(The following is part of a media release to the Jamaican public by authors Bertram ‘Ras Mandito’ Johnson & Dr. Christina Sinclair, highlighting the publication some three years ago of their book ‘The Testament of Rastafari…Unlocking the KJV’)

THE story has been told of the ‘Willie Lynch speech’ made famous by a slavery plantation owner named William Lynch, who operated in the British West Indies. He was said to have been the expert slave master who gave the formula for having slaves controlling themselves for the master for at least 300 years!

In the West Indies, there was always a sizable proportion of mulattoes among the slave population, these being the planter-and-slave offspring which had resulted mainly from the white man’s love for raping slave women and young girls. To a much lesser extent, some children also manifested from sexual relations between male slaves and a few of the white women and girls who resided on, or visited the plantations.

‘Willie’ Lynch was quick to point out to his fellow slave masters, that the inordinate punishment of slaves for the numerously contrived infractions on the plantation was counter-productive. His formula was simply to apply estate privileges in accordance with the different colour shades of the slaves, graduating upwards in importance from black, through the browns, and up to the whitest-looking slave; who may probably be trained and appointed to a post like ‘bookkeeper’.

Other prestigious positions like cook, house slave, slave driver, gardener and/or “Massa’s” personal assistant, became the focus of great competition and treachery among the slaves, each seeking to make a bad report to “Massa” about the person who is perceived to be in the position to which he/she would like to be promoted. This ‘Willie Lynch Syndrome’ or ‘Crabs-in-a-barrel mentality’ has been identified by our scholars to be still fundamentally influencing relationships between the descendants of the slaves, and being mainly responsible for the proliferation, real or imaginary, for what Jamaicans today refer to as “bad-mind”.

There seem to be crabs of all sizes in the barrel, and the greatest intent of everyone is to not allow anyone to get out ahead. They prefer instead, to keep on dragging back each other down, hitting off and losing hands, legs, fangs, etc. in the process; never pausing to realise that they can unite their efforts to easily and quickly get everyone out of the barrel. It is such a great shame today, my brothers and sisters, to feel compelled to admit that Mr. William Lynch might have been entirely correct in his prediction. (gnnliberia.com)