YeKengalé

There is nothing particularly destabilizing about having enemies, or even having them close. In fact, some prefer to keep their enemies closer than their friends in order to be able to constantly monitor what they might be up to.

The great danger is not being able to identify them; and  even worse, to mistake enemies for friends and vice versa.  Incalculable damage is wrought when the wolf has penetrated the sheep pen undetected, for there will be no alarm raised. No public outcry. The silent slaughter will not be met with concerted resistance and suffering will continue unabated until some sheep gets smart enough to cry blue-bloody murder and publish its private pain. 

Only a strong war cry rouses sleeping troops to battle, and so the instinct to maintain decorum  becomes the greatest threat to  public health when the enemy in stealth has invaded undetected.

The question is often asked in the pathology of Black culture, from whence does our characteristic self-defeating determination come? What informs our apparent inability to collectively act in coherence with our own best interest? Why has our ethnic group been almost universally defined as being our own worst enemy? The best answers given suggest that we have become that way by  psychological penetration of  enemies.

Our enemies have invaded our psyche and inflicted injuries upon us from within, acting through our own subverted will, our own misdirected  ambitions, inciting us to self-hatred and self- sabotage gleefully without lifting a finger of their own. Why bother when our fingers have been co-opted, our voice conscripted, our will been broken, our spirit, our language, our beliefs, our desires, our aspirations, our labor, our economies, our policies, our institutions have all been repurposed for the promotion of our enemies’ cause and designs?

When a people have been thus compromised, there need be no threat or bribe to incite conformity. It is given cheerfully and dutifully, and to do otherwise would appear profane.

Jesus of Nazareth lived in colonial times, yet not once do we hear him speak a wry word against his colonial masters. He reserved his wrath for the leaders of Jewish culture, the Scribes and the Pharisees, upon whom he poured the strongest invective. The biggest biblical cuss outs are reserved for this diabolical set on whom he cast  blame for the oppression of all Israel’s poor. What can we learn from this? That our leaders can be our greatest threat and sell out.

Jesus knew Judas was a devil, but never called him out once. It was Peter, his most zealous disciple, that he publicly and strenuously rebuked, calling him  Satan for trying to influence his thoughts away from the cross. What can we learn from this? That at times, as Marley sang, “your best friend can be your worst enemy” and vice versa.

*47 years ago, Leslie Ashenheim, owner of the Gleaner, that bastion of Jamaican conservatism, wrote Michael Manley a letter assuring him of his wholehearted agreement that Jamaica’s monarchical constitution  was entirely inappropriate to its current circumstance and should be replaced with one granting Jamaica the status of a republic, and offered his legal skills free of cost should Michael manage to effectively persuade the nation of this shared conviction.

One could ask, how is it that the political will to pursue this self-evident path of national dignity has eluded every successive government since then, notwithstanding all the statements of intent from leaders from both sides of the aisle to do exactly that.

Where is this colonial ghost hiding? For all the talk and promise of constitutional reform, the commissions and committees tasked with the process, how is it that to date, with the political leadership of the region  being effectively ceded to little Barbados, the only, or if not, certainly the loudest voice in town crying out for reparative justice, climate responsibility, regional cohesion; beloved Jamaica, the historical epicentre of progressive change and regional development now by comparison limps neutered without vision or sense of  purpose with respect to an international leadership posture, seemingly hell-bent, unless perhaps someone should convince Mrs Malahoo Forte, in language profane enough to penetrate her thick political smugness and assumed comfort zone, that she and her government  have no option to pass this ball down the road another fifty years, to repeat past ineptitudes,  lack of political savvy and profound misunderstanding of the true nature of the righteous Jamaican soul, which if she secretly disdains, then  she should remove herself from government, from nation, anthem and pledge and find succor in the culture to which she secretly bears  true allegiance.       

None but ourselves can free our minds. Till we let our leaders know that they are servants of the public, not  masters as they oft assume themselves, we can expect our governments to imitate the high handed arrogance of the colonials whose seats they have inherited.

Well, those white men were once made to be very afraid of what Jamaican people could do to them if they ‘got out of control’. Perhaps what is needed is for Jesus to whip the imposters out of their political temple.

BUT CAN WE RECOGNIZE THEM FIRST?