Two anthems selected, then one discarded days before Independence

BY LANCE NEITA

lanceneita@hotmail.com

The months leading up to that first Independence Day — August 6, 1962 — were, to say the least, hectic. As premier up to the elections on April 11, Norman Manley had appointed a large committee, headed by journalist Theodore Sealy, to plan the celebrations.

When the Government changed on April 11, both Manley and Alexander Bustamante agreed to maintain Sealy as chairman, reporting to Donald Sangster. By that time a number of decisions had already been taken regarding the national symbols which were picked by a select committee headed by George Scott, president of the Jamaica Horticultural Society.

Now came the hard part.

On October 2, 1961, the public had been invited to submit entries for a National Anthem, Flag, and the music for the anthem. But up to May 1962, no decision had been taken on these, and there was now a sense of alarm as time was racing towards our date with destiny.

The search for a national flag ended on June 20 when all the members of the House of Representatives stood and shouted “aye” in an unprecedented manner of approval for the design.

But that was after a dramatic debate and the personal intervention of Sealy, who left no stone unturned to ensure broad-based debate and input.

“When I first asked Bustamante,” wrote Sealy in his memoirs, “what is your idea of the National Flag?”, he said ‘Give me any flag, but put a little Union Jack in it’.”

“Then Norman Manley said: ‘Sealy, our flag must represent all our races.’

‘Well’, I said, ‘that’s going to be a lot of colours’, and starting from that basis, we boiled it down from 23 colours to three.”

The committee chose black and yellow, but the problem was choosing the third colour.

Half of the parliamentary committee wanted blue, but the PNP side did not want any colour to remain in the flag that was in the Union Jack.

Ironically, it was the PNP that persuaded Sealy to put the green in the flag. “As a merchant I can tell you that blue is a poor colour, the green is much better,” said Wills Isaacs. And so green it came to be.

The committee then selected a design with horizontal stripes and on June 6 it was announced that we had a new flag, but then it was discovered that Tanganyika (later Tanzania) had just adopted a similar flag. So it was back to the drawing board and a new debate on June 20. Note that Independence was just over six weeks away.

Sangster introduced the new design and passed it around the House. It was then the autoclaps started as Felix Toyloy declared he did not like the design “because black is a sign of distress”. He was challenged by Max Carey: “This country is made up of a majority of black people, you can’t take it out!”

B B Coke issued an impassioned plea for the black to remain: “Garvey has black in his flag, the Rastas have black, and a certain gentleman (Millard Johnson of the black power People’s Political Party) has black. I like black.”

Busta ended the debate with his usual incisive comments: “It is the national feeling, not the colour that counts. Everyone cannot like the same colour. Every one of us can like the same woman, but she cannot like us all.” With that the House approved the design at midnight, and history was made.

Now the anthem was a horse of a different colour. Sangster took the most popular entry received to the House on June 21. But the members rejected it, with Keble Munn complaining that “it didn’t even sound like a sankey”, while Herbie Eldemire said he preferred Bob Lightbourne’s version to ‘that thing’ played earlier.

Bustamante teasingly suggested that Vernon Arnett should sing it: “He has a nice tenor and the public would go crazy.” Arnett, suspicious of Busta’s motive, declined.

The House then adjourned on Busta’s invitation to go to his house at Tucker Avenue “where I have a lovely piano waiting for Arnett”. The premier’s famous hospitality and liquor cabinet ‘informalised’ the issue, and at the end of the night no one was quite sure what had been selected.

The comedy of errors was followed by an informal meeting on June 27 where members, in the off-the-island absence of Busta and Sangster, selected, ‘in the interest of time’, an anthem written by Bandmaster Ted Wade of the West Indies Regiment.

“Jamaicans proud we stand today, our homeland fair and free. Against the foe we will defend our liberty. Our island home, through years to come, our faith in thee is sure. Jamaicans free, we’re proud to be, today and evermore.”

Amazingly, this was accepted as our official anthem until popular sentiment against the idea that an Englishman (Wade) had written it prevailed.

Busta, Sangster, and indeed Norman Manley, put short thrift to that. The House met again on July 19, reversed the decision, and adapted today’s anthem written by Rev Hugh Sherlock, with music by Mr and Mrs Mapletoft Poulle, overwriting Lightbourne’s earlier notes, save for a few bars.

Three weeks left to the date. A crash programme was immediately put into effect, the anthem aired frequently on radio, the public informed when and where it should be played, and musical scores distributed just in time for the raising of the Jamaican Flag and the declaration of Independence on August 6, 1962.

Lance Neita

Norman Manley (Photo: JIS)

Donald Sangster

The British flag, the Union Jack, is lowered at midnight on August 5, 1962, at the National Stadium. (Photo: JIS)