No for Federation

In an election fueled by emotion and fought to singsong calypsos, the newborn West Indies Federation last week came apart at its most important seam. Given their first chance to vote on the question of federation, 251,935 Jamaicans voted no, 216,400 said yes. The decision was a bitter surprise both for Britain, which saw federation as the best way to cut its colonies loose, and for the political leaders of the islands,* who had spent years negotiating a delicate balance of power between populous (1,700,000) Jamaica and its small, faraway neighbors.

No one was more sharply caught than Jamaican Premier Norman Manley, 68, who had staked his reputation on federation. He underestimated the strength of his old foe, Sir Alexander Bustamante, leader of Jamaica's Labor Party, which sees federation as a hindrance rather than a help to Jamaican aspirations. At 78, Busta sometimes rambles a bit, dreamily reliving his days of street-level anticolonialism. But his bright young organizers quickly saw that Manley's more-stability, more-investment arguments aimed at the middle class produced less vote power than songs, rhythm and sheer noise aimed at the 93% of Jamaicans in the have-not category. A calypso called Freedom Story quickly caught on:

Freedom story was telling all about But nobody tell it to me; Is only Busta, is only Busta, Is only Busta tell it to me.

Above the waving arms and shuffling feet, Busta would call: "We will be ruled by ourselves, not by Trinidadians, Barbadians, Saint Kittsians or whatever!"

When the noes had it, the Colonial Office recalled Lord Hailes, federation Governor General, to London from a Scottish holiday to discuss salvaging the remaining chunks of the federation with Trinidad, as the kingpin. But at the same time, realistic Trinidadians began calculating the immense damage done by the cancellation of Jamaica's 43% contribution to the $9,000,000 federation budget.

* Trinidad-Tobago Barbados, the Leeward and Windward Islands and Jamaica.

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