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I think everyone who has met a Jamaica knows all too well that there is no shortage of confidence in the Jamaican people. Bolt is the quintessential Jamaican who loves life and gives voice to all that he feels. IOC Chairman, Jacque Rogge should know that we get mad with the same gusto so let them tick us off in Beijing and then they would see a burning track/stadium literally rather than metaphorically!!
After 500 years of enslavement and oppression, and more than a century of global achievement in many arenas – music, film, fashion and sport, we have people with more than enough to celebrate. We do this by dancing and prancing! Every single night there is a party in Jamaca, sometimes several in one night. Dancehall researcher, Dr. Donna Hope and myself had gone to Tivoli for the weekly Passa Passa in its infancy a few years ago, and concluded that it was as if Jamaicans were dancing to forget the pain of impoverishment, crime, and deprivation. We had never seen a more happy set of poor people!!
We thanked God then for blessing Jamaica with such a wonderful musical form that Jamaicans obsessivly love. The rhythms are so potent, the lyrics so inflammatory and the vibe so intense that one immediately forgets the troubles in his own life and just move to the lilting beat. Bolt overcome by his own accomplishment felt that same reggae beat – not in his head – but in the stands as the Olympic organisers appropriately found himn some reggae. Asians are mad for reggae so it was a perfect international, reggae, Jamaican moment.
It helped Bolt that Jamaica has had dancers such as Bogle (may he rest in peace), and a crew of other who create a new dance move for the dancehall and the population to follow. Jacque Rogge should come on a visit to Tivoli and “Passa Passa” to see the dancers at work – to bear witness to how Jamaicans celebrate their own. Raver Clavers are on a high as they are busy watching Bolt popularising their dance moves for the world to watch. Dancing, music and fun is what we do! It’s the ‘reggaementality’ of the Jamaican people. Boasty and show off is part of the collective psyche – but we remain a people from hiumble beginnings/circumstances, and we know when to turn off the celebration and focus!
We love competition, Jamaicans love to win! I was at the National Stadium in Kingston when bolt first broke Asafa Powell’s record – and I nearly bust my throat – it was pandemonium in the stands. Jacque Rogge may also want to come visit Jamaica for the High School Boys and Girl’s Athletics Championships to catch a glimpse of the seriousness with which we take track and field. Years after leaving high school, grown men and women still turn out in their thousands to celebrate the victories of their secondary schools. It is a national pasttime. Better still, IOC President, Jacque Rogge should come to Jamaica to watch “Prep School Champs”!! haha! Now, I went to the stadium with my friend Ingrid to wtch her 9 year old , Rachel run in 207, in one of these kids’ races, and I will say the excitement and the pandemonium could equal that of the Bird’s Nest in Bejing.
Rioutous behaviour is embedded in the Jamaican personality; So is hyperbole. Jamaica is perhaps the only country plagued by extreme poverty which acts, thinks looks, and operates like a first world nation. We have an incestuous love of ‘Jamrock’. And we deserve to celebrate as we see fit. In any case, Bolt does a BAD (read as ‘good’) ‘nuh linger’. Pity we did not have the ‘nuh linger’ tune to match. Perhaps next Olympics! Dem would need to hire a bad sound system/selector like the eternal Stone Love and Weepow – well – if the respectable, civilised, conservative Brits would allow it!
