Michael Manley, a great Jamaican, a Jamaica College Old Boy. Following is an interview held with Michael Manley by The Yearbook Team of 1988 -1989. This page is a tribute to The Rt. Hon. Michael Manley.

Mr. Manley, during what years did you attend J.C.?
1935-1943 - almost in another century! (chuckles)

Who was your Principal then?

The name was ... for the first 8 of those years ... Reginald Murray, a very, very great Jamaican Educator; and then in the last couple months there was a man called Mr. John Hardy, son of the then Bishop of Jamaica--an English Gentleman from Cambridge. Murray was Jamaican.

What were the uniforms like then?

I hope I'm getting this right ,,, I think you wore short pants up to 3^rd form and then you wore long pants in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th Forms. We had a Sunday outfit which was grey slacks, white shirt, the J.C. tie and a blue blazer with an emblem on the pocket.

Interviewer - the griffin?

Yes the griffin. Right, the griffin. (chuckles)

Were you a boarder at JC?

Yes, I was a boarder from … I was a day boy the first year when I was 10, in 2B, and then I became a boarder the second year, when I was 11, and in 2A.

Did you enjoy being a boarder?

Not at first. Not at first.

What were your experiences?

When I was first a boarder at JC as has happened from time to time throughout the history, there were very serious problems of bullying the small boys - very serious problems, and I was one of the victims, and I did not enjoy being bullied at all.

What was usually the best part of the school year for you?

I think everybody used to get tremendously involved in Champs and the Manning Cup. Not many people watched Sunlight (cricket). It is probably still the case, and why … I couldn't say. I enjoyed Summer Term that much because you know I was a swimmer so that was my effort, and that meant a lot of training. I wouldn't say I enjoyed that so much! The school life .. there was a big thing about Champs, a big thing about Manning Cup … occasionally the Olivia Shield, if we got that far! (chuckles)

What were your main interest in terms of sports and academics?

My main interest in sports was … Well mainly I was interested in sport, but I swam and that was therefore my sporting activity. I used to enjoy table tennis too; but from very early I had a sort of very wide interest in all sorts of sports as a spectator. My academic interests were primarily English Literature and History. Those are the two things I think I did fairly well in, because I liked them so much.

We had a very interesting history teacher whose name was E.H.J. King who was … had been a supporter of the British Labour Party and had a lot of political interest which he didn't bring into his teaching at all. But he was the first person who made me understand history was related to the economic dynamics of societies and how they evolved, who made us understand political structures as the response to the underlying dynamics of economic development. I'm not sure I could have put it like that at the time (chuckle); but I'm expressing in retrospect what I really understood then. And so he took history out of this sort of very formal question of who was King from when to when, and who was Prime Minister from when to when, and what laws did they pass, etc.; and he made History come alive as the dynamics of social development and it was an interest that had a profound effect on all the rest of my life.

Are there any memorable moments that you remember during your school life?

The first time we won the Simpson Shield was a great moment.

Interruption … What does the Simpson Shield represent?

Swimming - swimming. We had always come last before … and then we got a very fine coach, from St. George's, actually a St. George's teacher named Chaplin. He was a great swimming coach, and in the year he turned a group who tied for first place when I was acting captain. Simply because the captain, Dennis Hall, developed appendicitis, I took over as Captain; and the next year I was, I suppose, the pinnacle of my entire life when I was Captain of the swimming team that beat all other schools combined in points, broke the record in every relay race, won every relay race and set about six other records in one day. It was in its time one of the greatest swimming team of that period … so that was a very proud moment.

What were the initiation rituals for new boys?

I don't think there was a formal initiation process. What I do remember was that when you become a boarder you were soon caught up in … (he laughs). Boy, I tell you, you see .. I think that my proudest achievement really, and the one I remember I had the greatest satisfaction from was related to the fact that when I reached a certain point and was just tired of being bullied I embarked upon a course in the gym to make myself strong enough to deal with the problem, and that coincided with being made a prefect. I set myself the task to stop bullying while I was there, and I smashed it totally and absolutely … and that was my proudest achievement.

Was there a mango-eating competition at JC?

There is no kind of food that wasn't a subject of competition! You had to have the rice and peas competition, which I always won (chuckles). There was the mango eating competition which I wasn't good at, but I tell you the one I won regularly - the ice cream eating competition. In the tuck shop you used to get these little cartons, and in those days you bought them for a three-pence - these three pennies which would be 2 cents, or something like that now; but the question was how many … You had to eat a full meal with a full dish of rice and peas, roast pork and everything, plus yam and stuff; and on that foundation you then went to the tuck shop, and there was collective financing since nobody could afford all that ice cream. We used to sit down and see how much ice cream you could eat on top of that (the large meal). I'm proud to say I was never beaten!

This was a universal competition open to everybody (laughs).

What extracurricular activities were the boys of your days involved in apart from sports?

It was really terrible. Just none - apart from jumping the fence, and seeing a movie at the Carib, or slipping over the fence to get mangoes or stuff like that. Some, I gather would jump the fence to go and visit their girlfriends, so I'm told. I never engaged in that. A lot of what you experience now, such as Schools' Challenge Quiz, and things you do externally … One of the great weakness of education up to that time was that it was almost devoid of that kind of thing. Just nothing happened, except your track, swimming, rifle shooting, football, etc. Even inside school, which had a great spirit actually -- Jamaica College in those days - tremendous. I mean if you were a JC boy you knew that you were in the best institution in Jamaica, as I'm sure you do too.

But it had great prestige, great esprit de corps, but in fact very little activity outside of sports and academic pursuits - a great weakness of education at that time. I can remember Sundays were just a long boring thing until 4 o'clock when you were allowed to take a walk up to hope gardens and back and that was it. Luckily, I had a great friend David Coore. We were very interested in Literature, Philosophy, Politics, all sorts of things and we used to create our own intellectual life. I remember they had a berry tree opposite the main building, and David and myself, after breakfast, on Sunday, would start our discussion here (at the berry tree) and we'd walk up and down to the bottom gate till lunch time talking, debating, discussing, testing each other's mind. If we didn't happen to have the mutual stimulus to be interested in that it would have never happened. There wasn't a framework of challenging things other than academics and sports. It was a great weakness.

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