Dear Editor,

In July of 1962, Reverend Hugh Sherlock, Robert Lightbourne, Mapletoft Poulle, and Christine Alison Poulle etched their indelible marks in the annals of our proud history as the authors of our national anthem.

The anthem is a prayer that recognises God as Eternal Heavenly Father with a mighty hand and as a Great Defender, able to grant true wisdom from above, to teach true respect, to stir response, to strengthen, to give vision, and to send knowledge. It’s a prayer that I believe every Jamaican has sung on numerous occasions. From that first singing in August of 1962 and since then in schools, in churches, at every national event, and in recent times, on world stages as our athletes represent across the globe. It identifies us a people and evokes in all of us at home and abroad a sense of great pride, and rightly so.

It is my belief that over time the fundamental intent of this anthem prayer has been lost on many of us. It’s almost becoming akin to the ‘Our Father’ that many of us were taught as children and just recite without giving any real thought to its message and intent to promote changes in behaviour with the help of God.

I believe that the intent of the writer of the anthem was a genuine supplication to the God he knew. It can be seen as a testament of his faith and belief that Jamaica, as a new nation on the cusp of embracing Independence after a most egregious and tumultuous past, should endeavour to seek to forge a partnership with the heavenly Father.

“Prayer changes things”; “Pray without ceasing”; “men [and women] ought always to pray” are quotes that we hear often, in and out of church. It is a fact among us that in times of peril, sickness, natural disasters, or just the threat of any event that we perceive may cause a disruption to our existential realities, a great number of us turn to prayer or seek out others to pray on our behalf. One just needs to recall the most recent hurricane.

So then, if as a people we value and understand the power of prayer, and are amenable to partnering with God, how do we explain the atrocities in our society that threaten the very core of who we are as a people. If from 1962 we have been asking the eternal Father to keep us free from evil powers, to give us vision lest we perish, and to teach us true respect for all, how do we explain the crime and violence data from the Jamaica Constabulary Force? How do we explain the increasing population in penal institutions? What do we tell the orphan children and widows? How do we respond to corruption, cronyism, and nepotism?

It would appear that somewhere along the lead-up to this our 62nd year as an independent nation, we have reweighted some values, attitudes, and responses and they are fast becoming relics.

We have asked for justice and truth to be ours and we have declared Jamaica, the land we love. But I believe it is high time, as we prepare to celebrate another milestone, that our resolution should be to unlearn some things that have somehow crept in and smeared us. As we unlearn, we must be prepared to pull out the inferior quality threads that have somehow become interwoven into the fabric that make us unique: out of many, one.

We must also relearn and remind ourselves of the life work, commitment, dedication, and sacrifices of our people before us. It is on the foundation that they built that we are at this juncture in our proud history. We must be cognisant that we have a responsibility to continue to create the Jamaica that our children will be honoured to call home and be grateful to us for it. Every well-thinking Jamaican, at home and abroad, must work hard at preserving our civic pride and putting in front those values that are constructive and wise.

Our national anthem must be given the distinction and reverence it was afforded 62 years ago. It must be sung lustily with fervency and understanding by all Jamaicans.

Ann Marie Brown

mariebrown_003@yahoo.com