In the heady post-Independence days of the 1960s when the raising of 'consciousness' was seen as a necessary prelude to progress, many woke up to ask the question: "Why is it that ethnic minorities in Jamaica seem so prosperous, while the black majority is economically disadvantaged?"

The legacy of slavery was the facile answer. The majority of Jamaica's good land and the commanding heights of the economy remained in the hands of the descendants of the slave masters; and an education system was created which reproduced class relations.

Distribution of resources

The solution to the problem of underdevelopment was then clear: have land reform (some sort of redistribution of land) and fix the education system (make sure everyone goes to school and is able to read), both of which Cuba was able to do within a decade of its revolution.

The People's National Party government of the 1970s headed down this road, but did a poor job of both tasks.

Of course, this analysis is naive and too economistic, and these strategies by themselves were doomed to fail. Think about it - most of the ethnic minorities who came to Jamaica after Emancipation knew no English (so they had no educational advantage), and had few resources, certainly no land.

Yet, they prospered in the context of the same skewed distribution of resources and the same biased education system. There had to be something else holding back the black majority. Why is it that the Chinese have prospered in shopkeeping and the baking industry? And the Lebanese in the dry-goods and haberdashery business?

Are China and Lebanon filled with experts in these occupations, who simply came here with business experience and set up shop?

And why is it that African Jamaicans have not prospered in shopkeeping, supermarkets, bakeries and haberdasheries to the same or even a similar extent? No one has yet discovered a gene for shopkeeping or baking.

Family structure intact

The answer has been in front of our noses all the time. The migrants to Jamaica after Emancipation came with their family structure intact.

It was close-knit Chinese and Lebanese (and Jewish, if we extend the analysis) families which scrimped and saved and produced and succeeded. Family ties in Africa are strong - arguably stronger than in Europe - and take various forms, most quite different from Europe.

If it is one thing that traditional (European or African) family structure does, it regulates sexual behaviour. The African family did not come across the Atlantic through the Middle Passage, but the truth is that European family structure did not make it across to Jamaica either in those early days.

There was a vast surplus of men (of all colours) over women, and there was a preference among Europeans for liaisons with slave women, even when a white wife lived in the Great House. The large number of Jamaicans of mixed race testifies to this fact.

And, so, out of the crucible of slavery came the spectrum of Jamaican family structure from the African to the European, much of it untidy, with some 'inside' and some 'outside', and numerous half-siblings, and some not knowing their fathers, and others being raised by grandmothers, and with some as 'barrel children'.

This situation has brought out the heroism in many Jamaican women, and the challenges have given many Jamaican children the impetus to hurdle their obstacles.

Emancipation needed

But the sad fact is that these are notable exceptions, and many have not been able so to do. There are many women I know who simply have not been able to recover from an early pregnancy. And many men I know who were denied a good start in life because of absent fathers and fecund mothers with multiple boyfriends.

Slavery broke both the African and the European family, and legal Emancipation has not fixed them, even after 170 years.

'Bob' Marley sang "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds", and there would be very few who would deny that this job is as yet incomplete.

But how many would identify sexual profligacy as part of this mental slavery, requiring emancipation?

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.