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Historian blasts upper-class hypocrisy - Knocks bias against dancehall and patoisPublished: Thursday | March 26, 2009
Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
In 1865, the elite of the Jamaican society was decrying the country's plunge into moral decadence. The Morant Bay uprising, led by Paul Bogle, was reminiscent, to them, of the stench of black barbarism that rose up in Haiti following the Haitian Revolution nearly a century earlier.
The violence that came with the rebellion, along with the excess vulgar African-type practices of the black population, was proof to them that lower-class Jamaicans were barbarous and superstitious, despite attempts by the Christian missionaries to moralise them after emancipation.
There was panic among members of the upper class, who felt that something had to be urgently done about the island's descent into moral decadence, including legislating morality, but without success.
Same crossroads
Fast-forward to 2009, nearly one and a half centuries later, and one will find Jamaica at the same crossroads - argued guest presenter at the 2009 Elsa Goveia Lecture, historian Professor Brian Moore - still wrestling with itself to tame the black beast-like practices of the lower classes amid the spate of crime and vulgarity. The Elsa Goveia Lecture took place at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts on Tuesday night.
The cultural war being waged over the appropriateness of dancehall music and over the use of the Jamaican Creole as a national language is the platform on which the struggle Moore speaks about continues today.
According to him, like in 1865, the war is one the cultural elite will lose. For instance, Moore argued, while for centuries the cultural elite had frowned upon the music of lower classes, its explosion on the international scene proves the profundity of the music of the masses.
"Has anyone stopped to notice that the lyrics of the music are written in the Creole language which has been so deprecated and disparaged?" Moore asked, adding that the new-found acceptance of dancehall and reggae music on the international scene had only given rise to the foul hypocrisy of the cultural elite in its treatment and acceptance of the language of the masses.
Good for the country
"Creole is good for music because music brings international acclaim; it brings foreign visitors and foreign money. It is good for humour and informal conversation. It is also good for political campaigning but not good enough to be the national language for school or in church or in formal speech in Parliament," he argued.
Moore said the elite was still ashamed of the national language and culture when it had done little to contribute to the mix of culture, choosing instead to copy or import foreign practices that are no more moral than practices of the Jamaican lower class.
"Sections of the elite and middle classes have also imported the Trinidad Carnival, lock, stock and barrel, including the musicians," he said.
Moore went on to point out that the features of the imported music were similar to and even raunchier forms of sexuality displayed on public television and in front of children.
"This is classic hypocrisy," chided Moore.
gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com
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