Dr Rita Pemberton

IN HIS very popular Redemption Song, released in 1980, the perceptive reggae singer Bob Marley issued a challenge to the descendants of enslaved Africans to emancipate themselves. At that time, it was clear that the process of emancipation had been incomplete, as had been mentioned earlier by Marcus Garvey in 1937.

Even after being raised twice before, this matter remains one of concern in present-day Caribbean societies. Part of the problem may well be that there is no common understanding of what precisely is mental slavery.

Plantation life in Tobago and the rest of the Caribbean was based on a web of political, legal, economic and social relations which were powered by both the anticipated profits of the enterprise and fear of what would happen if the necessary precautions were not taken.

Hence, to the ruling class, it was of utmost importance to ensure the labour force of enslaved Africans was brought under their owners' absolute control. To this end, there was a barrage of laws which were intended to prevent resistance and enforce African submission to the dehumanisation that was the system of enslavement in the Caribbean.

It must be noted that enslavement was a part of the system of European colonisation, which was organised for permanence, since the imperial powers expected to remain in control of the rest of the world forever.

Consequently, slave societies were governed by a two-part system in which laws and regulatory provisions constituted but one part of the armoury used to enforce compliance with the brutal regime of plantation life - the physical.

The other part, which would effectively serve the desires of the colonisers, was mental slavery.

Mental slavery constitutes the most potent part of enslavement because of its invisibility in written laws and regulations, despite their contribution to its impact. In addition, mental enslavement is the most enduring part of the process, because it can become ingrained in thought processes, accepted by its victims, shape attitudes for generations and facilitate the continued impact of colonisation into the post-colonial era.

Mental slavery is the acceptance of inferiority based on race and colour on one hand and the acceptance of European superiority on the other. One of the planks on which colonial rule justified itself was the notion that Africans were inferior peoples and therefore must be exposed to what was called the civilising and Christianising mission.

In this process, everything African was considered debased, unacceptable and to be stamped out of African behaviour by law or other means. The fact is that this was a part of a deliberate process of African identity-removal which, if not corrected, would remain for generations.

Plantation practice endorsed the notion of black inferiority. The light-skinned offspring of planter abuse of enslaved females created a mixed population, some of whose positions demonstrated the social benefits of colour. Coloured enslaved people were given less arduous tasks and