Garvey Museum at last?

Am I dreaming or are we finally going to get a Garvey Museum at his birthplace in St. Ann?

My reason for hope is coming from an article I read in the Gleaner of 22^nd December 2022, entitled “Sisters receive houses to make way for Garvey’s museum”.

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.

For years after that, I kept asking on Facebook what happened to the promised Museum (last post May 2020!) but could get no progress report. Then I was informed that the project was delayed because of financial wrangling with the current residents.

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.

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?

 

Jamaica, a gem

I remember how surprised I was some years ago, listening to someone from Grace Kennedy Ltd. a radio interview saying there were kids in Rae Town, which is near their Harbor Street headquarters, who had never been above Cross Roads in Kingston.

He was speaking about one of Grace’s outreach programs which involves after school activities in the nearby inner cities, where many kids were extremely marginalized. His tale about Cross Roads, arose as he was speaking about a discovery he made when  they took some kids from the area to Hope Gardens.

That eye opener came back to me today as I was speaking to a fellow Jamaican who I met in Ft. Lauderdale Florida.

She was in her early seventies’ and had migrated from Jamaica about forty years ago, after having her children.

The usual conversation between Jamaicans who meet overseas, always comes around to what part of Jamaica we each hail from.

 She told me she was from Kingston, Vineyard Town to be exact. What shocked me though was when she admitted that she had never visited any of Jamaica’s twelve other parishes!

Wow, I wonder if it is because I was from the country, St. Elizabeth, to be precise , why I assumed there was no Jamaican who had never been to another parish?           For I am positive that Just about every country person must have visited the capital, Kingston, if for no other reason, to conduct business. For all major departments are located there and very few have country branches. So, to get anything done, you have to travel to Kingston via other parishes, even if you don’t stop!                               Or maybe it is that I am unusually faas so must always know as much as possible about any place I am!😅

When I enquired how come she had never traveled to another parish she said her entire family was in Kingston, so she had no reason to go elsewhere.

Makes sense I guess, but it left me wondering how many thousands of my fellow Jamaicans had a similar story.

I used to look down on some Americans as being parochial and backwards when I heard they had never been outside their state. But America is huge by comparison so I guess that’s comparing apples and oranges.

That’s the point though, for with Jamaica is so small, it’s hard to comprehend what restricts adults from moving around our tiny, beautiful island which some people ride around and even walk around without much stress!

If its even for school outings.

When I was at school, we often traveled by bus to other places to participate in sports or to cheer on our teams.

Lots of schools had outings. I remember running into about 50 kids at Green Grotto Caves in Discovery Bay. They told me they were from a primary school in Kingston and were on a school outing.

Paul Bogle's museum in Stony Gut, abandoned!

I really think such think school outings should be as much a part of school activities as math and English. How it would foster pride in our country with its unique natural beauty among other things, if we all new about this little paradise of ours.

Many decades ago, when I went to school, Civics was also part of the curriculum. Every child knew something about the structure of the country, its government etc. Now it seems such general knowledge is mainly restricted to those who are being prepared for things like School Challenge Quiz.

What a shame. There is so much more to our country than crime and violence.

If the Ministry of Education made provisions for school outings, I am sure important institutions  like the White Marl Museum in St. Catherine and Paul Bogle’s Memorial at Stony Gut would not be closed down because of lack of visitors.

Maybe I am being simplistic but I am positive that if we knew more about our gem known as Jamaica, we would   cherish it more and not allow politicians not make such a mess of it!

Would we?

Reggae Falls and Barren Monuments

No matter how many times we ride to Reggae Falls,  I can never be tired or disappointed with the outing, for it just get better each time.

This Easter Sunday was my fifth trip to those scenic cascading  falls and the ride seemed so easy this time I had to wonder if  had really come off my bicycle and pushed over the first hill outside of Seaforth town, the first couple of times we rode there.

Despite the obvious drought as reflected in the  brown hills  towering over Hillside Valley, in the valley itself, it was quite lush and I guess because I was not over stressed on this ride, I noticed the huge Serge Island Milk factory just above the falls, for the first time.

What made this ride especially pleasant was the fact that it drizzled  during the entire journey from we passed the turn off to Stony Gut, so we had no blaring sun to deal with at all.

However, once we got tot he falls the sun kept appearing intermittently, allowing us to frolic in the cool water without any discomfort.

Shawn and I entered the Johnson river from a different path this time for when we went to the usual entrance we saw that some kind of sand mining must have been taking place as sand was piled u all over the place. So we followed the dirt path which headed west and entered the river much higher up. That's definitely a better entrance anyway as you have far less river to wade through.

The Stella Maris posse

This trip was not just the usual crowd from Fun and thrills, but also the Chuck's who along with Charles Simpson provided the delicious meal of curried goat, barbecue chicken and franks with an assortment of salads including delicious breadfruit salad, brought guests from  Stella Maris, mostly the members of their famous steel band Stewart brought along a couple of yoga instructors and Charlene had her group of photographers.

The "washer people" of Reggae Falls 

The scene of the day was a demonstration in effective clothes washing in the river by Charles the 1st, Fatman and Rose.....and the winner was Fatman.

It was  a cool gathering and as the white rum and vodka flowed, the comedy hour began with each contributing their favourite jokes. I agree with Barry that the Logic joke is unbeatable.

Of course there  had to be dominoes and after boy scouting graduate Chuck set up a canvas covering, the table and dominoes came out. Unfortunately, although many of us have folding chairs, we forgot to bring them, so it was stand up and play.

Anyway I got my usual quota of 6 love (just one this time!) and even took on some local fellows who thought we looked like a walkover.

Chuck the scout

Chuck ordered some east indian mangoes and a lady brought 2 dozen, red juicy ones which we grabbed up at $100 each. Fatman dsved into one of the juiciest looking ones immediately and when he reached halfway, he saw two fat worms begging for mercy. He tried another, same picture.

 I took mine home and relaxed to enjoy them, same problem just different worms. I therefore decided to eat the other one after dark!

It was a great day all  round  of fun, antics, liquor and great food but as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Only Mark and Shawn rode back from the river while Chully, Charles and Chuck jumped on their bikes at different sections after clearing the hill leading from Hillside valley.

Each time we head to Reggae falls, I have wondered what the monument to honour Paul Bogle at Stony Gut looks like, as we always see the sign pointing the way. So I convinced Chris (the driver) to detour from following  two cyclists to take a look at it. It is about 5 miles from the main road and the road going there is

The bare monument dedicated to National hero Paul Bogle

extremely well paved and you get a beautiful view of the seashore in the eastern section as you ascend.

 The monument itself is quite attractive, however there are no signs or any type of information  once you arrive there and the place looks bare and desolate. The only sign we saw was a "no trespassing" one and it is covered with weeds, typical of how we treat important monuments in this our fair land.

 Anyway, while I am sure the courageous members of the A team who took on a  two day cross the island ride are nice and sore from riding by now, I am certainly well refreshed after a wonderful day with like minded fun lovers who made the far more pleasant  trek to one of the most beautiful places in the island, Reggae Falls in the Johnson River.

REGGAE FALLS, ST. THOMAS, JAMAICA

On Easter Monday, 13th April 2009, "Fun and Thrills" organised a family fun day at Reggae Falls (called Dam Head by the local folk) in St. Thomas in the form of a not too difficult ride and picnic. As usual, we planned to leave at 6.30 am and as usual, everyone except Donna, Andrew and Joan were late. 

Anyway, that's the way we run tings in Ja! However we were all on top of the world as we set out to have a wonderful ride and picnic by the river. We drove for about an hour to the outskirts of Morant Bay where we started the nine mile ride through Seaforth and near the famous Stony Gut to Reggae Falls.

Young Blair Henry was a new recruit, but she rode a good 5 miles before the sun did her in. The veteran Tashna took a spill while riding through a dry river bed just as we passed the district of Hillside and although adequately attended to by nurse Betty, packed it in. It was a wonderfully scenic ride as the view of the valley is absolutely breathtaking as are the mountains surrounding Reggae Falls. 

Unfortunately we have been having a prolonged drought island wide so the surrounding hills were not as green as I remembered them, neither were the falls as robust as when the river is really roaring, but the water was invigorating. 

Reggae Falls, is not a natural water fall but in fact the water from the Johnson River was dammed many many years ago to make a hydro electric station. No one can tell me why it was abandoned, but I did learn that in the 1980's there was talk of resuscitating the power generating system but for some reason it did not happen (I guess oil price was too low!). 

However these scenic and magnificent falls and rapidly flowing river now provide another excellent place for us God blessed Jamaicans to hang out and have a wonderful time. Yes we did and unlike last year when we had to abort the picnic because Chadwick, (a neighbour of mine) dived off a rock and broke his jawbone, this time it was accident free and wonderful. See the pictures at; http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102612&id=763366822&saved