In the mid 1970’s, the first and only-mid air bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere took place. As such, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airline 455 which resulted in the killing of 73 persons, became one of the most devastating terrorist attack in Caribbean history. 

By no stretch, is the Jamaica Constabulary Force the most loved civil servant organisation. However, the organisation colonial roots, anti-blackness and the nation’s homophobia have lead to an almost century long belief that the organisation is been overrun by queer male police officers.

On this episode, we discussed how the colonisation of Barbados by Europeans led to the rise of mosquitoes in the region as well as look at other ecological transformations that have led to many present day problems across the Caribbean.

In 1979, a swine virus outbreak occurred in Dominican Republic. Still, the situation would have far reaching changes in Haiti as a US-Canada-Mexico partnership saw 1.3 million of their Kreyol pigs been slaughtered which forever change the country

In 1975, Cuba sent troops to Angola to help them fight against an invasion by apartheid South Africa. Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State was angry at this, so he set out to get countries to denounce Cuba’s actions. Jamaica was one of these countries.

In Jamaica, there is the famous Devon House. Basically, the story goes that Lady Musgrave, the wife of the then governor of Jamaica, was so angry at seeing Devon House, this grand mansion owned by a black man, that she authorised the building of another road, to avoid driving passed it. And it’s for this reason why the road is known today as Lady Musgrave’s Road. However, as much as the story is popular and accepted by many Jamaicans, it’s not true.

Upon the arrival of large numbers of Indians to the Caribbean, through the Indentureship system, they also brought their religion and other aspect of their culture. Their aversion to not assimilating to whiteness, was seen as a problem by the colonial governments.

On August 1st, 1838, Jamaica, alongside the rest of the countries in British West Indies, achieved emancipation and thus all enslaves black people on the island, gained their freedom. Immediately after, the topic of land became a major issue. For even though freedom day come for all black persons, land throughout the British colonies were not accessible for former enslaves.

Most scholarship on Caribbean chattel slavery of enslaved Africans largely covers the the sugar and tobacco plantation systems throughout the region. However, there was another massive industry that was built upon the enslavement of Africans - that was the cultivation of salt.

Then on March 12, when Gairy departed the island on government business to attend a function in New York, he allegedly left orders for the capture and murder of the NJM leadership. Through a pattern of behaviour, NJM leadership knew that if they wanted to live to see another day, they would have to act urgently - they had to move soon and not just soon, they had to move tonight. In one night, Tuesday, March 13, 1979, a group of young persons would attempt an event that has never happen in Caribbean history: a successful revolution in the English - speaking Caribbean.