Mirror Mirror [Paperback]

This 1998 New Edition of Mirror Mirror is augmented by a New Introduction. In revisiting Mirror Mirror, Professor Nettleford presents a current perspective on the ever prevalent issues of Identity, Race and Protest in Jamaica. It is the hope of the publishers that this timely revisit preceding the New Millennium will compel Jamaicans of all hues to realise that social and racial cohesion is an absolute for national survival and development. Mirror Mirror demonstrates Mr. Nettleford's deep knowledge and understanding of issues which are currently galvanizing the attention of people in Third World countries beyond Jamaica's borders. These essays have been concerned mainly with problems of the Jamaican black majority and the uncertainties and contradictions of their role in what is supposed to be their country. The sixties, goes the argument, was marked by the threatening trinity of identity, race and attention to the threat - whether through the piecemeal social engineering of a government in power, economic nationalism of a party in opposition, cultural rediscovery and definition by sensitive intellectuals and artists, or through the cleansing purge of instant revolutionary action as some of the arduous young would have it. -Nettleford- In five beautifully written essays on specific topics, [Rex Nettleford] succeeds in presenting to the outsider, a picture of his society, of people in it, of their motivations and of the conflicts between them . Times Literary Supplement. London 1971 ______________________ Rex Nettleford's book Mirror Mirror-Identity, Race and Protest written way back in 1970 is still the most important and accurate commentary on the ambivalence and complexity that surround black ethnic identity in Jamaica and should be read by all those black-conscious persons who are inclined to confuse rhetoric with social reality . Carl Stone, Daily GleanerlÓÌ