Jamaican Independence essays

Jamaican Independence essays This investigation will account for Jamaicas movement towards and achievement of independence from the midst of the 1930s to the 1960s. It will focus on the approach for national development and the gradual increase of national consciousness marked by the end of the dark age and, essentially, by the Great Depression; the root of widespread political stirrings. The charismatic Norman Manley and Bustamante were the leaders of independence movements, the latter eventually becoming the first Prime Minister of an independent Jamaica. Jamaica fell to British rule in 1655, a prized colonial possession valued for its sugar production, with an established Crown Colony government appointed by the Queen . By the 1930s Jamaica had already undergone series of essential changes; the abolition of slave trade resulted in the collapse of the plantation system generating a prolonged economic crisis, for which Jamaica was gradually losing economical significance to British plantation owners. Oppressive taxation, discriminatory acts by the courts, and land-exclusion measures caused widespread unrest among the blacks. The Great Depression in 1929 lead to further economic hardship as the price for the West Indian exports fell. It entailed unemployment for the Jamaican masses, who already lacked representation in the government, and generated campaigns to acquire a degree of local political control. The origin of organised mass nationalist movement lay in the wave of political and economic stirrings of labour unrest, bankrupt plantations, declining trade and barely tolerable working conditions. It culminated in the outbreak of labour riots in 1938, whereby the black population demanded economic, social and political changes, such as more suitable wages and working conditions. During this chaotic period a new Ras Tarafi movement grew which stressed on the West Indian African qualities, symbolizing the questioning of European valu ...