FIFTY-THREE years ago there were no posts on Facebook or any other social media platforms celebrating Jamaica’s move towards sovereignty.

Unlike this year’s celebrations, there was no WhatsApp to facilitate the circulation of pictures or videos depicting quotes by Marcus Garvey or any other important pro-independence figure.

While things and times have changed in the country since it’s independence in 1962, one thing that has remained unchanged in the memory of some Jamaicans is that of the fateful day when the nation was granted freedom from British rule.

“It was a very exciting time. I was only six but I remember it clearly,” reminisced 59-year-old Annette Brown. “Some people perhaps never really understood what exactly was going on at the time, but we just knew it was something worth celebrating.”

Brown, who resided in the hills of Balaclava, St Elizabeth at the time, said the area was charged with excitement and, as a child, she received a number of memorabilia, one of which was a plate engraved with the Queen’s image.

“My favourite memory from 1962 was the road march in the community, because it was such a beautiful procession and reminded me of something out of the Bible… when Israel was restored,” stated Brown, who is the current rector for the St Augustine Church in Coral Gardens, Montego Bay.

According to Brown, this is sadly not the case in Jamaica today, as these street marches that used to be in every village and community have gradually reduced over the years due to crime and violence.

But she said this scarcity of what was once such a popular part of Independence celebrations in years past is not the only thing that has been forgotten in years gone by.

“I was at the Denbigh Agricultural show this year, and when the National Anthem played it was just a few of us that stood up; it (playing of the anthem) meant nothing to people,” she said.

To Brown, this kind of behaviour was appalling as in earlier years, whether she was at school, church or elsewhere, one simply had to stop and stand at attention with hands by their side until the anthem had finished playing.

“What I have seen is that we have forgotten the whole sense of nationalism and community, and so we see more individualistic approaches; everybody is operating as a lone ranger, but before we all had one aim and one goal,” she stated.

Brown told the Jamaica Observer that while Jamaicans are all accountable to each other in terms of upkeeping cultural values, there should be a special effort to ensure the nation’s children see the true value of the Jamaican culture.

“When I was in school, they had a subject called civics that helped us as children to understand our roles and responsibilities as citizens of a nation,” recalled Brown, as she maintained that both children and adults alike had lost a sense of civic pride.

She said, too, that many years ago festival songs were very present during Independence time and spoke to the island’s sovereignty, unity and about the lives Jamaican lived as a people. In her opinion, the festival songs in recent years cannot be distinguished from the everyday popular songs heard on the radio as they have no true cultural substance.

“First time we used to know all the festival songs in years gone by, but today you don’t know what is what,” Brown said.

She said even though there are independence celebrations every year, there is no true self-awareness among Jamaicans, showing that Jamaica is indeed a sovereign nation which detracts from the beauty of festival time.

“We bad-mouth our country and are disobedient to the rules and laws of Jamaica, and yet when we go to another country we find no problem with their laws,” she indignantly said.

When asked which other year had the most memorable Independence celebrations, Brown laughed joyously and responded, “The year we celebrated 21 years of Independence.”

“I remember this year because to me 21 represented adulthood; we had reached the age of consent and maturity,” she said with laughter.

Brown said while she liked the rhythm and rhyme of this year’s theme for Jamaica’s Emancipation and Independence celebrations, ‘Proud and Free! Jamaica 53’, to her it doesn’t have the ‘grass-roots’ feeling that makes it appealing to every one, even the man on the street. She said while some people might feel proud and free, others are disgruntled and miserable, hence there is no real correlation between how they feel and the theme for this year’s celebrations.

“I don’t think they (our ancestors) would be proud… I’m still not happy and proud as we have lost our sense of nationalism and civic pride, we do anything we please not realising we are damaging our country,” she said.