I grew up in a time when some countries persecuted the freedom of their people with fascist and authoritarian governments. Young people today are increasingly aware that racism still exists and may have felt its impact in various ways. However, to those born in the 1990s, the concept of apartheid in South Africa – an oppressive system that lasted until the early 1990s – might seem like something from the 1800s. However, in my lifetime, I witnessed, through international news and school discussions, the stark disparity in legal privilege between whites and blacks in South Africa.

As young Jamaicans, this injustice sparked a deep contempt, which led to support for an end to segregation and the brutality faced by black South Africans, igniting a spirit of activism for change.

Broadly defined, apartheid (1948-1994) in South Africa was racial segregation under the white government of South Africa, which dictated that non-white South Africans (the majority of the population) had to live in separate areas from whites. and use separate public facilities.

During this time, some of these policies included:

• The Intermarriage Prohibition Act of 1949, which prohibited marriages between people of different races;

• The Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, ancestry and other factors;

• The Civilized Labor Policy, which nationalized enterprises that employed large numbers of non-whites and state-owned enterprises that preferentially hired and promoted less-skilled whites;

• The Group Areas Act forced (and forcibly removed) people of certain races to live in designated areas. Between 1960 and 1983, 3.5 million black Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighborhoods or townships;

• Black South Africans were not allowed to vote or engage in politics.

Whether or not some countries globally knew what was happening in South Africa when apartheid implemented its rule in the 1950s, they chose to remain silent.

I am eternally grateful and proud that my country, Jamaica, under the leadership of Norman Manley, was the first country in the Western Hemisphere to declare, even before independence from Great Britain, that we would not trade with a country based on race, political, social, and economic restrictions on black people. It was a principled and courageous step.

Because of this, Jamaica, through our international diplomacy and what we boldly stood for in the world, was recognized as the country that, despite our size and still under British rule, was prepared to stand up for just rights for people who could not stand. for themselves, even though we did not have our rights and freedoms in terms of independence from Great Britain.

This is also why Jomo Kenyatta was arrested in 1952 by the British for allegedly leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial government. Who did he ask to represent him and put together a legal defense team? Jamaican Ambassador and Pan-Africanist Dudley Thompson. Kenyatta became president of Kenya.

In the 1970s, when Prime Minister Michael Manley decided that Jamaica would trade openly, establish South-South cooperation with Africa and have a new international economic order with Africa, Brazil and India, the United States Secretary of State America’s Henry Kissinger visited Jamaica in 1976 to tell Manley to stay out of Africa.

Moreover, when it was detrimental to survival in the West to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and China, Michael Manley did so. And so when Cuba asked Jamaica if they could fuel planes on our island to help fight the people of Angola for their democracy against their colonizers, Portugal, Jamaica said yes.

Our dedicated purpose to recognize the dignity of our fellow man, regardless of race and class, revolutionized the way the world saw Africa, Brazil, India and China.

In addition, these principled approaches have led people around the world to respect us. Jamaica has always been seen as a beacon for human rights, justice, political freedom and equality in human affairs. As a result, the world has always known where Jamaica is.

This is why Nelson Mandela was released from prison and even before he became president of South Africa, the two countries he visited first were Jamaica and Cuba.

This is why when I arrived in South Africa in 1993 to compete in Miss World, I was buoyed by the pride and camaraderie with the black South Africans—the housekeepers, the seamstresses, the housekeepers—I would sit with them for long hours at night, enjoying their joy and listening to their gratitude to Jamaica for the help I had given their people during a long and brutal struggle.

Our musicians and our reggae music have supported Africa for many years. The Bob Marley Freedom Concert in Zimbabwe – the haunting lyrics calling for black liberation by Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Dennis Brown, Bunny Wailer and many others – is what I grew up immersed in – calling the world to do better for the downtrodden and downtrodden because regardless where you come from, “we are all africans”.

Oddly enough, even though in my lifetime I saw the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid, the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Yasser Arafat, capitalism in China and the move of the owners of global capital to Asia and India, today, it seems that the world is repeating itself in the evisceration of these gains. No one stands up to say “No!”

Now, we look at our brothers and sisters in Cuba suffering without electricity due to decades of US sanctions, Haitians being slaughtered alongside, a brutal new war in the Middle East, an ongoing war in Ukraine, a forgotten war in the Sudan and of the blacks. and Palestinians being killed, all in the name of authoritarianism.

Worst of all, when I see the Jamaican news headlines, my blood curdles when I read in the comment sections below the articles, Jamaicans are saying we don’t need to worry.

I want Jamaicans, especially young Jamaicans, to understand that as a nation we have opposed these things in the past and have supported the protection of human dignity and freedom globally.

We have always been a revolutionary people who destroy the artificial dogmas designed to enslave anyone to the supremacy of others because of their economic power or geographical size. Our global respect has been earned by those who have gone before us. Their courage allowed the rest of us to have the confidence to hold our heads high.

Therefore, we have a responsibility to continue our activism for our own sake and that of others who are being pushed into suffocation.

Now, we are witnessing the worst of far-right fascism being exposed daily on global political platforms by some who seek the power of leadership. As Jamaicans, we cannot stand by and watch Apartheid 2.0 emerge.

We have always stood on the right side of history and it is time to ask if we relinquish this duty, then what will the future of our children and grandchildren look like in Jamaica and/or the Diaspora?

Jamaica’s unwavering commitment to justice and equality continues to inspire the world. Let us remember this before we try to declare, “That is not our problem.”

Lisa Hanna is the Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, the People’s National Party spokesperson for foreign affairs and foreign trade and a former Cabinet member.