Race, Class, and the Politics of Decolonization

This book offers a detailed picture of Jamaica before and after independence. A 1961 journal sheds light on the political and social context before independence, while a 1968 journal shows how independence dissolved dissident forces and identifies the origins of Jamaica's current two party politics.

Colin Clarke is an Emeritus Professor at Oxford University and an Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, UK. He is a Caribbeanist and his research interests are in race, ethnicity, and class in urban and rural communities and national contexts. His most recent publications include Decolonizing the Colonial City: Urbanization and Stratification in Kingston, Jamaica (2006) and, with Gillian Clarke, Post-Colonial Trinidad: An Ethnographic Journal (2010).

Introduction PART I: JAMAICA JOURNAL 1961 1. Jamaica: a British Colony on the Eve of Independence 2. Kingston and Rural Jamaica 3. The Ras Tafari Movement, Marxism and Race 4. Race, Class and the Referendum PART II: JAMAICA JOURNAL 1968 5. Sovereign Jamaica: Post-Colonialism as Neocolonialism