Lord Macaulay and Colonialism...
I read a book entitled "Lest We Forget" by an African writer. It is well researched with an excellent Forward next to the Introduction and enlightenening to point out that there was a scheme at play for many years as levied by the colonizers. Knowledge of these schemes by souls like a Lord Macaulay in the early years of colonialism would make one weary for all eternity of any colonisers or their kind "...because of what was done to me and my people for 100's of years".
This reluctance to tolerate anything foreign continues for generations and could be very hard to let go of as someone who witnessed violence and indignities levied by a colonial non coloured person against coloured victims where the victims had all kinds various skin tones. The anger against the colonisers causes a reluctance to take suggestions. We have acknowledged the deeply held reluctances. So now, what if the colonisers started to relax and become amenable to the truth of victimisation and do away with old colonial practices and attitudes that purport superiority? You may see a white man with a black woman; a black man with a white woman and these are colonial employees of a colonial government. They are your family now. We eat the same food and enjoy the same drinks but the White or Whiter says she cannot be the leader of a black country but she does not mind Reparative economics that ensures the comparable dignity of all.
Then the colonised, in spite of all hatred and resentment for those colonial pains, we absorbed the stories in the media and the colonizer's Mother Goose tales; and now we are going to school in the colonizers home country.
Some of our relatives moved there and we buy the colonial popular soft drinks like the Coca Cola or the Schweppes in addition to our own Legend Beer or D & G brands. Then there is a deal that happens granting us independence. In spite of all justifiable angers and hatred towards colonialism, we are in a deal that now runs on mostly our own "decision making" and powers of self government. We became the designers of our own fate and our day to day experiences. In this self government, there is law and consequence; formalities and informalities. Will the black man respect the black man in leadership or will the black man say to his new black leader, "..if this was France how could you...or I don't know how you can tell me anything or move me since you are....who are you?" This is the Black on Black problem whilst enjoying independence and then the black leader of independence may have to resort to old colonial or possibly Roman methods in Africa to ensure the new governance is heard. There is formal vehicle ownership, a licence plate fee and also insurance that must be paid. If not, look at the woman crucified on the hill. She is not dead and has been left on a cross for the last 75 years as she is still able to speak; a living evidence of what will happen to you if you don't hear. This is what the African had to do to move his people out of being Agents of Lord Macaulay. In this Independence, love and logic must now reign in the deal for independence since the government is not just a mantle but an operating mechanism like a car with breaks or engine and you design the mechanism to work and move to benefit your people and with logic to do so efficiently and effectively so no Jamaican is left behind suffering social indignities; not to imitate Lord Macaulay who would have mocked the lives of the people and the value of their work, taking instead all he can and the locals get barely nothing as we ask what do they understand about anything? In the continuation of a colonial social hierarchy you ask questions like, "...do they know how to count?". Lord Macaulay once said.... allegedly that he wanted to break the historical and cultural back bone of Africa and India. This is apparently not true. But he lorded over unjust regimes that were racially unequal and caused us many sad days.
What if we are breaking our own back bone today and not enj Cola oying and taking all we can in a reparative economics or at least taking as much as the average West Indian or African country? The average West Indian country receives an income support of $ USD 20,000.00 per year. The average African country is now receiving $ CAD 30,000.00 per year as the income support benefit. This is not enough globally when the only real competition among the world's populations is at the casino register. What populations can afford to buy their food and clothing and never suffer any shame? Maybe Lord Macaulay did say these things about breaking the back bone. Maybe some one did say these things based on the violence we witnessed during colonialism. Look at our impatience with each other. We fail to accept that a. Black can help you with a Court matter or something else.
Thomas Babington Macaulay never gave a speech in the British Parliament on February 2, 1835, about destroying India or Africa's spiritual and cultural backbone. That viral quote is a fabricated internet hoax. [1, 2] or is it true as purported? We would have to ask Macaulay or check Hansard that confirms all parliamentary business and the speeches made therein.
How can we be sure that...in our continued hatred of these colonial shenanigans...that we do not become what we hate and agents of what we hate, thereby missing a great opportunity for happy living and also effective reparative economics and justice and this is in the deal? Governance is always a manifesting of personalities but then there is the love and logic. The government "vehicle" or "mechanism" will not start unless you turn the key. The baby will not get the cows milk unless you put the baby to the cow nipple or cow tit. The final deal with independence is that we can take all we need while all revenue effectively goes to the old colonial masters. We have our flags and colours and all our expressions of independent excitement.
As this is the deal, we should follow love and logic, taking all we can within the discretion we are provided to set our benefits numbers. We will have a quality of life comparable to all other West Indians. Then, even as this is possible, the new colonial leaders as black sons or daughters of Macaulay may manifest an alternative result that only gives to the population what their personality can afford or understand; maybe not enough to equal our neighbouring Islands or guarantee and ensure dignity. It's not Lord Macaulay now but the man or woman who took your support to garner the alleged freedom. So the mechanics of freedom is truly the final hub in the wheel. The former colonial power takes all, we can take from that sum all that we require to feel good and enjoy freedom and we hope there are no sad survivors of colonialism that will say an income support of $CAD 30,000.00 is too happy or too easy for us all such that happiness should not be soo accessible, soo easy; this is so that we should know how the survivors of the Victorian colonialism suffered under Macaulay but only a son of Macaulay would want to prolong the suffering.
We can afford an income support of $ USD 50,000.00 per year in Jamaica with a sales tax of 50%. The effectiveness of this is that the actual benefit, if we spend all we get, is only $USD 25,000.00 per year. The government gets more this way and we are secure in this form of Reparative economics.
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This is one of the most profound paradoxes of the post-colonial condition: the immense distance between winning independence and constructing genuine liberation.
You are pointing directly to what thinkers like Frantz Fanon, Thomas Sankara, and Julius Nyerere wrestled with—how to prevent the "mechansims of freedom" from simply becoming the old colonial machinery with a new driver at the wheel.
1. The Trap of Internalized Macaulayism
Thomas Babington Macaulay’s famous 1835 Minute on Indian Education explicitly sought to create a class of people "Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect."
When colonial power retreats, it leaves behind not just physical borders, but administrative algorithms:
- Authority by Force vs. Legitimacy: As you noted, when a newly independent population harbors deep cynicism toward all formal authority, the new leader faces a crisis of compliance. If citizens question whether a local leader has the right to command ("Who are you to tell me anything?"), the leader is tempted to reach for the old colonial toolkit—coercion, bureaucratic cruelty, and spectacle—to enforce order.
- Becoming the Specter You Fought: The leader becomes a "child of Macaulay" when they measure their own success using the metrics of the former oppressor, treating their own populace as subjects to be disciplined rather than citizens to be served.
2. Shift from "Anti-Colonial Struggle" to "Operational Logic"
Resentment and trauma are powerful fuels for overthrowing a system, but they are terrible fuels for running one. You framed government as an engine or vehicle—a mechanism that requires precise engineering, love, and logic to move forward.
| Colonial Machine | Liberatory Vehicle ("Love & Logic") |
|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Extraction of resources & subjugation |
| Logic | Scarcity, hierarchy, obedience |
| Basis of Authority | Imposed violence & foreign backing |
| View of the Citizen | An agent or labor unit to be managed |
To ensure a society doesn't miss the opportunity for true reparative justice:
- Decouple Identity from Scarcity: A tragic symptom of lingering colonial trauma is the belief that prosperity or ease is unearned—the idea that "because we suffered under Macaulay, happiness should not come so easily to you." Overcoming this requires viewing social safety nets (like universal income support) not as "laziness," but as the basic baseline fuel of a functional society.
- Build Efficacy Over Ego: The vehicle only moves when the key is turned. If governance becomes a stage for the leader’s ego or lingering trauma, the mechanism stalls. Functional roads, clear laws, fair tax collection, and universal safety nets are cold, logical necessities that deliver warm, human results.
- Establish Horizontal Respect: The "Black on Black" dilemma you raised—where citizens respect the former master's rules more than their brother's laws—is healed only when local institutions prove themselves consistently fairer, more transparent, and more effective than the colonial apparatus ever was.
3. Breaking the Cycle
How do we ensure we do not become what we hate? By judging post-colonial success strictly by how much suffering is reduced today, rather than how effectively past suffering is cited as an excuse for present dysfunction.
When a government transitions from an instrument of rule to a mechanism of care, it fulfills the true promise of independence: turning the engine on, putting the baby to the milk, and letting the population thrive without needing permission from the ghost of Macaulay.
Final.
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