Lest We Forget

Content Warning: this audio contains sexual content and profranties as well as mentions of sexism, ephebophilia, statutory rape, revenge porn and misogyny.

Sidewalk is an upcoming video essay series that explores shifting discourse in Jamaican society through the arts. Lest We Forget is pleased to present the podcast version of their first project - Oral Sex As Told By Dancehall - which looks at the history of oral sex discourse in Jamaican society through dancehall music.

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In conversations around Jamaicans' distrust in the island's political system, there is the recurring theme of political corruption. So to understand the root of political corruption on the island, it seems to fit to look at the historic court case involving J.Z. Malcolm, who in 1952 became the first politician in Jamaica to be found guilty on fraud charges.

Since scholarship on the topic discussed is limited, a large portion of the details heard on this episode was taken from “The Making of ‘The Comrade’: The Political Journey of Ralph Gonsalves" by Ralph Gonsalves

Today, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is the one of the longest serving head of government in Caribbean history. As of this episode recording, he is the current prime minister of St.Vincent and the Grenadines - a post he has held since 2001. Beloved throughout the region, he has affectionately called Uncle Ralph and Comrade Ralph. But back in the 1970’s, this affection was non-existent as he was persona non-grata throughout the Eastern Caribbean.

Content Warning: this episode contains profanity

In 2004, Jamaican musician, Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley released the lead single off his upcoming third studio album, "Welcome to Jamrock”. Propelled by its music video, it would go to be an international hit. But although it was celebrated abroad, back home in Jamaica, sections of society had a different opinion.

Content Warning: this episode contains discussion of physical abuse, racism and xenophobia.

In the wake of certain events occurring across the region, thousands of West Indians emigrated or sought refugees status to the United States by the 1970s. Still, it would be the newly arrived Haitians and Haitian refugees that faced the most prejudice. And even though one rap group would emerge in the 1990s to address this anti-immigrant and anti-black discrimination, anti-Haitian rhetoric in the U.S. has never really gone away.

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Content Warning: this episode contains mention of slavery

On August 1st, 1838, Jamaica, alongside the rest of the countries in British West Indies, achieved emancipation and thus all enslaves Black people on the island, gained their freedom. Since then, it has been ongoing debate on the necessity of commemorating the end of one of the most brutal acts of mankind.

Content Warning: this episode discusses a plane crash as well as injuries and death associated with it.

In the mid 1970’s, the first and only mid-air bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere took place. As such, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airline 455 which resulted in the killing of 73 persons, became one of the most devastating terrorist attack in Caribbean history. 

Content Warning: this episode contains discussion of homophobia, homophobic language, murder and police brutality. There are also mentions of slavery and rape.

By no stretch, is the Jamaica Constabulary Force the most loved civil servant organisation. However, the organisation colonial roots, anti-black mode of operations and the nation’s homophobia lead to a rumour that the organisation is been overrun by queer male police officers; and despite no proof this was happening, the rumor has lasted for almost a century and at one point, even prompted a government inquiry into the force for their alleged "homosexual behaviours".

Content Warning: this episode contains mentions of slavery

On this episode, we discussed how the colonisation of the Caribbean by Europeans brought mosquitoes to the region and the subsequent  ecological transformation of the region that have foster the growth of the pest. 

In 1979, a swine virus outbreak occurred in the Dominican Republic. Still, the situation would had a drastic effect in Haiti as a US-Canada-Mexico partnership led to 1.3 million of their Kreyol pigs been slaughtered, forever changing the country.

In 1975, Cuba sent troops to Angola to help them fight against an invasion by apartheid South Africa. Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State was angry at this, so he set out to get countries to denounce Cuba’s actions. Jamaica was one of these countries. So, in December 1975, Kissinger met with prime minister Michael Manley on the issue. On this episode, we hear from Manley, himself, how this conversation went and the events that occured in its aftermath - events, that forever changed Jamaica.

Michael Manley’s account is taken from, "Jamaica: A Struggle In The Periphery " by Michael Manley. pg 111 to 117

In Jamaica, there is the famous Devon House. A historical landmark, it is popular for its patties, the Devon House ice-cream and when the weather is suitable, it also serves as a public park for families. However, there’s a popular story that involves Devon House that most Jamaicans grow up hearing. The story goes that Lady Musgrave, the then governor of Jamaica’s wife, was so angry at seeing Devon House, this grand mansion owned by a black man, that she authorise the building of another road, to avoid driving passed it. And it’s for this reason why the road is known today as Lady Musgrave’s Road. However, as much as the story is popular and accepted by Jamaicans, it’s not true. Then there is the tale of Annie Palmer, the White Witch of Rose Hall - a woman who never existed but whose legend went mainstream when a racist novel was published in the late 1920's.

Content Warning: this episode contains mentions of murder, police brutality, indentureship and the abuse of women.

Upon the arrival of large numbers of Indians to the Caribbean, through the Indentureship system, they also brought their religion and other aspect of their culture. Their aversion to not assimilating to whiteness, was seen as a problem by the colonial governments. And no other event in the 1800’s would portray this than the 1884 Hosay Massacre in Trinidad which say agents of the colonial state - the police- turn their guns on Indians taking part in the annual Hosay festival.

On August 1st, 1838, Jamaica, alongside the rest of the countries in the British West Indies, achieved full emancipation and thus all enslaved Black people on the island, gained their freedom. Immediately after, the topic of land became a major issue. For even though freedom day come for all Black persons, a series of laws & taxes were created, effectively blocking Blacks people & in some English speaking - Caribbean countries, Indians, from owning land. A history that countries are still reckoning with today.

Content Warning: this episode contains mentions of violence, slavery and wider harm.

Most scholarship on Caribbean chattel slavery of enslaved Black people largely covers the the sugar and tobacco plantation systems throughout the region. However, there was another massive industry that was built upon the enslavement of Black people - salt. Saltpans were spread across the region where throughout the 18th and 19th century, the region was one of the main supplier of salt to Europe and the United States; and as events unfold, the documentation of the life of one enslaved black woman who worked on a Caribbean saltpan played a major role in the fight for emancipation in the British West Indies. Still, it is the history of salt production in the region that shaped the West Indian diet we know today.

On March 10, 1979, according to all persons who were personally involved in the documentation of the revolution, the New Jewel Movement leadership got word through their informats at senior levels of the police force, that Eric Gairy left order for the arrest and assassination of the leading members of the political party. Through a pattern of behaviour, NJM leadership knew that if they wanted to live to see another day, they would have to act soon. So on Tuesday, March 13, 1979, a group of young persons would attempt an event that has never happen in Caribbean history: a successful revolution in the anglophone Caribbean.

Content Warning: This episode contains mentions of police brutality

As Sir Eric Gairy’s tenure as head of government continued throughout the 1970’s, the country was on the brink of economic and social collapse. In the wake of Bloody Sunday and Bloody Monday occurred, two of the most ferocious cases of police brutality in Caribbean history, Gairy was beginning to face opposition from all sides. However of all the oppositions, one stood out: an organised group of young professionals who called themselves the New Jewel Movement.

In the midst of Grenada’s independence, the country was experiencing islandwide strikes and protests due to its economic deterioration and domestic repression in the hands of its first prime minister, Eric Gairy. These were highlighted by the many cases of Gairy’s alleged bribes and corruption, real estates scams, extortion deals, sex scandals, international partnership for his own self interest, and his now growing obsession with religion and flying saucers. This period also saw the vast activities of the Mongoose Gang - Gairy's allegedly secret police which came down on anyone and anything that stood in his way of power.

After years of societal tension in Grenada, everything would come to a head in 1951 at an event now known as the 1951 Revolution. The person who propelled this event was a former primary school teacher name Eric Matthew Gairy. Due to the success of this 1951 event, Gairy would become Grenada’s leading trade unionist and soon after, Grenada’s most powerful political leader. Over the next decade and through the 1960’s, Grenada became the setting for Gairyism.

1950 would be one of the most significant years to understand the Grenadian Revolution, however, the events of this year were years in the making. It was years of build up tension arising from the neglect of the country’s majority black and poor population, coupled with the organising influence of Uriah Butler in nearby Trinidad and Tobago and the national black power empowerment movement enhance by of T.A. Marryshow. This episode also contains a brief history of the Banda Massacre which exposes the dark history of nutmeg cultivation and European colonisation.

The audio that opened this episode is a recording of McGodden Kerensky "Cacademo" Grant, one of the persons who started the Working Men and Women's Association with T. Albert Marryshow. Later, he would become National Chairman of the New JEWEL Movement (NJM) Council of Delegate. At the time of the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG), he worked with the militia until his death in 1982. 

A introduction of our five part series entirely dedicated to Grenadian Revolution as we examine the events, people, causes & consequences that led to the March 1979 overthrow of the Sir Eric Gairy government by the New Jewel Movement.  

The audio compilation features the voices of Maurice Bishop, Claudette Pitt, Sir Eric Gairy, a rare recording of Cacademo Grant & the first radio broadcast to hit Grenada's airwave on the morning of March 13, 1979

In March of 1795, a French free coloured, Julien Fédon, would lead a revolt against the white British elites on the island of Grenada. Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, the French Revolution and activities happening in Guadeloupe; for the next 16 months Fédon would range a battle against the English colonisers where the rebellion would be one of the most important events that led to emancipation of enslaves Black people in the anglophone Caribbean in 1838.

Content Warning: this episode contains mentioned of physical and emotional abuse.

Alexander Bedward, emerged during 1889 as a minister in the Jamaica Native Baptist Free Church. Throughout the 1890’s and beyond, he would emerged as one of the leading christian preachers in Jamaica. Tales of his healing power and his power of prophecy spread across the island and the rest of Caribbean region where Bedward emerge as one of the first black nationalists in post-emancipation Jamaica.

The Hindu contributions to the development of Rastafari and the ways Indo-Jamaicans have help shaped the movement.

Song at the beginning of episode: Super Cat - Ghetto Red Hot

Song at the end of episode: Beverly Pancham Ramparsard - Chitawaniya Me Naina 

In 1976, the government of Jamaica did not allow for a Miss World Jamaica pageant to be held. As such, on paper, technically there is no Miss Jamaica 1976 winner. However, wearing the sash of Miss Jamaica World, Cindy Breakspeare became the second Jamaican to win the global beauty pageant when she won in 1976. On this episode, we explain how these two things are true.

As anyone over the age of 30 who went to a Jamaican primary school would tell you, the bulla and pink milk was an experience that made their childhood. Even though bulla and pink milk is no longer in schools, the famous government-supplied meal for children from low-income schools has defined many Jamaicans’ scholastic experience. 

The Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt was an attempt to overthrow the government of Trinidad and Tobago, instigated on Friday, 27 July 1990. Over the course of six days, Jamaat al Muslimeen, held hostages at the Red House (Parliament building) and at the headquarters of the state-owned national television broadcaster, Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT).  In the end, the prime minister was shot, persons killed and numerous lives were forever change.

From the community of Somerset in England, rose the shoe brand of Clarks in 1825. Yet, it was the Desert Boot, "inspired" by North African soldiers that allow the company to become a global phenomenon. But in the 1960’s, when inner city young men in Kingston, took a liking to the shoes, the fashion culture in Jamaica’s shifted.

Academic scholarship on the 1918 anti-Chinese riots is limited. As such, a bulk of the research of this singular event, came from Howard Johnson, academic paper, “The Anti-Chinese Riots of 1918 in Jamaica”, published in the Caribbean Quarterly in 1982.  

In 1918, the first of 3 Anti-Chinese riots took place in Jamaica. Twenty years later, in 1938, the Labour Riots gave birth to the uprising of looting and arson attacks on the Chinese grocery establishment. Then, just a few years after Jamaica’s independence, the trifecta occurred in 1965.

In 1976, on the 3rd of December, at his residence of 56 Hope Road, Bob Marley survived an assassination attempt mostly by his manager, Don Taylor, been a barrier between him and assassins. Almost 3 years later in a Gabonese hotel room, Bob Marley apparently beat up Don Taylor. The incident is said to serve as the inspiration for one of Marley's most famous track, Bad Card.

In 1934, a dispute over the construction of a gas station led to a heated argument and an almost physical fight, between future national heroes of Jamaica: then KSAC councillor, Marcus Garvey, and the then most sought off lawyer in the country, Norman Manley. Even before that, both men would meet in a legal issue where Garvey was alleged to have been married to two women at the same time, a fact unknown to both “wives”.

Every year, around May to August, usually, there’s a repetitive argument that exist in Jamaica society. Whether on traditional or social media, this debate takes place where person inquire why do Jamaica’s authorities continue to mandate the wearing of jacket and tie for men in formal spaces - especially in a tropical climate. The thing is however, there was once a time in this country’s modern history, when the government of Jamaica went on a campaign to change societal norms - that is: change what male formal attire means in the Jamaica. Through this campaign, the safari styled dress suit known as the Kariba became arguably the most popular formal dress suit in 1970’s Jamaica.