We have heard the maxim “the more things change, the more they remain the same”. I guess that is so because natures don’t change, and what appears as a thousand deaths has a thousand encores.

I recall reading back in the mid-1970s a book about the Maroons of Jamaica. I previously had only visions of heroism, bravery and resistance to slavery, but when seen through the lens of this additional history, there was betrayal, hypocrisy and the furtherance of slavery with their assistance.

Yes, once terror of the enslavers and slave owners, the Maroons became their accomplices and bounty hunters who captured and returned runaway slaves. It did not happen overnight; it took almost 60 years of struggle between the British, other colonial powers and the Maroons who possessed generals such as Cudjoe, Accompong and others. It all came to a subtle reversal of fates when the details of the peace treaty brokered by the British and the new deal took effect.

The new deal effectively gave the Maroons the right to be free and provided safety against them being returned to slavery. However, the condition for these once-runaways was the reciprocal arrangement that any future runaways would be returned by them to their masters. Eventually, the masters began to reward the Maroons with payments for capturing and returning future runaways to their owners.

One may say that particular narrative is now history, that it is over and no longer applies — but is it over? Does it now still exist?

When we look at the post-colonial, post-Revolutionary movements, including the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the resultant struggles involving today’s leaders stretching from Africa to the Caribbean, we see the same tendencies in operation. The leaders of governments and, in particular, unions who were the real tool of the movement are now free like the Maroons of yesterday, and they likewise have handed over the state, the economy, and its assets and control, to guarantee the people’s quiet.

So the investors can count on that quiet from the populace while their public assets are whittled away without protest. Isn’t that what we see all over the continent of Africa? Have we not seen that in the Caribbean? And don’t we see this happening in Bermuda?

Today the language is not Black or White, enslaved or master. The name of the game is power and influence. Who has power over resources and people, and how do we control those resources through people — all of which underpins who gets the product we call opportunity.

Opportunity is the key word in the marketplace. The question of who has a share in the marketplace defines the status of the society. It has been the subtext of Bermuda’s social struggle for the past half-century and more. How that equation is managed defines the leadership of any country that has undergone historical depravation for any subset of a community.