The Intersection of Gender, Culture and Education: Jamaica: The Next 50 Years!

“The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.”- Marcus Garvey. Whether we admit to this fact or not we are all descendants of Africans. Our fore parents were forcibly taken from their homes in Africa and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas. We are the legacies of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade. Undoubtedly, the transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history and is undeniably one of if not the most inhumane acts against any set of people. The widespread exodus of more than 15 million African men, women and children from the motherland was conducted over 400 hundred years. The African Holocaust or Maafa involved numerous European powers such as Spain, Britain, Denmark, and The Netherlands who were all responsible for the trafficking of our ancestors. The Slave Voyages Database produced by David Eltis and his colleagues estimate that between 1626 and 1808, some 3,429 v...

“Nuclear tests have caused enormous environmental damage and terrible consequences on the health of people living in affected areas. It's time to outlaw all nuclear tests, by anyone, anywhere. There is no excuse to delay achieving this goal.”- António Guterres- Secretary-General of the United Nations. Since nuclear weapons testing began on 16 July 1945, over 2,000 have taken place. In the early days of nuclear testing not much consideration was given to its devastating effects on human life, more so the dangers of nuclear fallout from atmospheric tests. We have all seen the movies and read about the horrors of nuclear weapons. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively. The United States of America bombed Japan towards the end of the Second World War, prompting the Japanese to surrender on August 15, 1945, bringing the conflict to an end. The first atomic bomb known as "Little Boy"was dropped on Hiroshima by a mo...

“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”- John F. Kennedy. We have all seen the stunning and alarming images on our television; hundreds of Afghans both men and women running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the Hamid Karzai International airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. The script was not supposed to end like this. The Taliban have moved with fighting speed to control Afghanistan. The United States of American trained Afghan security forces hardly resisted the Taliban. This military maneuvering by the Taliban has led many to wonder whether or not the United States and her allies miscalculated the capacity and capabilities of the Taliban. Many will view the surrender of Kabul as well as the other provinces in Afghanistan with some suspicion especially since the former president Ashraf Ghani fled before Kabul fell to the Taliban. A significant number of us know very little about this country except regarding the Taliban. Afghan...

“Young people are on the frontlines of the struggle to build a better future for all. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the dire need for the kind of transformational change they seek – and young people must be full partners in that effort.”- António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The United Nations defines ‘youth’ as persons aged between 15 and 24. However, this definition is flexible. According to the World Youth Report (2018), there are 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, accounting for 16 per cent of the global population. The experience of being young can differ significantly across the world, between countries and regions, and ‘youth’ is therefore often a fluid and changing category. The theme of International Youth Day 2021 is, “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health”, with the aim of highlighting that the success of such a global effort will not be achieved without the meaningful participation of young people...

“We are tired of anthropologists, environmentalists, church-related organizations, and other specialists speaking for us and using us for their self-interest. Please respect our self-determination to make our own decisions."- Tashka Yawanawa – Chief of the Yawanawa. Oftentimes the discussion surrounding indigenous peoples is muted or worst not spoken about in the Caribbean. This silence around indigenous people is unacceptable. The lack of a comprehensive plan to have the teaching of history education compulsory in our schools is to a great extent responsible for this erosion of our history. Most of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean were exterminated by the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th century. The Taino Indians, as we now know, came to Jamaica traveling from the South American mainland somewhere between 700-1000 AD. The Tainos differed from the original Arawak peoples of the mainland having developed a distinct Taino language and culture. Some scholars estimate the ...

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.”- Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Unfortunately, the Jamaican society has lost that zeal and spirit of Emancipation for which our ancestors fought and gave their lives. We have become satisfied with just being bystanders instead of becoming modern day freedom fighters. Regrettably, as a society we have taken our freedom for granted. Perhaps this is so because this freedom for which the blood and tears of our ancestors were shed is not widely read or discussed. In 1838 Emancipation was declared in the British West Indies. This freedom came after centuries of enslavement. After Emancipation in 1838 the freed black population had no land or assets and for the most part they had no education. Colonial England was one of the primary architects of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade which lasted for over 300 years. England’s development today is largely owed to the labour of the enslaved Africans. Recently, United Kingdom Hi...