Barack Obama: One of many great leaders to visit independent Jamaica
Barack Obama’s visit to Jamaica on April 8, 2015, solidified the fact that Jamaica is one of the ‘world’s smallest cultural superpowers’, according to Gleaner columnist Kevin O’Brien Chang.
“When Obama came (to Jamaica), where did he go? Bob Marley’s museum and you could see the happiness of him looking around, it touched him,” O'Brien Chang recalled.
The then leader of the free world admitted that his visit to the former residence of reggae icon Bob Marley was one of the more ‘fun meetings’ he'd had during his two-term presidency. Aubrey Stewart, who had the honour of introducing Obama during a town-hall meeting at the University of the West Indies, Mona, said it is the dominance of Jamaica as a nation that allowed a young man like himself, from an inner-city community, to be given the chance to meet the president of arguably the most powerful country in the world.
Obama was the second sitting President of the United States to visit the island. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan had also made a brief trip. In an address at the Norman Manley International Airport to then Prime Minister Edward Seaga and other government ministers on April 7, President Reagan said Jamaica is known in the United States not only for its beauty but for the courage of its people. He said: “Jamaica is an inspiration to all of us who believe economic development and freedom are compatible and, in practice, are mutually reinforcing. Freedom enhances the creativity of man.”
Other influential US leaders who have also visited the island include civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who could have been described as a regular visitor to the island. According to O'Brien Chang, he gained some creative inspiration while in Jamaica. “He wrote many of his books while he was in Jamaica,” he declared.
He said that after King's visit in 1965, he told his congregation: “The other day Mrs King and I spent about 10 days down in Jamaica. I always love to go to that great island which I consider to be the most beautiful in the world. We travelled all over Jamaica, and over and over again I was impressed by one thing. You have people from many different backgrounds, Chinese, Indians and so-called Negros, and you can go done the line. People from many nations; you know that they all live there in harmony and they have a motto in Jamaica 'Out of Many, One People.”
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