I grew up during a time when some countries persecuted the freedom of their people with fascist and authoritarian governments. Young people today are increasingly aware that racism still exists and may have felt its impact in various ways. However, for those born in the 1990s, the concept of Apartheid in South Africa — an oppressive system that lasted until the early 1990s — might feel like something from the 1800s. Yet, in my lifetime, I witnessed through international news and school discussions the stark disparity in legal privileges between white and black South Africans.

As young Jamaicans, this injustice stirred a profound disdain, which led to the support of the ending of the segregation and brutality faced by black South Africans, igniting a spirit of activism for change.

Broadly defined, Apartheid (1948 to 1994) in South Africa was the racial segregation under the all-white Government of South Africa, which dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities.

During this time, some of these policies included:

• The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, which prohibited marriage between people of different races;

• The Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, ancestry, and other factors;

• The Civilized Labour Policy, which nationalised businesses that employed large numbers of non-whites and State-run enterprises that preferentially hired and promoted less skilled whites;

• The Group Areas Act forced (and forcibly removed) people of certain races to live in designated areas. Between 1960 and 1983, 3.5 million black Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods or townships;

• Black South Africans were not allowed to vote or engage in politics.

Whether or not some countries globally knew what was happening in South Africa when Apartheid implemented its dominance during the 1950s they chose silence.

I am eternally grateful and proud that my country, Jamaica, under the leadership of Norman Manley, was the first country in the western hemisphere to declare, even before we were independent of Britain, that we would not trade with a country based on race, political, social, and economic restrictions on black people. It was a principled and courageous step.

Because of this, Jamaica, through our international diplomacy and what we boldly stood up for in the world, was recognised as the country that, despite our size and still under British rule, was prepared to champion just rights for people who couldn’t stand up for themselves, even though we didn’t have our rights and liberties in terms of independence from Britain.

This is also why Jomo Kenyatta was arrested in 1952 by the British for allegedly leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial Government. Who did he ask to represent him and coalesce a legal defence team? Jamaican and pan-Africanist Ambassador Dudley Thompson. Kenyatta went on to become president of Kenya.

In the1970s, when Prime Minister Michael Manley decided that Jamaica was going to trade openly, establish South-South cooperation with Africa, and have a new international economic order with Africa, Brazil, and India, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Jamaica in 1976 to tell Manley to stay out of Africa.

Moreover, when it was detrimental for survival in the West to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and China, Michael Manley did. And so, when Cuba asked Jamaica if it could fuel planes on our island to help fight the people of Angola for their democracy against their colonisers, Portugal, Jamaica said yes.

Our dedicated purpose to recognise the dignity within our fellow men and women, despite race and class, revolutionised how the world viewed Africa, Brazil, India, and China.

Furthermore, these principled approaches have led people worldwide to respect us. Jamaica has always been seen as a beacon for human rights, justice, political freedom, and equality in human affairs. As a result, the world always knew where Jamaica stood.

This is why when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, and even before he became president of South Africa, the two countries he visited first were Jamaica and Cuba.

It is why, when I arrived in South Africa in 1993 to compete in Miss World, I was emboldened with pride and camaraderie with the black South Africans — the janitors, the seamstresses, the house attendants — I would sit with them for long hours at night, revelling in their joy and listening to their gratefulness to Jamaica for the help we gave to their people over a long struggle of brutality.

Our musicians and our reggae music have supported Africa for many years. The Bob Marley Freedom concert in Zimbabwe — the haunting lyrics calling for the liberation of blacks by Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Dennis Brown, Bunny Wailer, and so many others — is what I grew up immersed in — calling on the world to do better for the oppressed and downtrodden because no matter where you come from, “we are all Africans”.

Strangely, even though, in my lifetime, I have seen the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of Apartheid, the signing of the Oslo Accord between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat, capitalism in China, and the shift of owners of global capital to the Asia and India, today, it seems the world is hurtling back to eviscerating these gains. No one is standing up to say “No!”

Now, we watch our brothers and sisters in Cuba suffer without electricity because of decades of US sanctions, Haitians being slaughtered next door, a new and brutal war in the Middle East, an ongoing war in Ukraine, a forgotten war in Sudan, and blacks and Palestinians being killed, all in the name of authoritarianism.

Worst of all, when I see the Jamaican news headlines, my blood curdles when I read in the comments sections under the articles, Jamaicans are saying we must not concern ourselves.

I want Jamaicans, especially young Jamaicans, to understand that, as a nation, we have stood against those things in the past and stood up for protecting the dignity and freedom of people globally.

We’ve always been a revolutionary people destroying contrived dogma intended to enslave anyone to the supremacy of others because of their economic might or geographical size. Our respect globally was earned by those who have gone before us. Their courage has allowed the rest of us the confidence to hold our heads high.

Therefore, we have a responsibility to continue our activism for our own sake and for others who are being pushed into suffocation.

Now, we are witnessing the worst underbelly of extreme right fascism being exposed on global poltical platforms daily by some seeking the power of leadership. As Jamaicans, we cannot stand by and watch the emergence of Apartheid 2.0.

We have always stood on the right side of history, and it is time we ask ourselves if we renege on this duty, then what will the future for our children and grandchildren look like in Jamaica and/or the Diaspora?

Jamaica’s unwavering commitment to justice and equality continues to inspire the world. Let’s remember this before we seek to declare, “Over there is not our problem.”

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.