Sylvia Wynter's Dream

Do you remember where you’re coming from? All the cultural experiences and your history? Do you remember those mistakes you’ve made throughout your life that you may regret now? Growing up I always heard the saying, “those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.” This can be taken in a positive or negative light depending on what that history may be. For me, I have made many mistakes growing up as all humans do. However, I do not regret any of them and, instead, take them as life lessons to avoid making those same mistakes again. Imagine if I were to forget those mistakes? I wouldn’t be able to pass that wisdom to my children which may cause them to make the same mistakes leading to that negative part of my history repeating itself. These are the long term effects of amnesia where this loss of memory from the past affects what the future generations learn from their predecessors and pass to their successors. The same can be said about forgetting history and culture because if we forget aspects of our culture and the things we went through in our past, that culture has a possibility of fading away as generations go by because it isn’t being passed on. This will eventually lead to a term called ethnocide which describes the destruction of culture since it is not being passed along. It is important to me that I remember my culture and the experiences that have shaped me into the person that I am today so that one day I can pass that knowledge and heritage to the next generation that follows me and hope they do the same. 

As the season draws closer, a core part of my family’s Christmas culture is the mini photoshoot that we do by the Christmas tree just before opening presents. My siblings and I dress in red and white and my mother becomes a professional photographer. It is an important part of our culture that I would want to pass down to the next generations so they can see themselves grow and get older each year and create memories they can cherish as I did. Unfortunately, as we have gotten older, it seems as though the amnesia is getting to my older brother who questions if we still carry out that tradition. He comes downstairs in whatever colour he chooses before we tell him to go put on that red and white. Forgetting things is very real but I want good traditions like that to continue from generation to generation. I want the next generation to say this is something that my family enjoyed doing before me and it is something I enjoy doing now.

Another part of Christmas culture for my family and for many other families across the world is Christmas dinner. Families all across the world gather at the dining table to eat their favourite assortment of foods including ham, mac and cheese, rice etc. This gathering brings family together as family members you may not have seen all year, come together for this special occasion. The celebration brings joy and conversation with family members and creates long lasting memories. That is until you are affected by amnesia. People grow up and they get busy so they may often miss these family dinners. I can say that the numbers at my family dinner seem to decline as the years go by with less people showing up each time. I sometimes wonder if those family members I haven’t seen since I was a child still remember me because their memory slowly fades from my mind. Nevertheless, the dinner is a special time and another part of culture that I would love to be carried on for generations to come. Imagine how the next generation would feel knowing there was a whole era where their family members came together to spend time and eat good food. An era that helped shape identity and create bonds. I would be disappointed to know I missed that experience.

The education system plays their part in ensuring that culture is being passed from one generation to the next but it seems as if that culture is also fading. Several good memories from my childhood were made at my prep school’s heritage day. This is where students came to school dressed in Jamaican colours or as their favourite Jamaican icons such as Louise Bennett or Bob Marley and they spent the day learning about Jamaican culture, enjoying Jamaican food and watching performances from the school’s performing arts team which I was a part of. I learned so many new things on these days that my parents had never told me. This can relate back to that amnesia where they probably forgot certain aspects of their past and culture that they didn’t pass to me and passed the more prominent parts of Jamaican and my family culture. I can only hope I remember these experiences and the knowledge I gained from these events so that I can pass it to the next generation. However, as I matriculated from the primary to secondary level then to tertiary, these days that celebrate culture seemed to decrease. I went from having heritage days and Jamaica days to Jamaica days only (which some years my high school would skip), to having no celebration of culture in University. I’m unaware if the University of The West Indies has a culture day but if they do, it isn’t broadcasted enough because I have never experienced it. We should have more of these days to remind students of their history so they can then remind the next generations to follow.

Passing culture and experiences from one generation to the next helps to form and maintain cultural and individual identity. We can’t let amnesia allow us to forget important things that future generations should know about themselves and their past which may lead to cultural reconstruction or ethnocide since they have no knowledge of their heritage. They have to know these things so they don’t repeat the same mistakes that we have made and so they don’t feel like they have missed a part of their culture. I leave you with the quote I learned growing up – “those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.”