by Arley Salimbi Gill
Recent homicides in Grenada have left Grenadians at home and in the Diaspora asking questions about public safety.
They are asking: what is going on the island with our young people, the police, and this senseless gun violence? In just over a month, we have had multiple gun-related fatalities.
This gun violence must stop! And, it is my considered view that it will take a community effort to interrupt and cure this problem.
As a society we should be searching for answers. How did we get to this place? Did we unknowingly give up on our young people — even the young person whom we, as a community, consider a “bad boy?”
I am reminded of the South African Ubuntu principle and practice. Ubuntu means, “I am what I am because of what we all are.” When a member of a tribe violates tribal norms, the village comes together and reminds the individual of all the good they have done and all the good they can do in the future. The tribe does not condemn the individual, nor is the individual isolated from the rest of society.
Isolation and a lack of a sense of community contribute to fostering delinquent or deviant behaviour in the first place. Experts in the field of criminology have found that when a young person feels included in the community, there is a sense of accountability, whether it is to a parent or an elder, and they are less likely to engage in criminal activities. This means the stronger the social network that supports a young person, the more likely is the youth to engage in positive activities.
We need to ask ourselves then, are we — the adults — failing to make our young people feel included in our society? We castigate them for everything: the clothes they wear, the music they listen to, and the language they use. Are we part of the problem?
When I was growing up, we had folks in the village whom we knew were always watching us. If we stepped out of line, somebody would report us to the matriarch or patriarch of the family. Rarely were the police involved in village matters.
If any young person was getting out of hand, there was always a trusted elder, who would be summoned to give the teenage boy or girl, a good “talking to” or scolding. Many of us grew up hearing: “You better behave yuh self, ah go tell yuh people about you.”
Today, individualism seems to have overtaken the community culture. Everyone is on their smartphones — they are on social media building a community that is virtual rather than real. In the meantime, our real-life community is falling apart.
Crime is a symptom of something deeper, and gun violence could be a signal that our young people are losing hope in us. When life — our life — and the life of others no longer has value, we must look at what is happening in our broader society to trigger that mindset.
It is easy to dismiss the few young people involved in the gun culture as “bad apples” or make comparisons: “other kids doh behaving so” or “kids long time ago were not shooting up each other.” As we cast our aspersions and make comparisons, let us also remember, it was a different time, back then; we did not have social media. We did not have smart phones and we were not so self-indulged that we lost sight of what was happening right in front of us.
Our young people are a precious resource, and we need to find ways to protect them as much as we can from distractions; and, there are many distractions today — from social media to over-consumerism. Everyone is looking for the latest in everything.
We must become community-minded again.
This is the time for our sports clubs, cultural groups, NGOs and churchgoers to get out of the pews and get out into the villages and towns and connect with our young people — not only to become church members, but to do what the Good Book admonishes them to do: love their neighbours as they love themselves.
Our young people are our neighbours. We may disagree with their way of life but let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Condemn the sin, not the sinner. This problem of gun violence is a community problem — it is an “all of us” problem and it will take all of us to solve it.
Our young people need hope; hope in a future they can see from wherever they are — from the so-called “ghettos” to wherever young people, who are distracted or disaffected, find themselves.
They also need their basic needs met — they need food, clothing, shelter. They need good guidance and trusted support and encouragement. When those basic needs are not met by society — they will find alternative means to survive and may even become angry at the people who are supposed to be looking out for them. They look to gangs and gang leaders to fill the role we should be filling.
As Buju Banton reminds us: Circumstances made me what I am, I was born an innocent man.
If we are to stop the proliferation of gun violence here in Grenada, changing the social and economic circumstances for our most vulnerable young people is a good place to start.
Violence is a social and economic problem, and we need solutions that are smart, sensible and suited to our unique situation.
And before we get too caught up in the hysteria of the moment, I beg all of us — Grenadians at home and abroad, experts and wannabe crime experts alike — to be careful as we analyse the current situation: what we are dealing with here in Grenada is a slight spike in gun violence and homicides in the past few months — something we are not used to.
In the grand scheme of things, though, Grenada is still one of the safest places on earth! To keep it that way, we have to re-focus on our community and be our brother’s keeper!
Grenada, we got this!
Good morning Professor Gill,
This is an excellent approach to begin a more analytical and focused approach to understanding the problem of crime. As leaders, social scientists, politicians, and community activists, we must focus on putting structures in place to strengthen our communities.
Many thanks
Dr. Robert E. Millette,
Professor of Sociology