Peter Espeut | The salt has lost its savour

A head-scratcher which has puzzled some sociologists of the Caribbean is why places like Jamaica where blacks outnumbered whites 30 to one never had a successful slave rebellion. Surely the force of numbers alone could have overpowered the few white owners, managers, bookkeepers and bushas spread thinly across the countryside!

Haiti is the only modern slave society which had a successful slave revolt. Why?

With protests in Peru and Brazil, riots in Bolivia and Venezuela, strikes in Paris and London, and revolutions in Cuba and Grenada, why are Jamaicans (with a reputation for aggression) so passive? Why is it that food and fuel prices can soar, purchasing power can be eroded by inflation, and corruption can bleed billions from the public purse, and still Jamaicans do not take to the streets in protest and dissent?

And despite the high degree of tolerance by Jamaicans of poor governance, is there a breaking point?

The usual explanation given for why the Haitian revolution was successful – and it makes sense – is that (eventually) Haitians of mixed race (mulâtres) sided with the blacks (noirs) to defeat the whites (blancs); whereas Jamaican slave revolts always failed because brown Jamaicans always supported the whites against the blacks.

Previously in Haiti the mulâtres did align themselves and identify with the ruling French and their culture; as progeny of the whites, many were free, highly educated, and wealthy slaveholders, and often actively participated in the oppression of the black majority The tipping point was when the ruling blancs withdrew certain rights from the mulâtres; this caused them to switch allegiance. Some of the major leaders of the Haitian Revolution like Vincent Ogé, Alexandre Pétion and André Rigaud were mulâtres. Even the army of Napoleon was no match for the combined forces of the mulâtres and the noirs.

LESSON

The Jamaican plantocracy – vastly outnumbered by their slaves – learned that lesson well, and never made the same mistake. They made sure that Jamaican brown people had social and economic privileges that placed them squarely on the side of the white plantocracy.

To complete the picture you have to throw in the Maroons and other roast breadfruit traitors among the black population. Whites could not suppress slave uprisings on their own.

During the Morant Bay Rebellion, what really scared the plantocrats was when the brown man in the Jamaica House of Assembly – George William Gordon – seemed to take the side of black peasants like Paul Bogle. He had to be executed.

Lest Jamaica befall the same fate as Haiti (this was openly voiced and penned) anyone who supported black people had to be dealt with. Jews like Noel Crosswell (who ran guns to black Haiti) and Sidney Lindo Levien (a journalist who reported Gordon’s attacks on Governor Eyre) were arrested. Crosswell – a Swiss national – was deported, while Levien was tried and imprisoned.

Until today brown Jamaicans – especially politicians – have a hard time finding common cause with the black masses. They usually support the business class, like in the bad old days.

What explains the lack of militancy among Jamaica’s black masses today? One theory is that certain types of Jamaican religion redirect political angst into escapism. Rastafarianism with its creation of a black messiah – rather than promoting social change in Jamaica through protest or otherwise – advocates a return to Africa. This now global religious movement which identifies with Jamaica has never been revolutionary or development focused; the smoking of ganja, withdrawal from society and economy, and a strong patriarchy strengthens wounded male egos. They prefer to chant down Babylon rather than to seek to overthrow it.

Revivalism and its homologues diagnose social evils as having a spiritual origin, requiring a spiritual solution. A focus on spiritualism provides a strong route to coping with social and economic adversity. Rather than take to the streets to protest oppression and political malfeasance, Revivalists will take to their drums to summon the spirits to take up their case. No government has any reason to fear political upheaval from this quarter, and an astute politician will encourage their growth.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Pentecostalism operates in a similar vein, focusing on personal experience, and individual rather than social liberation. Its focus on Christianity without the cross – and the prosperity gospel (some call it “Capitalist Christianity”) – makes this religious movement an ally of the status quo.

Liberation theology – which has its origin in the barrios and favelas of Latin America – is religion of an entirely different type. It sees the Kingdom of God in political as well as religious terms, focusing on justice and peace issues like state-sponsored violence, corruption and waste, institutional discrimination, and persistent poverty. It is this sort of thinking and praxis that has inspired protests – and even riots – in Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and elsewhere.

Oppressive states have more to fear from the human development focus of mainstream Christianity – Catholic and Protestant – than from fundamentalist escapist religion, which explains the ideological attacks on Christian values and sometimes physical repression.

In Jamaica, traditional Christianity – Catholic and Protestant – has not recently seen itself in these liberationist terms; largely elitist in its outlook, and now part of the privileged establishment, the traditional denominations tend to support the status quo by offering (non-threatening) welfare support, leaving Jamaica’s iniquitous social system intact. I guess they feel they have more to gain thereby, and more to lose otherwise.

As a result, mainstream denominations have seen their numbers plummet, a sure sign that the salt has lost its savour.

Long gone are the days when non-conformist missionaries openly challenged slavery, and after Emancipation, established free villages so free black men and women could own land and vote to challenge the system.

Jamaican governments – no matter how oppressive – need have no fear of serious opposition from now conformist Christianity.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com