Show Notes
On January 5, 1978, fourteen young men from Kingston's South Side were promised jobs as drivers and bodyguards, taken to the Green Bay firing range in St. Catherine, and fired on. Five died. The Jamaica Defence Force first said they were shot during a training exercise. A coroner's jury found a conspiracy to murder. Ten soldiers were charged, and all were acquitted by 1982. This episode tells what the record shows. Sources: the Jamaica Gleaner's 2024 retrospective, Jamaica Observer reporting, reference histories of the case and local archives. Allegations are attributed and outcomes are given by date.
More from The Griot | Stories Roots Legacy
What happened when an enslaved population organized resistance that became the only successful large-scale slave revolution and created an independent state? Sources: Haitian Declaration of Independence, 1804; French colonial correspondence in the Archives nationales d'outre-mer; C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins; Library of Congress, Haiti country studies; Digital Library of the Caribbean
Why did a protest over poverty, land and justice become a colonial crisis that ended with hundreds dead and a governor recalled? Sources: Jamaica Royal Commission Report, 1866; House of Commons Parliamentary Papers on Jamaica; George William Gordon trial records; National Library of Jamaica; The National Archives, Colonial Office records
What caused police to fire on Muslim Hosay processions, killing and wounding participants in one of Trinidad’s defining colonial confrontations? Sources: Trinidad colonial Blue Books; Colonial Office correspondence on the 1884 disturbances; Contemporary newspapers including the Trinidad Chronicle; National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago; Historical scholarship on Indo-Caribbean religious traditions
How did nationwide protests and military pressure end the Duvalier dynasty after nearly three decades of dictatorship? Sources: United States Department of State human-rights reports; Haitian constitutional documents; Library of Congress country studies; Amnesty International reports; Haitian newspaper archives
How did a 1782 naval battle off Guadeloupe determine the balance of imperial power in the Caribbean? Sources: British Admiralty records; National Archives of France; Royal Navy logs; Contemporary accounts by Samuel Hood and George Rodney; National Maritime Museum