The Story of the Jamaican People by Philip Sherlock; Hazel Bennett Review by: Trevor W.

Purcell NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, Vol. 73, No. 3/4 (1999), pp. 143148 Published by: BRILL on behalf of the KITLV, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and
Caribbean Studies

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143

Some of thePuertoRican womenin thiscollecof thewomen'snarratives. and yet many with"white"feminism, tion did not want to be identified male domdid notwantto attribute lives as feminists. Others livedouttheir Eurocentric the males to Puerto Rican inanceexclusively thereby resisting Latino macho male myth.The narratives conveyed thatmany of these based on gender, how hierarchies womenunderstood sex, race, and class in cultural are embeddedin familiesand societies and enacted everyday thatspeakingout about concludes by demonstrating practice.Peterman withothers abortion helpedthePuertoRican womenin the studyto redemorepositively. fineabortion, as well as their womanhood, References 1983. Colonialism Annette B. & ConradSeipp, deArellano, Ramirez , , Catholicism Hill:University inPuerto Rico.Chapel A History Control andContraception: ofBirth Press. ofNorth Carolina Journal and Sociology. Laurel, 1990. Narrative Richardson, of Contemporary 19:116-35. Ethnography

The Storyof theJamaicanPeople. Philip Sherlock & Hazel Bennett. Kingston:Ian Randle; Princeton:Markus Wiener, 1998. xii + 434 pp. (ClothUS$ 48.95, PaperUS$ 19.95) Trevor W.Purcell ofAnthropology & Department Africana Studies Program Florida ofSouth University FL 33620, U.S.A. Tampa <purcell@chuma.cas.usf.edu> of Jamaica has come a long way, fromFernando The historiography Jamaica , Land ofWoodand Water (1964), in whichblacksare Henriques's The Story and Bennett's to Sherlock with the stock, plantation categorized as are treated in which the Jamaican being among they People (1998), of of the island published Unlike otherhistories of civilization. thefounders since emancipation (see, for example, Black 1965; Hurwitz& Hurwitz Gardner 1971; 1971), The Storyof theJamaicanPeople is notin thetypiof a people. it is a history cal genreof a colonial history;

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144 NewWest Indian Guide! Nieuwe West-Indische Gidsvol.73 no.3 & 4 (1999) Yet thebook presents a picture of Jamaicathatis bothbleak and bright. It is written to inspire but thehorrible Jamaicans, it also condemns plantationregimeupon whichthe nation,indeed the region,was founded. The modern of the with an error of and was nurhistory region began navigation tured on greed, and cultural For blackstheoutcomewas, cruelty, arrogance. in the words of George Lamming,"a fractured consciousness"(p. 294). Jamaica's history in a and began portentous unequalness,symbolically in Cristobal Coln and his band of actuallyrepresented conquistadores tradingworthlesscurios with the native Tainos for theirfinelycrafted The journeythrough the centuries thissmall isle to implements. brought envisionitselfas a nation"fitted its record of cultural achievement to by contribute to the unityand happinessof our [global] shipsignificantly mates"(p. 411). Situatedambiguously as it has been at thecenter of modern historybut on the peripheries of international relationsof power, Jamaicais stillnavigating its way through thecontradictions conceivedin theColn-Tainotrade. The story of a unified nationout of pivotson thethemeof thecreation interests and understandings. Jamaica's flat lands permitted conflicting industrial-scale but the mountainshave always embraced plantations, of absenteewhiteplantation owners escapees. Controlby a small number contributed to brutalneglectof theisland,but thelargenumbers of black importedlaborers facilitatedgeneralized revolt. The maroons fought fortheir butlatercollaborated withplanters freedom, valiantly againstrunthatfreedom. to servitude and postaway slaves to maintain Adjustment has alwayskindled divisiveviolencein theverypeoplantation oppression and eternal warmth. For muchof this ple knownfortheir cooperative spirit Jamaicawas, as theauthors nota nation buta name;no one remark, history, called Jamaicahome (p. 156). The contradictions thedialectigerminated cal seed of nationhood, however- a processof self-formation bornin the tumultuous of the 1930s and comingof days of urbanproletarian protest decolonization of the 1950s and 1960s. age in thenationalist struggles The veryfirst lineofthebook's introduction establishes itstone:"In this book theauthors tell the story of theJamaican from an African-Jamaican, nota European, pointofview" (p. xi). Theythen quickly go on to arguethat "theJamaican to themas people have neveracceptedwhatwas presented the history of Jamaica.The heroes of the BritishEmpire are not their heroes. Their battlefields are in African-America, in Palmares ... in thestory in Africa Accompong"(p. xi). This setsthestageforgrounding "the homeland."But this grounding is less strictly than historiographie call a "navel string" vaguelycosmological,whatlocals might grounding. - "Honour the Ancestors," The titlesof the first threechapters "On and "Africa, theOriginalHomeland"- are Claimingour GreatHeritage,"

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notonlyaccurately of content, butintended to be evocativeof descriptive in historical a rebellion consciousness. The authors tell us thatthishistory of lovingrespectforthe Jamaicanand West Indian begins witha tribute and people, quote George Lammingon his desireto bring"thisworldof menand womenfrom downbelow to a proper order of attention" (p. 1). But lestthereader to think this work is blind to nonAfrican Jamaica, they begin move to recognizethecomingof theJewsas earlyas thesiximmediately And teenth and latertheIndians,Chinese,Lebanese, and Syrians. century, in nation thethreehistorical icons venerated fortheir inspiration building are GeorgeWashington, SimnBolvar,and Toussaint L'Ouverture. 4 beginstheconceptualtaskof replacing the"colonial model" Chapter of Jamaican and societywitha "worldperspective," and Chapter 5, history of this worldperless thaneightpages, begins the empiricalgrounding of theindigenous peoples of theregion.The spectivewitha consideration whose thenshifts to thecomingof thoseentities, story Spain and Britain, and obscurethe attention to gain would necessarily distort single-minded theheritage that of thosewhose laborproducedthatgain. Ultimately, story maroonwars,and postslavery is claimedis theheritage of slave rebellions, Paul Bogle to Bob Marley.But it forfreedom underleadersfrom struggles andjustice to be foundin Englishhistory" is also theheritage of "freedom and encodedin theMagna Carta. and homeland to The story soon turns from attention to heritage, honor, The authors consideration of colonial creation. self-consciously place their wider than the colonial world in a global perspective, narrative firmly framedour historical whichhas so typically thinking. Brandingthis the view of African and human 33), history" (p. they beginwiththehunt"long on to the settled and move of the and earlyperiod ing gathering peoples centersof "civilization"such as Egypt,Mesopotamia,India, and China. influsee as the"fracturing is to eschewwhattheyappropriately The intent the instead a sense of and to essential ences of imperial Europe," engender even disof humanity. Buriedin thisschemais an all too simplified, unity unilinear evolution. torting, thestory of con6 through 29 - retells of thebook - Chapters The heart the birth of divided of a the settlement, society, emergence profoundly quest, of nationalist consciousnessin the late 1930s to 1940s, and thebeginning final in to The the 1960s. 1950s economicdevelopment chapter, thinking a wide spectrum of eventsand "Cultureand Nationhood," pulls together in and performance, to art,politics, individual pertaining accomplishments instias is as much that to underscore order culture-building nation-building is abouthowAfrican of nation-building Above all, thestory tution-building. the and Jamaicans systemsand, at the rejected plantation post-plantation

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146 NewWest Indian West-Indische Guide/Nieuwe Gidsvol.73 no.3 & 4 (1999) same time,adjustedwithferocity, and humor. To ingenuity, ' long suffering, ' use a Jamaican are able to tek bad mek saying, they soming laugh. Wherethebook soarsis notin recounting themajorwarsand rebellions - forexample,Hart1985; Holt been written (aboutwhichmuchhas already in of but the the human side of thestruggle, theeveryday cre1992), telling of folk in the Here the authors show ativity overcoming adversity. deep of local culture, as knowledgeand sensitive appreciation drawing heavily, no Jamaican historian before them has done,on popularexpressive idioms. The technique to mindE. P. Thompson'sThe MakingoftheEnglish brings not so much for its grand theoretical Class intent and fineWorking ethnohistorical but with the same research, grained common-people-as-hisIn thatvein,the struggle effect. of Jamaican and torical-agents plantation workers is putin thebroader historical context of thedevelpost-plantation class in responseto the demandsof the opmentof the English working Industrial Revolution. The book's significance lies less in theimpressive it achieves synthesis thanin themodality of itsinterpretation: theAfrican-Jamaican perspective. Two discursivevehicles used to enable this perspective deserve critical comment: theemphasison liberation of consciousness, and thewide use of local socioculturalmaterial.The authorsraise the question: "Why do Jamaicansaverttheireyes fromtheirhistory, when in all countries the is an opportunity to build up a basic nationalism and teachingof history in themindof a child"(p. 8). They answerthisquestionby prepatriotism a history whichseems intended less to provideacademichistorians senting - though witha paradigmatic shift it may servethatpurpose- thanto provide an intellectual balmyard national con, a rallying pointforrevitalizing sciousness.It is, in a phrase,a transparently nationalist history. the Jamaicanstoryas part of the "long view of By contextualizing African and humanhistory," we get a sense of Jamaicans notas meresurvivorsof Europeanavariceand arrogance, butas mindful historical agents. to a humanist of ideas and activities from Thus,we are treated interweaving abolitionists WilliamWilberforce and Granville to black misSharp Baptist sionaries George Lisle and Moses Baker; from nineteenth-century Jamaican activist GeorgeWilliamCordonto ex-slavePaul Bogle; and from nativist activists. Politics religiousleader Bedwardto today's Rastafarian and religionare treated as unified. The effect of Voltaire's Saul , and play, Rousseau's Social Contract of a local , are viewedalongsidethedeclaration "Since ChristHas Made Us Free," in theirsynthesized effect on hymn, local and regionalliberatory history. But the Jamaicanperspective is still,above all, an Acrocentric one. Sherlockand Bennett move beyondthedecades-olddebate aboutAfrican cultural in theAmericasto consideration survivals ofAfrica in itsown right

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as a keyplayer. and other scholAnthropologists ethnohistorically-leaning ars may findsome lack here.Colonially-imposed such as categorizations and racial taxonomie terms such as and "tribe," "mongoloid,""negroid," men"Bushmanoid" are used uncritically (p. 20). And we are told,without cultural that 1000 of black tionof regionaland variations, by A.D., peoples and were becomingpolitically Africawere livingin settledcommunities of theepisteorganized(p. 22). One cannotfailto noticetheintransigence theauthors have inherited and mologica!legacy encoded in thecategories continue to deploy. the conceptsof "relevance"and "continuity," Sherlock Thus, applying in theAfrican of historical herand Bennett weave threads unity/continuity by discussingthree itage and its place in the "long view of humanity" of the thefather ancient leaders:Sargon, kingof thecityof Kish; Abraham, Jewish people; and Moses, who led theJewsout of bondage.These leaders in theevolution of civilizaof three transformations aremaderepresentative thedevelopment of urbancenters, to theJamaican tionrelevant experience: of the Hebrews of monotheism, and the liberation the institutionalization in is uninBible Jamaica. But there an to the arrival of the apparently leading and andAbraham here.Sargonwas a ruthless tended subtext builder, empire The subof therise and spreadof monotheism. Moses wererepresentative in humanachievement on of unity to a statement textamounts predicated in of cultural relativism There is no civilization." of recognition "bringers whichinform this and civilization evolution;the conceptsof achievement civilization tainted are necessarily rendition understandings: by Eurocentric in in virtue an is marked sedentariness, "complex"sociopolitical by implied in large-scale and so on. Yet,the in monotheism, architecture, organization, in evolution of virtue human the embodiment of what constitutes question is not a settled one. if is such in a universal there sense, yet of theAfrican-Jamaican The secondexpression maybe seen perspective in the emphasison indigenous economic,and general political,aesthetic, and listof individual the authors' creations. cultural rich,uplifting Despite and economic of politicalprogress rendition their collectiveachievements, the long dis(Chapter29), forexample,accepts uncritically development And in to the 1960s. of the 1940s creditedclientelist politicalpractices and to the also turn a blind broaderterms, socially ecologically eye they After decades of modelof development. American Eurodestructive growth addressperniciousecouse, not only has thismodel failed to effectively a conbut it deepens its hold on the societyby fostering nomic injustice, consumerism. and individualism sciousnessthatis increasingly shaped by discourse thecritical to rekindle misses an opportunity The book therefore laissez of the assertion about social development supply-side eclipsed by in the 1980s. ideas faire

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148 NewWest West-Indische Indian Guide/Nieuwe Gidsvol.73 no.3 & 4 (1999) and accessible telling of Jamaican Quibbles aside, thisbook's inspiring is a contribution to the that history significant emergent thinking challenges thecategories of thought and knowledge under thetwinyokeof bequeathed and cultural The real beneficiaries of this bold intellectugreed arrogance. al labor of love and respectfora people will be secondary and postsecwill in who find it a that not ondarystudents, history speaks just to their intellect butto their as well. spirit References The Jamaica tothe Present. London: Black,Clinton V.,1965. of Story from Prehistory Collins. W. J., 1971.A History itsDiscovery Gardner, ofJamaica, from by Christopher tothe Columbus Year 1872.London: Frank Cass. Abolished Vol.2: Blacksin Rebellion. Hart,Richard,1985.SlavesWho Slavery. ofthe West Indies. ISER,University Kingston: 1964. Jamaica andWater. NewYork: London Henriques, Fernando, , LandofWood House andMaxwell. and Politics in Holt, Thomas C., 1992.TheProblem Race,Labour, of Freedom: Jamaica andBritain, 1832-1938. IanRandle. Kingston: Samuel J.& Edith F. Hurwitz, 1971. A Historical Jamaica: Portrait. New Hurwitz, York: Praeger.

: Montserrat , 1630-1730. Donald Harman If the Irish Ran the World Akenson.Liverpool:LiverpoolUniversity Press,1997. xii + 273 pp. (Cloth 29.95) Howard Fergus UWI,Manjack RO. Box256,Montserrat <fergush@candw.ag> accountof any aspect of If theIrish Ran the Worldis the most authentic Montserrat^ to have appearedin print and theauthor has critiqued history all suchaccountswhichis a valuableby-product of his book.This is nearly notjust a uniquecase study of a Caribbeanfarming colonybutan insightfulstudy of a particular ethnic of Europeanfortune seekersin the subgroup

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