THEY SIMPLY SMILE and wave shackled hands to the crowd, before disappearing behind doors of uncertain destiny.
Maybe it is just a show.
Maybe their smiles mask hiding fear and uncertainty. Maybe they are innocent. That is not the point.
You are thinking: “You on a charge fuh murder, you shunt be smiling!” What you really mean is, you would not be smiling if it were you. But it is not you and you are not them. Their perspective is very different. It is shared by the supporters who wave and smile back. They are Barbadian like you, but not like you. They are of another culture.
While the media zooms in on the faces of some murder accused, what they don’t show are the faces in the audience. Who is waving back? You look on, puzzled at the performance of bravado. You tell yourself, “Wuh dem wuh gotta be mad!”
Once upon a time a wailing mother would be the main character in this courtyard parade. Female relatives would be bawling and falling to the ground in fits of passion, overcome with terror at the thought of losing baby boys to prison.
We only see the onlookers reflected in the face of the accused. Their smiles do not reflect concern for a tormented mother. In their countenance we make out the picture of the new nuclear family. Nuclear in the explosive sense. Their walk to the courthouse does not look like a walk of shame. It appears more like a graduation walk. They take a moment to gesture towards, and acknowledge, those who would have supported them on their journey to the next level of Shotta.
Welcome to Shotta culture, just one of the new cultures that have come to fill the cultural void in Barbados.
Your culture shapes your perspective. A perspective shared among enough people becomes a culture. Culture is everything. Not culture in the way that we commonly use it, to refer to the arts. We are speaking about culture in the deepest sense: The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Art is one of the ways culture is transferred.
If the culture of the smiling murder accused seems so foreign to some of us, it is because Barbados has more than one culture. A person steeped in one may have no idea of the others.
This is not unique. Most countries have several cultures and sub-cultures. But Barbados is 166 square miles, one of the most densely populated countries on earth. How do these separate cultures live so tightly packed and yet never touch?
What then is Barbadian culture? What is a Barbadian? What is the Barbadian identity? The answer depends on your perspective; the time and space you occupy. How did gun battles become a part of our culture? Is it a phase or here to stay?
We are confused. Strict guardians of their own heritage would have a clear answer. Firm craftsmen of their own fate would have a clear vision. Singing the anthem makes us liars.
Ask these questions of a Bajan under the age of 30 and they will struggle to answer. It is as though the question strikes them as irrelevant. That, in essence, is it their answer. What is Barbadian is, irrelevant.
To many who have grown up as citizens of a globalised world, national identity is a non-issue. Even if they never left this rock, they have travelled far and wide electronically. In their minds, L.A. is closer than St Lucy. They may not consider that Real Housewives also live in Checker Hall.
To be fair, those of us a little older will not do much better. We will try to answer the question, usually in some abstract roundabout manner. We will pay lip service to the concept of national identity. But deep down inside we feel that Barbadian is a limitation. It is a word on your passport that means you have to get a visa to go to New York.
No one is born with an identity. It is something you pick up, develop, and formulate. Any one person may have several of them interlocking; father, son, carpenter, Christian, Bajan. The foundations of your identity are lain by the culture you are born into, your family, neighbourhood, schools, and country.
National identity is supposed to bind together people living in the same political space and encourage them to work for the benefit of each other and the state. It does not grow naturally. It must be cultivated. If not carefully tended it is easily overgrown with weeds.
The late David Thompson’s statement that Barbados is more than an economy, but also a society, may seem obvious, but it is worth repeating. Attending to the economy is not the once and for all fix of the society. Social issues can also cripple the economy. Social cohesion through a strong national identity can protect the economy.
You wonder if the young gunmen understand what they are doing to the nation. Do they care about the tourist alerts that can negatively affect the economy? They are globalised citizens imprisoned in Barbados. Theirs is a culture separate and distinct from the mainstream minority.
We neglected to nurture their national identity. Their position is similar to the one put forward by one of our young leading economic minds. All that talk about loyalty to things Barbadian is mere sentimentality.
To hell with culture, heaven is the bottom line.
Adrian Green is a creative communications specialist. Email [email protected]
