OLIVER HEADLEY and I were good friends at Harrison College. We were in a science stream together and duly opted for such subjects in sixth form. At the last minute, however, I switched to modern studies – Latin, French and History.
Headley didn’t approve. “Hoad, that is a dead end,” he told me bluntly.
He was right. And only by switching, again at the last minute, from history honours to agriculture, did I get a scholarship. Nevertheless, I still like history.
Two interesting points of view emerged recently following a Nation picture showing an NCF re-enactment of a white planter leading four black slaves. Joseph Scott opined: “Let’s leave the shackles of our history behind . . . . history must be remembered but let us place it in context and move on to command our place on the world stage.” Scott figures “some historical low points of the black man’s journey in and out of Africa can be and ought to be thrown into the dustbin of history”.
Carl Moore didn’t say whether he agrees with the depiction, but wrote: “History has no dustbin. It is always with us – beautiful and ugly, warts and all.”
I favour the Scott position on this one. Certainly, judging from results, the constant reminders of the horrors of slavery have done nothing to inspire our male youths. Indeed, I suspect it does little more than foster resentment and a determination to work for no employer, white or black.
Here are a few more aspects of history worth considering: (1) It seems that, from earliest times, man has succeeded by greed, trickery and brutality. The North American treatment of the native Indians; ditto, the Australians and aborigines; the colonial empires; the Caribs eliminating the Arawaks; ISIS raping and killing. The list is never-ending.
(2) History occurs 24/7 in the lives of every individual on this planet; and has occurred in the lives of every ancestor. An extremely minute fraction gets recorded. There is a dustbin of history. After our generation, Ossie and Carl Moore may survive, but Talla Lalla, Gearbox, Ding Ding, DeeDee, Easy Boy and King Dyall will disappear into it. Our children will never know of a cow-skin, Gwen Workman lead pipe, a traveller, Hollywood ice-cream or Lulu Back in Town.
(3) Historians are selective. A Short History Of The West Indies by Parry and Sherlock covers the same period as works by current authors. The emphases and inclusions are different.
(4) Pan Africanist Dr Deryck Murray writes: “In social construction there is no such thing as mixed. Nobody can look at you and see your genotype. Depending on where you are, you are either black or white and bear the cross or benefits from the privilege respectively. Nothing mixed.”
I disagree. In two, sometimes, one, generation, you can move from white to black or vice versa. Is it not intellectually dishonest for a teacher teaching slavery to indicate to his or her visibly black children that “people like (indicating visibly white children)” maltreated their ancestors? Ignoring the very real possibility that the now-Blacks could be descended from rabid slave-owners, the now-Whites from slaves or poor Whites?
Is it not sheer hypocrisy that Rihanna, who was “bullied at school for being white” should now be hailed as our black superstar? We can, and should, get past judging people on colour. And indoctrinating children to do likewise.
(5) The big money in science comes from designing weapons and diseases to kill people; the power in history comes from using it to divide by keeping open old wounds. Sunni and Shia Muslims apparently co-existed peacefully for a millenium. Now their ideological differences are used to whip them into slaughtering each other. The Irish keep their tragic history festering. The Jews milk theirs ad nauseam.
In his new book Sir Hilary Beckles, as I understood him, will highlight punishments like (in Jamaica) making a slave defecate into another’s mouth. Will these images inspire young Barbadians to “move on to command our place on the world stage”?
Or should we celebrate Sir Garry and Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Andrew Bynoe, James Husbands, Rihanna, Oliver Headley, Chelsea Tuach, Emile Straker, Teddy Jones’ ice-cream, Suki King and the many black and white school friendships which have endured through life?
History happened. We weren’t there. We aren’t responsible. So, do we go for wonderful or warts?
Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator. Email porkhoad@gmail.com.