Negril revisited

As a child, I visited Negril in Westmoreland, Jamaica many times with my parents, brother and cousins, as it has the most beautiful white sand beaches and cool, clear, warm water and on the west end, people were having fun jumping off various rocks into the clear blue waters. 

You see, where we lived in the neighboring parish of St. Elizabeth, had nothing comparable.

At that time, Negril was a little sleepy fishing village.

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Somehow in the 1960's, rich hippies from the nearby USA, heard about it and propelled by the thought of being able to freely enjoy some top quality ganja (marijuana) while lounging on the beach or jumping off 40 foot high cliffs into the clear water below, started to visit. 

The  Negril lighthouse

People from all over the world are still enjoying themselves, jumping off the high cliffs into the clear blue waters today.

Then they were accommodated in nothing but thatch huts, offered by extremely hospitable people.

  The existence of this new hot spot near the USA spread rapidly  and soon people from all over the world started to find their way to the exotic village. 

That was the genesis of tourism in this most prized section of Jamaica and today, almost all the land on the 7 mile section of the beach is lined with bars, hotels, restaurants while the cliff side is abuzz, offering everything including high end accommodation, non-stop music, partying and fun for people of all ages.

The late great Peter Tosh who also hailed from Westmoreland, strongly advocated for the legaling of marijuana and numerous paintings of him with his mantra " Legalize It" are prominent on the wall at Ricks Cafe.

I had not visited the cliff side for more than a decade and was really impressed with what it had become.

Ricks Cafe which established itself    

beside the jumping spot 50 years ago, has been expanding  exponentially too.

 That's the party center of the West end.

Boats bring visitors from the beaches to the cliff side to jump off the rocks.

They come from land and sea to party.

Negril is definitely now on top of its game and I loved the vibes.🥳

Evening time/Panfest

 It's almost the eve of the Tallawah Mento Band and the Jamaican Folk Review's  historic trip to Ghana to compete in Panafest 2025. 

The taste they gave attendees at the Lauderdale Performing Arts Center was more like a bellyful.

A bellyful of music, laughs, dance,  kumina and happinesses!

Panafest (the Pan African Festival of Arts and Culture), is a biennial event established in Ghana in 1992 to unite Africans in the diaspora and on the continent and celebrate their resilience and African identity. 

Colin Smith, founder of Tallawah Mento Band and a cultural icon in his own right, explains the concept.

Kumina time

The talented cast

Panafest was the brainchild of the late, great Pan Africanist play right/author,  Efua Sutherland.

It has become a landmark festival in Ghana that gives Africans an opportunity to learn from each other wherever they are .

 This years theme is "Ensuring the African Kinship: Our Essence, Our Well-being, Our Prosperity."

Significantly, this is the first time a folkloric Jamaican entry will be involved in this auspicious,  two weeks event. 

 It took the Louise Bennett Coverly Heritage Council to make it happen.

If the taste we in Florida got is anything to go by, our entry will make a huge impact on the minds of Africans at home and abroad. It traces our progress through music and dance, from emancipation to victory.

 The performance also highlighted the contribution of world renowned artists such as Peter Tosh. Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and the foot stomping energy of kumina music and dance, in uplifting the souls of the once downtrodden people. 

We look forward to our particants  returning home with many medals for this creative, entertaining and educational performance.

Although the crowd of attendees was enthusiastic and participated in song and dance, in my book the numbers fell short of expectation for this important fund-raising event, especially in Florida where so many Jamaicans reside.

Ps. Follow the link below for an excellent review of their performance in Ghana.

https://wiredja.com/index.php/categories/newsberg/culture/africa-the-jamaican-folk-revue-and-tallawah-mento-band-performs-at-cape-coast-castle-ghana-the-heritage-preserved

Home at last😊

 As I flew over Zambia, it was as if I had reached my beautiful home, Jamaica.

The place is absolutely sunny, green and lush and I actually got to see the wonderful Victoria falls from the air. 

It was even more amazing than I had ever thought for as far back as I can remember, I had always wanted to visit that place described as one of the wonders of the world. 

It’s in Livingstone, which is really flat as it’s in a valley. 

I didn’t get a pic from the air, but the pic in my mind is forever etched. 😊

Airlinks lunch boxes are so attractive 

We had left the hiccup in Johannesburg behind and had arrived via Airlink that lovely little South African airline which calls itself ‘domestic’ but it is clearly regional, as Zambia is definitely not part of South Africa!

I think the different feeling I got immediately about Zambia was because of the climate. 

Cape Town is absolutely beautiful but it tends to be bleakly. As I landed in Zambia a warmth embraced as  it must have been in the 80’s. 

Yup, my type of climate. 

Oh how I love my friend Wendy.❤️

She is a Jamaican who has made Zambia her home for the past 7 years but knows the entire region like the back of her hand. 

Without her, we would never have this wonderful adventure as she has directed us every step of the way, (except on how to get left at an airport).

Look at the Airbnb she recommended for us!

I can’t wait to get to Lusaka to see her and meet her family for I really haven’t seen her for about 20 years.

And Ian and Sue who own the lovely Airbnb have been super helpful,  from the past few weeks, long before we got here. 

Ian took us into Livingstone where we got some stuff, tried some local food and walked home.

Interestingly, on our walk home, we saw a lady and her school-age son, walking and eating these grape looking things.

 They offered us some and the young man even went and picked some more. We were warned that if they touch the outside of your mouth it itches.

 It did.

Coincidence was, she works right at the crocodile farm right beside our home.

Small world.

 I feel so at home here that ever since I arrived, the words to the signature song made by the late, great Peter Tosh aka stepping razor, have been swirling in my head.

Don't care where you come from
As long as you're a black man, you're an African
No mind your nationality
You have got the identity of an African. 

'Cause if you come from Clarendon (you are an African)
And if you come from Portland (you are an African)
And if you come from Westmoreland, you're an African

So don't care where you come from
As long as you're a black man, you're an African
No mind your nationality
You have got the identity of an African. 

Amén

I now know the difference between 3 g, 4 g and 5 g. 

With 3 g you can do almost nothing on the internet. With 4g It takes forever to upload pics so g although this blog is written on 24th March, I really don’t know when I can publish it 😡. 

They say you don’t miss something until you lose it. Well I really miss 5 .

Jottings

 As I sit in the airport waiting on flight to Livingstone, Zambia, I have been thinking about some things I learnt in Cape Town.

This beautiful building is a mere pizza place

This city is full of fabulously designed buildings built by backbreaking slave labor but because history is written by the victors, most of the Black people give the colonial/slave masters credit for them.

I got angry with a tour guide who kept thanking the British, so at a stop, had to pull him aside and read him the riot act.

His commentary changed after that but mental slavery will probably take centuries to be eliminated.😡

And did you know that when Rhodesia got independence and became Zimbabwe, whites born there could move to South Africa, be granted citizenship immediately and given access to all the privileges whites automatically get here?

I didn’t!

Even now, this country has so far to go. For example, no matter how rich a black person becomes, to get a child into what had been a private white school, they must go on a long waiting list while white children are immediately accepted. (Education is supposedly free up to high school but there are private schools which offer better facilities).

And although the white population has shrunk from 20% to 8%, they still control commerce. With unemployment among blacks at 18% the exploitation of workers is sickening as those who have a job must accept anything to hold on to it.

 Working and living conditions are still in the pits for blacks.

On a more pleasant topic, our Usain Bolt is so loved that a taxi service to compete with 

Uber was established using his name. While Uber is popular with tourists, Bolt is popular with locals.

And my personal favorite, the late great Peter Tosh was given special credit at the slave lodge, for his militant songs decrying oppression. 😊

I was a bit miffed when South African after South African kept telling me that Jamaica is in America though, until someone explained that it means we are in the Americas just like how the island of Mauritius which is in the Indian Ocean, is considered Africa.

A bit upset still but understand the complications of geography better😊.

I was quite surprised to see so many mixed race people, having read Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime.” 

As interracial sex was a crime, in public his mom had to pretend to be his nanny not to get arrested!

His Swiss father was never in any peril though,  I suppose because sexual exploitation of black women by white men was part of their perks under apartheid.

Many people are upset because the South Africa today supports Russia in the Ukraine affair. We must remember though that the USA ‘empowered apartheid‘. When  the UN called for sanctions against the apartheid regime in 1962, the US resisted until the late 80’s😡

Memories are not short!

On a lighter note; 

South Africa is the only country in Africa with nuclear power and I was intrigued to discover that you can buy your electric service at the corner shop where you buy bread. 

All you need is a pre-paid meter and the shop transfers power supply from its meter to yours. And it costs no more, as the shops are agents of the power company. 

Neat eeh?

To get to Zambia we took Airlink, one of the 3 South African owned domestic carriers. We had to fly through Johannesburg and would you believe that although it was only an hour and half we got breakfast?

The beautiful box in which breakfast was served on Air Link

We could fly for hours in the USA and even internationally to Jamaica and those darn airlines would not even give you a bottle of water!

My wandering thoughts😏

Freedom is not free!

 One of the main reasons for coming to Cape Town was to go to Roden Island. But it was not to be, as the sea was too rough.

I felt like crying, but strongly believe all things happen  for the greater good, so know all will be well tomorrow.

So we pushed things forward and took on the museums today.

It was wonderful and because  today is Human Rights Day, a public holiday, entry was free.

Now, I am by no means an expert on museums, but have been to a few in my short life, and this Iziko Slave Lodge is by far one of the best I have ever visited, in terms of information and displays.

I don’t know if it was deliberate but I never detected a pause between slavery and apartheid. 

For the struggle for freedom and human rights in South Africa never really ceased with abolition.

I was a bit disappointed to see that Winnie Mandela was written out of the history though.

 For yes, she found other lovers when Nelson was incarcerated. But she was human wasn’t she?

The fact is though, without her non-stop years of struggle, his name would not have remained on the front pages throughout history.

My view!

Anyway I was overwhelmed that my favorite Reggae artist, the late great Peter Tosh, ❤️was memorialized in the section outlining the important role music had played in the struggle .

This was in a room dedicated to the role of music in the struggle for freedom and throughout, South African Freedom songs are played non stop in the background. 

There is so much to talk about I just don’t know where to start!😊

Another thing , I had just recently learnt that since slaves had no identity, the names they were given in South Africa represented the month they were brought to these terrible shores.

Another room was dedicated to that era.

They also had a comprehensive map showing where the  slaves were brought from and the route they traveled to get here.

Then there was a room displaying the weapons the white people brought versus what the invaded people had at their disposal.

African weapons 

The white man’s arsenal.



Another thing I loved was how they tied in Egyptian history into Africa, for that’s where it belongs. 

However, some revisionists would have you believe Egypt is no where close to Africa.

It took me a total of 23 hours to get here, but this visit to the Iziko Slave Lodge and the Cape of Good Hope (so far) made it more than worth the effort. 

Kids perform outside Iziko Slave Lodge. 

Don’t believe me, just pay a visit and see if you agree.

MEMORIES 

The street outside