Sylvia Wynter's Dream

The death of Queen Elizabeth II from the perspective of a Jamaican. 

-Dominic Ramsay 

The death of H.M Queen Elizabeth II is neither shocking nor untimely.

At 96 years old, months before the Queen’s passing she had decided to withdraw from the public, openly admitting that it was due to health concerns that she had been experiencing for some time. Alas we would now come to know that would eventually be the cause of her death.

However, in a metaphorical sense, the queen had withdrawn from the public long before she had fallen ill in the first place.

Last year, I had taken a legal systems course at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica where the majority of the students were Jamaicans living in Jamaica. It was a mix of strange emotions to find that the majority of students did not realize that the Jamaican constitution, the highest source of legal power in the country, did not recognize the Prime Minister as the Head of State but rather the Head of State would be the crown of the English Monarch, i.e Queen Elizabeth.

I say it was a mix of emotions because, on the one hand, it feels mildly embarrassing that a respectable sample size of educated Jamaicans don’t understand their fundamental government structure, but on the other hand it’s understandable why they would have that interpretation considering how the monarch does not have any bearing on their everyday lives. 

Since the 1940’s, England has been removing itself as traditional colonial powers and has taken a stance that these former colonies are independent in the sense that they should take care of themselves. But at the same time, we should recognize England as the fundamental reason why any of our societies still function. Both main political parties, the JLP and PNP have generally been for removing the queen of Head of State and switching to a republic structure yet we continue to delay under the guise of practicality and the urgency of other pressing matters, even though moving to a republic would simply require a referendum (https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latest-news/end-appeals-to-the-privy-council-now-says-pnpyo/) of people to vote.

To me, if the public cannot recognize their own Head of State, then perhaps a referendum may not even be necessary because we have already divorced each other from an actual relationship.