Independence Day is coming. It's early evening in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, and the slumbering hills that surround the city are covered in warm blankets of shadows. It has been a season of heat--the sugarcane crop is shriveling for lack of rain, the streets are dusty and dry, and tensions are simmering. Last month there were riots as citizens clashed with police. Last night, at a Montego Bay concert, there was gunfire, a stampede, injuries.
But Independence Day is coming, the 39th anniversary of Jamaica's emergence from the control of Britain. Outside club Asylum, one of the city's most popular...