Older Jamaicans, raised in Jamaica may be familiar with the saying: “Wha gaan bad a mawning, caan come good a eveling.” (What began badly cannot be corrected later). This saying seems to describe the current challenges surrounding the Jamaican diaspora and its relationship with the Jamaican government.
There was much anticipation in 2004 when the then Jamaican government extended an invitation to Jamaicans living overseas to attend the inaugural Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Kingston, Jamaica.
In South Florida, then Jamaican Consul General to the Southern U.S., Ricardo Allicock, was instrumental in apprising those from the region who were invited to experience what the conference was all about, especially as some people didn’t fully understand what the Jamaican diaspora meant.
The inaugural conference was a very exciting, well-promoted, very well-attended affair. Hundreds of Jamaicans living mostly in the USA, U.K., and Canada attended the conference. The Jamaican Conference Center was packed to capacity, and the atmosphere was largely positive as the government laid out plans to engage the diaspora formally and actively in national development.
But the sense of euphoria wasn’t lost on everyone. Over lunch, during the penultimate day of the conference, a learned Jamaican educator from the diaspora commented to organizers of the conference, and for the formal relationship between Jamaica and its diaspora, that he couldn’t help feeling “the cart was pulling the horse.”
Expanding his comments, the educator said he felt the conference should have been initiated and hosted by a Jamaican diaspora organization within the diaspora, not by the Jamaican government. He further expressed concern about the functions of the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board (now Global Jamaica Diaspora Council – GJDC) that was announced during the conference. The educator, supported by other members of the diaspora, were of the opinion a diaspora board controlled by and reporting to the Jamaican government, was not really representative of the diaspora and its needs. How prophetic were these opinions?
That day the organizers present subtly criticized the diaspora for lack of initiative to establish an autonomous Jamaican diaspora organization within the diaspora. “The diaspora hasn’t done anything about building an organization in the diaspora, so the Jamaican government has taken the initiative,” an organizer said. He also emphasized the role of the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board was primarily advisory in nature, and nothing stopped the diaspora from forming an autonomous organization and board that addressed the interests of the diaspora, and liaised with the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board and the Jamaican government.
Since June 2004, attempts to build such an autonomous Jamaican diaspora organization have been fraught with challenges and criticisms. Today, 20 years later, on the eve of the 10th biennial conference, the problems and challenges seem to have escalated. A new group has emerged challenging the Jamaican government’s attempt to control and manage the diaspora.
This new group, which has no formal name, but consists of the leadership of the Jamaica Diaspora Crime Prevention and Intervention and Prevention Task Force, has been in dispute with the Jamaican government for months. The group is dissatisfied over what it regards as the government’s “failure to effectively manage crime, violence and corruption in Jamaica.”
The leadership of the group has sought an audience with the government to discuss its concerns, without success. Some months ago, they sent a letter to Jamaica’s ambassador to the US requesting an audience with her but got no response. After this snob, the group held a number of protest rallies including in Miami.
With the 10th biennial conference set for June, the group has also announced and advertised its own “1st Biennial Diaspora Conference” coinciding with the dates of the Jamaican conference. This parallel conference plans focus on issues of crime, violence, corruption, and healthcare.
Not surprisingly, the Jamaican government has taken umbrage to this parallel conference, particularly with the protest group promoting its conference as being held in association with the GJDC.
The protest diaspora group has moved to register its Global Jamaica Diaspora Council as a Florida organization, with plans to do so in other states, and with the IRS.
In fact, the move to register the GJDC as an organization is filling an open void. Despite several previous recommendations to register the GJDC as a US organization, that was never done.
In recent years, several groups emerged within the diaspora, with different missions that would best be addressed by a centralized autonomous diaspora organization. Groups like the Jamaica Diaspora Taskforce Action Network (JDTAN) based in South Florida worked to support several areas in Jamaica. Others like Jamaica Diaspora Southern USA, also based in South Florida haven’t succeeded in their ambitious missions. However, none of these groups publicly challenged the Jamaican government like this group planning the parallel diaspora conference.
Some people believe it would be more effective for the new protest group to attend the Jamaican conference and aggressively express its concerns, rather than hosting a parallel conference.
Despite the existence of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, that body is rather irrelevant to the diaspora. When elections are held to elect members of the council from different regions in the diaspora, the votes cast are abysmally low. Very few of the council members elected in the past decade have accomplished much in representing the diaspora. Most seem more interested in their self-aggrandizement than the diaspora’s interest.
It will be interesting to see how the current impasse plays out, but it has been a long time coming. As was commented at the initial 2004 Jamaican diaspora conference, and suggested repeatedly by others in the diaspora, steps should have been taken since 2004 to form an autonomous Jamaican Diaspora organization. The Jamaican government should not be leading the diaspora.
The situation went bad from the beginning (mawning), and may be too late to be corrected now (eveling).
Read: Jamaican diaspora invited to 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference
