Professor Colin Clarke offers a detailed picture of Jamaica before and after independence. His 1961 journal sheds light on the political and social context before independence, while a 1968 journal shows how independence dissolved dissident forces and identifies the origins of Jamaica’s current two party politics.
The journals were kept while the author was carrying out fieldwork in Jamaica. Research in Kingston and visits to rural communities in 1961 are detailed before Professor Clarke examines the political underworld of black racism and Marxism, where the machinations of the various political groups involved lead up to the Federal Referendum – and Jamaica’s withdrawal from the Federation of the West Indies. The 1968 journal explains the impact of independence (in 1962) and the intervening elections of 1962 and 1967 on the dissolution of the forces of black racism; and explores the beginnings of the misuse of patronage by politicians, and the deployment at election times of violence by gangs allied to the political parties.