Am I dreaming or are we finally going to get a Garvey Museum at his birthplace in St. Ann?
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According to the report, “Sisters Jacinth and Carla Johnson were overcome with emotion when they received the keys to their new houses in Seville Heights, St Ann, from Prime Minister Andrew Holness, just in time for Christmas.”
These sisters had occupied the house in which Garvey was born, for years.
It was a squabble about relocating them which had been given as the excuse by succesive governments for years, as the reason why the museum could not be built there.
Many years ago, I had visited the location in the middle of St. Ann, where Garvey was born and the sign demarking te property is extremely visible at the bottom of the steps of this humble home.
Well apparently, this has been now rectified which paves
the way for the construction of the museum to honor of our first national hero.
While in Jamaica, there are normally years if not decades between when announcements are made and action taken, I hope this will not be the case in giving Garvey the honor he deserves by making his boyhood home a museum where we can all go and be reminded of his struggles and gifts to the world.
For as the prime minister said at the handing
over ceremony, “….Marcus Garvey’s philosophy, work and fight for equality
helped pave the way for the liberation of an entire race worldwide, and in that
regard his legacy deserved to be monumentalized.
He emphasized; “In any other country, a figure like
Marcus Garvey, whose work, philosophy and leadership contributed significantly
to the liberation of an entire race of people, his boyhood home would be a
Mecca, a place where people from all over the world, particularly people of
African descent, would come to see where it is that he drank water, mixed with
the people, had the culture infused, and the life experiences from which he was
able to generate with great eloquence and clarity of thought.”
My problem is though that we Jamaicans do not have much of a tradition of embracing the important symbols of our heroes.
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| Bogle's monument at Stony Gut is rundown and virtually abandoned |
Take for example, the monument to National Hero Paul Bogle, in St. Thomas.
Bogle was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay
protesters, who marched for justice and fair treatment for all the people
in Jamaica. After leading the Morant Bay rebellion, he was captured, tried
and convicted by the colonial government (who had declared martial law), and
hanged on 24 October 1865 in the Morant Bay court house.
But you would never know it if you visited
his monument in Stony Gut or anywhere in St. Thomas.
Joan, my views: Reggae Falls and Barren Monuments
(joan-myviews.blogspot.com)
Even the home of the late, National Hero Norman which
was extensively and expensively refurbished, remains a virtually
empty and rarely visited monument in Manchester.
Yes, we pay lip service to our heroes and even spend
money making memorials, but what publicity is given regularly to encourage our citizens
to visit these places and appreciate our history?
None in my book.
Not even the age-old custom of introducing kids to these historically significant sites by organizing
school trips, seems to be done anymore.😡
Let’s hope that if and when the museum in St.
Ann’s Bay is constructed, it will not be similarly ignored, for you could
hardly ask for a more central location than this could you?
