Orville Taylor | African yes: but Jamaica land we love

Two weeks of intense nationalism. The Commonwealth Games, with some stellar performances; Emancipation Day; Independence; along with Festival Song, concerts and the Grand Gala. Sitting across the aisle on a trip, beside a man dressed in a Reggae Boyz top, ‘tainted’ with the colour red ... .

It looks alien to me; there is no red in our very unique national flag. Without a dash of around five per cent alcohol, the red stripe is too much to bear.

Yet, it appeals to something else in my ethnic sensitivity. Black, green, gold and red are very popular among Rastafari. Marcus Garvey’s tricolour of Pan-African black, red and green melds very easily with the Jamaican standard to create a four-colour combination.

But there is something else; and here comes Ghana. President Mahama came to celebrate Emancipation with us, speaking of reparations and links between both nations.

There is the impulse to tell him, “Welcome home.” Now, mark you, Ghanaians did not come out of Jamaica. Rather, the opposite occurred.

At last check, the literature points to around 60 per cent of Jamaicans having Ghana-origin DNA, much of it ostensibly Akan.

Mahama’s homecoming was not a return to his roots. It is similar to when Jamaicans land in parts of the Bronx or Brooklyn, Croydon or Brixton, and find their relatives and the descendants of many migrations talking Patwa as if they were born here.

In fact, it should be more like a visit to San Andrés in Colombia, Limón in Costa Rica, or my favourite, Bluefields in Nicaragua, where ‘dem a talk like we’, make pudding like Miss Ivy’s, and rice and peas with steamed fish.

The visit from a man whose country’s flag bears Marcus Garvey’s Black Star says volumes about where we stand, or should stand.

From a strict genetic perspective, as a proportion of our population, we are more African than the residents of São Tomé and Príncipe, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Cabo Verde. In raw numbers, we have more African descendants living here than several African countries, including Botswana.

History and genetics are beyond doubt. However, if we assert that we are an African country, what does that say about our minority populations? And I am not even speaking of the descendants of European elites and plantocrats.

Where do the Indians and Chinese who migrated here under different circumstances after the abolition of slavery, and who have little cultural connection to their Asian origins, fit in?

To answer that question, we need to go to Seaford Town or Southfield, Flagaman and other places where the strong European features of many residents are striking.

As undergraduate students in the early 1980s, there was a research project carried out by my dear friend and colleague, Ambassador Joy Wheeler, in Seaford Town. Despite the enthusiasm stirred by our lecturer, Prof Don Robotham, what Wheeler found were traces at best. The culture of the area, however, was dominantly Jamaican.

Although strongly correlated with skin colour and other biological elements, ethnicity is based on culture, the complete way of life of a people.

It comprises rites and rituals, beliefs, food and practices. Essentially, it is both material and non-material. Inasmuch as we focus on certain activities and traditions during this period, culture is not merely the elements showcased when we highlight the legacy of our heroes on Labour Day, Heroes Day and Emancipation Day.

It is the everyday things that we do as we interact and carry out normal living. Culture is the way we greet, the things we believe in, the approach to buying goods in the market, what we wear and when we wear it.

In simple terms, it is everything that we do, especially the unconscious things that are second nature.

True, within cultures there are high cultures and subcultures. However, popular culture is what the general population shares. Among the most definitive markers of an ethnos is a common language.

Although spoken with less competence the further up the social hierarchy we go, and despite regional variations, we have a Jamaican language that is understood by almost everyone.

Interestingly, our language has a dominant West African syntax and rhythm. Structures of Twi and Yoruba are interwoven into our linguistic framework, although the vocabulary is mostly English-derived.

Syntax, not vocabulary, defines what a language is. Were it not so, Spanish and Portuguese would be the same language as Italian.

African syntax, food, burial practices and day-to-day interactions define us as an African culture, though one influenced and flavoured by other ethnicities.

Residents of Seaford Town and South St Elizabeth speak some of the most authentic Jamaican language. The way “Sah!” rolls off the lips of the Australian-looking white Jamaican as a definitive affirmative response; the beautiful “wussalackahow” from Tanya, whose name makes no sense because she has never been able to suntan here, demonstrates that culture is not the same as skin colour.

The fact is that the culture is black, whatever the texture of the hair or the pigment of the skin.

Provoke the European-looking countryman and no British “bloody hell” will proceed from his mouth. Maybe the first five letters, but be assured that it will end elaborately wrapped in fabric.

And he might very well go up to Holland Bamboo for the rest of the cursing cloth.

This is the uniqueness of Jamaica. For this reason, there is no need to purge ourselves of the various cultural elements that make us who we are. We make the best curry using that indispensable Indian contribution, steamed beside pak choi. But, just remember that, whatever Mr Chin calls it, it is pap chow here.

Jamaica, land we love. A specially flavoured piece of Africa in the Caribbean.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.