MENTAL SCARS

It cannot be denied that intolerance and mistrust currently exist in the Caribbean. They can be attributed to relics of our historical past that have deeply affected us as a Caribbean people and whose repercussions we are still dealing with today. 

Firstly, we will take a look at a group that has faced the brutality of historical intolerance in the region:the Rastafarians. A primary example is The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies Act widely known as the Dread Act, which was passed in November 1974 in Dominica. It was legislation that targeted Rastafarians and was designed to curb their growing influence among the populace. Notable is the fact that, according to Fontaine (2002), the Act protected any civilian who killed or injured a member of the Dreads from civil or criminal charges.  “The statute betrays intolerance to cultural and religious diversity…indicative of the strong adherence, legally and culturally, to dominant social groupings” (Antoine, p. 9). It wantonly violated their human rights. This led to mistrust of the justice system by Rastafarians.

Secondly, mistrust of the “other” can clearly be observed specifically, in the relations between the Chinese and the Afro-Jamaican majority. The Chinese, who were imported as indentured labourers for the planters after slavery ended, were also selected for a subtler reason – to be a barrier between the whites and the blacks.

The fact that the “interlopers” were under contract and as such were offered wages and passage back to China, that they swiftly, through combining to form a pool of resources the blacks did not have, as well as business acumen that former slaves lacked, ascended from labourers with nothing, to a middle-class of traders. This caused hostility and resentment to build among the African population. ‘…the Blacks felt that they MUST have gained all this by thieving from those who had been here long before they came!’ (Chang, 2017)

A third notable example of mistrust among the Caribbean peoples is the failure of the West Indies’ Federation. As islands, there was and still is, a natural tendency towards insularity. The constituents of the Federation, still thought of themselves as countries, not a unit.

This kind of mindset only further deepened the suspicions of the states towards each other. “No delegation could go forth from the region unless it included representatives from each of them.” (Wooding, 1956).  Chief Minister Bustamante, who was quite the orator summed up his own mistrust with perfect clarity: “You did not tell us what control the federal government might have over the islands’ domestic affairs…I understand the federal government would sit over there and tell people what to do here. Not so long as I live that won’t happen.”

From all the evidence provided, it can be concluded that the Caribbean has a history in which mistrust and intolerance are prominent features.

-Janelle Smith