Patricia Green | Hope affordable housing doesn’t remain a distant dream

During this season in Jamaica’s history leading to the September 3 general election, so many questions are being asked by pollsters and pundits. They bring to mind the ‘fairy tales’ of the Grimm Brothers, especially Snow White, made famous in 1937 as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions. This fable centres around an evil queen as a stepmother asking her magic looking glass seven times, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is fairest of us all? ”

The Grimm Brothers were attorneys-at-law in Germany who published Snow White in 1812, with its final version in 1854, as the 53rd story within their first collection of fairy tales, all being satires on historic and contemporaneous political happenings. They anchored Snow White on events surrounding the 16th century Spanish King Felipe II. What events in Jamaica may mirror Snow White? If Jamaicans asked ‘who is the fairest?’ then and now, would the mirror give the same seven Grimm responses? Who/what would be the allegorical evil queen, Snow White, woodcutter, dwarfs and handsome prince? Will ‘Jamaica land we love’ be purged of evil? Shall Jamaicans live happily ever after elections?

The first response from the mirror was , “… You are the fairest of them all …”. Coinciding with its publication in 1812, Jamaica population statistics showed approximately 91 percent “negro, freed black and mulato”. The remaining nine per cent were “white” who benefited from the 1661 Proclamation by British King Charles II, granting all lands in Jamaica to British subjects, male or female, 12 years old and upwards. This Proclamation made about 91 per cent Jamaicans of African descent landless. Who would have been the ‘fairest’ in Jamaica?

The second response was, “ … Queen, you are full fair, ‘tis true, But Snow-white fairer is than you …”. The British government declared Emancipation from slavery in 1834, but paid out to their subjects and descendants who operated plantations £20 million compensation for the loss of their ‘slaves’. Payment continued for 181 years until 2015. Using current calculations, it amounted to approximately £16.5 billion, and more than £200 billion in terms of the British public debt burden. In Jamaica, states Verene Shepherd, 16,114 British slave-owner beneficiaries claimed compensation, and 13,000 of these resided in Jamaica. They received a payout of £4.1 million, equivalent to about £3 billion in 2015, notes Kris Manjapra. Who then would be ‘fairer’?

The third response was, “… Queen, thou art of beauty rare, But Snow-white living in the glen, With the seven little men, Is a thousand times more fair …”. The Grimm allegory of the ‘little men’/dwarfs going off to work, represented the majority of workers in copper mines owned by the gentry being children. Baptist preacher George Lisle, a formerly enslaved African from Virginia, US, travelled to Jamaica to live and work alongside the enslaved people, delivering a gospel of hope and conversion in the 18th century. By 1807, the Church lobbied the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade. Is it possible that the Grimm Brothers’ allegory of child labour mirrored enslavement and enjoined the global scenario to end plantation slavery of Africa people?

The fourth response repeated, “… Queen, thou art of beauty rare, But Snow-white living in the glen, With the seven little men, Is a thousand times more fair …”. Many enslaved persons were active in the growing Jamaica Church, including Jamaica National Hero Baptist Deacon Sam Sharpe, who led an uprising for fair treatment of the enslaved people, including for attendance at church on Christmas Day instead of working. The Baptist and other churches lobbied the British Parliament, resulting in the August 1, 1834 Emancipation Declaration.

The fifth response for the third time was, “… Queen, thou art of beauty rare, But Snow-white living in the glen, With the seven little men, Is a thousand times more fair …”. The actions of the Church continued during the Apprenticeship period 1834-1838, birthing what I now call here the ‘Emancipated Church’ - lobbying the Parliamentarians in Jamaica and Britain for Crown lands to lay out ‘Free Villages’. For the first time, formerly enslaved landless Africans were able to purchase lands, build houses, and gain wealth independently.

The sixth response then became , “… You are the fairest now of all …”. Is there a mirroring of this with 1865 Jamaica when plantation owners and their Parliament began harassing the emancipated people, refusing to allocate further lands, even confiscating some lands they already owned? The Emancipated Church, through Jamaican Baptist deacons, including Jamaica national heroes Paul Bogle and George William Gordon, led a peace march from St Thomas to deliver a petition to the governor in the capital, Spanish Town. Referencing the town of Africville, Canada, established 1848 with descendants of Jamaican Maroons shipped there in 1796, suffering eventual demolition of this town in 1964, Ingrid Waldron termed it a form of structural violence. Impacting the soul, spirit, minds and bodies of African-Canadian people, rooted in a legacy of colonial violence, Waldron termed this “Environmental Racism”. Recall that the St Thomas peace march resulted in hundreds of reprisals by Governor Eyre - burning houses, flogging, hanging, and other deaths in Morant Bay. I now frame here for Jamaica 1865, ‘Environmental Racism’.

The seventh mirror response then became, “… O Queen, although you are of beauty rare, The young bride is a thousand times more fair …”. Jamaica became an Independence bride in 1962. Why then do bauxite companies continue to decimate ‘Free Villages’ containing family lands purchased by formerly enslaved Jamaicans that should have passed generationally to their descendants? Who is redressing such iniquities increasing landlessness and decreasing affordable housing and creating marginalised communities? Why are residential urban neighbourhoods across Jamaica being developed without public consultations and requisite infrastructure? Who takes responsibility for applying ‘Environmental Justice’?

After 63 years of Independence, where is the voice of the Jamaica ‘Emancipated Church’ to engage Parliamentarians over ‘Environmental Racism’? Will an emergent ‘Emancipated Church’ arise in Jamaica, as in 1834, to ensure that Jamaican parliamentarians, after the elections, provide land and affordable housing with ‘Environmental Justice’?

Patricia Green, PhD, a registered architect and conservationist, is an independent scholar and advocate for the built and natural environment. Send feedback to patgreen2008@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com