As we begin the third decade of the 21st century, our nation still has some subliminal, underlying issues that we, as a people, ought to address as we get closer to achieving our Vision 2030.

These underling issues are rooted in three areas — our unresolved identity, propentesity towards gangs, and gang violence.

Talk show host and columnist Dr Orville Taylor best describes our identity as “a different kind of African — derived population. A synthesis of European and Asian elements into the African gene pool, we demonstrate a kind of hybrid vigour”. ( The Sunday Gleaner, January 3, 2021). Here, I can identify with Dr Taylor’s description as a Jamaican with nine ethnicities, and who has been successful in connecting with my cousins from my different ethnicities — the most recent are from Afghanistan, now living in Canada.

In ‘Out of many, one people — our heritage’, published in the Jamaica Observer, October 22, 2019, I shared how the knowledge of my different ethnicities has enabled me to appreciate our national motto “Out of Many, One People” or, as a friend once described me, “a walking United Nations”, because what makes me a unique Jamaican is my nine ethnicities. Having such a knowledge must guide me in not disowning parts of myself; for example, by disowning my north and west European ancestors or West Asian ancestors, or denying my African-ness, but mobilising all of my parts for inner wholeness.

During 2020 I had written to the minister of culture recommending that a sample of our people’s ethniticies be done via DNA testing, as a means to aunthenticate our nation’s motto. I also believe that it can provide information to assist with the understanding of what drives our high levels of homicide among us.

In most countries around the world, ethnic groups live in different areas, even within a nation. Most genocides committed are due to ethnic rivalries. However, in Jamaica these ethnicities now find expressions through the “different African – derived” Jamaican. This has unleashed a subliminal force that ought to be tamed/controlled through our ability to recognise who we are, “mobilising all our parts for inner wholeness” and the greater well-being of the nation.

This leads to the second and third issues — our propensity to gangs and gang violence.

The Gleaner is noted to be the creator of the phrase, “The gangs of Gordon House”. This is in reference to our two major political parties — the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP). Both parties have been successful in dividing the nation into two tribal political groups in what is a manifestation of ethnic rivalries found in other countries. This form of tribalism has resulted in over 40 years of political and economic turmoil that still characterises our current quest for justice and economic development.

Since the 80s, our dollar has lost some 96 per cent to devaluation (from US $1= $3.94 to US$1=$143.71). There has been the unabated rape of the nation’s resources by the “genetically politically connected” and we have battled the inflation rate for consumer prices with it moving between 2.4 per cent and 77.3 per cent. Hence, from 1979 to 2019, the average inflation rate was 15.9 per cent per year. Overall, the price increases were 28,557.33 per cent. An item that cost $100 in 1979 would cost $28,657.33 at the beginning of 2020 (source: www.worlddata.info).

The political and economic turmoil is supported by the presence of gangs, especially those aligned with the two political parties. Since 1978 to the end of 2020 we have murdered over 39,165 Jamaicans. In 1978 homicides average 381. In 2017 it peaked at 1,641, and in 2020 we ended the year at 1,303.

Horace Levy’s piece in The Agenda of the Sunday Observer ‘Let’s try the COVID-19 model for homicides’, published on January 3, 2021, stated that if the prime minister, who has responsibility for security, is to take the homicide crisis in personal hand and mobilise state resources and the country to control it, the first step must be to analyse the problem, apply science in this analysis, and share it with people. “Every illness must be diagnosed before it can be properly treated — that is just common sense. And if science has something to offer in this regard, why has it been totally ignored in respect of homicide?” Levy asked.

Columnist Jason McKay postulates that, “Gangsters who happen to be Jamaican and live in Jamaica are killing each other at an extraordinary rate. There is only about 10,000 of them out of custody at any one time and, based on the 78 per cent theory, they killed 930 of their own kind this year” ( Sunday Observer, January 3, 2021).

We can’t mobilise to solve the homicides until we recognise and address this historical difference in who we are, “a different African — derived population”.

Dudley C McLean II writes from Mandeville, Manchester. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or dm15094@gmail.com.