></p>
<p>These findings suggest that strengthening collective representation for domestic workers is a promising route to ensuring that rights on paper are rights in practice.</p>
<p>Our report includes several recommendations that may act as a guide to action for achieving decent work for domestic workers in Jamaica. </p>
<p>First and foremost, the Jamaican government must invest in building the capacity of the <a href="https://mlss.gov.jm/">Ministry of Labour and Social Security</a> to enforce and promote compliance with labour standards in the domestic work sector — including through the creation of a domestic work section — and through public awareness campaigns to ensure employers and workers alike know their rights and responsibilities. </p>
<h2>Collective bargaining needed</h2>
<p>To strengthen collective representation and worker voice, the government should also work with employers’ groups and the Jamaica Household Workers’ Union to establish the legal and institutional framework and conditions necessary for <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_436279.pdf">collective bargaining in the domestic work sector.</a></p>
<p>Decent work is fundamental to social justice, gender equality and fulfilling Jamaica’s commitments under the national development plan, <a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.jm/">Vision 2030 Jamaica.</a> </p>
<p>Relative to its Caribbean neighbours, Jamaica is making slow but steady progress toward making decent work a reality for domestic workers — and the Jamaica Household Workers’ Union is establishing best practices in domestic worker organizing and collective representation. </p>
<p>That means Jamaica has the potential to become a regional leader in advancing decent work for domestic workers. It’s a leadership role the government and civil society should fully embrace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Black does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Domestic workers in Jamaica often experience low pay, poor working conditions and informal work arrangements. Here’s how unionization could change their situation.Simon Black, Associate Professor of Labour Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165992023-10-30T16:14:06Z2023-10-30T16:14:06ZKing Charles in Kenya: despite past tensions, the visit is a sign of a strong relationship with Britain<p>King Charles’ <a href="https://www.royal.uk/Kenya-announcement">visit to Kenya this week</a> is the British monarch’s first to a <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/about-us">Commonwealth nation</a> since his coronation in September 2022. The visit comes during the country’s 60th anniversary of <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kenya-declares-independence-from-britain">independence from Britain</a>.</p>
<p>By choosing Kenya, the British government and monarchy seek to highlight the importance they attribute to the east African nation. It also shows other Commonwealth members that it’s possible for a republic to have a positive relationship with Britain. Some Commonwealth states like <a href="https://constitutionnet.org/news/jamaicas-transition-republic-process-matters">Jamaica</a> are contemplating removing the king as head of state.</p>
<p>King Charles’ visit is meant to celebrate <a href="https://www.royal.uk/Kenya-announcement">the warm relationship</a> between the two countries. It will also <a href="https://www.royal.uk/Kenya-announcement">acknowledge the more painful aspects</a> of the UK and Kenya’s shared history. </p>
<p>The relationship with Kenya remains one of Britain’s more positive post-colonial relationships. However, there have been <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/calls-for-king-charles-to-apologise-for-colonial-era-atrocities-on-kenya-visit-4398116">calls for Britain to apologise and make reparations</a> for its brutal suppression of freedom fighters. People in Kenya, Britain and other former colonies will be watching closely to see what the king has to say.</p>
<p>I’m a historian who has <a href="https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/staff/poppy-cullen/#tab2">studied and written</a> about the political relationship between Britain and Kenya in the decades after independence. In my view, the relationship has taken a positive tilt since independence for three reasons. These are: the choices of Kenya’s first independent president; diplomatic, economic and ideological alignments; and military ties. </p>
<h2>Kenya and Britain’s history</h2>
<p>Kenya became a British colony in the late 19th century. A small minority of white British settlers held almost all of the <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-56276-6">political and economic power</a>. The British government planned to make Kenya a “multi-racial” state. The small white European and Asian populations of 55,700 and 176,600 people, respectively, would have equal or more power than the black majority of 8.3 million. Only in 1960 did the British government accept that Kenya should have majority rule and independence. </p>
<p>Independence celebrations in 1963 were preceded by a difficult period of negotiation and violence. A state of emergency was declared in 1952 in response to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mau-Mau">Mau Mau uprising</a>. This was an armed rebellion among one of Kenya’s major tribes, the Kikuyu, fighting for land and freedom. </p>
<p>The emergency lasted until 1960. Over this period, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/18/uncovering-truth-british-empire-caroline-elkins-mau-mau">thousands of Kenyans were killed</a>, and tens of thousands were detained in camps without trial. The camps became sites of violence and abuse. </p>
<p>With this past, a close post-colonial relationship between Kenya and Britain can appear surprising. It was expected that Kenya would turn away from Britain and towards other international partners, such as the US or the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union">Soviet Union</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, the relationship has largely been close and friendly, with trade benefits, alignment on significant issues and strong military ties.</p>
<h2>Positive relations</h2>
<p>Kenya’s first president, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jomo-Kenyatta/Return-to-Kenya">Jomo Kenyatta</a>, had been imprisoned by Britain as a leader of the Mau Mau. But once he took leadership, he opted to work primarily with Britain. </p>
<p>Kenyatta saw the benefits he could get from this relationship. These included financial and military backing during the Cold War, and personal backing. In 1965, Britain made plans to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2016.1261917">protect</a> Kenyatta if a coup was attempted.</p>
<p>British officials were surprised but pleased by Kenyatta’s position. They had many interests in Kenya, ranging from trade to diplomacy. One key interest was Kenya’s white European and Asian populations who held British passports. To help achieve their security, the British government financed the purchase of their land, which could then be sold to Kenyans. Before independence, many in Kenya had hoped for land redistribution. Instead, European settlers got financial benefits.</p>
<p>For decades after independence, Britain was Kenya’s primary economic partner. Currently, Britain is the <a href="https://www.kenyahighcom.org.uk/kenya-uk-relations">largest European investor in Kenya and Kenya’s second-largest export destination</a>. There are <a href="https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/locations/british-chamber-of-commerce-kenya/#:%7E:text=As%20it%20stands%2C%20there%20are,139%20billion%20in%20value.">more than 200</a> British businesses operating in Kenya. </p>
<p>The British and Kenyan governments have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-kenya-strategic-partnership-2020-2025">broadly aligned on international diplomatic issues</a> like the Cold War, and later the “war on terror”. There were some exceptions, and the Kenyan government did criticise British policies towards white rule in Rhodesia and apartheid in South Africa. But in private the relationship remained cordial. </p>
<h2>Military connections</h2>
<p>Military ties have been especially close. Britain remains a training partner. The royal visit includes <a href="https://www.royal.uk/Kenya-announcement">meeting Kenyan marines trained by British marines</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2016.1261917">Britain has also sold arms to Kenya</a> and provided support to set up a navy and air force after independence. </p>
<p>After independence, many African countries expelled their British military commanders to replace them with Africans. Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta chose to keep British commanders. The Kenyan army was led by a British officer until 1966, the navy until 1972 and the air force until 1973. </p>
<p>Most important for Britain is that its military is allowed to <a href="https://www.army.mod.uk/deployments/africa/">train in Kenya</a>. This allows them to practise in different and difficult terrains.</p>
<h2>Closeness despite challenges</h2>
<p>The relationship between the two nations since independence has not always been smooth, however. </p>
<p>In 1967-68, Kenya increased policies that <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/4/newsid_2738000/2738629.stm">discriminated against Kenyan Asians</a>. The 1967 Immigration Act and 1968 Trade Licensing Act, for instance, meant non-citizens (including many Asians) needed work permits. This led to the immigration to Britain of <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1968-02-15/debates/e5e33ebe-b72f-4bae-82b4-1125bab0f265/AsianImmigrantsFromKenya">13,600 east African Asians</a> in 1967.</p>
<p>The British government then <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/9/pdfs/ukpga_19680009_en.pdf#page=4">passed legislation</a> to limit their right to enter the UK despite their holding British passports. </p>
<p>After Ugandan president Idi Amin <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/ugandan-asians-50-years-since-their-expulsion-from-uganda/">expelled the Asian population</a> in 1972 – about 40,000 Asian Ugandans moved to the UK – Britain offered aid to Kenya to ensure it didn’t follow a similar policy. </p>
<p>In 1982, after the Kenya Air Force <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/08/09/how-kenyas-rebels-botched-their-coup/ca1fdf2f-3961-476f-a682-45be109e583f/">attempted a coup</a>, many in Kenya’s elite became suspicious of Britain’s aims in the country. </p>
<p>Since independence, some in Kenya have <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/calls-for-king-charles-to-apologise-for-colonial-era-atrocities-on-kenya-visit-4398116">questioned</a> why British troops still train in the country. The killing in 2012 of a Kenyan woman, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10931549/British-soldier-accused-fatally-stabbing-Kenyan-prostitute-Agnes-Wanjiru-21-England.html">Agnes Wanjiru</a>, seemingly by British soldiers, exacerbated these grumblings.</p>
<p>The issue of the Mau Mau has also been a source of recent tension. </p>
<p>Kenya has repeatedly asked for archive files related to the Mau Mau, which the British government denied having. These files were only <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a824499e5274a2e87dc2089/cary-report-release-colonial-administration-files.pdf">acknowledged and released after 2011</a>. </p>
<p>In 2013, the British government finally acknowledged that the government had known about and been complicit in torture and violence during the emergency, and victims would be paid compensation of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/uk-compensate-kenya-mau-mau-torture">£19.9 million</a>. The then foreign secretary William Hague <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-to-parliament-on-settlement-of-mau-mau-claims">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Pushing forward</h2>
<p>Despite moments of tension, the two governments have always sought to dispel difficulties. The king’s visit, for instance, is on the invitation of Kenya’s president William Ruto. Ruto made his first overseas visit as president to the UK for <a href="https://www.pd.co.ke/news/ruto-attention-british-monarchs-funeral-150476/">Queen Elizabeth’s funeral</a> in September 2022. </p>
<p>Over six decades, the challenges that have arisen have not been enough to derail the relationship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Poppy Cullen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The visit will acknowledge the more painful aspects of the UK and Kenya’s colonial history.Poppy Cullen, Lecturer in International History, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121282023-08-24T12:32:32Z2023-08-24T12:32:32ZSlavery stole Africans’ ideas as well as their bodies: reparations should reflect this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544349/original/file-20230823-19-h76ser.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C25%2C5606%2C3534&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jamaican hero: a statue to Sam Sharpe, who led the Baptist War slave rebellion in 1831.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Debbie Ann Powell/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a speech to mark Unesco’s campaign for the <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/days/slave-trade-remembrance">Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition</a>, UN secretary-general António Guterres <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-03-27/secretary-generals-remarks-the-general-assembly-event-marking-the-international-day-of-remembrance-of-the-victims-of-slavery-and-the-transatlantic-slave-trade">told the United Nations general assembly</a> earlier this year that the inequalities created by 400 years of the transatlantic chattel trade persist to this day. “We can draw a straight line from the centuries of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities of today,” he said.</p>
<p>Guterres’ words were echoed by Judge Patrick Robinson of the international court of justice, who has called for the UK to recognise the need to pay reparations for its part in the slave trade, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/22/uk-cannot-ignore-calls-for-slavery-reparations-says-leading-un-judge-patrick-robinson">telling The Guardian</a> on August 22 that: “Reparations have been paid for other wrongs and obviously far more quickly, far more speedily than reparations for what I consider the greatest atrocity and crime in the history of mankind: transatlantic chattel slavery.”</p>
<p>Investment into the trafficking of African people in the Caribbean created a lucrative economic system that helped Britain develop into a global economic superpower. The consequences continue to be felt today – not only in vast inequities in the distribution of wealth and resources, but also in the denial and effacement of the people of African descent whose skills and knowledge helped power that industrial and societal transformation. </p>
<p>This year marks the 240th anniversary of arguably one of the biggest thefts in the history of intellectual property. The so-called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Cort">“Cort process”</a>, patented by the financier Henry Cort between 1783 and 1784, has been called one of the most important innovations of the British industrial revolution. Yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07341512.2023.2220991">recently published findings</a> show the process was first developed by 76 black metallurgists, many of them enslaved, in an 18th-century foundry in Jamaica. </p>
<p>The foundry was forcibly shut down for presenting too much of a threat to Britain’s economic and political domination. We know some of these black metallurgists’ names: Devonshire, Mingo, Mingo’s son, Friday, Captain Jack, Matt, George, Jemmy, Jackson, Will, Bob, Guy, Kofi and Kwasi.</p>
<h2>Stolen heritage</h2>
<p>African enslavement may be considered one of the quintessential depictions of global theft and destruction in human history. In 2018, <a href="https://www.about-africa.de/images/sonstiges/2018/sarr_savoy_en.pdf">Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy’s report</a> on the restitution of cultural heritage pointed out that 90% of sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural heritage is held outside the continent. From the kidnapping of Africans from their homelands, the eradication of native populations, to the forced loss of African culture, history and identity, the damage that chattel enslavement has done continues to permeate development and economic discourse the world over. </p>
<p>But as the <a href="https://caricom.org/caricom-ten-point-plan-for-reparatory-justice/">global reparations movement</a> gains traction it opens a new discourse about the debt owed for that which was stolen. It also highlights the need to create a robust educational system aimed at highlighting the realities of slavery and colonialism. The history of the black metallurgists is just one example of the contributions of people of African descent to the wealth of European and US societies today.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Temperate House at Kew Gardens in London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544351/original/file-20230823-23-pubp4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Large-scale iron production, such as Temperate House at Kew Gardens in London, was made possible by innovations developed by ironworkers in Jamaica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/temperate-house-1859-designed-by-architect-249074416">Kiev.Victor/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For much of recent history, institutions in the global north have dominated the narrative of where and who drives innovation. But history – and history taught in schools – must also recognise and name enslaved Africans as true innovators of their times. In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/22/desantis-slavery-curriculum/">Florida</a>, the governor and Republican presidential hopeful, Ron DeSantis, has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-florida-standards-teach-black-people-benefited-slavery-taught-usef-rcna95418">introduced new educational standards</a> which teach that some enslaved people benefited from slavery. History must challenge this constant narrative of black bodies merely being machines.</p>
<h2>Truth and reparation</h2>
<p>In the search for truth and reparation, truth of brutalities inflicted alone is not enough. There must also be truth about the pioneers and innovators of colonised and enslaved societies – such as the 76 black metallurgists – whose ideas changed the trajectory of civilisation and who laid the building blocks for growth, change and development. </p>
<p>The simultaneous theft and denial of black innovation has served a purpose for the global north. The Caricom Reparations Commission, notes that one of the <a href="https://caricomreparations.org/caricom/caricoms-10-point-reparation-plan/">main policies of the European colonisers</a> was that there should be “not a nail to be made in the colonies”. A fundamental part of the global north’s accumulation has been to create captive markets and maintain those markets post-independence. Colonies and post-independence states alike have been actively deprived of the developmental apparatus to create a thriving society. </p>
<p>Resource extraction during this period was not merely centred on sugar, tobacco and cotton. It also drew on intellect and innovation which was stolen from the colonies and used to help build the prosperous nations of the global north. </p>
<p>Reparation is not only about money. It is also about recognition. Alongside the names of freedom fighters such as <a href="https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/samuel-sharpe/">Sam Sharpe</a> and <a href="https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/nanny-of-the-maroons/">Queen Nanny</a>, children must learn the names of black innovators. Part of truth and reconciliation must be this re-centring of black identity as part of a decolonised education system across former colonial and colonising states. </p>
<p>It must be a curriculum which includes the names and identities of enslaved African people whose skill and knowledge both challenged and transformed the global industrial and economic system. Through this, descendants will gain an understanding of the importance of their own history and ancestral cultures and all it contributed.</p>
<p>Recognition of the theft of black intellectual property provides a starting point for quantifying the harms that were done and continue to resonate to this day. This is necessary for any process of truth and reconciliation. </p>
<p>Quantification and monetary reparation, while necessary, are not in themselves enough. They must be combined with institutional recognition through an education system that acknowledges the role of enslaved African people in both challenging and driving forward the economies, scientific innovations and cultures of European enslavers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212128/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Britain’s industrial revolution was built on slavery: both black labour and intellectual property.Jenny Bulstrode, Lecturer in History of Science and Technology, UCLSheray Warmington, Honorary Research Associate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093632023-07-19T12:25:10Z2023-07-19T12:25:10ZRastafarians gathering for the 131st birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie are still grappling with his reported death in 1975<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537834/original/file-20230717-245914-6k5hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C14%2C4910%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rastafarians drum and sing during a special prayer and worship meeting at Menengai forest in Kenya.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/adherents-of-the-rastafari-sect-play-a-drum-and-sing-during-news-photo/1246795428?adppopup=true">James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The week of July 23, 2023, thousands of Rastafarians, known for their dreadlocks and for treating cannabis as a sacrament, will gather in Jamaica to <a href="https://www.reonline.org.uk/festival_event/birthday-of-haile-selassie-i/">celebrate the birth of Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia</a>. </p>
<p>Estimated to number between <a href="https://www.worlddata.info/religions/rastafari.php">700,000 and 1,000,000 globally</a>, Rastafarian communities are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/595">located on almost every continent</a> today. Their beliefs are spread through migration, reggae music, as well as print, visual and digital media.</p>
<p>The first Rastafarian communities emerged sometime around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. The first two generations of Rastafarians were <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814767474/becoming-rasta/">predominantly from African-descended people</a> who belonged to working-class communities. </p>
<p>Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and will return to the Earth to reign over a righteous kingdom of his chosen people. Similarly, Rastafarians are of the view that Emperor Selassie is God, or Jah, who manifested in human form, and that they are God’s chosen people. They borrow generously from the King James Bible, <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766404093/let-us-start-with-africa/">braiding their theology</a> around Black and African identity and culture.</p>
<p>Since the mid-1970s, however, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Rastafari-Movement-A-North-American-and-Caribbean-Perspective/Barnett/p/book/9781138682153">Rastafarian views on the emperor’s divinity have varied</a>, in part because Emperor Selassie had died but also because of an influx of new adherents of varied class, racial and national backgrounds. </p>
<p>Being a Rastafarian, and having <a href="https://education.temple.edu/about/faculty-staff/charles-a-price-tum91324">researched and studied the faith community</a>, I’ve seen how growing diversity among them has also brought varied views on the former emperor’s divinity.</p>
<h2>God as monarch</h2>
<p>The Rastafari believe that the prophecy of the New Testament of the Bible was fulfilled when the Ethiopian nobleman King Ras Tafari Makonnen, born in the Ethiopian province of Harar in 1892, <a href="https://www.cdamm.org/articles/rastafari">was crowned the 225th emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930</a>.</p>
<p>Rastafarians believe that the king <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Emperor+Haile+Selassie">traces his lineage</a> to the Old Testament’s King David of the Tribe of Judah, and to David’s son, King Solomon. The “<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/kn000-1.htm">Kebra Negast</a>,” a 14th-century Ethiopian literary epic, tells the story of how the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, and together they had a son, Menelik I, during ancient times. Menelik I was Ethiopia’s first emperor. </p>
<p>King Ras Tafari assumed the name Emperor Haile Selassie I, or Might of the Holy Trinity, along with commanding titles such as the King of Kings and the Conquering Lion of Judah. </p>
<p>Rastafarians view the king’s coronation in 1930, his titles and his lineage as fulfilling a prophecy in the Book of Revelation. According to Chapter 5, a book of “seven seals” reveals events of the apocalypse many Christians believe will begin once Christ returns – but only the “Root of David,” the “Conquering Lion,” can open it, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265740442_The_Cultural_Production_of_a_Black_Messiah_Ethiopianism_and_the_Rastafari">each revealing events between Christ’s crucifixion and return</a>. </p>
<p>The Rastafari, named for their god – King Ras Tafari – grew from a tiny community to number in the tens of thousands in Jamaica by the 1990s, as I explain in my 2022 book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">Rastafari: The Evolution of a People and Their Identity</a>.”</p>
<h2>The travails of worshiping a Black god</h2>
<p>Many Jamaicans, especially the elites, ridiculed the Rastafari for anointing an African monarch as a deity. They sought at every turn <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">to prove the Rastafari ludicrous</a>. From the 1930s into the 1970s the Rastafari were scorned by their fellow Jamaicans, subjected to discrimination and violence. Many Rastafari were <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">imprisoned, beaten</a>, and many <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766404093/let-us-start-with-africa/">men forcibly shaven for their beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Things started to change in 1966 when Emperor Selassie visited Jamaica and <a href="https://www.life.com/people/haile-selassie-in-jamaica-photos-from-a-rastafari-milestone/">hundreds of Rastafari swarmed the Norman Manley Airport in Kingston</a> to greet the emperor. He caused a greater stir by inviting the Rastafari to join him during official state ceremonies. </p>
<p>The emperor’s visit conferred respect on the Rastafari, attracting new converts, such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1982/10/24/rita-marley-heir-to-the-reggae-kingdom/c6a105a5-f67f-4c70-8a4d-8db0d42e5285/">Rita Marley</a>, reggae music singer and wife of reggae superstar Bob Marley. The Rastafari became paragons of Black identity, culture and history. </p>
<p>In 1975, press announcements that Emperor Selassie was dead sparked an existential crisis for the Rastafari. In a coup led by the Ethiopian politician and soldier Mengistu Haile Mariam, the emperor was <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo22344459.html">imprisoned and allegedly murdered</a>. </p>
<p>Some critics asserted that the Rastafari finally <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">had been proved foolish</a> and that their God was dead. Bob Marley rebuffed the critics in his acclaimed song, “Jah Live” (meaning God lives).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o7i1EIRrUA8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>What happens if God dies?</h2>
<p>The Rastafari responded to the announcement in several ways. Some <a href="https://streaming-eu.mpg.de/de/institute/eth/mediathek/video/haile_selassie/HaileSelassieFilmProject_Part_II_.mp4">denied Emperor Selassie was dead</a>, insisting that God cannot die, and no body was found to confirm the death. Years later, bones said to be those of Emperor Selassie were recovered from a pit beneath Menelik Palace in Ethiopia, but never confirmed <a href="https://streaming-eu.mpg.de/de/institute/eth/mediathek/video/haile_selassie/HaileSelassieFilmProject_Part_I_.mp4">to be the emperor’s</a>. </p>
<p>Others said <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">only time would reveal the meaning</a> of the emperor’s disappearance, since God’s ways are beyond the ken of mortals.</p>
<p>Another view was that the emperor’s disappearance signaled the beginning of a new era on Earth, much like Christ rising from death. In the new dispensation, these followers believed, the Rastafari must act as the emperor’s anointed and must continue the traditions, knowledge and communities they have birthed. </p>
<p>Some others believed that the emperor was worthy of veneration but not as God. This had a lot to do with the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307810153_The_many_faces_of_Rasta_Doctrinal_Diversity_within_the_Rastafari_Movement">increasing diversity of the Rastafarians in Jamaica</a> and internationally. </p>
<p>In Jamaica, middle-class Rastafarians known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel are more likely to subscribe to this view, as are <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/81909e63b12a42187d8c9d31459150f8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1636335">many Africans who identify as Rastafarians</a>. However, the doctrine of the Emperor as God remains predominant.</p>
<p>There are also those who continue to wonder why so many Rastafari reject the idea that the emperor is dead. As I argue in my book, claiming that the emperor still lives, without conclusive evidence, requires faith – just as it does for Christians – who believe that Jesus Christ is immortal.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the date of Haile Selassie’s reported death.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles A. Price received funding from National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, W.K.Kellogg Foundation, National Community Development Institute, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
He is affiliated with Highlander Research & Education Center.
</span></em></p>The first Rastafarian communities emerged around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. Today, there are over 700,000 Rastafarian communities located on almost every continent.Charles A. Price, Associate Professor of Education and Human Development, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2061332023-06-08T11:44:41Z2023-06-08T11:44:41ZThe Windrush dance revolution that transformed Britain – from Birmingham’s basements to Notting Hill carnival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530405/original/file-20230606-7937-utigwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C17%2C1982%2C1467&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reggae, dancehall, and identity: how Jamaican music transformed British society.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Squire/Canva</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Growing up in Birmingham in the early 1960s, I am part of the African Caribbean generation that <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/windrush-52562">migrated to Britain</a> between the 1940s and 1980s. Commonly known as the “<a href="https://digpodcast.org/2022/03/06/windrush-generation/">Windrush generation</a>”, our arrival in the UK marked a significant turning point in the country’s social, artistic and economic landscape.</p>
<p>Back in those days, nights out in Birmingham revolved around paid entry into <a href="https://writersmosaic.org.uk/content/dancing-identity-in-a-strange-land-h-patten/">“blues” or “shubeens”</a> (house parties). They were often held in unconventional venues, from basements and abandoned buildings to church and school halls. These events took place up and down the country – black bodies dancing and expressing themselves through music and “riddim” (rhythm).</p>
<p>These venues became the birthplace of black clubs, stage shows and major international events such as the Notting Hill carnival and the Mobo Awards ceremony. In these spaces, we challenged the <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-history-is-still-largely-ignored-70-years-after-empire-windrush-reached-britain-98431">exclusion that African and Caribbean people</a> faced relating to established white-owned social venues.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/windrush-75-139220?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Windrush75&utm_content=InArticleTop">Windrush 75 series</a>, which marks the 75th anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain. The stories in this series explore the history and impact of the hundreds of passengers who disembarked to help rebuild after the second world war.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Reflecting back on my childhood, I vividly remember attending Jamaican dance sessions where black bodies performed seemingly unconscious and spiritually symbolic dance rituals. This represented a form of resistance. But it was also about identity affirmation and survival. </p>
<p>Dance sessions involved setting up massive speakers, amplifiers, turntables and other sonic components that produced the pulsating music of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASQlbktGkc">sound systems</a>. Operated by talented <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/22858/1/502410.pdf">deejays (DJs), selectors and MCs</a>, these musical artists transformed ordinary British locations into dynamic dance spaces.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aASQlbktGkc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Through dance, we resisted <a href="https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/8910q/the-spirituality-of-reggae-dancehall-dance-vocabulary-a-spiritual-corporeal-practice-in-jamaican-dance">cultural marginalisation and asserted our presence</a> in the face of oppression. I recall witnessing people performing the ska dance, characterised by energetic arm movements and knee-raising, to the popular song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7lCJg3WoSc">My Boy Lollipop</a> by Millie Small, which topped the UK charts in 1964. </p>
<p>In darkened rooms, bodies would sensuously move together, intertwining their pelvises in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyJwZwkqg8U">figure-eight, half or full circles</a>. Side-stepping, bending and straightening their knees, they performed the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_EybfMcRt4">reggae bounce</a>. </p>
<p>These dance movements were performed to songs like Janet Kay’s 1979 anthem <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVR5XR04Mo">Silly Games</a>, which propelled the <a href="https://theconversation.com/small-axe-what-steve-mcqueen-got-right-and-wrong-about-lovers-rock-151068">lover’s rock</a> reggae genre beyond its African Caribbean audience base to global markets including China and Japan. </p>
<p>Dance and music were integral to our cultural celebrations marking the major lifecycle milestones, from christenings and weddings to birthdays and funerals.</p>
<h2>Contributing far and wide</h2>
<p>The influence of African Caribbean popular culture extended beyond our communities and made significant contributions to British society as a whole. For instance, Lord Kitchener’s calypso <a href="https://www.facebook.com/museumoflondon/videos/2446657958966637/">London is the Place for Me</a>, played on the decks of the SS Empire Windrush upon its arrival in 1948, expressed the dreams and aspirations of many who migrated to Britain. </p>
<p>Invited by the British government, African Caribbean people settled in the “Mother country”. We became an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-windrush-generation-how-a-resilient-caribbean-community-made-a-lasting-contribution-to-british-society-204571">indispensable part of the workforce</a>, contributing to various sectors such as the NHS, transportation, business and infrastructural developments.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/notting-hill-carnival-why-partying-is-the-perfect-antidote-to-austerity-43509">The Notting Hill carnival</a>, born out of our resistance to oppression and violence following the murder of <a href="https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/murder-in-notting-hill">Kelso Cochrane</a> in 1959, became one of the greatest African Caribbean cultural contributions to British society.</p>
<p>Cochrane, an innocent black man walking home, was killed at the hands of white youths in Notting Hill. This ignited the UK’s first race riots, which directly influenced Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/public-engagement/blackhistory/snapshots/claudiajones/">Claudia Jones</a> to set up the London Caribbean Carnival – a precursor to the Notting Hill carnival that was established in 1966.</p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/54rxFJKXJLmd5DY9aqVhbO?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p>Today, “Carnival” is not only a vibrant celebration of our heritage but a significant contributor to the <a href="https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/9023471-notting-hill-carnival">British economy and tourism industry</a>. Reggae’s sound-system culture was incorporated into this annual event, amplifying its reach beyond calypso, soca (an offshoot of calypso) and steel pan culture to encompass many forms of artistry.</p>
<p>Dance movements within reggae and dancehall music have become powerful expressions of cultural identity and personhood. The signature “whining” or “wining” movement, characterised by circling or rotating the pelvis while rocking it back and forth in a tumbling action, exemplifies Jamaican pride and self-worth.</p>
<p>Similarly, the iconic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIXdI9mfDas">Bogle dance</a>, created by master dancer Gerald “Bogle” Levy in Jamaica and adopted within British dance spaces in the 1990s, features undulating arms and bodies across the dancehall space to the hit song Bogle, by Buju Banton. </p>
<p>Through reggae and dancehall, black bodies in Britain confidently occupied central positions within popular culture. We challenged gender stereotypes, body stigmatisation and the limitations imposed on African Caribbean bodies due to race.</p>
<h2>Freedom and empowerment</h2>
<p>The freedom and empowerment found in reggae and dancehall culture has also influenced the <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-artists-dont-just-make-hip-hop-why-recognition-of-metal-punk-rock-and-emo-by-mobo-is-long-overdue-195583">growth of other marginalised communities</a> in Britain. It played a crucial role in the development of genres such as hip-hop, punk rock, jungle, garage, drum ‘n’ bass, Afrobeat, reggaeton (South America), kwaito or di gong (South Africa), and hip-life (West Africa). </p>
<p>The wider influence of reggae, dancehall and African Caribbean culture can be seen throughout British culture: in television programmes, radio shows and advertisements that incorporate Jamaican slang, iconic songs and dance moves.</p>
<p>Examples include the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4kOj5MZlg8">Vitalite advert</a>, featuring Desmond Dekker’s The Israelites, Fairy Liquid’s use of Bob Marley’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/489047177">Don’t Worry</a> in their ads, and the BBC’s original Test match cricket theme, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67xXbTaQlKI">Soul Limbo</a>. Alongside the everyday use of Jamaican and African Caribbean slang terms and phrases such as “big up”, “shout out to” (acknowledging individuals), “bouyaka!” (signifying gunshots), “blood” or “fam” (meaning family), are actions including fist pumps, wining and twerking.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M4kOj5MZlg8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Of course, life in the UK has not been without its challenges. The Windrush scandal of 2017 exposed that many from the Windrush generation had been excluded from British society, due to the UK government’s “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/hostile-environment-44885">hostile environment</a>” legislation. This intended to cut off undocumented migrants from access to any public services, including healthcare. </p>
<p>But despite such oppression, our cultural and economic contributions remain intertwined with British history. And we continue to shape the UK’s cultural landscape, today and into the future.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can <em><a href="https://bit.ly/3DdOERY">download the e-book here</a></em>. Thank you for your interest.</p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>'H' Patten receives funding from the ISRF. </span></em></p>Nights out dancing! How African and Caribbean music and dance have shaped British culture.'H' Patten, Associate Lecturer in African Caribbean Dance, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045712023-06-02T15:53:32Z2023-06-02T15:53:32ZThe Windrush generation: how a resilient Caribbean community made a lasting contribution to British society<p>As a young boy in 1962, I remember arriving in England from Jamaica on a BOAC jet plane. It seemed to me like I was going to the moon – the air hostess who accompanied me was one of the first white people I had ever seen. My father greeted me eagerly at London’s Paddington station, amid the swirling smoke of steam trains. It had been two years since we last met, but I recognised him immediately.</p>
<p>Fourteen years earlier, the arrival of the <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/the-story-of-windrush/">Empire Windrush</a> at London’s Tilbury docks in 1948 was a pivotal moment in British history, marking the beginning of a significant wave of migration from the Caribbean. This became known as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241">the Windrush generation</a>, and signified a new chapter in the history of the United Kingdom. Since then it has assumed a symbolic status, commemorated annually on <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/arrival-of-the-empire-windrush-celebrating-the-75th-anniversary/">Windrush Day</a>, observed on 22 June.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528239/original/file-20230525-19-6vicuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/windrush-75-139220?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Windrush75&utm_content=InArticleTop">Windrush 75 series</a>, which marks the 75th anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain. The stories in this series explore the history and impact of the hundreds of passengers who disembarked to help rebuild after the second world war.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A young Jamaican boy looking serious in his passport picture." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529345/original/file-20230531-23-w5p0c2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author in 1962.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Les Johnson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This turning point reformed Anglo-Caribbean identities as the Windrush generation settled in Britain, leaving their mark on history, society and culture. The arrivals serve as a poignant reminder of the dynamic and fluid nature of migration, identity and societal transformation. But how did this momentous event come about, and what were the factors that led to the settlement of these British citizens?</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old navy blue British-Jamaican passport from 1962." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529341/original/file-20230531-19-mnn417.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s first British passport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Les Johnson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These questions are important because Windrush history is not included in the UK school curriculum, resulting in an incomplete view of Britain’s history of cultural diversity. Race equality think tank, the <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/about/about-us">Runnymede Trust</a>, has described the Windrush story as “<a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/education/michael-gove-drop-windrush-generation-national-curriculum-459957">an integral part of British history</a>”. </p>
<p>While there are now numerous celebratory events and commemorations on or around Windrush Day, once the festivities end, there is little permanence. There are no major collections or permanent Windrush exhibitions. There has been no museum dedicated to its history with the significance of other major British museums. And there is no major institution for children to view the legacies of the Windrush generation and their impact on Britain. These are just some of the reasons I recently founded the <a href="https://www.nationalwindrushmuseum.com/our-vision">National Windrush Museum</a>.</p>
<h2>Coming to Britain</h2>
<p>The British invitation to Caribbeans to come to Britain after the second world war can be traced back to the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/56/enacted">British Nationality Act</a> of 1948. This conferred British citizenship and the right to settle in the UK on all people from the British colonies to help rebuild the country. </p>
<p>The Windrush generation refers to the people who migrated from Caribbean countries to the United Kingdom between 1948 and 1971. However, Caribbean immigration did not cease after this period, and migrants have settled ever since, influencing <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/bulletins/ethnicgroupenglandandwales/census2021#:%7E:text=In%20England%20the%20percentage%20of,was%204.2%25%20(2.4%20million)">Britain’s demographic composition</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qKJ-iqFmHOQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Major urban centres like London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds and Preston became focal points for these communities, where they established vibrant neighbourhoods and thriving cultural institutions, contributing to the <a href="https://publications.goettingen-research-online.de/bitstream/2/111211/1/ER-2007-Complexities_Cohesion_Britain_CIC.pdf">overall diversity and multicultural fabric</a> of these cities. </p>
<p>Despite the open invitation, the reception the Windrush pioneers received was often <a href="https://theconversation.com/empire-windrush-how-the-bbc-reported-caribbean-migrants-mixed-reception-in-1948-98593">hostile</a>. Caribbean migrants were (and still are) subjected to poor housing conditions, with accommodation in hostels often overcrowded and lacking basic amenities. In 1948, an <a href="https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/incredible-pictures-show-london-underground-22246855">underground shelter</a> in Clapham South tube station was used as temporary housing for people from the Caribbean. </p>
<p>The types of employment available to the Windrush generation were often limited to <a href="https://www.bl.uk/windrush/articles/how-caribbean-migrants-rebuilt-britain">low-paying jobs</a> such as cleaning, factory work and driving. Created the same year in 1948, the National Health Service (NHS) has been an <a href="https://peopleshistorynhs.org/the-windrush-generation-and-the-nhs-by-the-numbers/">important source of employment</a> for members of the Windrush community since its inception. </p>
<p>Many Caribbean migrants found work in hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities, playing a <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/windrush-and-the-nhs-an-entwined-history/">crucial role</a>
in the development and functioning of the NHS. They contributed their skills, dedication and expertise, helping to shape and improve healthcare provision in the UK.</p>
<p>Some devised ingenious self-help micro-financing schemes such as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42855610">“partners” initiative</a>, where small groups banded together and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7de2eea4-f030-11e9-bfa4-b25f11f42901">shared from the combined pot of money</a> weekly. This is how many of the Windrush generation afforded air fares to send for their families – and how my parents were able to send for me. </p>
<p>The institutional racism and poor conditions endured by the Windrush generation led to people starting their own businesses: barbers and hairdressers, fashion and design, restaurants and cook shops, a variety of trades, market stalls, independent black churches and dancehall music. These businesses were important not just in generating a living, but also in developing flourishing communities and creating black British culture. </p>
<p>In addition to their contribution to the workforce, the Windrush generation and their descendants have made a significant social and cultural impact on British society. They brought with them their Caribbean culture, art, sports, traditions, and customs, enriching the cultural landscape of the United Kingdom. From food and music to fashion, literature, language, and even cricket, <a href="https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/psychology-windrush-style">Caribbean influences</a> became ingrained in British popular culture, fostering a sense of diversity and multiculturalism.</p>
<h2>The Windrush pioneers</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.blackheroesfoundation.org/sam-king-mbe/">Sam King MBE</a> was one of the notable figures of the Windrush generation who played a significant role in the establishment of the annual Windrush Day on 22 June. Born in Jamaica in 1926, he served in the British Army during the second world war before coming to Britain in 1948. King went on to become the first black mayor of Southwark in London, and was involved in a number of community projects and organisations.</p>
<p>Other important Windrush figures include <a href="https://www.bl.uk/windrush/articles/claudia-jones-rebel-heart">Claudia Jones</a>, a political and pioneering journalist; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/10/stuart-hall">Stuart Hall</a>, a cultural theorist and political activist; <a href="https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2661/Morris-Sir-William-Bill.html">Bill Morris</a>, a trade union leader who became the first black general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Commons-British-government">Diane Abbott</a>, who became the first black woman to be elected to the British parliament; and <a href="https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/2020/10/09/tottenhams-own-bernie-grant-mp/">Bernie Grant</a>, who also served as a MP and was a prominent campaigner for racial equality and social justice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young bearded black man addresses a crowd at a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529194/original/file-20230530-15-gf7win.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cultural theorist Stuart Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/the-open-university/15770937271/in/photostream/lightbox/">Open University/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hall was a Jamaican-born British cultural theorist who played a significant role in shaping our understanding of race, identity and culture. Hall argued that identity is not fixed, but rather is constructed through social and cultural practices. He also emphasised the role of power and control in shaping culture.</p>
<p>In the context of the Windrush generation, Hall’s theories are particularly relevant, as they help us to understand the ways in which Caribbean migrants and in particular the Windrush generation identities were constructed and represented in British culture. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i7yP-yN2hpA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The Windrush scandal</h2>
<p>One of the most shameful episodes in this history is the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_NpCX79lkM">Windrush scandal</a>, which saw people who had lived in the UK for decades – including some who had friends who arrived on the Windrush – being wrongly deported or denied access to public services like the NHS.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.bl.uk/windrush/articles/perspectives-on-the-windrush-generation-scandal-an-account-by-amelia-gentleman">British government scandal</a> came to light in 2017, when British citizens of Caribbean descent who had migrated to the UK between 1948 and 1971 were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants. They then faced deportation, detention and some even lost their homes and livelihoods. This gross injustice has affected many lives, highlighting the systemic racism that exists in Britain. Its impact is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/23/windrush-campaigner-paulette-wilson-dies-aged-64">still being felt today</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtmMrae8oLI">Black Lives Matter movement</a> has been instrumental in bringing attention to these issues, and its importance in highlighting the systemic racism in Britain cannot be overstated. The toppling of statues of figures linked to the slave trade and colonialism, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70SI9I1UPk">Edward Colston in Bristol</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_NpCX79lkM">Robert Milligan</a> in London, sparked a wider conversation about decolonisation at all levels of society and the need to confront Britain’s colonial past. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3kMFfR_WcoY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The National Windrush Museum</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.museumsassociation.org/">Museums Association</a> there are about 2,500 museums in Britain. Yet there is no black culture museum or established school curriculum that focuses on the heritage of the Windrush generation. In 2021 I founded the <a href="https://www.nationalwindrushmuseum.com">National Windrush Museum</a> which I chair. The museum plays an important role in collecting, researching, documenting and exhibiting artefacts and stories about the Windrush generation and those who came before and after them.</p>
<p>The museum provides a vital link to the past and a gateway to the future, enabling us to understand and appreciate the contributions of the Windrush generation to Britain. It will also serve as a valuable resource for schools and universities, providing an opportunity for collaboration in the development of curricula, research and study centres and libraries around the world. </p>
<p>Many stories and hidden narratives of the Windrush generation need to be unearthed, told and preserved. As part of the second wave of Windrush settlers and as an academic researcher who innovated the concept of cultural visualisation, this is important work. Cultural visualisation involves the visual research, portrayal and analysis of various aspects of culture, including music, film, fashion, visual arts, dance, literature and more. </p>
<p>My work looks at “doing culture differently” and I wanted this new venture to adopt the idea of “doing museums differently”. The National Windrush Museum provides a life laboratory in which to explore and develop this concept, which I hope will have a significant cultural impact on the heritage sector. </p>
<p>The 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation is a poignant opportunity to shed light on a momentous event in British history so often neglected in our schools. This milestone marks a transformative chapter that reshaped Britain’s fabric and ushered in a vibrant new culture.</p>
<p>The founding of the National Windrush Museum stands as a vital, moving and significant historical moment. By documenting, exhibiting and explaining the enduring legacies of the Windrush generation, the museum becomes a powerful testament to their contributions. Its ethos fills a crucial gap in our understanding of Britain’s history, ensuring that these stories are preserved and celebrated as integral parts of our national narrative.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533175/original/file-20230621-18-hw1fuf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can <em><a href="https://bit.ly/3DdOERY">download the e-book here</a></em>. Thank you for your interest.</p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les Johnson is the founder and chair of the National Windrush Museum.</span></em></p>The Windrush generation has a long and storied history encompassing empire, war, migration, multiculturalism, racism and scandal – a history that has transformed British society and culture.Les Johnson, Visiting Research Fellow, Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903392022-09-12T12:14:58Z2022-09-12T12:14:58ZCharles III faces challenges at home, abroad – and even in defining what it means to be king<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483827/original/file-20220910-7504-rh8iva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C4448%2C2523&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Long to reign over whom and how?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/king-charles-iii-meets-well-wishers-as-he-returns-to-news-photo/1243103398?adppopup=true">Jonathan Brady/WPA Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Charles III <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/09/uk-king-charles-iii-what-to-know/">became the King of the United Kingdom</a> on Sept. 8, 2022, having spent almost all of his 73 years preparing for this role, watching the <a href="https://theconversation.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-a-moderniser-who-steered-the-british-monarchy-into-the-21st-century-159485">example of his mother, Elizabeth II</a>. Yet, he faces an uncertain course as monarch.</p>
<p>The legacy of Charles’ mother <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-elizabeths-death-revives-criticism-britains-legacy-colonialism-rcna46942">is complex</a>. While her presence was a source of stability, the societies over which the British monarchy rules – both in the U.K.’s four home nations and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/due-to-british-colonialism-king-charles-is-now-the-monarch-of-14-countries-in-addition-to-the-uk-following-queen-elizabeths-death/articleshow/94084900.cms">14 additional countries in the Commonwealth</a> – changed much over the 70 years of her reign.</p>
<p>Charles will have to make new choices about what it means to be a modern monarch, just as his mother <a href="https://theconversation.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-a-moderniser-who-steered-the-british-monarchy-into-the-21st-century-159485">adapted to the rapidly changing circumstances</a> of the post-World War II years. His tenure on the throne will be defined by how he responds to new tensions in the relationship between sovereign, nations and people.</p>
<h2>Challenge I: A global king?</h2>
<p>Elizabeth was not just the queen of the United Kingdom. She <a href="https://www.royal.uk/commonwealth-and-overseas">was also the queen</a> of Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Tuvalu, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-a-new-head-of-state-what-will-charles-be-like-as-king-176878">Australia</a> and more than half a dozen other countries. Combined, more people live in these nations than in the U.K. All are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/due-to-british-colonialism-king-charles-is-now-the-monarch-of-14-countries-in-addition-to-the-uk-following-queen-elizabeths-death/articleshow/94084900.cms">now subjects of the new king</a>. </p>
<p>Whether all these countries accept the new king in the same manner in which they accepted his mother remains to be seen. Many became independent nations near the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign during an era of <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/asia-and-africa">rapid decolonization</a> in the 1950s and 1960s. A majority of Britain’s former colonies, including India, Pakistan and all Britain’s African colonies, became republics right before Elizabeth took the throne or in the early years of her reign. In many of these places, the British monarchy was associated with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/world/africa/queen-africa-british-empire.html">worst inequities of the empire</a>. For example, the British Empire in India <a href="https://indianculture.gov.in/stories/delhi-durbars">drew heavily on the symbolism of the British monarch as a paternalistic empress or emperor</a> at the top of a power hierarchy that left no room for Indian sovereignty or political agency.</p>
<p>The post-colonial states that retained the monarchy did so for a number of reasons. It gave new governments a borrowed sense of legitimacy and constitutional flexibility because they could use ambiguity about the power of the queen’s representative, the governor general, a role that can potentially <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2020/November/The_dismissal">wield</a> more <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/national/stephen-harper-to-prorogue-parliament-until-october?r">power</a> than the monarch can in Britain. In the former settler colonies – <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-settler-colonies-australia/#:%7E:text=After%20the%20first%20vessels%20carrying,throughout%20the%20early%2019th%20century.">Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-settler-colonies-new-zealand/">New Zealand</a> and <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-settler-colonies-canada/">Canada</a> – many citizens still spoke of Britain as “home” in the 1950s. This sentiment faded in subsequent decades, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44210833">although it never entirely disappeared</a>. </p>
<p>The tie to the monarchy also held the promise of promoting ongoing economic and political ties with the U.K. This promise was usually illusory: Elizabeth being Grenada’s queen did nothing to stop the <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/military-history/2018/10/25/how-the-invasion-of-grenada-was-planned-with-a-tourist-map-and-a-copy-of-the-economist/">United States from invading it in 1983</a>. </p>
<p>Toward the end of Elizabeth’s reign, countries in the Caribbean in particular were beginning to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/world/americas/queen-elizabeth-jubilee-caribbean.html">reassess their relationship to the British crown</a>. In late 2021, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/barbados-queen-republic-ceremony-prince-charles-rcna6901">Barbados removed Elizabeth as queen</a> and become a republic. In early 2022, Prince William and Kate Middleton were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/25/william-and-kate-caribbean-tour-slavery-reparations-royals">met with protesters</a> when they visited the Caribbean, calling for reparations from the U.K. over its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Elizabeth’s death may serve as an opportunity for other nations to reexamine their relationship with the British monarchy and follow the Barbadian example, once the mourning period ends. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a gaggle of protesters holds a sign that reads 'Reparations Now.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483828/original/file-20220910-7447-t9g2g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests greeted Prince William when he visited the Caribbean in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-holds-a-sign-in-protest-as-she-waits-for-the-arrival-news-photo/1239496828?adppopup=true">Toby Melville/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The head of the monarchy resides in Britain, <a href="https://www.royal.uk/charities-and-patronages-1">supports primarily British charities</a> and sits at the top of British society. Royal members seemingly enjoy visiting their other realms, and many in those nations – especially traditional elites – enjoy the <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/royal-family/page-2">visits</a>. But what these relationships mean is increasingly <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/royal-family/page-4">unclear</a>, especially at a time when many countries are reevaluating their colonial pasts.</p>
<h2>Challenge II: A British king?</h2>
<p>It isn’t just the relationship with countries of the former British empire that has changed over the seven decades of Elizabeth’s rule. The monarchy under Charles will need to adapt to social, political and generational upheaval in Britain itself. The U.K. is made up of almost 70 million people in four <a href="https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/profound-divisions-brexit/">deeply divided nations</a>. They are divided by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160406-how-much-does-social-class-matter-in-britain-today">class</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/10/britain-generational-divide-headache-left-meghan-monarchy">generation</a>, <a href="https://geographical.co.uk/culture/a-country-divided-why-englands-north-south-divide-is-getting-worse">geography</a> and <a href="https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk#:%7E:text=Wealth%20in%20Great%20Britain%20is,contrast%2C%20own%20just%209%25.">economics</a>.</p>
<p>The British political system generally hides these divides more than it reflects them – it is centered in London, with a parliament representing the people of the four home nations: Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.</p>
<p>Brexit <a href="http://ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Public-Opinion.pdf">exposed many of these fractures</a>, renewing the separatist aspirations of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/03/brexit-changed-everything-revisiting-the-case-for-scottish-independence">Scottish nationalists</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/06/brexit-is-a-huge-help-to-irish-republicanism-says-dissident-leader">republicans in Northern Ireland</a>. </p>
<p>The royal family loves Scotland. Their estate at <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a41118691/what-is-balmoral-castle/">Balmoral, Scotland</a> – where Elizabeth died – is their retreat from affairs of state. But it’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/15/scottish-support-for-monarchy-falls-to-45-poll-reveals">not clear that Scotland loves Charles back</a>.</p>
<p>Many critics believe that Charles <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/where-prince-charles-went-wrong">lacks the qualities</a> that endeared Elizabeth to Britons of all social classes. People who met Elizabeth when receiving honors or at Royal Garden Parties projected themselves onto her. Stories in memoirs, articles and autobiographies about meeting her often described her as simultaneously special, but also “<a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/pictures/queen-elizabeth-ii-just-like-us/">like us</a>.” Under Elizabeth, the royal family pushed a public narrative that they are inclusive of all people in their realms.</p>
<p>This image of a royal family for all Britons also took a hit with the departure and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/meghan-tabloids-harry-racist-/2021/03/10/a8777384-818d-11eb-be22-32d331d87530_story.html">ferocious press attacks</a> on Prince Harry and his American wife, Meghan Markle. Reports of <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/08/meghan-markle-prince-harry-oprah-interview-revealed-royal-made-racist-remark-about-archie-skin-tone">racially insensitive comments</a> by a senior royal suggested that the U.K.’s pervasive <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/business/uk-workplace-racism/index.html">culture of passive-aggressive racism</a> goes all the way to the top.</p>
<p>Charles now faces the difficult task, if he wants it, of presenting himself as a monarch for all Britons, regardless of race, social class and nationality.</p>
<h2>Challenge III: A neutral king?</h2>
<p>Finally, Charles faces <a href="https://nation.cymru/opinion/will-king-charles-iii-remain-politically-neutral/">questions about his political neutrality</a>. Elizabeth was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/09/europe/royal-brexit-neutrality">careful not to reveal her political beliefs</a> or personal feelings. She was simultaneously the most public and most private of individuals in Britain during her reign. Her known enthusiasms – her <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/how-queen-elizabeth-ii-lived-out-her-oath-defender-faith-n1298817">piety</a>, patronage of various charities, corgis and horse racing – were seldom controversial or politicized. </p>
<p>Charles has a different public reputation. He has been outspoken in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-09/king-charles-iii-was-once-a-prince-with-a-passion-for-urban-planning">controversies about architecture</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/23/prince-charles-small-scale-family-farms-must-be-at-heart-of-sustainable-future">farming</a>, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/writing-integrity/202202/prince-charles-s-love-affair-alternative-medicine">health</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/will-charles-iii-green-king-prince-climate-crisis">the environment</a> – some of which connect to ongoing political and cultural debates. In 2015, the Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/13/prince-charles-black-spider-memos-lobbying-ministers-tony-blair">published letters showing that Charles had lobbied</a> Tony Blair’s government directly over issues of personal interest to him, including his enthusiasm for alternative medicine. </p>
<p>In being less discreet than his mother about his political views, Charles risks <a href="https://www.royal.uk/queen-and-government">compromising his constitutional role</a> as a monarch who reigns but doesn’t rule. Under Elizabeth, the monarchy was flexible and fluid: becoming or appearing to become what British politicians, traditional elites and its many other publics wanted it to be. If Charles tries to be more proactive than his mother in the political sphere, he will likely alienate people.</p>
<h2>A poisoned chalice?</h2>
<p>If being king in 2022 sounds tricky, it’s because it is. Charles will struggle to serve all his constituencies well. There are many ways he can fail. It’s not even clear what “success” means for a British monarch in the 21st century. Is it influence? Harmony? Reflecting society? Setting a good example? Survival?</p>
<p>For King Charles III, the most meaningful choices may be about letting go as much as holding on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tobias Harper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world changed a great deal in the 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Her son’s legacy may be determined by how he adapts to new dynamics within the UK and across the Commonwealth.Tobias Harper, Assistant Professor of History, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836652022-05-31T10:42:13Z2022-05-31T10:42:13ZIn Jamaica, native trees are being driven further up mountains towards extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464805/original/file-20220523-15124-9dt3ih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2745%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">eric laudonien / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Blue Mountains of Jamaica are frequently covered in a dense blanket of cloud, but when it lifts the first thing you notice is the cloak of forest extending up their steep slopes to the top of the highest peaks. As you walk up through these trees you encounter an incredible diversity of habitats from the high canopies of the lower slopes to the elfin forests of the ridge tops (barely taller than head height). </p>
<p>Yet new evidence shows that two effects of global climate change are combining to threaten these mountain forests. Climate change <a href="https://climateanalytics.org/media/extreme_hurricane_seasons_made_twice_as_likely_by_ocean_warming.pdf">increases the intensity</a> of the strongest hurricanes in the region, and it’s also slowly shifting the range of plant and animal species into previously colder zones, towards the north and south poles and up the slopes of mountains to higher altitudes. </p>
<p>Together with an international team of scientists, we have just published <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06100">new research</a> which shows that, in the Blue Mountains, this species migration was accelerated by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. </p>
<p>Gilbert caused serious damage to the Blue Mountain forests, snapping the branches and trunks of many of the biggest trees. Most resprouted and survived, but the rate of mortality was particularly high for the species that are restricted to the highest altitude forests. The gaps in the canopy opened up by the death of these trees provided the opportunity for new trees to regenerate, but these tended to be species from lower down the mountain slopes. The net result is that the forest is becoming more dominated by lower altitude species, accelerating a process that was already slowly under way due to global warming.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Trees viewed from below" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466062/original/file-20220530-20-851xpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trees damaged by Hurricane Gilbert resprout their crowns a few months later.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Healey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Jamaican Blue Mountains rise to an altitude of 2,256 metres so, at present, there is still forested land further up the slopes for the rare mountain species to migrate to. However, once they become confined to the highest mountain ridges there will be nowhere else to go. The impact of an increase in severe hurricanes like Gilbert will bring that threat of extinction ever closer.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Leaves and white flowers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466058/original/file-20220530-14-2t0r5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Brunfelsia jamaicensis:</em> one of the threatened trees found only in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Bellingham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has the potential to be a major contributor to the global biodiversity crisis, showing yet again how it is inextricably linked to the climate crisis. Gilbert was one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit Jamaica in the last century, but there is strong <a href="https://climateanalytics.org/media/extreme_hurricane_seasons_made_twice_as_likely_by_ocean_warming.pdf">modelling evidence</a> that we will see an increasing number of such intense storms across the Caribbean as a result of climate change. </p>
<p>The Caribbean islands are recognised as one of 36 global <a href="https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/caribbean-islands">biodiversity hotspots</a> and their mountain forests that have avoided deforestation (unlike most of the lowlands) are a particularly important habitat for many endangered species. Lots of the species native to the upper slopes of the Blue Mountains exist nowhere else in the world. Some also exist on a few other Caribbean mountains, but there they will be equally threatened by severe storms.</p>
<h2>Australian invaders</h2>
<p>All this is made even more serious by yet another combination of damaging human impacts on the natural world: the threat of an increase in intense hurricanes and invasion of forests by species we have introduced from other parts of the world. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tall thin trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466065/original/file-20220530-26-eym7sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A degraded area of forest, now dominated by the invasive <em>Pittosporum undulatum</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Healey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Australian tree <em>Pittosporum undulatum</em> (known locally as “mock orange” because of its brightly coloured fruit) was introduced to a botanic garden in the Blue Mountains more than 130 years ago, yet we now know it has become one of the world’s most invasive species. </p>
<p>In Jamaica, its seeds are dispersed far and wide by native birds and the gaps in the canopy of the natural forests across the Blue Mountains caused by Hurricane Gilbert allowed a huge expansion of its invasion. <em>Pittosporum</em> casts a dense shade and our research has <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717313964">shown</a> that it outcompetes many native trees, particularly threatening the high-altitude species that exist nowhere else and are the most vulnerable to global warming.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Seedlings on forest floor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466063/original/file-20220530-12-gw1tmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest floor almost completely covered by seedlings of the invasive species, ruining any chance of regeneration by native trees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Healey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Taken together, this evidence is another strong reason to recognise climate change as a threat to global biodiversity. Stopping climate change will clearly be a long and difficult challenge, yet there are some more immediate steps that would reduce the risk of extinction in Caribbean forests. The most important is to much better regulate the movement between countries of species with any potential to become invasive and to control invasive populations where they have already started to threaten biodiverse natural habitats. </p>
<p>Protecting the remaining high-altitude forests from deforestation and degradation will also buy us more time. But unless we can effectively solve this climate-hurricane-invasive species combination of threats, then conservation in these mountains will fail and we will be reduced to trying to preserve species outside their native habitats in botanic gardens or seed banks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Healey receives funding from a diversity of research funding organisations. His research in Jamaica was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, Department for International Development Forestry Research Programme and the Royal Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edmund Tanner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An invasive Australian tree is exploiting ever-stronger hurricanes.John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences, Bangor UniversityEdmund Tanner, Senior Lecturer (retired), Department of Plant Sciences, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1799112022-03-24T14:30:28Z2022-03-24T14:30:28ZFive ways the monarchy has benefited from colonialism and slavery<p>The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s tour of the Caribbean for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has been criticised over the royals’ connection to colonialism and slavery.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/21/jamaican-campaigners-call-for-colonialism-apology-from-royal-family">open letter</a> by Jamaican public figures says: “We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, has perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind.”</p>
<p>But what has the monarchy got to do with slavery and colonialism? How has it benefited from these systems of exploitation and expropriation? </p>
<h2>1. Funding slavery voyages</h2>
<p>The British monarchy was central to the establishment, expansion, and maintenance of the British empire and the transatlantic slave trade. The declaration of English empire was first made by Henry VIII in 1532. Elizabeth I granted a royal charter (an instrument of incorporation) to <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300096637/sir-john-hawkins">Sir John Hawkins</a>, widely considered one of the first English traders to profit from the slave trade. She also granted a charter to the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2020/01/14/book-review-the-anarchy-the-relentless-rise-of-the-east-india-company-by-william-dalrymple/">British East India Company</a> in 1600.</p>
<p>After Elizabeth’s death, Charles II formed the Royal African Company in 1660, led by the Duke of York (later James II), which extracted goods such as gold and ivory from the Gold Coast, and <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766402686/britains-black-debt/">transported</a> over 3,000 Africans to Barbados. Many of these people had the initials “DY” burned into their skin to signify their belonging to the Duke of York. Both men <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/africa_caribbean/britain_trade.htm">invested</a> private funds in the company.</p>
<p>Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India in 1877, and by 1920 the empire was 13.71 million square miles. The British monarch’s global significance and power stemmed directly from the enslavement of people of colour.</p>
<h2>2. The Commonwealth</h2>
<p>The Commonwealth is an organisation of 52 “independent and equal” member states. Despite this “independent” claim, the Commonwealth has imperial origins. Many of the member states are former colonies of the British empire, and Commonwealth expert <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/empires-new-clothes/">Philip Murphy</a> describes the way imperial became Commonwealth as “haphazard”.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth emerged from post-WWII decolonisation, as a means of reassuring the British public that the <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/British-Culture-and-the-End-of-Empire/978071906048">demise of empire</a> would not diminish Britain’s global prestige. </p>
<p>The Queen is head of the Commonwealth, and Prince Charles was appointed as her successor in 2018. But the position is not hereditary, and there is no constitutional or statutory reason why Charles would take this role. The role of head of the Commonwealth allows the monarch to continue their <a href="http://www.aroomofourown.org/its-time-to-rethink-the-british-empire-state-of-mind/">position</a> of international privilege and influence, which stems from colonial histories.</p>
<h2>3. The Queen as head of state</h2>
<p>The London Declaration, 1949, which addressed India’s position in the Commonwealth as a republic, set the precedent for Commonwealth countries to adopt republicanism. But today, 15 remain constitutional monarchies with Elizabeth II as head of state, including Caribbean islands like Jamaica, South American countries like Belize, African states like Ghana, and Canada and Australia.</p>
<p>Since 1842, each country has nominated a local <a href="https://www.commonwealthofnations.org/?sectors=government/governor_general">governor general</a> as the Queen’s representative, with the power to propose legislation, (dis)prove bills and dissolve parliament. Although the Queen has no “direct” political control in these realms, governor generals could be interpreted as ongoing monarchical administrative power.</p>
<p>Many of these countries, including <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/australian-national-anthem#:%7E:text='God%20Save%20the%20Queen'%20was%20proclaimed%20as%20the%20Royal%20Anthem,the%20Royal%20Family%20is%20present">Australia</a>, Jamaica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Tuvalu still use “God Save the Queen/King” as the national or royal anthem. As sociologist <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/23/the-british-royal-wedding-empire-and-colonialism/">Ty Salandy</a> argues, such cultural texts were used during empire to instil British values and subservience to colonial authority, and their continued use suggests a similar system of values.</p>
<p>In 2021, Barbados <a href="https://theconversation.com/barbados-after-four-centuries-under-the-british-crown-former-slave-island-looks-to-bright-new-republican-future-172892">removed the queen</a> as head of state, officially becoming a republic but remaining part of the Commonwealth. There are <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/world/jamaica-queen-head-of-state-b2041296.html">reports</a> that Jamaica is planning to do the same after the royal visit.</p>
<h2>4. Property, land and goods</h2>
<p>Following the National Trust’s <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/addressing-the-histories-of-slavery-and-colonialism-at-the-national-trust">report</a> into histories of slavery and colonialism in its properties, the chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy Worsley, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lucy-worsley-historic-royal-palaces-review-slave-trade-kensington-palace-tower-of-london-hampton-court-b1391904.html">announced</a> a similar investigation into royal palaces in 2020.</p>
<p>Worsley <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lucy-worsley-historic-royal-palaces-review-slave-trade-kensington-palace-tower-of-london-hampton-court-b1391904.html">said</a> that all properties used by the Stuart dynasty in the 17th century were “going to have an element of money derived from slavery” within them. This includes Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace, which have connections to King William III, another part owner of the Royal African Company.</p>
<p>This is not to mention goods now owned by the monarchy that were stolen during colonisation, such as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/20/koh-i-noor-by-william-dalrymple-and-anita-anand-review">Koh-i-Noor diamond</a> from India used in the Crown Jewels, which Pakistan and India have repeatedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/india-changes-tack-over-return-of-koh-i-noor-diamond">asked</a> to be returned. The <a href="https://www.lumebooks.co.uk/book/the-queens-true-worth/">lack of transparency</a> regarding what the Crown owns versus the Queen’s personal effects makes it even harder to trace these histories. </p>
<h2>5. ‘Our great imperial family’</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.royal.uk/21st-birthday-speech-21-april-1947#:%7E:text=I%20declare%20before%20you%20all,to%20which%20we%20all%20belong.&text=On%20her%20twenty%2Dfirst%20birthday,a%20tour%20of%20South%20Africa.">speech</a> in 1947 in South Africa, then-Princess Elizabeth declared she would devote her life to “service of our great imperial family to which we all belong”. The concept of an “imperial family” reflects the idea of the British monarchy as empire’s figurehead, vested in ideologies of white supremacy and colonialism. </p>
<p>This idea also plays a role in royal international visits. Royal visits have historically had colonialist implications by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2017.1299019">portraying</a> the royal as a white saviour. Media scholar Raka Shome <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p080302">discusses</a> how Diana became a symbol of this in photographs of her playing with and caring for black children in Africa. We can perhaps see this playing out again this week in <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/prince-william-kate-middleton-fence-photos-spark-backlash-jamaica-everything-about-this-wrong-1691048">images</a> of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shaking hands with Jamaican residents through wire fencing. </p>
<p>Such visits attempt to rewrite colonial and imperial histories through discourses of philanthropy and global community, with the royals as “head” of the global family. It is, in essence, good PR.</p>
<h2>A new chapter?</h2>
<p>This only scratches the surface of the monarchy’s connections to colonialism and imperialism. As the PNP Women’s Movement, a Jamaican movement advocating for women and girls, <a href="https://amp.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/over-to-you-kate_246920?profile=1096">wrote</a> in the Jamaican Observer: “We were beaten and broken into believing that our purpose as a nation was to cater to yours.” This is not least in the fact that, as they say, roads were resurfaced and hospitals were cleaned in preparation for the royal visit this week, rather than years earlier for the impoverished black communities who use them every day. </p>
<p>In a speech in Jamaica, Prince William <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60856763">expressed</a> “profound sorrow” over slavery which “forever stains our history”. He stopped short, however, of acknowledging the monarchy’s role in that history, an <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526158758/">institution</a> from which he continues to benefit. In the wake of global movements against racism and colonialism, perhaps it’s finally time for the monarchy to reckon with its history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Clancy has received funding from the ESRC and the AHRC.</span></em></p>An expert on the royal family’s finances explains how they still benefit from historical connections to slavery and empire.Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1683352021-12-22T13:37:29Z2021-12-22T13:37:29ZWindrush, music and memories: how songs of resistance and celebration have shaped who I am<p>Like me, you’ve probably found that listening to old songs can transport you back in time. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amy-Belfi/publication/280908551_Music_evokes_vivid_autobiographical_memories/links/55cfe8e408ae6a881385de23/Music-evokes-vivid-autobiographical-memories.pdf">Memories</a> associated with the music flood your brain and so too can the associated emotions. </p>
<p><a href="https://jbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/jbiol82">Research</a> suggests that because emotions enhance memory processes and music evokes strong emotions, music could help us form memories – either about pieces of music or about experiences associated with particular music.</p>
<p>I experienced this quite recently while I was rummaging through my father’s record collection. I was surprised by how much it affected my emotions. Memories from my childhood came rushing back and I began to really understand the connection between <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Memory-of-Sound-Preserving-the-Sonic-Past/Street/p/book/9781138699168">memory and music</a> – I could clearly see how these records have shaped who I am today.</p>
<p>My dad was the son of a preacher from Dundee Pen, a rural parish in Hanover, Jamaica. He was part of the second wave of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-the-history-of-unbelonging-95021">Windrush generation</a>. He came to Britain with a single aim and a Dulcimena, a type of suitcase. The aim was to return home to Jamaica one day with his wife and build their dream home. He worked hard – first shift work, then nights – meaning that in the 1960s we didn’t see him much except at weekends. That’s when the record collection came out.</p>
<p>Although he was quite religious, his record collection was eclectic, in the sense that alongside <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7dkjW7FzeA">The Grace Thrillers</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ndMZqT6i4I">Jim Reeves</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsYX4RBtbw">Elvis</a>, you would find <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQQCPrwKzdo">Fats Domino</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRc-3oF1d0">Duke Ellington</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFSpSiGueE">Charles Mingus</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x6A662sCMY">Grant Green</a> and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igHp6TjZ2_s">Jimi Hendrix</a> – from whom I eventually learned to play the guitar by slowing down the 45rpm (revolutions per minute) vinyl to 33rpm. </p>
<p>My dad’s friend would bring fresh bun (a sweet, spiced bread often with added dried fruits), coconut drops and hard dough bread with steamed rice and callaloo, a popular Caribbean vegetable dish. Dad had a <a href="https://www.retrotogo.com/2015/10/ebay-watch-midcentury-style-grundig-radiogram.html">Grundig radiogram</a> – something I have inherited. This was his sophisticated sound system. Mine is much more expensive but now too often, ironically, bypassed for my iPhone and Spotify.</p>
<p>The post-Jamaican independence songs of the mid-1960s and 1970s like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdF1pKeujw8">“Feel no Pain”</a> (1973), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpVxwWQjIy0">“007 - Shanty Town”</a> (1967), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1SoFBlwyYI&list=PLbFh4CNLcHWxMu_XQpHvFk4cb3Phkwwju">“You Can Get It If You Really Want”</a> (1970) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMSgfPgKgvc">“The Harder they Come, the Harder they Fall”</a> (1972) were our favourites, and stood for us, at the time, as the personification of resistance songs. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QnJFhuOWgXg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>After all, Jamaica was independent, so we could sing, dance and celebrate, in the moment, while still coexisting alongside the harsh realities of British society and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/21/windrush-institutional-racism-hostile-environment">institutional racism</a>. Through music, we soon learned that British colonial links to Jamaica were not entirely severed. With the growing popularity of pirate radio music, songs like Bob Marley’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UubfH-1S43k">Get Up Stand Up”</a> (1973) and Linton Kwesi-Johnson’s album <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPwFQfznjmE">“Forces of Victory”</a> (1978) were getting to the masses – articulating the frustrations of racial injustice and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRbcFNhDFeA">unfair stop and search laws</a>. </p>
<p>Although my dad’s record collection was inspirational, it was our family friend Herman, who had the more radical collection. He had retired from serving in the army and owned a cool 1970 BMW 02 E10. His record collection was much larger and varied: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW2nk18F72w">Big Youth</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Znh0OM9jiA">Jimmy Cliff</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW7X0g1E2A4">King Tubby</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjAXSYQRpQ8">Pablo</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q429AOpL_ds">Shaft</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmo6MRYf5g">Curtis Mayfield</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrPNwLuk0zQ">Rick James</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZvoOqUkqw">The Isley Bros</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJFhuOWgXg">Gil Scott Heron</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW37ccX3Pwg">Cymanide</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk1LBvIqU">Miles Davis</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll3CMgiUPuU&t=87s">John Coltrane</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx_OrjGn9lo">War</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOZ8LmYVcVA">Danibelle</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dY4sppiKug">Walter Hawkins</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTQlhXij66g">Last Poets</a> are just a few examples of the Black music he played from a large jazz, blues and gospel collection. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H-kA3UtBj4M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>There was a constant theme of self-empowerment and fighting the power in his selections. We argued about this: whose approach to combating racial and social injustice was better, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U6Y4RmxC9o">Malcolm X’s</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s">Martin Luther King Jr.’s</a>? Both <a href="https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-lives-of-malcolm-x-and-martin-luther-king-the-firebrand-and-the-pacifist">radical visionaries</a>, Martin Luther King was often seen as a nonviolent pacifist, while Malcolm X was characterised as a political renegade – both <a href="https://www.livescience.com/martin-luther-king-jr-and-malcolm-x-similarities.html">stereotypes that were not necessarily correct</a>.</p>
<h2>Rebel music as pop music</h2>
<p>As pop music culture developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it evolved and was often <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/abs/sound-effects-youth-leisure-and-the-politics-of-rock-n-roll-by-simon-frith-new-york-pantheon-books-1981-294-pp/054A540129407B6239F46123C62FCF38">expressed as protest music</a>. Artists like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE">Neil Young</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90WD_ats6eE">Bob Dylan</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3LFML_pxlY">Simon and Garfunkel</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw">Joni Mitchell</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0zaebtU-CA">The Beatles</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEjkftp7J7I">The Rolling Stones</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuYnDFNGHMg">Lou Reed</a> and many other popular music groups of the period were widely regarded as anti-establishment. </p>
<p>This explosion of political and cultural expression in popular music culture was, in many cases, inspired by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-soundtrack-of-the-sixties-demanded-respect-justice-and-equality-105640">protest rhetoric</a> from Black musicians. Teenage rebellion galvanised an explosion of new fashions, outlooks and views. This coincided with the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/black-power-movement-civil-rights">civil rights and Black Power movement</a> in the US, which through Black music, articulated struggles, innovations and celebrations of Black life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q3SjqGfe-yM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>By looking back at my dad’s music collection, I understand more clearly that the music I listened to as a child has, in part, shaped my personality. It also provided an important emotional shield and an internal power that helped arm me in the struggles that <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-and-ahmaud-arbery-deaths-racism-causes-life-threatening-conditions-for-black-men-every-day-120541">Black people still experience</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe you might like to take a moment to think about your own experiences listening to music – how a song, playlist, album, cover, concert or performance has impacted you and is still deeply rooted in your memory. I would love to hear what tracks or albums have influenced you and your life story – along with why – in the comments below.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By looking back at my dad’s music collection I understand more clearly that the music I listened to as a child shaped my personality, destiny and view of the world.Les Johnson, Visiting Research Fellow, Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1569042021-03-18T13:40:27Z2021-03-18T13:40:27ZHow Bunny Wailer brought innovation and Rastology to the Jamaican music renaissance<p>The <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bunny-wailer-obit-1035643/">recent death of Bunny Wailer</a>, the last surviving founding member of the Wailers has seen outpourings of grief and appreciation all over the world. But in the wake of the <a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/bunny-wailer/14242">triple Grammy award-winner’s</a> passing at 73, the pioneer’s contributions to reggae are being revisited by those who understand the full scope of his impact on reggae – and many more genres besides.</p>
<p>I met Bunny during the Wailers’ 1973 UK tour in Manchester, when members included Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny himself. My student band wanted to replicate the reggae sound we heard in songs like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB8EwEeOZ9U">Stir it Up</a>, when Bunny and Peter sang harmonious backing vocals for Bob. </p>
<p>Bunny was deep and considered when talking about his music, checking to see if we understood the central messages of resistance, Rastafarianism and black liberation. The Wailers were about to change the face of popular music then. But to grasp how they shaped their iconic sound, you should understand the surroundings that moulded them as musicians.</p>
<h2>The birth of the Wailers</h2>
<p>Bunny was born Neville O’Riley Livingston in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/04/bunny-wailer-obituary">Kingston, Jamaica, on April 10 1947</a>. He moved to the district of Nine Mile, a rural region in the St Ann parish of Jamaica, as a child. It was there that he met Bob years before either of them made their stamp on the world. </p>
<p>St Ann’s strong history of producing other luminaries, such as <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1923-marcus-garvey-last-word-incarceration/">pan African leader</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Garvey">Marcus Garvey</a>, would’ve provided fertile ground for Bunny’s budding interest in black power and independence politics. Moving from the tranquil, “easy-living” countryside of Nine Mile to the harshness of downtown Kingston would’ve had a similar effect on Bunny’s views and music, strengthening those interests into something more concrete through the city’s proliferation of sound systems and recording studios. </p>
<p>By 1957, Bunny and Bob began to learn their craft through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/dec/21/guardianobituaries">Joe Higgs</a>, an influential musician and producer who worked with famous sound system innovator and record producer <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56256885">Coxsone Dodd</a>. While developing, mentoring and recording new music talent in the 1960s, Higgs introduced the pair to Peter Tosh, who became the third original Wailers’ member.</p>
<h2>Jamaica’s music renaissance</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://osmiumcollection.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-wailers-bob-marley-peter-tosh-and.html">three teenagers</a> were stimulated by the fast-paced 1960s Kingston music scene, where enterprising musicians and budding entrepreneurs developed new styles like ska, rocksteady, roots reggae and dub, setting trends that became popular and eventually influenced global music. Suddenly, after years of relative obscurity, Jamaican musicians, producers and songwriters had opportunities to promote and distribute their records into the UK and then around the world. </p>
<p>This mindset of innovation was the backbone of Jamaican sound systems. As well as the wider Jamaican music industry, the Kingston scene also shaped the early Wailers’ ska sound. By 1964, Bob, Bunny and Peter had their first number one hit in Jamaica, “Simmer Down”, a message to gangs in Kingston to “cool down” crime and political-related violence.</p>
<p>By the time the Barrett brothers joined the band to play drum and bass, the Wailers’ sound had evolved from ska to an intoxicating mix of political lyricism, strong rhythms, rock guitar riffs and synthesisers. This formed the basis of roots reggae (as heard on the Wailers’ fifth album, Catch a Fire).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17266345-rastafari">Rastology</a> (a term used by scholars and Rastas to represent Rastafarian philosophy, spirituality, lifestyle and cultural practices) has remained a constant throughout the genre. As reggae and its sub-genres like dub and dancehall have evolved, Rastology has been appropriated and expressed through what I term “sonic livity”. </p>
<p>In Rastology, “livity” denotes the <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0195133765.001.0001/acprof-9780195133769-chapter-5">Rastafarian way of living</a> and being. It’s the consciousness that flows from the belief, experience and expression of Jah (God) in oneself. This is often voiced in Rasta vernacular as “I and I”. The first “I” describes Jah (God) connecting to the second “I”, the individual. </p>
<p>The “I and I” relationship is believed to be intensified through sonics (sound frequency vibrations). Whether expressed through <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/subdivisions/nyahbinghi.shtml">Nyabinghi drumming</a>, worship, singing, rhythms, dub or sound systems, sonic livity aims to be upful (positive) and intentional music created to promote “one love” in humanity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z0HDMH5l4Lo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>When Bunny left the Wailers in 1973 following a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bunny-wailer-obit-1035643/">creative clash of ideas</a> with the group, he grounded himself even further in these concepts, rooting himself in Jamaica, where he continued to live his semi-rural Rastafarian lifestyle. His first album, Blackheart Man (1976), shows the extent of that influence, with songs like <a href="https://youtu.be/XYPEsP05VJc">Fighting Against Conviction (Battering Down Sentence)</a> reinforcing his ideas and experiences about Rastafarianism, black identity and politics.</p>
<p>Bunny’s peers (<a href="https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/music/2021/03/03/bunny-wailer-passing-of-a-legend/">some of whom also died recently</a>) were also integral to Jamaica’s musical renaissance following the country’s 1962 independence from the UK. The likes of Desmond Dekker, Alton Ellis, Marcia Griffiths, Toots and the Maytals, U Roy, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Milly Small and others created catalogues of musical hits that anchored Jamaica’s place in global pop culture. Through the work of musicians like these, reggae has been recognised by UNESCO as an <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/reggae-music-of-jamaica-01398">“intangible cultural heritage of humanity”</a> worthy of protection and preservation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LRb7mprbj54?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In the past decade, a new generation of young Jamaican musicians like Protoje, Jah9, Chronixx, Jessie Royal, Koffee, Kelissa and Kabaka Pyramid have emerged, inspired by roots reggae musicians like Bunny Wailer. There’s a resurgence of “conscious reggae” – reggae music with life-affirming, positive and political lyrics. </p>
<p>With lines like “Africa inna we soul but a Jah inna we heart”, Protoje’s hit song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzqFmXZ8tOE">Who Knows</a> is a perfect example. Songs like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUREgj4i684">“I Can”</a> by Chronixx and “In The Midst” by Jah9 also echo sentiments of Jah, love, self-development and liberation, all of which appeared throughout Bunny’s discography.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j3f7jwS6nCw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>By embracing social and new technology <a href="https://www.vogue.com/projects/13362670/reggae-revival-jamaica-chronixx-protoje-roots-music%22%22">emerging reggae artists</a> are pushing the boundaries of the genre, reaching wider audiences and continuing in the tradition of spreading spirituality and positivity through song. With few of the pioneers of the genres that inspired this new cohort left, it seems their messages about resistance, equality, black power, and social justice have endured.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The last original Wailer may have died, but the musician’s lasting influence on music is clearLes Johnson, Visiting Research Fellow, Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1512612020-12-09T15:53:35Z2020-12-09T15:53:35ZMen deported to Jamaica are being set up for failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373884/original/file-20201209-15-rce5vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4134%2C2822&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webgate.epa.eu/thumb.php/54301240.jpg?eJw1jjEOwjAMRe_imcF1nRCyoS5FoiBRJGBCSdywIAZKJ8rdMa2Ynr7fl-03VGvwOdz7bgFVDR5AeQZfKC4TthvwpNip7B6369AH7TSaDJdYEOMvHqduO1XbCjwrmnmm6vUcdP9p1gfwS0SNzV_sVYDYTiSGIhEnx6WEzEkYU2QX88qWekVfBUJDZiQkdGMUZ6yNzpmMyGLg8wV-1DN8">Andy Rain/EPA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the second time in 2020, the media spotlight has fallen on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/02/home-office-proceeds-with-disputed-jamaica-deportation-flight">deportation of a group of men</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/jamaica-7637">Jamaica</a>, many of whom had lived in Britain for a substantial part of their lives. </p>
<p>As with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/uk-home-office-40752">Home Office’s</a> deportation flight in February 2020, some of these men had been convicted of offences and had served sentences handed down by the British legal system. As Jamaican-born, “foreigners”, their status never allowed for redemption. Instead, the state’s decision to resort to deportation means they are punished twice: first, through a prison sentence, then, sometimes years later, through a sentence of exile and separation from their relatives, partners and children in Britain. </p>
<p>Despite legal challenges and campaigning, many of these people are forced into a return to a country they left in many cases over two decades ago, often as children. A country that had ceased, in most senses, to be home.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-the-history-of-unbelonging-95021">Windrush generation: the history of unbelonging</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Several media outlets have used the term <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews/13346668/jamaican-criminal-deportation-charged-with-murder/">“foreign criminals”</a> to describe these men. They take their cue from statements from the Home Office, which justify deportation as <a href="https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2020/11/30/deportation-and-charter-flights-factsheet/">“public protection”</a>. Their status as fathers, sons, brothers, as members of hardworking, loving, contributing communities is entirely absent from these hostile representations. The label “foreign criminal” denies their humanity and denies that they belong within the border. This one-dimensional idea travels with the deportees, further limiting their integration possibilities and life chances on their return to Jamaica.</p>
<h2>Lack of transparency in decision making</h2>
<p>If <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/02/home-office-proceeds-with-disputed-jamaica-deportation-flight">37 of the 50</a> people deemed deportable by the state were removed from the cohort days, hours even, before the flight, it brings into question the very legality of the deportation process. Initial legal challenges against deportation were largely successful, yet the outcome was the same: a rushed removal process that failed to recognise the rights of the proposed deportees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman in red crossing road on busy street in Kingston Jamaica" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373887/original/file-20201209-16-1niphq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The notion of the ‘foreign criminal’ in Jamaica precedes recent deportation flights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kingston-jamaica-march-2017-people-walking-1013547109">delaflow/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was also talk of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/29/jamaicans-came-to-uk-children-left-off-deportation-flight">quiet deal with the Jamaican government</a> to exclude anyone from deportation who was under 12 years old when they came to the UK. The opacity of this decision and the apparently random limitation of “childhood” to under 12 years illustrates the inconsistency of these deportation decisions.</p>
<h2>In a vulnerable place</h2>
<p>Jamaica, like the rest of the Caribbean, is in many senses a migration-dependent society. Many decades of migration and remittances (money and goods sent home by migrants) have created an intolerance of empty-handed returnees. Success is measured in your ability to sustain your presence abroad and by extension, return must be a wealthy one.</p>
<p>Returnees, whether on a short or long-term basis, encounter expectant residents. Migrants are expected to return “with something tangible”, to be generous. At times this dissuades people from visiting as they feel unable to meet expectations. Narratives of “empty letter from foreign” are ubiquitous. Migrants who come back with “empty pockets” are seen as unwelcome, failures even.</p>
<p>The notion of the “foreign criminal” (widely circulated by the British state via the Home Office and in the British media) precedes the deportation flight, exacerbating the <a href="https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Crime-and-Violence-in-Jamaica-IDB-Series-on-Crime-and-Violence-in-the-Caribbean.pdf">“cloud of fear and insecurity”</a> created by existing high crime rates in Jamaica. </p>
<p>In their report for the Inter-American Development Bank, Anthony D. Harriott, professor of political sociology at the University of the West Indies and Marlyn Jones, criminal justice professor at California State University, Sacramento, note that homicide rates in Jamaica peaked in 2009 at 62 per 100,000, the sixth-highest rate in the world. After a decline in crime rates after 2009, the number of homicides increased between 2013 and 2017, <a href="https://statinja.gov.jm/Demo_SocialStats/Justice%20and%20Crime.aspx">according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Nanny Maroon on Jamaican currency" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373890/original/file-20201209-16-1v95j19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most deportees live in poverty and do not have access to wealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jamaican-dollar-banknotes-close-view-723263458">Pearl-diver/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2006, the late Jamaican scholar Professor Bernard Headley usefully contextualised the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768350?casa_token=pGzcShR6iaYAAAAA%3AVL2O3UZ_GJfH6sERvKUYK4zarFlPbiLxDLiK-lcfx93KZANjWAtG7GWAVrfX-Nt1uCsKSUS1S2YI9Xv0pWLjvfvpMrFtVhmYzhN359qLr39h8D4KNEDOIw&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“deportee phenomenon”</a> within the wider reality of increasingly high crime rates affecting Jamaican society. The associated “blame narrative” which dominated Jamaican media and official government statements at the time incorporated deportees, often without substantiation, as “an indistinguishable lot of ‘rejects’ sent back home to recreate for themselves disquieting, violent existences – in a land they departed years ago”. </p>
<p>Those issues still persist. Few in Jamaica would welcome arrivals with the “deportee” label. In a relatively small society, it is difficult to arrive discreetly. Rumours abound – and news of the deportation of “criminals from England” is likely to define the experience of the arrivals.</p>
<p>The majority of deportees are poor and do not have wealthy connections who could or would wield influence on their behalf in Jamaica. Funding to the National Organisation of Deported Migrants (NODM), the main source of support to deportees in Jamaica, has faced severe <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilydugan/home-office-nodm-jamaica-funding">funding cuts</a> over the past couple of years. </p>
<p>As Luke De Noronha, the Simon Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, wrote in his 2019 paper, <a href="https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/deportation-racism-and-multistatus-britain-immigration-control-and-the-production-of-race-in-the-present(57fdb009-386e-466c-a5ae-c823f465f882).html">Deportation, racism and multi-status Britain: immigration control and the production of race in the present</a>, support from local charities is critical to the survival of returnees. But, according to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29790973?seq=1">research published in 2010 by</a> Christopher A D Charles, a professor in political and social psychology at the University of the West Indies, a combination of displacement from their home and family in Britain, few relatives in Jamaica combined with hostility from the local state and society given the deportation process and the “criminal” label leaves deportees with few options.</p>
<p>Though relatives and friends can be helpful in some deportees’ experiences, long term, the outlook is not good. Deportees tend to survive on financial help from relatives in the UK, while being painfully aware of the increased pressure on those family members in Britain, as well as their own failure to provide. Communication is difficult as telephone and internet charges are more expensive and face-to-face contact is limited. Visits from Britain seem impossibly expensive. The resulting transnational households, stretched across international borders, are fragile. </p>
<p>With these issues to contend with – and at this particularly cruel time of COVID-19 in Britain and Jamaica – the ability to help a deported partner, parent or relative is severely reduced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Byron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Britain’s widely circulated notion of the ‘foreign criminal’ has generated an atmosphere of hostility in Jamaica.Margaret Byron, Associate Profesor in Human Geography, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1306692020-09-29T12:31:30Z2020-09-29T12:31:30ZArchaeologists determined the step-by-step path taken by the first people to settle the Caribbean islands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360064/original/file-20200925-22-vgu7h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=300%2C84%2C4533%2C3076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What route did the first settlers to colonize the islands of the Caribbean take?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/caribbean-royalty-free-image/132280669">M.M. Swee/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the millions of people around the world who live on islands today, a plane or boat can easily enough carry them to the mainland or other islands.</p>
<p>But how did people in the ancient past first make it to distant islands they couldn’t even see from home? Many islands around the world can be reached only by traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles across open water, yet nearly all islands that people live on were settled by between 800 to 1,000 years ago.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cVLYtvoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Archaeologists</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=o60SujYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tTV6YEoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">us</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ZMMqNV4AAAAJ">want</a> to understand why people would risk their lives to reach these far-off places, what kinds of boat and navigational methods they used, and what other technologies they invented to make it. Islands are important places to study because they hold clues about human endurance and survival in different kinds of environments.</p>
<p>One of the most interesting places to study these processes is the Caribbean, the only region of the Americas where people settled an archipelago with some islands not visible from surrounding areas. Despite more than a century of research, there are still many questions about the origins of the first Caribbean people, when they migrated and what routes they took. My colleagues and I recently reanalyzed archaeological data collected over 60 years to answer these fundamental questions.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m12!1m3!1d7553319.441548388!2d-71.37711166322626!3d17.889665776718633!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!5e1!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1600452465707!5m2!1sen!2sus" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0;" allowfullscreen="" aria-hidden="false" tabindex="0"></iframe>
<h2>Settling the islands one by one</h2>
<p>Based on the discovery of unique stone tools and food remains such as shells and bones, archaeologists have a general understanding that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/2055557115Y.0000000010">people first spread throughout the Caribbean</a> in a series of migrations that probably began at least 7,000 years ago and likely originated from northern South America.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/On-Land-and-Sea,1478.aspx">Amerindians paddled between islands</a> in dugout canoes and were remarkably adept at open-water travel. Archaeologists don’t know what inspired people to first colonize the Caribbean islands, but we do know they brought plants and animals from the mainland, like manioc and oppossum, to help ensure their survival. </p>
<p>There are two main ideas about what happened. For decades, the prevailing notion was that people migrated from South America into the Antilles in a south-to-north “stepping-stone” pattern. Because the islands stretch in a gentle arc from Grenada all the way up to Cuba in the northwest – <a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Archaeology-and-Geoinformatics,114.aspx">with many largely visible from one to the next</a> – this would seem to provide a convenient path for early settlers.</p>
<p>This hypothesis, however, has been challenged by evidence that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/320012">some of the earliest sites are in the northern islands</a>. Analyses of wind and ocean currents suggest that it was actually easier to travel directly between South America and the northern Caribbean before moving in a southerly direction. Researchers call this proposal of a north-to-south migration the “southward route” hypothesis.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="archeologists excavating with the sea in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358882/original/file-20200918-14-1487jzo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For decades, archaeologists have been excavating artifacts on these islands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Fitzpatrick</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Revisiting previous scientists’ date data</h2>
<p>Figuring out which model for settling the Caribbean best fits the evidence depends on being able to assign accurate dates to human activity preserved in the archaeological record. To do this, researchers need a lot of reliable dates from many different sites throughout the islands to establish how, when and from where people landed.</p>
<p>Archaeologists typically use <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">a technique called radiocarbon dating</a> to figure out how old an artifact is. When an organism dies, it stops producing carbon and its remaining carbon decays at a fixed rate of time – archaeologists say “death starts the clock.” By measuring the amount of carbon left in the organism and then performing a few additional calculations, scientists are left with a probable age range for when that organism died.</p>
<p>Archaeologists often date things like food remains, charcoal from cooking hearths or wood in the building where they are found. If archaeologists date shells found in a trash heap, they can tell, usually within a range of 25 to 50 years or so, when that shellfish was harvested for a meal.</p>
<p>We recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar7806">reevaluated about 2,500 radiocarbon dates</a> from hundreds of archaeological sites on more than 50 Caribbean islands. </p>
<p>Archaeologists have been radiocarbon dating findings in the Caribbean since the 1950s – when the radiocarbon technique was first discovered. But dating methods and the standards scientists follow have improved dramatically since then. Part of our job was to see if each of the 2,500 radiocarbon dates available would meet today’s standards. Dates that did not meet those standards were thrown out, leaving us with a smaller database of only the most reliable times for human activity.</p>
<h2>Determining where people lived first</h2>
<p>By statistically analyzing these remaining dates, we confirmed that Trinidad was the first Caribbean island settled by humans, at least 7,000 years ago. However, Trinidad is so close to South America that only simple – or even no – boats were needed to get there.</p>
<p>After Trinidad, the oldest settlements occurred between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago in the northern Caribbean on the large islands of the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Reaching them would have required crossing passages of water where no islands were visible to the naked eye, although navigators rely on other wayfinding techniques – like current, cloud patterns, seeing birds fly in a certain direction – to know if land is out there. By around 2,500 years ago, people had spread out to settle other islands in the northern Lesser Antilles, including Antigua and Barbuda.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map of Caribbean showing order in which islands were settled, from north to south" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358878/original/file-20200918-14-619act.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of years after Trinidad, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were settled, colonists reached islands in the northern Antilles, bypassing islands in the southern Lesser Antilles, depicted with green SRH arrows for ‘southern route hypothesis.’ The stepping-stone model, depicted with SS arrow, is refuted by the new analysis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar7806">'Reevaluating human colonization of the Caribbean using chronometric hygiene and Bayesian modeling,' M. F. Napolitano et al, Science Advances, Dec. 18, 2019</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on these data, the patterns of initial settlement of the Caribbean are most consistent with the southward route hypothesis. </p>
<p>Around 1,800 years ago, a new wave of people also moved from South America into the Lesser Antilles, colonizing many of the remaining uninhabited islands. About 1,000 years later, their descendants moved into the smaller islands of the Greater Antilles and Bahamian archipelago. This is when Jamaica and the Bahamas were settled for the first time.</p>
<p>Our research findings also support the widely held view that environment played a significant role in how and when islands were settled.</p>
<p>Archaeologists know that once people settled islands, they frequently moved between them. Not all islands are the same, and some offered more or better resources than others. For example, in the Bahamas and the Grenadines, the primary <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/crb.2012.0030">way to access freshwater</a> is by digging wells; there are no streams or springs. Some islands <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.08.033">lacked clay for making pottery</a>, which was important for cooking and storing food. People may have also traveled to different islands to access preferred fishing or hunting spots or seek out marriage partners.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Strong seasonal winds and currents facilitated travel between islands. That’s also probably one of the reasons why Caribbean people never developed the sail or other seafaring technologies that were used in the Pacific, Mediterranean and North Atlantic around the same time. Dugout canoes crossed between South America and the islands just fine.</p>
<p>Interpretations of past human behavior at archaeological sites are anchored by radiocarbon dates to study change over time. For archaeologists, it’s important to periodically take another look at the data to make sure that the narratives built on those data are reliable. Our review of the radiocarbon record for the Caribbean allowed us to show – with increased accuracy – the ways in which the region was first colonized by people, how they interacted and moved between islands, and how their societies developed following initial colonization.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew F Napolitano is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oregon. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Stone is an affiliated researcher with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert DiNapoli is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Harpur College at Binghamton University and an affiliated researcher with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Fitzpatrick is a Professor of Archaeology and Associate Director of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon.</span></em></p>Did people settle these islands by traveling north from South America, or in the other direction? Reanalyzing data from artifacts discovered decades ago provides a definitive answer.Matthew F. Napolitano, Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology, University of OregonJessica Stone, Affiliated Researcher in the Department of Anthropology, University of OregonRobert DiNapoli, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Archaeology, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkScott Fitzpatrick, Professor of Anthropology + Associate Director, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1403132020-07-10T12:22:17Z2020-07-10T12:22:17ZHow one woman pulled off the first consumer boycott – and helped inspire the British to abolish slavery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345871/original/file-20200706-4008-13wey8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An illustration of a sugar plantation in Antigua.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_plantations_in_the_Caribbean#/media/File:The_Mill_Yard_-_Ten_Views_in_the_Island_of_Antigua_(1823),_plate_V_-_BL.jpg">The British Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While many companies have <a href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/companies-donating-black-lives-matter/">trumpeted their support for the Black Lives Matter movement</a>, others are beginning to face consumer pressure for <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/07/magazine/why-words-arent-enough-companies-claiming-support-black-lives-matter/">not appearing to do enough</a>.</p>
<p>For example, some people are advocating a consumer boycott of Starbucks over an <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/boycott-starbucks-coffee-giant-slammed-for-banning-black-lives-matter-gear-2020-06-11">internal memo that prohibits employees</a> from wearing gear that refers to the movement. And advocates are urging supporters to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/18/boycotts-people-plan-stop-spending-stores-dont-support-blm/3208170001/">target other companies</a> under the Twitter tag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boycott4blacklives&src=typed_query">#boycott4blacklives</a>.</p>
<p>Consumers boycotts, which put power into the hands of people of even modest income and can lend a sense of “doing something” in the face of injustice, have a mixed track record. There have been some notable successes, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/consumer-boycott">consumer-led efforts to end apartheid in South Africa</a>. But others, such as boycotts of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/business/nra-boycotts.html">National Rifle Association</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/26/how-much-does-bds-threaten-israels-economy/">of Israel</a>, have yielded little.</p>
<p>But it may hearten Black Lives Matter consumer activists to learn that the first-ever boycott – organized <a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-invented-boycott">over 50 years before the term</a> was even coined – was ultimately a success, if not in the way the woman behind it intended. <a href="http://www.tomzoellner.com/">I stumbled upon</a> this history during research for my just-published book <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984301&content=bios">about the end of slavery</a> in the British Caribbean.</p>
<h2>Blood sugar</h2>
<p>In the 1820s, <a href="http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/146/Elizabeth-Heyrick-">Elizabeth Heyrick</a> felt disgust over Britain’s enslavement of people on islands such as Barbados and Jamaica in the West Indies, where large sugar plantations <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zjyqtfr/revision/2">produced virtually all</a> the sugar consumed in Western Europe. </p>
<p>Although England banned the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-slavery/chronology-who-banned-slavery-when-idUSL1561464920070322">British Atlantic slave trade in 1807</a>, it still permitted people to own slaves in its colonies in the early 19th century. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Heyrick joined the <a href="https://blog.bham.ac.uk/legalherstory/2018/03/15/elizabeth-heyrick-and-the-birmingham-ladies-society-for-the-relief-of-negro-slaves/">abolition movement</a> from a position of privilege and wealth. But after an early marriage to a hothead husband ended with his death in 1797, she <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/research/womens-writing-in-the-midlands-1750-1850/elizabeth-heyrick">converted to Quakerism</a> and vowed to give up “all ungodly lusts.” She eventually found a passion for the antislavery movement, though with marked frustration for the slow-moving process of pushing bills through the English Parliament.</p>
<p>Contemptuous of the male abolitionists in Parliament whom she regarded as too willing to appease the wealthy slaveholders who clung to slavery as an economic pillar, Heyrick launched a campaign to get ordinary Britons to quit using the sugar produced on these islands and for grocers not to carry it.</p>
<p>If people must have the “sweet dust,” she said, they should <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/not-made-by-slaves-ambivalent-origins-of-ethical-consumption/">at least make sure</a> it was grown in Britain’s colonies in the East Indies – Bengal and Malaya – where canefield laborers were impoverished but <a href="https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/new-research-guide-on-slavery-in-the-former-dutch-east-indies">at least technically free</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A printed illustration of sugar cane in Jamaica in the 1800s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cutting-the-sugar-canes-sugar-culture-in-jamaica-engraving-news-photo/932206586?adppopup=true">Biblioteca Ambrosiana/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her campaign involved writing a series of <a href="https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/sources/antislavery/sugarboycott/sugboycott.html">booklet-sized polemics</a>. In one such broadside, she asked those who favored gradual emancipation to reflect “that greater victories have been achieved by the combined expression of individual opinion than by fleets and armies; that greater moral revolutions have been accomplished by the combined exertions of individual resolution than were ever effected by acts of Parliament.”</p>
<p>Heyrick <a href="https://www.inist.org/library/1824-00-00.Heyrick.Immediate%20not%20gradual%20abolition.pdf">pulled no rhetorical punches</a>: </p>
<p>“Let the produce of slave labor henceforth and for ever be regarded as ‘the accursed thing’ and refused admission to our houses,” she wrote. “Abstinence from one single article of luxury would annihilate the West Indian slavery!!”</p>
<p>Her focus on citizen-driven change through deliberate consumer activism was unpopular with her contemporaries who preferred negotiations among government officials to achieve their ends. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster advertised a chapel service in celebration of the abolition of slavery in 1838.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Abolition_of_Slavery_The_Glorious_1st_of_August_1838.jpg">The National Library of Wales.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Baptist War</h2>
<p>Heyrick grew despondent with the seeming lack of progress from her boycott effort and died in 1831 <a href="http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_31.html">without seeing her goal of “imminent emancipation” achieved</a>. Her passing was barely noticed by British newspapers, yet her efforts would come to bear astonishing results very soon after her death.</p>
<p>Heyrick could not have known that an enslaved Baptist deacon in Jamaica named Samuel Sharpe was – while she was pushing for a boycott – reading about the anti-slavery movement she did so much to fuel, almost certainly including the “Quit Sugar” movement.</p>
<p>Heartened by the news that many people in the faraway capital of the empire were actually sympathetic to him and his fellows, he began to formulate his own <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/baptist-war-1831-1832/">revolutionary vision</a> and preached about it and his plans for rebellion to select groups of elite slaves.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984301">Sharpe’s rebellion</a>, known as the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/baptist-war-1831-1832/">Baptist War</a>, began on Dec. 27, 1831. The <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984301">uprising lasted less than two weeks</a> and resulted in the destruction of dozens of buildings and killing of at least 500 slaves – both during the fighting and in reprisals. A giant pit had to be dug outside Jamaica’s Montego Bay to hold all the bodies. Sharpe was <a href="https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/samuel-sharpe/">hanged</a> a few months later. </p>
<p>But the mere demonstration of military competence – the rebels defeated the island militia in at least one head-to-head confrontation – made an impression like no other uprising had before and helped inspire the British Parliament to pass the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavery-Abolition-Act">Slavery Abolition Act of 1833</a>, which abolished slavery in the West Indies. <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-west-indian-colonies-and-emancipation/">Full freedom wasn’t achieved</a> until 1838.</p>
<p>The headlines of 19th century newspapers thus performed a double-function as they crossed the Atlantic. News of the sugar boycott helped inspired enslaved people to revolt, and news of their visceral unhappiness to the point of mayhem helped inspire the British Parliament to push for immediate abolition – which is what Heyrick had been saying all along.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Zoellner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of slavery in the British Empire describes the first boycott against sugar made with slave labor in the West Indies.Tom Zoellner, Professor of English, Chapman UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1407542020-06-22T12:50:56Z2020-06-22T12:50:56ZBlack Lives Matter in Jamaica: debates about colourism follow anger at police brutality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342956/original/file-20200619-43205-eprot3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C1691%2C931&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Black Lives Matter protest in Kingston, Jamaica on June 6. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTVe3j6_SX0">Jamaica Gleaner via YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the world, Black Lives Matter protests are continuing in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In the US and many European countries, protests have led to the toppling of colonial and <a href="https://theconversation.com/public-sculpture-expert-why-i-welcome-the-decision-to-throw-bristols-edward-colston-statue-in-the-river-140285">slavery monuments</a> and demands for far-reaching changes to address systemic racism. </p>
<p>But Black Lives Matter protests have also been held in black-majority countries where they have raised some uncomfortable truths. In Jamaica, <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200604/protesters-gather-front-us-embassy-demand-change-after-george-floyds">protest and public debate</a> in recent weeks have focused on the island’s high rate of homicides by police and other social injustices. But they have also raised debates about colourism – discrimination against people with a dark skin tone.</p>
<p>On June 6, a small Black Lives Matter protest was held outside the US embassy in Kingston. Protesters focused particularly on extrajudicial killings by police and other security forces. According to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR3850922016ENGLISH.PDF">Amnesty International</a>, Jamaica has one of the highest rates of lethal police shootings in the world. </p>
<p>Two days after George Floyd was killed in late May, Susan Bogle, a poor woman with an intellectual disability, was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-jamaica-t/son-of-woman-killed-in-security-operation-seeks-attention-for-jamaicas-poorest-suburbs-idUSKBN23C2JY">allegedly shot</a> in her home during a police-military operation in August Town, a neighbourhood of Kingston. Protesters carried placards with her name, as well as those of other victims of police brutality, including <a href="https://liverpooluniversitypress.blog/2019/09/23/skin-colour-discrimination-in-jamaica-during-the-era-of-decolonisation/">Mario Deane</a>, who died in police custody in 2014. </p>
<p>Protesters stressed that these victims of police brutality had one thing in common: they were poor, and because of Jamaica’s complex class and colour relations, mostly dark-skinned. </p>
<p>Several days after Bogle’s killing, Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness <a href="https://youtu.be/8nbpXJLQ1p8">visited her family</a> and said the incident would be fully investigated. But he <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/PM_receives_social_media_backlash_for_August">faced an online backlash</a> from those who said the visit was an insensitive PR stunt rather than an attempt to <a href="https://buzz-caribbean.com/hot/tone-deaf-ad-highlights-andrew-holness-visit-to-family-of-susan-bogle/">meaningfully address</a> the high rate of police homicides, gang violence or the general <a href="https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/2015209/BTI_2018_Jamaica.pdf">plight of poor Jamaicans</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NTVe3j6_SX0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Colourism in Jamaica</h2>
<p>But while public debates both in newspapers and on social media largely focused on the extrajudicial killings, questions were also raised, especially by young Jamaicans about the role of colourism in Jamaican society. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bleumag.com/2019/05/30/skin-bleaching-is-a-dangerous-trend-in-jamaica/">prevalence of skin bleaching</a> is only one expression of colourism in Jamaica. Such prejudice has its origins in slavery, when slave children fathered by white planters or overseers – often as a result of sexual violence – were given special privileges. These <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1081602X.2019.1582433">included exemption</a> from working in the fields on account of their closeness to white men and, by definition, whiteness. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/colourism-how-shade-bias-perpetuates-prejudice-against-people-with-dark-skin-97149">Colourism – how shade bias perpetuates prejudice against people with dark skin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Colourism and white-on-black discrimination in Jamaica, the US and other parts of the Americas, should be seen as two sides of the same coin. Colourism would not exist without European colonialism and the use of enslaved Africans on sugar plantations. In my own <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/51556/">research</a>, I’ve argued that colourism in Jamaican society has been a public secret – something that is commonly known but rarely openly acknowledged. Those who have dared to expose it have usually been vilified. And today that increasingly means being called names and receiving threats on social media.</p>
<h2>A welcome debate</h2>
<p>The public debate in the wake of George Floyd’s killing suggests that more Jamaicans are willing to openly acknowledge that light skin bestows privilege and that this is a form of racism. And this includes not just those who have been at the receiving end of colourism. One light-skinned man, for instance, <a href="https://twitter.com/tessellated/status/1267501540996194304?s=20">tweeted</a> that he knew he was often treated better because of the colour of his skin. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1267501540996194304"}"></div></p>
<p>But there are also still many who argue that racism is something that happens in the US and that “classism” takes place in Jamaica. In other words, that the fact that some Jamaicans get good jobs or the best seat in a restaurant is simply because of their class privilege and has little or nothing to do with skin colour.</p>
<p>Since Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the country has witnessed various “racial eruptions” – racial incidents that have led to a public debate about race and colour. One <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hR6yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA147&dq=skyline+incident+jamaica&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0itO0-ZTqAhVho3EKHbN1CcgQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=skyline%20incident%20jamaica&f=false">infamous case</a> was the so-called Skyline incident in 1972 when dark-skinned housing minister Anthony Spaulding accused the Skyline hotel of racism for having refused to serve him and his friends because one of his friends had refused to remove his cap as was hotel policy. </p>
<p>But none of these incidents have changed the racial status quo: light skin continues to bestow privilege in both the public and private spheres. For instance, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/jamaica/Jamaica_Country_Report_2012_W.pdf">various studies</a> have shown a close correlation between wealth and skin colour. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether this most recent racial eruption will lead to action to address colourism. The fact that it is now being more openly addressed is a positive step forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henrice Altink receives funding from the British Academy and Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The killing of George Floyd has sparked debates in Jamaica about police brutality – and class and colour.Henrice Altink, Professor in Modern History, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216852019-09-10T11:56:28Z2019-09-10T11:56:28ZMarket-based policies work to fight climate change, from India to Jamaica<p>The <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo18146821.html">economic foundation</a> at the heart of conservative political philosophy is that markets are the best way to allocate the bulk of society’s resources.</p>
<p>That faith in markets explains the Republican Party’s preference for, say, <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2016/12/11/why-republicans-hate-obamacare">private medical insurance</a> over a government-run American health system. And it informs their push to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mayrarodriguezvalladares/2018/08/22/why-do-republicans-want-to-gut-bank-regulations-even-more/">loosen regulations that have governed big banks</a> since the 2009 financial crisis.</p>
<p>This emphasis on markets is also on display in many policies that conservative parties across the globe are enacting to address climate change. Climate change may be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/caribbean-residents-see-climate-change-as-a-severe-threat-but-most-in-us-dont-heres-why-91049">partisan issue in the United States</a>, but numerous <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/18/a-look-at-how-people-around-the-world-view-climate-change/">surveys of other countries</a> reveal that tackling climate change is <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-warming-issue-unites-world-opinion">not incompatible with conservative principles</a>.</p>
<h2>Conservative governments with a strong climate record</h2>
<p>Across Europe, Conservatives have gotten behind <a href="https://theconversation.com/taxes-and-caps-on-carbon-work-differently-but-calibrating-them-poses-the-same-challenge-104898">cap and trade</a>, a market-based system for reducing carbon emissions. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets_en">European Emission Trading</a> system, passed by the European Commission in 2005 with support across the ideological spectrum, sets limits on the continent’s annual carbon emissions. Companies that pollute more may purchase carbon rights from those who find innovative ways to reduce their own emissions, capping total pollution while giving individual firms the freedom to buy and sell their share. </p>
<p>The cap-and-trade strategy was first put into practice in the United States in 1990, under President George Bush, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-political-history-of-cap-and-trade-34711212/">to combat acid rain</a>. </p>
<p>In Germany, an industrial powerhouse, <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/making-climate-chancellor-angela-merkel">Chancellor Angela Merkel</a> of the center-right Christian Democratic party, has <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/06/19/merkel-fallen-climate-chancellor-chance-save-legacy/">strongly supported</a> a comprehensive climate law that would combine cap and trade, tax incentives for renewable energy and major investments in energy efficiency.</p>
<p>To be fair, the political spectrum in Europe skews left. But conservatives in more right-leaning countries are fighting climate change, too.</p>
<p>India’s hard-right Prime Minister Narendra Modi – leader of the world’s largest democracy – is a strong proponent of renewable energy. While his administration maintains support for the coal industry, solar production is set to <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/politics/promise-of-renewable-and-clean-energy-what-changed-in-bjps-five-years-2093747.html">increase five-fold in India by 2022</a>. </p>
<p>And Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, who holds <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/world/americas/chile-presidential-election.html">strong conservative views</a> on many social issues, has nonetheless embraced some of the <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/chile/">most stringent climate goals</a> in Latin America. </p>
<p>According to the Climate Action Tracker, which monitors countries’ progress toward reducing carbon emissions, Chile will generate 65% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2035, and has imposed strict new energy efficiency standards on manufacturing, mining and transportation.</p>
<p>In Jamaica, the Labour Party – the island’s conservative party – has endorsed a new “<a href="https://theconversation.com/jamaica-leads-in-richard-branson-backed-plan-for-a-caribbean-climate-revolution-105478">climate accelerator</a>.” Backed by billionaire Richard Branson and the <a href="https://www.iadb.org/en/news/idb-join-new-caribbean-climate-smart-accelerator-facilitate-1bn-investments">Inter-American Development Bank</a>, the initiative aims to make this vulnerable region more resilient by <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/08/09/caribbean-aims-become-world-first-climate-smart-zone">attracting financing</a> to scale up renewable energy, build low-carbon infrastructure and increase investments in green technology.</p>
<p><iframe id="nz8QR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nz8QR/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Climate change is a market failure</h2>
<p>I am an <a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/people/jason-scorse">environmental economist</a>, but it doesn’t require advanced training in economics to recognize the basic principles underlying all these conservative-backed environmental policies.</p>
<p>The first is conservative faith that financial markets can adapt and innovate to address today’s climate challenge. </p>
<p>There’s evidence for this belief. Renewable power – which was economically unviable just a decade ago – <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2018/01/13/renewable-energy-cost-effective-fossil-fuels-2020/#55616b3e4ff2">is so affordable now</a> because governments and companies around the world have <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/renewable-energy">invested immensely in solar and wind</a>. What is expensive today can be made cheap tomorrow if governments put the right incentives in place. </p>
<p>The second basis for the climate policies conservatives worldwide support is an understanding that, under <a href="https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=econ_workingpaper">certain circumstances</a>, markets can and do fail. </p>
<p>Markets function properly only under certain conditions. </p>
<p>First, the harmful impacts of producing a given good – which economists call “<a href="https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/uvicecon103/chapter/5-1-externalities/">negative externalities</a>” – cannot hurt anyone other than the producers and consumers of that good. There must also be clear and enforceable property rights over every good in the marketplace. </p>
<p>When these bedrock principles are violated, market breakdown ensues. </p>
<p>Take air pollution, for example. When a chemical factory that produces a cleaning product releases toxic fumes, the cost of that pollution – the negative externality – is not borne exclusively by the buyer or seller of that product. Everyone who inhales the fumes suffers. </p>
<p>Yet because no one owns the “property rights” to the atmosphere, no one can hold the chemical factory or its clients legally responsible for contaminated air. </p>
<p>This is market failure. And in the environmental realm, it is the norm. </p>
<p>Every coal plant or natural gas field that emits the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/greenhouse-gases/">greenhouse gases that drives climate change</a> free of charge is violating the fundamental principle of well-functioning markets. </p>
<p>Policies like Europe’s cap and trade system or Britain’s <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-britain-carbontrading/british-carbon-tax-to-start-november-4-in-the-event-of-no-deal-brexit-government-idUKKCN1U70NG">carbon tax</a>, which will soon require companies <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-tax-basics/">pay a fee</a> for every unit of pollution they emit, are designed to fix this problem.</p>
<h2>Global outliers</h2>
<p>Not all conservatives embrace market-based environmental policies, of course.</p>
<p>Republicans in the U.S. voted overwhelmingly <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19072018/anti-carbon-tax-resolution-house-vote-climate-solutions-caucus-curbelo-scalise-koch-influence-congress">against a proposed carbon tax in 2016</a>. Then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise <a href="https://www.atr.org/overwhelming-majority-house-votes-oppose-carbon-tax">said</a> it would be “detrimental to American families and businesses.” </p>
<p>Australia’s conservative party, which won a <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-election-loss-was-not-a-surprise-if-you-take-historical-trends-into-account-117399">surprise victory</a> in May’s national election, is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/06/01/climate-change-australias-election-has-far-reaching-consequences/#7c4136b71e75">propelling the country backwards on climate</a>. A few years ago, they repealed a <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/5/17/18628180/australia-election-2019-labor-liberal-party-morrison">2010 carbon tax</a>. Now the country’s new prime minister, Scott Morrison, is reducing the emission-reduction target Australia signed onto in the Paris climate accords and renewing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/feb/09/bill-shorten-malcolm-turnbull-union-liberal-labor-politics-live">his government’s commitment to the coal industry</a>.</p>
<p>Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, too, has <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-fires-jair-bolsonaro-faces-mounting-political-backlash-in-brazil-even-from-his-allies-122512">rolled back his country’s strict environmental regulations</a>. That’s left the Amazon rainforest open to <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-fires-deforestation-has-a-devastating-heating-impact-on-the-local-climate-new-study-122914">deforestation</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-amazon-is-burning-4-essential-reads-on-brazils-vanishing-rainforest-122288">fire</a>.</p>
<p>The current governments of the United States, Australia and Brazil are global outliers who defy overwhelming basic economics and <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/">overwhelming scientific evidence</a> that climate change is one of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/climate/united-nations-climate-change.html">gravest risks facing humanity</a>. </p>
<p>From Jamaica to India, rightist leaders have shown confidence that with the right incentives companies can and will innovate to transform the economy in a more sustainable direction.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In the past Jason Scorse has received funding from various environmental NGOs, including Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthJustice, and the Sierra Club for consulting work. </span></em></p>Conservatives worldwide favor carbon pricing, cap-and-trade systems and other innovative environmental plans – just not in the United States.Jason Scorse, Associate Professor, Chair, Director, MiddleburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054782019-03-15T10:42:43Z2019-03-15T10:42:43ZJamaica leads in Richard Branson-backed plan for a Caribbean climate revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263750/original/file-20190313-123554-xyvvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Turbines in Manchester Parish, Jamaica, the English-speaking Caribbean's first wind farm.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/alternative-energy-electric-power-production-saving-1209753904">Debbie Ann Powell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After hurricanes Irma and Maria <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/3/17530814/puerto-rico-power-blackout-over-hurricane-maria">tore through the Caribbean</a> in 2017, devastating <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/dominica/dominica-impact-hurricane-maria-disaster-profile-january-2018">dozens of islands</a> – including billionaire Richard Branson’s private isle, Necker Island – Branson called for a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/richard-branson-decimated-caribbean-islands-need-a-marshall-plan-after-irma/">Caribbean Marshall Plan</a>.” </p>
<p>He wanted world powers and global financial institutions to unite to protect the Caribbean against the effects of climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Branson at a Climate-Smart Accelerator event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.caribbeanaccelerator.org/watch-the-launch">Adrian Creary/Studiocraft</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That hasn’t happened. So Branson and his government partners from <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/08/09/caribbean-aims-become-world-first-climate-smart-zone">27 Caribbean countries</a> hope that his celebrity, connections and billions will prod local politicians and the financial community to act.</p>
<p>In August 2018, at a <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/14/caribbean-nations-partner-with-global-superstars-corporate-giants-for-1-billion-climate-accelerator/">star-studded event</a> at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, Branson helped to launch the <a href="https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/launching-caribbean-climate-smart-accelerator">Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator</a>, a US$1 billion effort to kickstart a green energy revolution in the region.</p>
<p>Its aims include convincing global financial institutions to fund ambitious climate mitigation efforts in the Caribbean, upgrading critical infrastructure across <a href="https://grist.org/article/caribbean-leaders-beg-trump-to-act-on-climate-change/">this vulnerable region</a>. </p>
<p>Well before Branson’s arrival, however, some Caribbean countries were already working to break their dependence on fossil fuels.</p>
<h2>Jamaica’s modern energy grid</h2>
<p>Even prior to the debilitating 2017 hurricane season, polling showed that a strong majority of people in the Caribbean see climate change as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/caribbean-residents-see-climate-change-as-a-severe-threat-but-most-in-us-dont-heres-why-91049">very serious threat</a>.</p>
<p>The region – where we study <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Masao_Ashtine">renewable energy</a> and <a href="https://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/fst/cmp/staff/physics/thomas-rogers.aspx">climate change</a> – is home to <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/conferences/bpoa1994">16 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries</a>. </p>
<p>That’s because the stronger and more frequent storms, extreme droughts and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1SwOLFH_w">coastal flooding</a> that result from <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/ocean-warming">rising global temperatures</a> hit <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sids/list">rural island nations</a> hard. </p>
<p>Before Branson took up the cause, several Caribbean nations were <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-may-scuttle-caribbeans-post-hurricane-plans-for-a-renewable-energy-boom-94235">upgrading their electric grids</a> to improve energy independence and better prepare islands for the impacts of storms that knock out power. </p>
<p><iframe id="nz8QR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nz8QR/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/idb-commends-jamaica-on-climate-change-activities_155966?profile=1373">Jamaica</a> opened the <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/wigton-ipo-gives-energy-sector-new-wind_131527?profile=1373">largest wind farm</a> in the English-speaking Caribbean in 2004. The Wigton Wind Farm now helps power over 55,000 surrounding homes, households that would formerly have used some 60,000 barrels of oil annually.</p>
<p>As part of its national goal to generate 50 percent of all its power using renewable sources, Jamaica now hopes to build <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20171015/pcj-exploring-offshore-wind-farm">offshore wind farms</a>. </p>
<p>It has also enhanced the stability of its grid with a hybrid energy storage system that uses a <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/03/05/construction-begins-on-hybrid-storage-facility-in-jamaica/">flywheel and a battery</a> to store solar and wind energy for use as needed, including after storms.</p>
<h2>From 0 to 100</h2>
<p>Dominica is another Caribbean pioneer in climate mitigation. </p>
<p>This tiny island already generates <a href="https://www.cepal.org/en/news/dominica-caricom-forerunner-renewable-energy-use-latest-eclac-report-reveals">28 percent of its electricity from wind, hydropower and other renewable sources</a>. In contrast, 0.3 percent of electricity in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean’s main oil exporter, is renewable.</p>
<p>In an effort to diversify its energy sources away from diesel, Dominica’s government has secured <a href="https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/country/dominica">$30 million from the international Climate Investment Fund</a> and <a href="https://wicnews.com/caribbean/uk-commits-funding-climate-resilient-dominica-185410254/">$90 million from the United Kingdom</a> to invest in <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190125005378/en/Dominica-Provide-Entire-Population-Clean-Geothermal-Energy">geothermal energy</a>.</p>
<p>The country is on track to reach 100 percent renewable energy by the end of this year. If it succeeds, it will join <a href="https://www.clickenergy.com.au/news-blog/12-countries-leading-the-way-in-renewable-energy/">Iceland</a> in entirely forgoing dirty oil, coal and gas energy.</p>
<p>Dominica may soon have some more local competition. </p>
<p>Barbados, in the eastern Caribbean, hopes to use <a href="https://barbadostoday.bb/2018/07/17/govt-to-establish-new-renewable-energy-regime/">100 percent renewable energy sources by 2030</a> using a mix of wind, solar and biofuels derived from <a href="https://www.agro-chemistry.com/news/biogas-and-biomethane-to-solve-barbados-waste-problem/">food waste</a> and <a href="http://www.bstabarbados.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/GROWING-ENERGY-Richard-Armstrong.pdf">grass</a>, which could benefit the island’s ailing agricultural sector.</p>
<h2>Caribbean academics take the lead</h2>
<p>Such policies are what Branson and others call “<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/08/09/caribbean-aims-become-world-first-climate-smart-zone">climate-smart</a>.” While preparing countries for extreme weather, they create jobs and boost key industries. The result is an economy custom-built for the future.</p>
<p>This is already happening, albeit slowly, in many countries worldwide. </p>
<p>In the U.S., wind and solar are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/market-forces-are-driving-a-clean-energy-revolution-in-the-us-95204">financially competitive</a> with traditional coal power in many places, particularly for new power generators. So, over time, as older facilities age out across the globe, these technologies are being replaced with modern energy systems. </p>
<p>As in other places, the process of moving more Caribbean countries off fossil fuels requires mustering the political will and financial means needed to transform a nation’s entire grid.</p>
<p>For over a century, governments have created regulatory systems and policies designed around imported fossil fuels. Replacing the archaic tax incentives and regulations that <a href="https://brea.bb/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Aidan-J-Rogers-Renewable-Energy-and-Regional-Austerity-A-Legislative-and-Regulatory-Perspective.pdf">discourage renewable energy development</a> takes time, effort and money.</p>
<p>Doing so requires a detailed analysis of a country’s relationship with energy. How are homes, businesses, tourism, farms and transportation networks powered? Which energy alternative is best suited for each use? What resources are available? </p>
<p>In our observation, local academics played a strong role in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/26/climate-change-is-real-we-must-not-offer-credibility-to-those-who-deny-it">getting policymakers in Jamaica</a>, Barbados and Dominica to undertake these kinds of assessments.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/06/climate-change-in-the-caribbean-learning-lessons-from-irma-and-maria">University of the West Indies professor Michael Taylor</a> founded the Climate Studies Group to help the region adapt to life with climate change. </p>
<p>Failure to prepare for future storms would mean “the destruction of ‘island life’ as we know it,” Taylor said.</p>
<p>It was an academic, too, who in 2014 first pushed Barbados to commit to shifting entirely over to <a href="https://brea.bb/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/100-percent-Renewables-for-Barbados-plan.pdf">clean energy</a>. </p>
<p>Professor Olav Hohmeyer of Germany’s Flensburg University – who was then teaching at the University of the West Indies – told the recently formed <a href="https://brea.bb/">Barbados Renewable Energy Association</a> that the island had <a href="http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/59153/usd18-billion-energy-proposal">the natural resources necessary to become 100 percent renewable</a> within 10 years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barbados wants to reduce the carbon footprint of its tourism sector by enabling cruise ships to plug in at its Bridgetown port.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/AP-I-BRB-CRI-TRV-FILE-TRAVEL-TRIP-CARIBBEAN-CRICKET/d75c06b0ce144b2aae12cdecd7990c38/1/0">AP Photo/Chris Brandis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The university and the energy association worked to convince Barbados’ electric utility, central bank, farmers and local policymakers that <a href="http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/67541/barbados-lead-renewable-energy">an island-wide energy transition was feasible</a> – and strategic. </p>
<p>They also engaged the International Development Bank, which in 2016 published <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=2ahUKEwjuxafOiP3gAhWLZd8KHZSVDL4QFjACegQIBxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublications.iadb.org%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F11319%2F7909%2FAchieving-Sustainable-Energy-in-Barbados-Energy-Dossier.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1&usg=AOvVaw0ZRuwaELcqvllJr0N7elXu">a detailed and generally positive assessment</a> on renewable energy development in Barbados. </p>
<h2>Barbados’ clean revolution</h2>
<p>Politicians in Barbados were slower to come around, weighing the cost of green energy against other national development priorities. </p>
<p>Then came the 2017 hurricane season. </p>
<p>In May 2018, Mia Mottley of the leftist Labour Party was <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/05/31/the-opposition-wins-every-seat-in-the-barbados-parliament">elected prime minister of Barbados</a> with a bold sustainability pledge. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the 2018 United Nations General Assembly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/UN-General-Assembly-Barbados/83b2289c0dfd4b2ca96ad7e089414d72/4/0">AP Photo/Frank Franklin II</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the <a href="https://gadebate.un.org/en/73/barbados">United Nations General Assembly</a> later that year, Mottley declared that her country would be 100 percent renewable by 2030. And she insisted that the world must help Barbados and other island nations in their climate change fight. </p>
<p>Her Labour Party even envisages electrifying <a href="http://www.vdg.no/getfile.php/345/2....Emera%20Clean%20Energy%20Investment%20Plan%20%28V%29%20-%20March%202015.pdf">Barbados’ busy Bridgetown port</a>, allowing the 500 cruise ships that dock each year to plug into battery-run power sources rather than operating on-board generators.</p>
<p>Three Caribbean countries are well on their way to becoming “climate smart.” With international support, the other 23 may get there, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even before the British billionaire invested US$1 billion in making the region ‘climate-smart,’ Jamaica, Barbados and Dominica were pioneering a renewable energy boom in the Caribbean.Masaō Ashtine, Lecturer in Alternative Energy, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusTom Rogers, Senior lecturer, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081142018-12-03T15:59:55Z2018-12-03T15:59:55ZWhy UNESCO was right to add reggae to its cultural heritage list<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248478/original/file-20181203-194932-sk71m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Weinberg</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When UNESCO announced that “the reggae music of Jamaica” had been <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/reggae-music-of-jamaica-01398">added to its list</a> of cultural products considered worthy of recognition, it was a reflection on the fact that reggae, which grew from its roots in the backstreets and dance halls of Jamaica, is more than just popular music, but an important social and political phenomenon.</p>
<p>Jamaica’s application to the committee mentioned a number of artists from <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/move-over-bob-marley-peter-tosh-is-finally-getting-the-recognition-he-deserves-8914028.html">Bob Marley and Peter Tosh</a> to <a href="https://rootfire.net/chronixx/">Chronixx and the Zinc Fence Band</a>. Some observers may be wondering whether such musicians are a good enough reason to include reggae on this prestigious list. What those readers don’t fully understand is that reggae is far more significant than its musicians. Not only is social commentary “an integral part of the music”, the application argued, but reggae has also made a significant “contribution to international discourse concerning issues of injustice, resistance, love, and humanity”. </p>
<p>Reggae has “provided a voice for maligned groups, the unemployed and at risk groups and provided a vehicle for social commentary and expression where no other outlet existed or was afforded”. It has also “provided a means of praising and communicating with God”. Not only are these big claims, but they are all true.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1069567134622089221"}"></div></p>
<h2>Deep roots</h2>
<p>Culturally, politically, religiously and musically, reggae has done much heavy lifting. Born in the back streets of Kingston in the 1950s, it is proudly Jamaican. Raised in difficult circumstances, it has matured into a friendly and generous music that travels well and warmly embraces the other cultures and music it meets. Hybridisation is part of reggae’s genetic makeup. Its DNA can be traced back to West Africa and out into the world of popular music. It came into being through mento (a form of Jamaican folk music), ska and rock steady, absorbing influences from the Caribbean (especially calypso), rhythm and blues, rock, and jazz.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aro4PaEgXM8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>However, not only has reggae embraced other musical styles and ideas, but in so doing, it has influenced them and given birth to new sub-genres. Particularly significant in this respect has been the innovative recording techniques developed by Jamaican producers such as <a href="https://www.factmag.com/2015/05/19/king-tubby-beginners-guide-dub-reggae/">King Tubby</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/lee-scratch-perry">Lee “Scratch” Perry</a>, and <a href="https://www.trojanrecords.com/artist/bunny-lee/">Bunny Lee</a>. What became known as “<a href="https://www.factmag.com/2014/04/16/dubbing-is-a-must-a-beginners-guide-to-jamaicas-most-influential-genre/">dub reggae</a>” has inspired generations of artists and producers around the world and is still an important influence in popular music.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-muTUf5jeE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Politics of resistance</h2>
<p>As well as its musical contribution, reggae hasn’t forgotten its roots. Not only does it comment on current political events and social problems, but it also provides a multi-layered introduction to the history, religion and culture of what music historian Paul Gilroy called “<a href="https://sites.duke.edu/blackatlantic/sample-page/exploring-the-black-atlantic-through-sound/">the Black Atlantic</a>”. While some reggae cannot, of course, be considered religious or political – “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/sep/22/lovers-rock-story-reggae">lovers rock</a>” for example, focuses on romantic relationships – much of it is.</p>
<p>A key moment in Jamaican political history (as well as the story of reggae) happened on April 22 1978 at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/16/bob-marley-peace-concert">One Love Concert</a> hosted by Bob Marley at The National Stadium in Kingston. Marley famously called bitter political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga to the stage and persuaded them to join hands. Few other people could have done this. Although the concert did not bring an end to the turmoil in Jamaica, it did showcase the significance of reggae as a political and cultural force.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Reo5hD-dEYM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Rastafari</h2>
<p>It is of particular significance that reggae is inextricably related to the religion of Rastafari, which emerged as a direct response to oppression within Jamaican colonial society. Often articulating the ideas of Jamaican political activist <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/garvey_marcus.shtml">Marcus Garvey</a>, who is understood by Rastafarians to be a prophet, Rasta musicians such as Marley and Burning Spear developed roots reggae as a vehicle for their religio-political messages. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OFGgbT_VasI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Even if some musicians are not committed Rastafarians, they typically identify with the movement’s ideas and culture. In particular, many wear dreadlocks, consider smoking “the herb” (cannabis) to be a sacrament, and reference the religio-political dualism of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/">Zion and Babylon</a> (the social systems of the righteous and the unrighteous). There is a hope often articulated within reggae of a better world following Armageddon and the fall of Babylon. “Babylon your throne gone down”, declared Marley in his 1973 song, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBTitBMEMA">Rasta Man Chant</a>. These biblical ideas are also creatively applied to a range of political issues, from local injustices to climate change and the nuclear arms race.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hftY6i-tQJg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes reggae itself is understood to be a form of direct action, in that musicians are understood to “chant down Babylon”. As Ziggy Marley put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Babylon [is] a devil system … who cause so much problems on the face of the Earth … And by ‘chanting down’ I mean by putting positive messages out there. That is the way we’ll fight a negative with a positive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Examples of this include Yabby You’s Chant Down Babylon Kingdom and of course, Marley’s own Chant Down Babylon. This type of thinking is rooted in Jamaican history. Following violent confrontations with the police during the 1940s and 1950s, Rasta elders – particularly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/23/guardianobituaries.religion">Mortimer Planno</a> – appealed to Jamaican academics to study Rastafari in order to increase popular understanding and tolerance. And in 1960, three scholars (M.G. Smith, Roy Augier and Rex Nettleford) published their <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13865081M/Report_on_the_Rastafari_movement_in_Kingston_Jamaica">Report on the Rastafarian Movement in Kingston, Jamaica</a>. </p>
<p>For Rastas, the destruction of Babylon came to be interpreted less in terms of a violent overthrow of oppressive social structures and more in terms of a conversion to new ways of thinking, central to which was the strategic primacy assumed by the arts. Reggae emerged as part of this process. From the outset, therefore, it was understood by many to be far more than simply “pop music”. It was “rebel music”, a powerful political tool for the peaceful resistance of oppression.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XlP3J3J3Upw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Reggae international</h2>
<p>The potency of reggae as an educational and inspirational force became conspicuous shortly after its arrival in Britain. In 1976 it was central to the founding of the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/rock-against-racism-remembering-that-gig-that-started-it-all-815054.html">Rock Against Racism campaign</a> and by the late 1970s, reggae, dub, ska, and the terminology of Rastafari were informing punk culture as part of an emerging “dread culture of resistance”. </p>
<p>For example, in 1979, the same year that witnessed the Southall race riots, during which a teacher, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/apr/27/blair-peach-killed-police-met-report">Blair Peach</a>, was killed, the British punk band <a href="https://www.forcedexposure.com/Artists/RUTS.DC.html">The Ruts</a> released their dub reggae influenced single Jah War, on which they sang, “the air was thick with the smell of oppression”. </p>
<p>The Ruts subsequently achieved chart success with Babylon’s Burning. While some may have been bemused by the reference, for their fans – for whom <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jul/20/urban.popandrock">punk and reggae</a> were first cousins at the very least – the message was obvious: Babylon was the principally white political establishment, which oppressed ethnic minorities and the unemployed poor of the inner cities, and which would eventually be dismantled. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zCkNu9OxThc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, Jamaicans who had moved to Britain in their childhood, such as <a href="http://www.lintonkwesijohnson.com/linton-kwesi-johnson/">Linton Kwesi Johnson</a>, used a creative blend of poetry and reggae to comment on the injustices they faced: “Inglan is a bitch, dere’s no escapin it.” One of Johnson’s poems commented specifically on the murder of Peach, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHrlmwudYuA">Reggae Fi Peach</a>. Since then, reggae music has continued to “speak truth to power” – from <a href="https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/entertainment/queen-ifrica-releases-powerful-song-hitting-back-domestic-violence/">challenging domestic abuse</a> to protesting against <a href="https://jamaicans.com/reggae-songs-nelson-mandela/">apartheid in South Africa</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3g4Fe0Uflo8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>For these political, religious and cultural reasons – as much as for the music itself – UNESCO was right to finally give reggae the recognition it deserves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Partridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than just a musical accolade, UNESCO has recognised the social and political importance of Jamaican music.Christopher Partridge, Professor of Religious Studies, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1036072018-09-20T14:38:02Z2018-09-20T14:38:02ZMarijuana use in South Africa: what next after landmark court ruling?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237291/original/file-20180920-129859-1c1wgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rastafarians celebrate after the South African Constitutional Court ruled that the personal use of marijuana is now legal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s Constitutional Court has delivered a unanimous <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2018/30.html">judgment</a> that certain parts of the country’s drug laws are inconsistent with the right to privacy. Adults are now allowed to use, possess or cultivate cannabis in private for their own personal consumption.</p>
<p>The court gave some <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-top-court-legalises-the-private-use-of-marijuana-why-its-a-good-thing-103537">broad guidelines</a> about what this would mean in practice. But it has left the details to Parliament. </p>
<p>This is an important <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-south-african-state-needs-to-lose-its-fight-against-marijuana-policy-reform-81491">victory</a> for human rights and common sense. It also matters to the almost 300 000 people who are <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/about/stratframework/annual_report/2016_2017/part_b2.pdf#page=36">arrested for</a> drug-related crimes each year, mostly for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-south-african-state-needs-to-lose-its-fight-against-marijuana-policy-reform-81491">possession</a> of small amounts of cannabis.</p>
<p>But there is much more work to be done to design a humane and rational system to regulate cannabis. Some of the key issues that will need to be addressed include how far privacy extends, exactly what products should be regulated, how non-users will be protected, and what to do about the existing criminal market. </p>
<h2>The measure of privacy</h2>
<p>Significantly, this change came after a legal challenge in support of the right to privacy. It did not result from a popular vote or from a shift in government policy, based on public health principles. This means the new regulatory system will need to look quite different to two of the existing models in the world.</p>
<p>The first is the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewdepietro/2018/05/04/how-much-money-states-make-cannabis-sales/#5c3a58b0f181">commercialised</a> system developing in parts of the US, where businesses sell cannabis in much the same way as alcohol. The other is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/19/uruguay-marijuana-sale-pharmacies">medicalised</a> model of Uruguay, where cannabis can be bought without prescription at pharmacies. </p>
<p>Other countries can offer more appropriate comparisons. Jamaica has set its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/25/jamaica-decriminalises-marijuana">limits</a> at possession of 2oz (56.6g) and the cultivation of up to five plants on any premises. Colombia’s <a href="https://colombiareports.com/colombia-decriminalizes-marijuana-cultivation-up-to-20-plants/">limits</a> are 20g or up to 20 plants. Spain’s limits are rather <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002204260403400308">less clear</a>, and must take into account the circumstances of the case, but plants should not be visible from the street. </p>
<p>An important question is whether South Africa will allow <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395917300014">cannabis social clubs</a> – structures for the non-profit production and distribution of cannabis among a closed group of adults. This is the “Spanish model”, which is currently in a <a href="https://merryjane.com/culture/spains-cannabis-social-clubs-feature-june-2018">precarious</a> legal position at home but enjoys significant expert <a href="https://www.tdpf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Cannabook%202nd%20Ed%20Digital.pdf">support</a>, either as a permanent position or as a transitional model while more formally regulated production systems are developed. Such clubs should enjoy the same protection on the basis of privacy, although their regulation introduces additional <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/04/catalonia-holland-of-south-tightens-rules-barcelona-cannabis-clubs">complications</a>. </p>
<p>Parliamentarians will also have to decide on what substances will be included in the law. Will it extend to hashish (a concentrated resin made from cannabis), cannabis oils, or synthetic cannabinoids? And should the court’s reasoning not be extended to other <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1531313/magic-mushrooms-legal-challenge/">substances</a> that have been judged by experts to present <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8094759/alcohol-marijuana">less harm</a> than alcohol?</p>
<h2>Preventing harm to others</h2>
<p>The prevention of impaired driving is a reasonable <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-09-18-dagga-ruling-raises-questions-around-driving-stoned-in-sa/">concern</a>. Given the <a href="https://vancouversun.com/opinion/opinion-zero-tolerance-for-cannabis-and-driving-makes-zero-sense">difficulty</a> in physiologically measuring cannabis intoxication, there will be a need to formalise rules on field sobriety testing. Parliament will have to keep abreast of emerging evidence. Clear public messaging should be developed to communicate that cannabis-impaired driving is illegal and risky.</p>
<p>Another concern is the protection of minors. Regular cannabis use does seem to pose <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163725814002095">risks</a> for adolescent brain development, so it is important that the country works out how best to discourage its consumption among or near children. </p>
<h2>Commercialisation question</h2>
<p>One criticism of the private cultivation and use model – such as the one in <a href="https://www.tdpf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Spain_0.pdf">Spain</a> – is that it forgoes the possible benefits of a more open regulated and commercialised system. This includes prospects for purity and potency controls, economic and employment growth, and tax revenues that can be earmarked for programmes to help mitigate cannabis-related risks and harms. </p>
<p>The approach envisioned by the South African Constitutional Court also has the disadvantage that it leaves intact the criminal market that supplies those who don’t meet its restrictions. Not every prospective cannabis user will be willing or reasonably able to grow their own plants or to join a cannabis club. So, there will still be a role for organised criminal groups to reap profits. </p>
<p>And there will still be a need for police enforcement. But it will involve even greater scope for discretion and possible corruption. The country will need to guard against a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25959525">“net-widening”</a> effect, where policy liberalisation ends up drawing even more people into conflict with the criminal justice system. South Africa will also need to interrogate whether it is still justifiable for people to be jailed for supplying a product that consumers have a right to possess.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the question of the many people who have been criminalised for an activity that is now considered an expression of a basic constitutional right. The court was clear that its judgment was not to be applied retrospectively. However, other jurisdictions – as in the US – have already begun offering pardons <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/us/vermont-marijuana-pardons.html">on request</a> or discussing whether pardons should happen <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/3kjwz8/canada-is-facing-mounting-pressure-to-grant-mass-pardons-for-weed-possession">en masse</a>. </p>
<h2>Not a free-for-all, but an excellent start</h2>
<p>Those cannabis campaigners and aficionados who were hoping for a Colorado-style boom in consumer options would have been disappointed. On balance, however, this may be a good thing, at least in the interim. Many policy reform experts warn of the dangers of over-commercialisation. </p>
<p>Putting the supply of a risky product in the hands of profit-maximising private interests with little interest in public health is not a recipe for success. In this, the history of alcohol and tobacco control provide a useful lesson.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anine Kriegler receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the David and Elaine Potter Foundation. She is also a member of the South African Drug Policy Initiative.</span></em></p>The legalisation of the private use of cannabis in South Africa is a victory for human rights. But, much more work needs to be done to make it practical.Anine Kriegler, Researcher and Doctoral Candidate in Criminology, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1018792018-08-22T09:04:58Z2018-08-22T09:04:58ZJamie Oliver’s ‘jerk rice’ is a recipe for disaster – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232893/original/file-20180821-149496-1yk73bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C6%2C925%2C649&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">really short via Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jamie Oliver is no stranger to controversy, as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11821747/Jamie-Oliver-admits-school-dinners-campaign-failed-because-eating-well-is-a-middle-class-preserve.html">the failure of his</a> 2004-5 “<a href="http://www.feedmebetter.com/">Feed Me Better</a>” campaign to improve UK school dinners demonstrated. But he really has trouble in the kitchen now, after MPs and other celebrity cooks waded into a heated public debate about culinary authenticity and cultural appropriation over his latest line in convenience foods: “Punchy Jerk Rice.” </p>
<p>It is not just the alleged act of cultural appropriation that has caused disquiet, although many – including the shadow minister for equality, Dawn Butler, and Conservative MP Neil O’Brien – have certainly <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-45246009">interpreted it in this way</a>. Oliver also appears to have misunderstood that the term “jerk” is a cultural tradition which is very specific, as Butler recognised <a href="https://london.eater.com/2018/8/20/17758706/jamie-oliver-chef-jerk-rice-twitter-dawn-butler-cultural-appropriation">when she questioned</a> whether Oliver even knew what “jerk” was.</p>
<p>Crucially, jerk is not the same as barbecue, although the terms are often used interchangeably. Historically, jerk refers to the Afro-Caribbean practice of dry rubbing or wet marinating meat with citrus juice, allspice and scotch bonnet, then wrapping it in banana or plantain leaves and cooking it in a pit fire or hole fire over allspice branches, in a method designed to retain the distinct flavours.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C_IRlb13Ouw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Barbecue, by contrast, usually involves marinating meats and then cooking them above ground on a raised platform made from wicker, plant matter or newer stone or metal constructions. Jerk derives from <em>charqui</em>, a Spanish word of indigenous South American origin which means salted dried meat (linked to jerky). It denotes a specific method of marinating and cooking meat which is linked, historically, <a href="http://www.afrikanheritage.com/resistance-and-rebellion-in-jamaica-the-maroons/">to the “Maroons”</a> – or runaway slaves – of colonial Jamaica who are known to have traded their signature jerked wild meats to passing ships from the 1700s onwards.</p>
<p>Jerk is now most commonly associated with roadside cooks in Jamaica who have retained this popular technique. It’s also one of Jamaica’s <a href="http://jamaicans.com/jerk/">most successful and iconic</a> culinary exports. </p>
<p>Barbecue from the Spanish <em>barbacoa</em> has <a href="http://time.com/3957444/barbecue/">even older origins</a>. It derives from a method of cooking known to have been used by the Amerindians, the Caribbean’s first inhabitants. African slaves arriving in the Caribbean may well have known of similar methods of preserving and cooking meat, but they also clearly adopted and adapted the methods which they encountered in the Caribbean, a process called “”<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0957155815597648?journalCode=frca">creolisation</a>“. </p>
<p>In the light of this history, Oliver’s latest offering makes little sense. As Jamaican-born British celebrity cook, Rustie Lee <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/shortcuts/2018/aug/20/jamie-oliver-jerk-rice-recipe-for-disaster-caribbean-marinade">points out</a> "jerk rice” is a non-starter, not just because it is culturally inaccurate – it does not contain the key jerk spices of allspice or scotch bonnet – but because you cannot actually jerk rice. The classic starch and protein combination of rice and peas (beans) on the other hand, is a dish which has been eaten for centuries across the Caribbean and the Americas. It’s also widely enjoyed everywhere that there is a diasporan Caribbean population – but it is never called “jerk”.</p>
<h2>Authenticity and identity</h2>
<p>At the heart of the debate about cultural appropriation is the question of cultural – and especially culinary – authenticity. It is particularly important when it comes to food, which is one of the central ways in which particular ethnic, religion, caste, class, gendered or generational groups define themselves in relation to others.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1030741609984548864"}"></div></p>
<p>Indeed, the use of the label of “authentic” in relation to food is so ubiquitous that we rarely stop to think about how problematic it is. So talk of “authentic” Indian curries in the UK are anything but. Not only do most Indian restaurants <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/08/britains-curry-crisis-chefs-immigration">serve Bangladeshi food</a>, but there is no such thing as “Indian” food – only local or regional cuisines, as any Indian cook will tell you. </p>
<p>The best-known example of an “Indian dish” in Britain, chicken tikka masala, is a good example of what historian Eric Hobsbawm famously called “<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v05/n13/norman-stone/pastiche">the invention of tradition</a>” – the dish was invented in Britain. In 2001 this celebrated “Indian” dish featured as the focal point in a particularly lively exchange about British cultural identity and multiculturalism between Labour MPs Robin Cook and Keith Vaz, following the then <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/apr/19/race.britishidentity">foreign secretary’s speech</a> to the Social Market Foundation in London. Cook argued that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Chicken tikka masala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Chicken tikka is an Indian dish. The masala sauce was added to satisfy the desire of British people to have their meat served in gravy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although in the ensuing debate, Vaz attempted to correct Cook’s rather mangled account of the dish and its origins, Cook made an important point: that all traditions, culinary or otherwise, are constructed for particular means and that authenticity is neither stable not uncontested. Thus chicken tikka masala may not be authentically Indian but it does show how absorption and adaptation from external influences can be important processes in the emergent definition of a cultural practice or identity. Indeed, Cook’s speech has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/may/12/robin-cook-chicken-tikka-multiculturalism">studied by students</a> as a case study in debates on Britishness, cultural nationalism and multiculturalism as recently as 2013.</p>
<h2>Jamaican cool</h2>
<p>The problem with Oliver’s “jerk rice” is not so much that it involves an act of cultural appropriation, or that it “absorbs and adapts external influences” (which all cooks do and are free to do) but rather that it uses the term “jerk” as a kind of shorthand to evoke a range of attractive associations for his product. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1031623577840373760"}"></div></p>
<p>Jerk is a term which carries the infinitely marketable associations of what might be termed “Jamaican cool” – a heady mix of spicy “exotic” food, reggae music, muscular masculinity (jerk cooking is a very male-dominated practice), endless sunshine and the apparent health benefits of cooking and eating outdoors. It implies a chilled, laid-back vibe with traces perhaps of the potent but rather lazy construction of Jamaica as a narcotic idyll and tourist paradise. </p>
<p>Oliver is certainly not the first, nor will he be the last, to draw on such associations in his adaption of Caribbean food, as <a href="https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/cgi/facet/simple2?q=sarah+lawson+welsh&_action_search=Search&limit=10">my research</a> on the idea of tradition and culinary authenticity in the cookery books of Jamaican-born celebrity cook, Levi Roots has shown. Twitter user Regina Holland <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/20/jamie-olivers-jerk-rice-dish-a-mistake-says-jamaica-born-chef">aptly summed up</a> the problem of Oliver’s jerk rice as one of an ongoing “bastardisation” of Jamaican food. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1030774365275807745"}"></div></p>
<p>Oliver’s jerk rice is merely the latest in a series of recent debates on cultural appropriation in relation to culinary authenticity. Public <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/12/curry-marks-and-spencer-meal-kits-outrage">controversy erupted</a> over Marks & Spencer’s line of “authentic” curry kits, including a Bengali turmeric curry which Mallika Basu, author of Indian Cooking for Modern Living, tweeted was “at best upsetting, and at worst, offensive and callous”. In the US, accusations of cultural appropriation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/31/aloha-poke-co-cease-and-desist-letter-hawaiians-aloha">have been levelled</a> at the use of the term “aloha” by restaurants selling trendy “Hawaiian poke” sushi bowls. </p>
<p>These debates shouldn’t be reduced to a crudely binary divide between those who feel the need to police cultural traditions as pure, fixed entities and those who see the more complicated shifting story of absorption and adaptation as the real picture. We can show respect for the specific histories and cultural origins of the foods we cook and eat without losing sight of the notion that “authenticity” itself is a movable feast.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Lawson Welsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The celebrity chef is being accused of cultural appropriation over his latest product. But what is ‘jerk’ food and why the uproar?Sarah Lawson Welsh, Reader & Associate Professor in English & Postcolonial Literatures, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990692018-06-29T20:39:12Z2018-06-29T20:39:12ZReggae’s sacred roots and call to protest injustice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225521/original/file-20180629-117374-1xxhofj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Guitarist David Hinds at Reggae on the Rocks in Denver, Colorado. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Rick Scuteri/Invision/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>July 1 is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puZ7w5fxmg&feature=player_embedded">International Reggae Day</a> – a time to celebrate the popular music of Jamaica with <a href="http://www.ireggaeday.com/events">dance parties</a> exhibitions, presentations and even tree planting.</p>
<p>Reggae is universally associated with Bob Marley, its most influential artist. However, it was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fchEBChUkck">“Do the Reggae,”</a> by Jamaican musical group Toots and the Maytals that in 1968 first used the word “reggae” in a title and helped define the genre. Two years later, another Jamaican band, the Melodians released “Rivers of Babylon,” with lyrics adopted from Psalm 137, a Hebrew poem that is the subject of my most recent book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/song-of-exile-9780190466831?cc=us&lang=en&">“Song of Exile.”</a>.</p>
<p>This hugely popular lyric opens a window into Rastafarian spirituality.</p>
<h2>Who are the Rastafari</h2>
<p>Reggae is the most popular musical expression of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/ataglance/glance.shtml">Rastafari</a>, a belief system that took hold in the 1930s among poor, rural Jamaicans of African descent, who had immigrated to Kingston, where they felt alienated from roots and traditions. </p>
<p>Rastafari emphasizes the connection of people of African descent to Ethiopia and was inspired principally by the Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey, who founded the influential <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/people/marcusgarvey.shtml">United Negro Improvement Association</a> in 1914. He taught that blacks should reject their subjugation in North America by repatriating to Africa. </p>
<p>Garvey preached that blacks were the authentic biblical Jews. Based on his reading of the Bible, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iesWzLHb_GUC&pg=PA451&dq=shouting+down+babylon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXt--ktffbAhVh8IMKHSXaCHIQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">Garvey predicted</a> the appearance of a black king and messiah in Africa. Like Jews, Christians and Muslims, Rastas worship a supreme being, referred to as Jah, short for Jehovah. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225520/original/file-20180629-117436-q3vn5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mural depicting reggae music icon Bob Marley, right, and former Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie decorate a wall in the yard of Marley’s Kingston home, in Jamaica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/ David McFadden</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The word Rastafari comes from the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, crowned in 1930 and considered by most Rastafarians to be divine. Although Selassie himself was Christian not Rasta, his title was “Ras,” meaning “prince,” and his given name was Tafari – hence his followers <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/history/history.shtml">called themselves Rastafari</a>. </p>
<p>Numbering roughly a million adherents worldwide, Rastafari forbids practitioners to cut their hair. A meat-free diet of local, naturally produced fruits and vegetables without additives is encouraged, contraception and abortion are typically proscribed, and homosexuality is shunned. Taking its cue from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A2&version=KJV">verses in the Bible</a>, in which the leaves of trees serve for the “healing of the nations,” Rastafari prescribes cannabis use in sacramental rituals for healing and meditation that center on drumming and chanting. </p>
<h2>Reggae and ‘Rivers of Babylon’</h2>
<p>Reggae music was fed by diverse musical sources. Its rhythmic underpinnings were laid by <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iesWzLHb_GUC&pg=PA231&lpg=PA231&dq=verena+reckord&source=bl&ots=T3DVIkC0NZ&sig=qJHtCnJ1MdUlpTJ6Ps2tBVvzMdo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjsf_zsvfbAhXo3YMKHRwCBZsQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&q=verena%20reckord&f=false">African drum rhythms</a>. Syncopated patterns created by the drums were enhanced in the 1960s by a prominent electric bass line and off-beat guitar riffs. </p>
<p>Reggae also drew on earlier traditions of Jamaican popular music as well as American genres like big-band jazz and rhythm and blues. North American gospel hymns influenced some of the lyrics and tunes. </p>
<p>The spirituality of Rastafari appears vividly in the song “Rivers of Babylon.” </p>
<p>First recorded in 1970, “Rivers of Babylon” takes its text from Psalm 137, the only one out of 150 psalms to be set in a particular time and place, the Babylonian exile or the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+137&version=NRSV">period between 587-586 B.C. in Israel’s history</a>, when Jews were taken captive in Babylon and the Jerusalem temple was destroyed.</p>
<p>Its nine verses paint a scene of captives mourning “by the rivers of Babylon,” mocked by their captors. It expresses a vow to remember Jerusalem even in exile and closes with fantasies of vengeance against the oppressors.</p>
<h2>Why Psalm 137 is important</h2>
<p>The Babylonian exile compelled Israelites to rethink their relationship to God, reassess their standing as a chosen people and rewrite their history. This episode has <a href="http://www.crosscurrents.org/murrell.htm">obvious appeal to Rastafarians</a>, who consider themselves in exile from their African homeland (Zion) and living under an oppressive European power system they refer to as Babylon.</p>
<p>Like Psalm 137, the “Rivers of Babylon,” is divided into three sections. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDYAqz603TE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The first stanza offers a modified version of the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+137&version=KJV">Psalm 137</a>: </p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down,
And there we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Cause the wicked carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song.
How can we sing King Alpha’s song in a strange land?
</code></pre>
<p>The reggae version replaces “the Lord’s song” with “King Alpha’s song,” a reference to Ras Tafari, the Ethiopian king and messiah. </p>
<p>The second stanza diverges from the psalm, offering a Rasta-flavored exhortation to protest injustice through shouts and song:</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> Sing it out loud
Sing a song of freedom, sister
Sing a song of freedom, brother
We gotta sing and shout it
We gotta talk and shout it
Shout the song of freedom now
</code></pre>
<p>The final stanza of “Rivers of Babylon” embodies the historic connection between Rastafari and Christianity. <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807854099/martha-braes-two-histories/">Rastafari developed in a colonial society</a> shaped by British Protestants and indigenous African Jamaican traditions. </p>
<p>The song’s final stanza is taken from Psalm 19 and is a familiar Christian benediction, ending with a familiar Rastafari salutation:</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> Let the words of our mouth
And the meditation of our heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight
O Fari
</code></pre>
<p>Psalm 137 has also inspired numerous political leaders and social movements, and immigrants, as varied as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RSgGAAAACAAJ&dq=robert+grimes+how+shall&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4kcGpk6zUAhVo04MKHcYlDNAQ6AEIJDAA">Irish</a>, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4zD3LBB4HqoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=korean+american+lord%27s+song+new+land&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbp7bRk6zUAhVk7oMKHUxMAlIQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">Korean</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cwtKAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185&dq=torre+constructing+our+cuban+ethnic+identity&source=bl&ots=jgL6VUNcFx&sig=4KOGlRc3e1IUKktKW-8c82e1upI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwia872Fx_nbAhWM94MKHWOqDZoQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&q=torre%20constructing%20our%20cuban%20ethnic%20identity&f=false">Cuban</a>, have identified with the story. Its verses capture succinctly the ways people come to grips with trauma and the desire for justice. There is a good reason, in other words, why this particular psalm continues to resonate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David W. Stowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reggae is the musical expression of Rastafari, a belief system of migrants to Jamaica. A popular song, ‘Rivers of Babylon,’ offers a window into their spirituality and longing for their homeland.David W. Stowe, Professor of English and Religious Studies, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/950212018-04-18T13:48:09Z2018-04-18T13:48:09ZWindrush generation: the history of unbelonging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215410/original/file-20180418-163998-e0uvqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA Archive</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241">the Windrush generation</a> have been told recently that they do not belong in Britain. Some have been detained and faced deportation. But they are no strangers to feelings of unbelonging. These often feature strongly in their stories of early life in Britain.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-the-history-of-unbelonging-95021&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Most travelled with high expectations of what they regarded as the “mother country”. In interviews for my <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781135366476">research</a>, one Caribbean woman recalled: “When we were in school we were taught that England was the mother country. It supports its own, it looks after us”. Another felt loyalty towards England because “It was really the mother country and being away from home wouldn’t be that terrible because you would belong”.</p>
<p>Many also had a strong sense of their Britishness. Walter Lother, who came from Jamaica thought of his journey as migration within a common British world. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I came here I didn’t have a status as a Jamaican. I was British, and going to the mother country was like going from one parish to another. You had no conception of it being different.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/mr-windrush-sam-king-passes-away-90">Sam King</a> came to Britain on the Empire Windrush. For him, being British was crucial to the enterprise </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You could not be good on your own. Your good was no good. Your good had to be British.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sam King was one of a number of men on the Empire Windrush who were stationed in Britain during World War II. He had served in the RAF. Most of those who, like King, were demobbed home and then returned to Britain, noticed a change of climate when they arrived back and were no longer wearing uniform. King found people “more aggressive” and “trying to say that you shouldn’t be here”. Allan Wilmot who served with RAF Sea Rescue describes a similar change. “Being a civilian it was a complete different thing from in the services. ‘What you come back here for? The war’s over’. That was the attitude”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9F6lsLRdZ-o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Pathé newsreel.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of those who arrived on the Empire Windrush were men, although there was at least one woman stowaway – Averilly Wauchope, a dressmaker from Kingston. But in the 1950s and 1960s, many women migrated from the Caribbean to Britain independently. They did not come to join husbands but travelled to take up jobs, train as nurses, or search for employment. Others came as children often travelling on their parents’ passports.</p>
<h2>Rude awakening</h2>
<p>On arrival, sometimes within hours, the myth of the “mother country” that was held up in the Caribbean was frequently dispelled. Having set out as British subjects, the Windrush generation arrived to find that they were “immigrants” – often regarded as dark strangers who did not belong in Britain. </p>
<p>Many of the Windrush generation comment on British ignorance of the empire by comparison with what they knew of Britain. White Britons who were ignorant about the British empire did not know or acknowledge that Caribbean migrants were also British, with a long history that connected them with Britain. Constance Nembhard recalled:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We grew up under the colonial system and we knew everything about England – everything. And we came here, nobody had ever heard of Jamaica. I mean few, few, people. And it was funny, the few who had heard of Jamaica treated you differently. Those who had never heard, they all had the opinion that we lived in trees.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Black people were seen as belonging in the British empire, not in Britain. Caribbean and other migration from the Commonwealth was widely seen as bringing an alien “colour problem” into Britain. As a BBC television programme in 1955 put it: “Not for the first time in our history we have a colonial problem on our hands. But it’s a colonial problem with a difference. Instead of being thousands of miles away and worrying other people, it’s right here, on the spot, worrying us.” </p>
<p>A characteristic opposition between Britishness as white and “immigrants” as “coloured” underpinned the idea of a “colour problem”. As one woman who migrated from British Guiana recalls:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we came here we swore we were English because Guyana was British Guiana. We were brought up under the colonial rule. If you don’t have a new uniform to go and sing ‘God Save the King’, you hurt. When you come here, you discovered it’s a different thing. If you’re English, you have to be white.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those who came on the Windrush and their children experienced racism and fought against it. It took decades but many felt that by the new millennium, their efforts and those of others had secured some progress. But the Home Office <a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-latest-to-be-stripped-of-their-rights-in-the-name-of-migration-control-95158">had other ideas</a>. The decision to restrict the rights of Windrush generation arrivals and their children, and to threaten them with deportation reverses any progress made. It ranks among the most shameful episodes in Commonwealth history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Webster receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>People from the Windrush generation have been told recently that they do not belong in Britain, but they are no strangers to feelings of unbelonging, which feature strongly in their stories of early life in Britain.Wendy Webster, Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/906762018-02-01T11:40:10Z2018-02-01T11:40:10ZHow lotto scammers defraud elderly Americans and fuel gang wars in Jamaica<p>Normally, January and February are high season for the Jamaican beach city of Montego Bay. But this year, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/americas/jamaica-montego-bay-emergency-tourists-intl/index.html">an upsurge in shootings and other violent crime</a> has lead many sunseekers to steer clear.</p>
<p>On Jan. 18, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180118/prime-minister-declares-state-emergency-st-james">declared a state of emergency</a> in Montego Bay and surrounding St. James Parish. Hotels, restaurants, schools and government went on lockdown, with residents and tourists warned to “remain in their resorts” as police and military flooded the streets.</p>
<p>Since then, some <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article196270399.html">150 people have been arrested</a>, two AK-47s and numerous other high-powered weapons seized and over 80 rounds of ammunition recovered. The 14-day state of emergency was recently <a href="http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/state-emergency-extended">extended</a> until May 2.</p>
<p>Jamaican <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/americas/jamaica-montego-bay-emergency-tourists-intl/index.html">defense force chief Maj. Gen. Rocky Meade</a> says law enforcement’s mission now is to restore peace in Montego Bay by disrupting gangs, particularly “those that are responsible for murders, lotto scamming, trafficking of arms and guns, and extortion.” </p>
<p>It may sound strange to lump in lottery scams with weapons dealing and homicide. But in Montego Bay, these crimes do fall in the same category. </p>
<p>I’m a Jamaican violence researcher who’s been monitoring lotto scamming – a lethal and growing financial fraud scheme in my home country – <a href="http://maxwellsci.com/print/ajbm/v5-19-51.pdf">since as far back as 2013</a>.</p>
<h2>The craft of scamming</h2>
<p>In this illegal scheme, Jamaicans pose as lotto officials to convince vulnerable foreigners that they’ve won a big payout. To retrieve their winnings, the caller says, all they have to do is pay a modest “processing fee.”</p>
<p>According to my <a href="http://maxwellsci.com/print/ajbm/v5-19-51.pdf">2013 study</a>, most perpetrators are young – aged 14 to 25 – and work as telemarketers, remittance services cashiers, hotel employees, taxi drivers, police officers, bank tellers and airline staffers. These professions give them access to the personal information of potential victims. </p>
<p>Largely, I’ve found the fraudsters tend to target Americans, especially the elderly, gamblers, tourists and people who run online businesses. In 2010, Jamaican lotto scammers <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Lotto-scammers-living-large_11448148">defrauded US$30 million from scores of victims in the state of Minnesota</a>.</p>
<p>Criminals locate their victims using the contact details on so-called “<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gini-graham-scott/dont-get-scammed-by-the-j_b_9352562.html">lead lists</a>” gleaned from hotels and call centers. Services like Google Voice and Vonage allow them to mask their location so that their calls appear to come from an American phone number. They may also try to hide their Jamaican accent, though victims often say it’s clear they’re not American.</p>
<p>Fraudulent callers assure the victims of a large lottery prize, but then inform them that a processing fee is needed to access those funds. Using Western Union, MoneyGram or a Green Dot prepaid card, they manipulate their victims into sending them anywhere from $750 to $2,500 in a week. </p>
<p>Scammers may also menace victims who are reluctant to pay. Using Google Earth, they describe the victim’s home and say <a href="https://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.elon.edu/docview/1316871134?accountid=10730">they’re waiting “out front,” threatening them with bodily harm</a>. </p>
<p>Over time, Jamaica’s lotto scammers have accrued huge fortunes, earning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/02/jamaica-lottery-scam-violence-corruption-crime">up to $100,000 a week</a>. This criminal enterprise thrives in the Montego Bay area, the heart of the <a href="http://www.mot.gov.jm/news-releases/2017-shatters-tourism-arrival-and-earning-records">Jamaican tourism industry</a>. There, it is estimated that thousands of illicit <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Lotto-scammers-living-large_11448148">entrepreneurs have gotten rich doing lotto scams since 2007</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204084/original/file-20180130-107676-1x14u5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Montego Bay is the picturesque epicenter of Jamaica’s tourism industry, but it also suffers from ongoing gang violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Montego_bay-1001.jpg/800px-Montego_bay-1001.jpg">Grahampurse/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New gang wars</h2>
<p>Montego Bay also has a long-standing history of gang disputes in poor neighborhoods. So lotto scammers, who generally come from those same violent areas, often use their dirty money to secure protection. They pay criminal organizations to defend their homes and families and <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Lotto-scammers-living-large_11448148">bribe police</a>. </p>
<p>Rich, protected and powerful, many lotto fraudsters eventually use their illegal earnings to purchase weapons and manpower, forming criminal gangs of their own and fighting for control over turf in Montego Bay. </p>
<p>As a result, the multimillion-dollar illicit economy is now fueling gang wars, corruption and homicides across western Jamaica. Montego Bay’s crime rate has spiked year upon year and murders have steadily climbed: from 203 in 2015 to 269 in 2016 and <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180122/state-emergency-absolute-right-thing-diaspora-representative">335 in 2017</a>. Montego Bay’s homicide rate is now <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21735650-lottery-scammers-are-adding-violence-montego-bay-jamaicas-tourist-hub-state">50 times that of New York City</a>. </p>
<p>The rising violence in St. James Parish comes amid a national crime wave. In the first 20 days of 2018, say national police, Jamaica saw 100 homicides – <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180123/five-murders-day-outrage-civil-society-leaders-100-killed-first-20">an average of five killings per day</a>. </p>
<p>Last year’s murder toll of 1,616 homicides was <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180122/state-emergency-absolute-right-thing-diaspora-representative">up 19 percent over 2016</a>, when Jamaica already had the <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/03/daily-chart-23">10th highest homicide rate in the world</a>. </p>
<h2>Globalization: great for crime</h2>
<p>Lotto scamming is, in many ways, just a 21st-century rendition of the criminal violence that has plagued Jamaica for decades.</p>
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaican political parties first fueled bloodshed by <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2016.1188660">paying and arming criminal groups to help them win at the polls</a>. In the 1980s and 1990s, those same gangs took up <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/jamaican-police-target-300-million-of-drug-trade-assets/">drug trafficking</a> and the <a href="http://smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/B-Occasional-papers/SAS-OP26-Jamaica-gangs.pdf">weapons trade</a>, taking advantage of Jamaica’s strategic maritime location between South America and the U.S. </p>
<p>Now, since 2006, lottery scamming has become their lucrative new revenue source. Estimates suggest that the fraud’s immense profits were behind <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/02/jamaica-lottery-scam-violence-corruption-crime">approximately 50 percent of the 335 murders that occurred in western Jamaica</a> in 2017. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"956182190588682240"}"></div></p>
<p>Ultimately, lotto scamming – similar to <a href="https://theconversation.com/central-american-gangs-like-ms-13-were-born-out-of-failed-anti-crime-policies-76554">transnational gangs like MS-13</a> and the <a href="https://www.talkingdrugs.org/report-global-illegal-drug-trade-valued-at-around-half-a-trillion-dollars">$500 billion global drug market</a> – is a byproduct of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1744057042000297963?needAccess=true">globalization</a>. In shrinking the world, globalization has allowed goods, services, ideas, money and contraband to move easily across porous borders. </p>
<p>It’s unlikely Jamaica’s state of emergency can stop that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damion Blake is a 2011 Drugs, Security and Democracy fellow who received research funding from the Social Science Research Council and the Open Society Foundations. </span></em></p>Lotto scamming — a criminal enterprise largely targeting elderly Americans — is lucrative in western Jamaica, where it is thought to be behind 50 percent of all area murders last year.Damion Blake, Assistant Professor of Politics and Policy Studies, Elon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900832018-01-16T22:41:52Z2018-01-16T22:41:52ZThe cruel trade-off at your local produce aisle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201820/original/file-20180112-101514-1r0lfpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C29%2C4943%2C2975&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A migrant worker picks peaches in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., in the summer of 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we decide what fresh produce to buy, we check our fruits and vegetables for colour and blemishes, and we make sure the price seems fair.</p>
<p>We’re looking after our families.</p>
<p>But there’s a problem that is not necessarily apparent, even under the bright lights of the produce aisle — one that harms a set of people who are vital to getting Canada’s crops to our tables but get almost no public support.</p>
<p>We’re not looking after their families.</p>
<p>Very often, the farm workers who harvest Canadian apples, tomatoes, onions and other crops are from countries such as Mexico <a href="http://jis.gov.jm/300-farmworkers-leave-week-canada/">and Jamaica.</a> Countries where work is scarce and the standard of living is far lower than it is here.</p>
<p>Farm work is hard. It is heavy, it can be dangerous, and it often demands six or seven days a week. It pays poorly by Canadian standards — typically minimum wage.</p>
<h2>Work Canadians won’t do</h2>
<p>That’s not necessarily attractive to Canadians, who prefer other jobs.</p>
<p>But it does offer a chance for migrant workers to help their families back home.</p>
<p>Some consumers feel that it’s a fair bargain. Farmers get dependable, flexible and affordable labour while migrant workers make money to send home. On the surface, it might seem like everybody wins.</p>
<p>In fact, there is a hidden cost to those workers and to their families.</p>
<p>Most of them come here under the auspices of the federal <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/agricultural/seasonal-agricultural.html">Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program</a>, which allows farmers to bring labourers to Canada. About 53,000 temporary foreign agricultural worker positions were approved in Canada in 2015, of which 42,000 were through the SAWP.</p>
<p>The main goal of the program is to import labour, not people, creating a system that is flexible and sustainable. Instead, it is unbalanced and harmful to the people who do the labour we need them to do.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Mexican migrant worker trims the vines of a vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., in March 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Seasonal agricultural workers can only be here for eight months each year. They cannot stay on when they are finished. Their years and sometimes decades of hard work — and their contributions to feeding Canadians —do not earn them any extra right to settle here in Canada.</p>
<p>All the while, they are producing and collecting our food for us, and Canada is deducting taxes and Employment Insurance premiums from their pay without permitting them to access the insurance benefits or rights associated with citizenship.</p>
<h2>Cannot collect the EI they pay into</h2>
<p>The workers are forced to leave the country after eight months. No one can collect EI from outside the country, so it’s impossible for them to be eligible. </p>
<p>They used to be able to collect parental and maternity benefits through EI, but the Stephen Harper government <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/12/11/seasonal_migrant_workers_stripped_of_parental_benefits.html">removed this right in 2012</a>. The Trudeau government has yet to restore it, despite <a href="http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3915:ufcw-canada-and-official-opposition-call-on-government-to-end-great-canadian-rip-off-of-sawp-workers&catid=513&Itemid=6&lang=en">repeated calls</a> from advocates to do so.</p>
<p>The federal government collects mandatory Canada Pension Plan payments, too, but offers only meagre payback when those workers retire in their home countries after giving their bodies to working on our behalf.</p>
<p>The invisible costs, as we have recently described in a paper for the journal <a href="https://www.riir.ulaval.ca/en">Industrial Relations</a>, include the high price that families pay when husbands and fathers leave for months at a time to work. Almost all migrant agricultural labourers — 97 per cent —are men and the vast majority have spouses and children back home.</p>
<p>No one forces them to come to Canada, but lacking viable options at home, they don’t have much of a choice if they want to support their families. This leaves their children without fathers for months each year. And it forces their spouses to shoulder the entire burden of managing their households. </p>
<p>It’s a cruel trade-off. To help their families, these workers have to hurt them.</p>
<h2>Hardships for family back home</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these hardships can be measured in tangible terms. There are higher rates of illness among these migrant workers’ families back home. Their kids have more mental illness, behavioural problems and trouble in school. Spouses report high levels of stress. Families sometimes fall apart.</p>
<p>Any parent can imagine what it would be like to leave home for eight months, without any chance to return for major family events, including weddings, funerals and graduations. That has a tremendous impact on relationships.</p>
<p>It deeply undermines families.</p>
<p>Yet it’s all perfectly legal and fully sanctioned by our federal government. In theory, it’s all voluntary, but in reality, it’s clear these workers have little choice to take the jobs Canadians won’t do — at least not for the pay and working conditions being offered.</p>
<p>Agriculture is a big business, and certainly everyone who has a hand in providing safe, fresh produce to Canadians deserves to make a living. Farmers face the weather and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3865664/more-okanagan-fruit-growers-to-be-blocked-from-hiring-mexican-workers/">other challenges</a>, including sub-standard living conditions in some cases, for uncertain rewards. Wholesalers and distributors — who are invisible to most consumers — make a significant portion of the retail price. Retailers make almost all the rest.</p>
<h2>Cannot unionize</h2>
<p>The hands that pluck the fruits and vegetables — typically brown or black hands, which matters in the racialized calculus of food pricing where folks with darker skins often have to work harder for less — receive only a small fraction of the retail price. Some provinces, including Ontario —where over half the SAWP workers are employed — <a href="http://www.focal.ca/es/publications/focalpoint/457-june-2011-kerry-preibisch">will not allow agricultural workers to unionize</a>, either.</p>
<p>Fairer access to rights, benefits and job protections, including employment insurance and open work permits, would not make much difference to the retail price, if any.</p>
<p>This brings us back to the question of the true sustainability of our food. Is it a fair exchange when the fresh fruits and vegetables that we feed to our kids come at such a cost to other families and their kids?</p>
<p>Does it matter less to us because we can’t see those kids and their mothers? Or because we delude ourselves into believing their fathers and husbands are satisfied coming here, paying into benefit systems they can never access, leaving their families year after year, with no chance to ever immigrate and build a future together?</p>
<p>Does that apple still taste as sweet when we know that a poor person’s hardships subsidized it for us?</p>
<p>It’s worth thinking about. It shouldn’t be this way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald MacLean Wells receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). This research was funded by SSHRC as part of The Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) <<a href="https://pepso.ca/">https://pepso.ca/</a>> research project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as part of The Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) <<a href="https://pepso.ca/">https://pepso.ca/</a>> research project.</span></em></p>Every year, migrant workers come to Canada to pick the fruits and vegetables we take for granted. They aren’t paid well and get none of the benefits they pay into. It’s time to treat them fairly.Donald MacLean Wells, Professor Emeritus, Labour Studies and Political Science, McMaster UniversityJanet McLaughlin, Associate Professor of Health Studies, Research Associate, International Migration Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.