Political awakening (Part 4)
Although migrant Jamaican intellectuals were instrumental in the civil rights struggle in America, the plight of the homeland was not forgotten. The persistent interest of these migrants in bringing about political and social changes in Jamaica, despite the fact that some of them continued to reside in the United States and rarely visited the island, can be viewed as part of the continuous search of the African in the West for a homeland.
For long, Africa — from the early days of plantation servitude — was, in fact, viewed as the motherland, but as time passed and, as stated by George Shepperson in his piece titled Ethiopianism Past and Present published in the Journal of Modern African History Vol 10, “without evidence and proof of its existence, Africa receded into the subconscious as a mythical promised land”.
It became symbolic only of a homeland one day to be created. This might have been reinforced by the failure of Garvey’s promised ‘return’ to Africa via the Black Star Line to materialise. This was a disappointment to thousands of Garveyites who had viewed the African motherland as their best hope for gaining liberation and autonomy.
The message of self-reliance, however, came to be seen as the most credible vehicle to bring about the transformations required to create a place in society for black people. For the West Indian migrants, however, this was insufficient. Regardless of any progress they made in assimilating in American society, they still remained outsiders.
The truth was that blacks in America were far from being a homogenous group despite the gains they made working together in the civil rights movement. The hostilities between native blacks and West Indian migrants persisted. West Indian migrants were constantly reminded of their otherness by native blacks who labelled them as ‘monkey chasers’, ‘ring tails’, ‘King George’s niggers’ and ‘cockneys’ and tormented them in songs:
When a monkey chaser dies
Don’t need no undertaker
Just throw him in the Harlem River
He’ll float back to Jamaica.
— Colin Grant. Negro with a Hat: the rise and fall of Marcus Garvey
Whites also distinguished between the two by showing more preference for the West Indian labourers who were often times more educated and deemed more industrious than the native blacks. This, of course, served in their favour, but it further alienated them from native blacks and fuelled the tension between the two.
Migrants, therefore, never really found acceptance in American society. As a result of feeling alienated, they “formed fraternal organisations and social clubs” and forged a greater bond with the land of their birth. In this way, the homeland remained relevant. Interestingly, however, as Parascandola noted, “they also retained their ties to Great Britain, with more than 5,000 of them attending a celebration for King George VI’s coronation in 1937. Confused and angered by American racism, West Indians often cried out in despair to the British Consulate”.
This continued allegiance to Great Britain was what accounted for the moniker ‘King George’s niggers’ and, to a great extent, shaped the model of self-government that West Indian advocacy groups sought to have implemented.
The timing of the active interest of the Diaspora in the affairs of the island is also important in examining the motives. This, notably, came at the close of the Harlem Renaissance and at a time when many migrant labourers were repatriated as a result of instability in the labour sector or the completion of projects.
The conditions they returned to were less than favourable as the country experienced significant economic decline in the face of crisis overseas such as the crash of the American stock market in 1928, the decline of sugar exports, and the decline in employment opportunities overseas. Unemployment was high, wages were low, and working conditions were deplorable. This was clearly highlighted in a survey carried out in 1937 by Hedley Powell Jacobs, co-founder of the progressive newspaper, Public Opinion, and later, founding member of the People’s National Party. He noted the following observation in his summary:
There (was) a general dissatisfaction with conditions of life and work. Scarcely anyone seemed contented. The wish for land, or more land, or more productive land is almost universal, even amongst women…
There is a general wish for higher wages. On the Charlottenburgh property (in St Mary) there was a strike almost every week. The complaint was that the rates were not high enough. It was impossible, they said, to make a living wage (they thought apparently of 12 shillings a week as a living wage).
Such conditions were worrying trends for not only middle class Jamaicans at home — black, coloured or white — but also those in the Diaspora with a vision of returning to the homeland, like Walter Adolphe Roberts who penned the following:
Jamaica Exiles’ Hymn
Jamaica, glorious homeland
We return again to you
We hail you and remember
Your sky’s eternal blue
Your sunshine ever golden
On forest hill and plain
Your rich red earth that ripens
The coffee and the cane
Full well we know our country
That we can serve you best
By struggling for your freedom
In the Carib’s sunny breast
A nation among nations
Proud in your liberty
Jamaica, glorious homeland
We swear that this shall be