Dear Editor,

On August 1, 1834 chattel slavery was officially abolished in Jamaica and with it ownership and the physical abuse of black people under the inhumane plantation-style economy.

But August 1, 1834 only brought legal recognition of rights that should have been natural and obvious and needed no celebration or applaud. Slavery wasn’t an act of God or any natural event from which black people somehow managed to escaped. It was a barbaric human invention that was used mainly as an economic tool to enrich the Europeans.

Therefore, the scars of the physical shackles that fell on August 1, 1834 have transitioned to new internal bondages for which even freedom to work has now been compromised — generations since 1834 have largely taken a laid back approach to work — a kind of black man’s time syndrome as we now expect to be enriched from other people’s labour. Because of this mentality, even stealing has become excusable.

Thus, even though we now enjoy freedom from physical chains, the freedom to think independently is restricted and ideologically conditioned. The way we see ourselves is hardly dissimilar to how the “Busha Massa” would see us today, and so we berate the defining aspects of our race — our complexion, culture, language, and music.

Moreover, the chants of mental slavery have also evolved into another bondage, which is psychological slavery. Power dynamics are at play in many abusive relationships today in which people become trapped, traumatised, and have little recourse to break free and heal within.

Therefore, the scars that the abolition of slavery 192 years ago have left behind seems to have made psychological freedom as necessary as any physical freedom was back then.

Homer Sylvester

Jacksonville, Florida

h2sylvester@gmail.com