Jamaica is a nation that got off to a rough start. As a post-colonial Caribbean country granted sovereignty from Great Britain in 1962, they have been plagued by political and economic turbulence ever since. In the 1970s, Jamaicans elected a Prime Minister who was seen as a savior by some and a menace by his opponents. Darrell E. Levi’s Michael Manley: The Making Of a Leader tells his story.
Michael Manley was born into a middle class family of importance to Jamaica’s development. His father founded and ran the left wing People’s National Party (PNP) in opposition to the right wing Jamaican Labor Party (JLP). His mother was a prominent artist and political activist. Manley’s cousin, the conservative and authoritarian Alexander Bustamante, was elected Jamaica’s first post-colonial prime minister in 1962.
During World War II, Michael Manley enlisted in the Canadian air force and then went to university in London. There he worked as a journalist before returning to Jamaica to work as a labor union leader in association with the PNP. He wasn’t just an ordinary union leader though; he rose to prominence because he went on the job and worked side by side with the laborers who were given the most back breaking work in Kingston. He didn’t just show up for photo ops with teams of ditch diggers; he picked up a shovel and helped them dig for as long as their work shifts lasted. He continued in his willingness to get his hands dirty with the most impoverished of workers long after he became a politician. His sincerity took him a long way in Jamaican politics.
Levi doesn’t just tell the story of Michael Manley’s life. He provides a fair amount of context to help people outside the country understand its political climate. He explains the 1960s under Bustamante as a time of uprisings, police brutality, and the West Kingston Wars. Bustamante stayed aloof to Jamaica’s problems as the country struggled to get on its feet. Levi also demonstrates how Jamaican politics differ from those in the developed nations to some degree. It is a system of bicameral parliamentary governance, but with high levels of graft the prime minister makes most decisions unilaterally. Politics are more tribal and territorial, something which has led to gang warfare over the years. Class and ethnicity are closely related; dark skinned, lower class Jamaicans mostly align with the PNP and the light skinned middle and upper classes align with the JLP. In political discourse, passionate speaking is valued more than nuanced debate. Political favors granted to neighborhoods or territories that vote in blocks are common. When one party gets into office, they repay the favor to voters who supported them with things like free food distribution or the upgrading of houses, something denied to neighborhoods that didn’t support the party in power. This sometimes leads to gangs forcing people in their territories to vote at gunpoint for their party of affiliation. Politics are mostly localized with the national government almost exclusively managing affairs in Kingston while paying little attention to the rest of the country. The Rastafarian movement has been most closely affiliated with the PNP and are big supporters of Michael Manley.
Despite Jamaica’s grim political practices, Michael Manley got elected Prime Minister in 1972 on a platform of social justice. Racial equality, worker’s rights, education, and the raising of living standards for the poor were the issues that won him a significant majority. He ruled by committee, setting up community organizations subordinate to the PNP to address all aspects of governing. Manley became massively popular throughout the 1970s despite a long list of political setbacks. His political philosophy was that of democratic socialism. Even though the emphasis was on “democratic”, his practice of soft socialism led him into conflict with the United States who were backing his conservative rival Edward Seaga through affiliations with the CIA. His personal style made him look messianic in the eyes of the lower classes and he earned the nickname Joshua, possibly an influence from the Hebrew-inspired Rastafarians.
Aside from placing social justice at the forefront of Jamaican politics, Manley also played the role of statesman. Levi writes about how Manley brought Jamaica into the post-colonial Non-Aligned Movement of nations that began in Indonesia after World War II. He spoke at the United Nations as an advocate for international cooperation and put Jamaica on the map as a viable participant in world affairs. Some of his alliances proved to be contentious though. Manley kept close ties with Cuba and had a lifelonh friendship with Fidel Castro who never pressured him to turn communist. Manley also maintained diplomatic and trade ties to the Soviet Union. As a result, the USA kept him at an arm’s length despite his desire to make Jamaica a neutral force in the Cold War.
While Jamaica remained a small, impoverished island nation, America could not so easily dismiss Manley. The aluminum industry depended on mining the raw material bauxite there, something they were doing at a very low cost because of Bustamante’s policies in the 1960s. Jamaica owed America money anyhow. Manley borrowed from the World Bank to kick start the Jamaican economy, but when they failed to meet the growth demands set by the IMF, they came close to defaulting on their loan. As Jamaica sank deeper into economic crisis, Manley raised taxes on bauxite exports so the American mining companies withdrew from the island. Even worse, the US placed tariffs on the products Jamaica imported from America, and this led to further economic hardship. Manley picked up some extra money for the nation by building tourist resorts and putting on music festivals, but this was never enough to stabilize the economy, let alone promote its growth.
The CIA were by then backing Manley’s rival Edward Seaga and a fierce propaganda battle ensued that harmed Manley’s stature in the eyes of the middle and upper classes. The CIA imported guns to Jamaica as a plan to destabilize the country with escalating violent crime rates and gang warfare to turn the population against Michael Manley. Assassination attempts against Manley happened three times, all of which he survived.
Manley remained popular though until he lost the election to Seaga in 1982. Seaga remained Prime Minister until the late 1980s. He failed to deliver on his promises to control the crime rate and bring economic prosperity to Jamaica, although he did succeed in building up Jamaica’s infrastructure. Michael Manley returned to power in the election of 1988, but by then the two rival Prime Ministers agreed to stop fighting and worked together to further Jamaica’s development. Manley resigned from the office of prime minster soon after getting re-elected because of health problems. That is something not covered in Levi’s book because this biography ends with Manley’s return to office as prime minster.
Levi’s political biography of Michael Manley is a slow read. That isn’t because it lacks excitement. It actually is an exciting book considering it is about the politics of a nation that is not often discussed in the wider world. It is only slow moving because it is so densely packed with information that it takes a good deal of time to absorb it all. It really is a book worth reading if you want to learn anything about West Indian politics or the economic struggles of the Third World. Otherwise, Darrell Levi is heavily biased in favor of Michael Manley and some people might find fault in that as he doesn’t go deeply into the problems Manley’s shortcomings as a politician. He doesn’t ignore those problems, but he just doesn’t say enough to make this a balanced biography. It would be interesting to learn more about Edward Seaga too since many Jamaicans consider him to be equally important, and controversial, as Michael Manley in the political history of Jamaica.
Michael Manley is presented here as a sincere prime minister with a heart of gold and as an intellectual with a taste for the finer things in life. His biggest crimes were naivete and lacking the pragmatic skills necessary for advancing Jamaica towards being a Caribbean nation of peace and prosperity. He wasn’t entirely to blame for that because Jamaica did not have a history of independent rule to fall back on or to learn from. He did the best he could with what he knew. He was more of a visionary than a politician, but he got others to believe in his vision and sometimes those visions are necessary to instigate action. Jamaica has been through more hard times since Michael Manley died, but his dream isn’t dead.
Recent years have seen an incremental drop in crime and a strengthening middle class due in part to Jamaican immigrants in the US and UK remitting money back home and buying property. Sites associated with Bob Marley are becoming places of pilgrimage and tourist dollars are trickling in. Jamaica has a long way to go still, but with enough economic momentum and the desire to pursue dreams, they just might make it some day. Go visit this interesting country and see for yourself.
