Last Friday, a group of primary school students emphatically stated that I was wrong in claiming that the Queen of England was the head of State for Jamaica. These students had just performed at the heritage function hosted by the Social Studies Section of the Core Curriculum Unit of the Ministry of Education. In my address, I asked the audience who was the head of State for Jamaica and when the right answer was not forthcoming, I said who it was and they rejected my answer claiming it was incorrect.

But ignorance about our heritage is not confined to children. On National Heroes Day, there was a feature saluting our national heroes. Amazingly, while each of the six male heroes had a profile, there was none for Nanny. While for Bustamante and Manley there were 160 words each (more than that on Sharpe and Bogle combined), all that was said about Nanny was that she 'encouraged Maroons to struggle. (Gleaner C5).

There is much more to Nanny including a recent work by Colonel C.L.G. Harris and the 1974 work by Professor Edward Kamau Brathwaite which showed the historical references to her. Professor Orlando Patterson and historian Mavis Campbell also made positive references to Nanny. It is a downright disgrace the way Nanny is being treated.

Fat chance

In a few weeks time, Ian Randle Publishers will release my second book, titled The Cross and the Machete, which aims, among other things, to give a more accurate perspective on three of our national heroes, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle and George William Gordon. It dawned on me that this new work has a 'fat chance' of changing the views about theses heroes as Brathwaite's work on Nanny. There is just too much ignorance about our heritage.

Just two weeks ago, a young man in preparing a speech for presentation in St Mary lamented that he could not find any of George William Gordon's sermons or speeches. Gordon's speeches made in the Assembly are not in any national repository! There is too much ignorance about Gordon's speeches and sermons.

In that speech at the Ministry of Education, I encouraged the educators to teach heritage correctly. I related to them that CSEC history teachers continue to teach that the Lord Mansfield's judgment in the Somerset case of 1772 granted freedom to all the enslaved persons in the United Kingdom. There was even a revision series on CSEC history which stated "the Somerset case results in the passage of a law which declares slavery illegal in England". (Youthlink January 20-26, 2009)

However, Eric Williams, leading Caribbean historian and former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, in Capitalism and Slavery, written in 1944, stated that the Mansfield ruling did not free the enslaved in England and those who held the contrary view, he claimed, were engaging in "poetic sentimentality".

Ignorance

In 1974, British scholar F.O. Shyllon in Black Slaves in Britain said that the ruling in the Somerset case decided that "black slaves in England could not forcibly be removed from England". There are newer works supporting Shyllon's view such as those done by James Walvin and James Oldham. Paradoxically, Shyllon recorded that Mansfield, who is canonised for emancipating the enslaved by CSEC history teachers, was a slave owner up to 21 years after the 1772 ruling!

It is not only a matter of ignorance of facts but about feelings of inferiority among Jamaicans. It is a lack of appreciation of the work and worth of our national heroes and lack of confidence in our women and ordinary people. It is also giving credit to the oppressors which is not deserved.

Let us teach our heritage correctly so that we can be inspired by the past to help us work towards prosperity and peace in the present.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: The Church in Nation Building'. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com