The statement two weeks ago that in Jamaica more children are born out of wedlock than anywhere else in the world was described by one commentator as outrageous. Where, he asked, is the proof? The Statistical Institute of Jamaica confirmed from research published in 2014 that 86 per cent of our children were born into such circumstances. The 2014 figure was an increase over previous years, and the figure is likely to have grown. Recently, one Government minister stated it is now 90 per cent.

Seeking to explain the phenomenon, family psychologist and chief executive officer of Family Life Ministries, Dr Barry Davidson, linked it to slavery, where males were socialised to be breeders and deprived of the opportunity to be fathers. In response, another responder, Andrea, said: “We need to stop using slavery as an excuse for everything we do!” Aubrey opined, “As far as I know, slavery has existed everywhere in the world”. For him, we should just get over it.

While it is true that many civilisations have operated or encountered slavery in different forms, no other form has had such vile consequences as the transatlantic slave trade which, for the first time, institutionalised racism as a basis for discrimination. In Jamaica today, black people are disproportionately affected by crime and violence, poverty, lack of education and upward social mobility. This is undoubtedly a legacy of slavery.

In order to solve these problems, it is important that we first understand their causes. Wanting to forget about slavery is part of the problem. According to Dr Davidson, slavery remains an important part of our psyche and our history. He says, “In trying to understand ourselves, particularly the Jamaican male, one first has to bring about a self-awareness…This self-awareness demands that we first understand the history of the Jamaican male.”

Jamaicans are very ambivalent about our history. For some, it is too painful to deal with. For others, it is used as an excuse for irresponsibility. Dr Davidson says this sometimes causes resentment when we try to use the past as a means of understanding the present.

There are certain propositions which psychologists ask us to accept. Firstly, where there is prolonged coercion in subhuman conditions, human beings can be forced to abandon their natural behaviour. Secondly, problems in families can be passed on from parents to children through several generations. Thirdly, almost all Jamaican males, despite their behaviour, have the potential to be responsible fathers and men.

Slavery deprived the transplanted African male of his social responsibility to provide for his family. This is because slaves were generally not allowed to marry. Once they made the women pregnant they rarely saw their children. Also, they could not earn to support their women and children. As a result, male slaves were stripped of their manhood. They were no longer protectors of the tribe. Our men became breeders and not fathers.

Those who condemn the Jamaican male for his failings have not grasped the fact that for nearly 200 years the slaves had been denied their rights and responsibilities as fathers. Having been robbed, they could not easily pass on to their sons virtues of fatherhood. Their sons, in turn, had little to pass on to their sons in Emancipation, or to their descendants after Independence. Dr Davidson says there’s an identity crisis among our men. The problem is most visible among our poor, but it exists equally among our middle- and upper-class Afro-Jamaican males who can provide financially for their children, but neglect them emotionally.

This identity crisis leads to psychological pain in men who cannot carry out their roles as father and husband because they were not taught how. Dr Davidson says the psychological and sociological consequences of male pain drive men away from marital commitment and toward alcohol, woman beating, drugs, work, dominoes, gambling, the race track, and coming home late at night. This male pain also drives the Jamaican man to the outside woman, for whom he does not need to have a deep commitment or responsibility.

Many men do not feel secure and worthwhile at the core of their being. This limits their capacity to like or respect others. Consequently, they use sex as a substitute for love or connecting with someone when their real need is emotional.

Many boys are growing up without a model of fatherhood. Many fathers today confess they do not know how to interact with their sons. The continued dysfunctional relationships have become a vicious cycle. Dr Davidson says many Jamaican men move through life disconnected from other men.

Instinctively, many of us know the cause. Yet we want to forget about slavery. Recalling the history of another formerly oppressed people, Dr Davidson observed that the Jews will not let us forget the Holocaust. They have strongly united because of it. Their shared experience has caused them to ensure that they remain close and economically strong as a people. “The memory of the holocaust motivates them and keeps them focused.”

Similarly, it is important for us to understand what slavery did to the black family and learn from it. Research has shown that children who grow up to be emotionally and mentally healthy are children who grow up in homes where they experience love and where they see their parents loving each other. This makes them feel secure. There is also the need for discipline, consistency with mother and father on the same page, equal treatment of children, adult examples who practise what they preach and who exercise parental authority.

Looking to the future of the Jamaican family, Dr Davidson says: “I think that families need to try to see how they can build each other up, how they can assist each other, how they can develop more family businesses rather than keep working for people. They need to see how they can keep the business going for two or three generations. What we do know is that it takes about 100 years to make real wealth. It’s going to take two to three generations to make that happen.”

Helene Coley Nicholson is an attorney-at-law and president of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship. Send comments to the Observer or ColeyNich@gmail.com.