A brief survey of the political organisation of human societies reveals an evolutionary quest in establishing an ideal State. Alongside this was a wrestling with how societies are organised, beginning with mythical hierarchical relationships (gods, royalty, priest, people) and ruling ideas of the ages. As such, human beings have been caught in a cycle of power struggle between the strong and weak, the conquered and enslaved in the context of the rise and fall of nations/empires.

Western societies to which we are politically aligned were colonised by empires from eastern and northern Europe. These former empires, like most African societies, had tribal systems and the then world was never largely feudal in its political organisation. And, in Europe, feudalism was preceded by the slave-based economy of the classical Roman Empire, which gradually morphed into feudalism. Feudalism is defined basically as a sharply hierarchical relationship between different levels of landowning classes.

Roots

For nations ruled under the British Empire, English feudalism is thought to have arisen in the 11th century CE under William the Conqueror, when he had the common law altered after the Norman Conquest in 1066. William took possession of all of England and then parcelled it out among his leading supporters as tenancies (fiefs) to be held in return for services to the king. The king and nobles provided aid, relief, wardship, and marriage and inheritance rights for the peasant classes.

Constructs

The word feudalism was never used during the Middle Ages. The term was invented by 16th and 17th century scholars to describe a political system of several hundred years earlier. This makes feudalism a post-medieval construct.

Constructs help us understand alien ideas in terms more familiar to our modern thought processes. Colonialism, plantation system, Middle Ages, and medieval are constructs. Medieval people didn’t think of themselves as living in a “middle” age—they thought they were living in the now, just like we do.

A Worldwide Phenomenon

The social and legal system called feudalism arose in Europe during the Middle Ages, but it has been identified in many other societies, including the imperial governments of Rome, Japan, and Ethiopia.

Throughout history and today, feudalism arises in places where there is an absence of organised Government and the presence of violence. In the criminal world feudalism is still flourishing. Its ugly presence continues in Jamaica’s inner-city communities, classified as political garrisons, where the ‘Don’ is paid in monetary tributes or awarded contracts, and where gangs protect the community and execute violators. Garrison constituencies are power seats for the two major political parties that are led by Jamaicans. It therefore means that both political parties are guilty of maintaining oppressive structures that have kept their constituents both in mental slavery and perennial poverty.

A Harsh Reality

Just before the rise of the “Black Death” in the 14th century, feudalism was firmly established and working its way across Europe. The king was a symbol of justice, however, his nobles, falling prey to human vices of greed, were unjust and exploited the peasants under the heavy hand of servitude.

The legend of Robin Hood

Stories about a band of robbers led by a man of noble birth named Robin Hood emerged as a champion for the poor who were oppressed and exploited by the noble classes. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green, he is said to have robbed from the rich and given to the poor.

The Deadly End

However, it was an act of nature far superior to Robin Hood that rendered feudalism untenable – the arrival of the Black Death. The late-medieval bubonic plague caused catastrophic population decline among rulers and ruled alike. It is estimated that between 30–50 per cent of all Europeans died between 1347 and 1351. The Black Death created a void that forced surviving landowners to hire paid labourers and shed the legal shackles of medieval servility.

The Black Death

Acts of nature have no conscience and, whether for good or bad, those who fail to protect themselves will die. This is a harsh truth made known throughout the history of pandemics. As it was in the past, so it will be in the present; those who now refuse the COVID-19 vaccines, or have failed to protect themselves, make themselves voluntary fatal victims.

Rebirth of Feudalism

The rise of the transatlantic slave trade provided forced free labour in the newly occupied lands across the Atlantic and a rebirth of a morphed feudalism. Lands were parcelled and given to members of the noble class as gifts, and later the introduction of the democratic right to vote was first allotted to those who owned lands.

The abolition of slavery through the Emancipation Act in 1834 and various inventions from the Industrial Revolution further banished feudalism as an economic system in the official modern society.

Changing the Future

According to author Hugh MacLeod: “The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.”

It was a Rhodes Scholar, Norman Washington Manley, who became one of Jamaica’s leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley understood the political system that shaped Western societies, especially the remnants of feudalism that existed in the first modern democracies; whereby, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, which almost always meant a minority of the male population. As a visionary, he was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by the British Colonial Government to the colony in November 1944.

Universal Adult Suffrage gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, political stance, or any other restriction, subject only to relatively minor exceptions. For the colony of Jamaica, this achievement actually pointed to its high rank among the nations of the world, and, as Errol Miller pointed out: “When Universal Adult Suffrage was implemented in Jamaica in the general elections of 1944, Jamaica became the third State in the British Empire to conduct elections on this basis, preceded only by New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the mother country of the empire” ( The Gleaner, January 5, 2015).

For Manley, Universal Adult Suffrage empowered the people to freely choose and determine their path to economic development.

The final blow to the hold of colonialism on the people of Jamaica was the attainment of Independence, and once again Norman Washington Manley played an important role in the drafting of the Jamaican Constitution.

It was on Tuesday, August 7, 1962, before a full house of the newly created senators and members of the House of Representatives and a glittering gathering of dignitaries from home and abroad, that Princess Margaret read the speech from the throne in a clear and musical voice and, with the assembly standing, delivered the Queen’s personal message: “My Government in the UK has laid down it’s responsibilities and has ceased to have authority in, and over, Jamaica after more than 300 years.”

The granting of Independence meant that we the people were now responsible for choosing and charting our path to economic and social development. Above all, a truth that we have failed to acknowledge and embrace is that the new constitution took precedence over all previously enacted laws before 1962.

During the 1970s the Michael Manley-led Administration printed copies of the Constitution of Jamaica to be distributed, especially among tertiary level students. However, there seems to have been a deliberate act of withholding, from Jamaicans, access to these booklets, thus preventing them from knowing what was in the constitution. I can boldly say this because three years ago I personally saw some 200 copies of these gathering dust in a library and upon further inquiry of past students of the the institution, they indicated that they never knew of their existence.

Knowledge is Power

The development of technology, especially the Internet now makes the constitution accessible to all. It is, therefore, important for all agencies of the State, schools, and parliamentarians to know the Jamaica Constitution and above all, ensure that all our actions are guided by its laws, which supersedes all previous laws.

True emancipation and independence for Jamaicans require every child, woman, and man to own a copy of the Constitution of Jamaica and have an intimate knowledge of its content and appropriate it through our lived experiences.

As we mark the 59th anniversary of Independence on August 6, 2021, we need, as a nation, to intentionally affirm our freedom and most importantly, to know our rights as citizens who are no longer under the construct that we call colonialism, for we have been set free and are free indeed.

Dudley Chinweuba McLean II hails from Mandeville, Manchester, and is executive director of Associación de Debate Bilingüe Xaymaca (Adebatex),which promotes debating in Spanish in high schools. He is a graduate of Codrington College, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or dm15094@gmail.com.