Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book offers a detailed picture of Jamaica before and after independence. A 1961 journal sheds light on the political and social context before independence, while a 1968 journal shows how independence dissolved dissident forces and identifies the origins of Jamaica's current two party politics.
Synopsis
This book consists of two journals kept while the author was carrying out fieldwork in Jamaica. 1961 research in Kingston and visits to rural communities are detailed, before the reader is taken into the 1961 political underworld of black racism and Marxism, where the machinations of the various political groups involved lead up to the Federal Referendum. The 1968 journal explains the impact of independence and the intervening elections of 1962 and 1967 on the dissolution of the dissident forces of black racism. It also identifies the beginnings of the misuse of patronage by politicians, and the deployment at election times of violence by gangs allied to the political parties.