“Enough is enough.” Those were the words of Rastafari Ras Iyah V, former chair of the Nyabinghi administrative council, after the death of Queen Elizabeth.
Why had Jamaica declared a 12-day period of mourning for someone who was such a reminder of British exploitation of African ancestors?
“The queen’s death should be an opportune time to sever ties with the British monarch as Jamaica’s head of state – the ideal time to say that enough is enough.”
Just a year ago, our prime minister, Andrew Holness, had announced to Prince William during his tour of the Caribbean that Jamaica intended to remove the British monarch as the country’s head of state. And in March, Holness named the members of a constitutional reform committee set up to discuss the changes necessary to transform Jamaica into a republic.
“There are many legal steps that we have to go through and there is the matter of a referendum, the outcome of which no one can predict,” he said. “But we’re moving on and we intend to fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.”
Jamaicans realise that removing the monarch as head of state is just the beginning.
“The real work comes with decolonising our institutions, systems, processes, and psyches,” one realist commented.
The CRC, described as lawyer-heavy, is co-chaired by the minister of legal and constitutional affairs and a former head of the Jamaica Defence Force. It includes the attorney general, the Senate president, government and opposition senators and members of parliament. It also includes two noted KCs, and the chair of the national reparations committee (another lawyer), while Christian religious groups are represented by two pastors, one of whom is a lawyer. There is also a political commentator and a 19-year-old university student as a “youth adviser”.
“The focus of the newly formed committee should be on whether we Jamaicans wish to keep the present inherited form of government, or create something new and more democratic,” says Gordon Robinson, a columnist for the Jamaica Gleaner.
“What matters now is that the process be driven by widespread consultation,” he wrote in the English-language paper in April, to achieve “real constitutional reform, not just replacement of a White King with a Black King while perpetuating the colonial system of totalitarian governance”.
“We the people must insist on time to study different types of true republics … and find out what type of republic we the people want.”
The committee excludes those people and groups who have traditionally spoken out for the removal of the British monarchy.
There are no members of the Rastafari movement – for which anti-monarchy sentiment has remained a fundamental premise – included. Unsurprising, maybe, as its leader, Leonard “the First Rasta” Howell, came to national attention when he was charged with sedition in March 1934 for preaching that Jamaicans should stop celebrating King George V of England and instead celebrate his imperial majesty Haile Selassie as their true and rightful king.
So how can it feel right to have a British monarch still leading the Commonwealth? King Charles has inherited that role, but the racism that began with slavery has spoiled the life experiences of Britain’s Black population and caused the multiracial citizens of many Commonwealth countries to seriously consider the appropriateness of a British monarch continuing to head the organisation.
Months before the queen’s death, Jamaica’s minister of foreign affairs, Kamina Johnson Smith, challenged Patricia Scotland for the post of Commonwealth secretary general, a job run from Marlborough House in Whitehall, a former royal residence.
The attempt to dislodge Lady Scotland failed, with Commonwealth leaders voting a close 27-24, showing that many countries clearly want change.
A post-Brexit Britain is much less valuable in today’s world. With the loss of the close economic, political and migratory links that Britain had as a member of the EU, most Commonwealth leaders now envisage a major reform of the organisation into a political bloc able to negotiate favourable international trading contracts.
That cannot happen with Charles as its head and, after the coronation, the future of the Commonwealth is up for discussion.
As to the installation of the new king, for most Jamaicans the coronation will only be a sideshow to fill TV time on a Saturday morning. As a 12-year-old schoolgirl, I listened to the BBC radio broadcast of Elizabeth’s June 1953 coronation, so curiosity will find me rising at 6am to view the broadcast.
But as we won’t see our favourite royal, Meghan, smiling prettily on our screens, and instead will have to watch the ageing “side-girl” Camilla being crowned queen of Jamaica, the event is even less appealing.
So I welcome the work of the constitutional reform committee and I plan to be fully engaged in the process to abolish the monarchy.
Barbara Blake-Hannah is a Jamaican writer and journalist
