HEARTICALLY YOURS

Jamaica irie. Despite the daily loss of life to violent crime and the current silly season signaling the closeness of the next general election, it is still a beautiful and powerful place. It is the only place where I’ve been called Sister by an Immigration Officer, strengthening the familial bond that is felt so strongly there, the African family ties. Inconvenient as it may be to have to leave home on Saturday for business on Monday, having an extra night in one of my favourite Caribbean houses is always adequate compensation. As I have traveled over the years I’ve created my own personal labels of the places I’ve visited and Jamaica is definitely my Land of Drama. There is always some drama taking place, whether between two people on the street or at “higher” levels. The news is reporting a meeting of the two when an allegedly mentally ill person somehow got on a campaign platform and slapped the Hon. K. D. Knight in the face. The television reports cut out the actual slap.

Not that I have any affinity whatsoever with Christopher “Come-bus-us” but having enjoyed last weekend’s visit to St. Lucia more than any of the times I have visited previously, I am still reflecting on my feelings of discovery. Once again I find myself wondering if Caribbean tourism truly values and incorporates the culture that makes each of our islands so very special. I cannot count the number of times I have visited beautiful St. Lucia and stayed in various hotels. Perhaps two years ago, I shared with you my experience of a night in St. Lucia that to this day remains one of the most intellectually stimulating nights I have ever had but this visit was a discovery, a discovery of Africa in St. Lucia manifested in the family and community experience that characterized my visit. For the first time I stayed with a family, a Rastafari family in the village of Goodlands. The setting included two houses and a soon to be finished third, comprising the household of a large, extended family, not dissimilar to the home in which I grew up. Movement between the two houses was quite fluid - children and adults moved easily between the two, pets moved and so did food - delicious food, grown on the family’s farm located elsewhere - food in which I could taste the vitamins - food that included my favourite fruit, the most juicy pineapples. Everyone kept an eye and ear out for the small children. The outdoor furniture in the spacious yard shaded by mango trees seemed to be the yard to which the community’s teenagers gravitated. I was amused to hear my Sistren fussing about a nephew whom she could not get to go home to his mother. Every day she tried to send him home but every morning he could be found leaving her house to go home to get ready for school. She laughed when I asked her when she was going to accept the fact that he lived with her. The whole thing reminded me so much of that son to whom I did not give birth but who decided years ago that my home would be his. He won. I was therefore quite at home and I am truly thankful for the warm hospitality provided. I will always remember the good people of Goodlands.

The stories of the Revolution may never be told in their entirety but today Heartically Yours (HY) is pleased to tell the story of Mrs. Ursula T. Webster who, in 1967 was the wife of Ronald Webster and mother of his three small children. To every extent possible, the story will be told in her own words.

There was a time in my life when I denied vehemently that tourism was my business. Every time I saw or heard the marketing slogan, Tourism is Everybody’s Business, my ready retort would be, “Not Mine. I still think there are two Anguilla’s – one is the world created for tourists and it’s mainly in the west. The other comprises all the rest of us but the truth is that is impossible to live on an island like Anguilla and not be confronted with that mainstay of Anguilla’s economy, whether in all its glory or all its shame. I am writing this after a fortnight of reflection on the well-organised, highly stimulating CMEx X in Puerto Rico and immediately after listening to Dr. Aidan Harrigan deliver the 7th Walter G. Hodge memorial lecture on “Fruits of the Anguilla Revolution: Economic Growth and Transformation 1967 to the Present. It was a well-researched presentation which created somewhat of an alarming realization of overdevelopment and a movement away from the current policy of low volume, high yield tourism. Not because there was any consensus to change course but simply because of the real estate/tourism “gold rush” as Marcel Fahie described it from the floor and the challenges faced by government to envision the aggregate impact of the individual development projects already in the pipeline and to say no. Much as it might be difficult to say no to investors who come wielding the clout of their promised contributions to Anguilla’s development, it must be ten times harder to say no to Anguillians – political suicide in fact.

She was one of those women who didn’t mind telling people her age because she was proud of it. She was a woman of means and she enjoyed the benefits of her sacrifice over the years yet all the material trappings she had acquired could not erase the scars of abuse she had endured along the way. But today was her day. Her party was planned down to the last detail and the most difficult decision that had confronted her in the planning was whether to fill her bath tub with champagne or liquid chocolate. It was the one wild and crazy thing she had ever done in her life and who could stop her. Today was her birthday and she could celebrate it every way she wanted. She had worked hard and had neither forgotten to play or pray along the way and she deserved her moment of pure pleasure. There was only one problem – well three if you added her mother and her children.

Anguillians turned out in their numbers to welcome the visiting Kalinago Carib Gli Gli group which arrived on the island on Monday. Since half the island was there (including Hodge and Petty of The Anguillian), and the other half heard the live coverage on Kool FM and on Heartbeat Radio, I won’t say anything more about that. What I will share is the joy and privilege felt on Tuesday 22nd when approximately one hundred and fifty students and teachers from Anguilla’s schools descended on Triple Crown Culture Yard and the Athlyi Rogers Study Centre in The Valley to interact with the visiting group and its support crew. It was a most interesting exercise and one which petered out without the promised performance simply because the students were so engrossed in trying their hands at drumming, basket weaving, calabash carving and cassava bread-making. I hope the teachers present will be kind enough to share with me any feedback from the students who attended and I will be sure to pass that feedback on to the organisers as well as to the Gli Gli team. At this point I have to say how absolutely proud I was of the exemplary behaviour of the large student group. Unfortunately, the single instance of rudeness that was brought to my attention came from one of the Stingray students so back to the drawing board to work a bit more on helping them to practice responses that are appropriate and respectful. I truly thank the Anguilla National Trust, the Youth and Culture Department and the Education Department for making it possible for us to host the event on Tuesday.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 22nd May 2007, Triple Crown Culture Yard in The Valley will be the proud host of a team of 14 Caribs who will be arriving in Anguilla by canoe early next week. The Gli Gli is a 35ft. dugout canoe named after a small hawk that I believe is the same bird known by Anguillians as Killy Killy. This article is encouraging all Anguillians to warmly welcome the group with appreciation of their visit and the sharing of their culture as an opportunity for learning, not only for children being taught about them from a Eurocentric perspective in our schools but also for the rest of us. So maligned has been the reputation of these so-called “fierce and warlike” people that as we look forward to the arrival of these original inhabitants, the image of something exotic may be conjured up. The truth is that there is hardly likely to be a Dominican in Anguilla today that can claim to have no Carib blood. Those of us who may have visited the Carib Territory in Dominica expecting a bare breast here and a grass skirt there may have been disappointed but would have come away with a fine craft product made from materials grown in Dominica using craft skills handed down by generations of these First Nation people of this region. These are the people who gave the English language words like canoe, hurricane, cassava, barbeque, maize and papaya. Having grown up in St. Kitts, with tales of Bloody River which flowed blood for three days after the slaughter of Caribs by British and French forces, the image of the Carib rock drawings still make me think of the West African Anansi and I am therefore still keenly interested in any information on relations between the Caribs and the Africans who came before Columbus.

One of the significant dates on the PanAfrican calendar is African Liberation Day which is celebrated annual by African-conscious May 25th. It was on that date in 1963 when the leaders of thirty-two independent African States convened in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to form the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The African leaders of the day focused on the anti-colonial struggle for only about two thirds of the countries comprising the African continent had progressed to independence. African Liberation Day served to provide a platform for oppressed African peoples all over the world and even more that the Organisation of African Unity inspired the freedom fighters in African Liberation struggles on the continent and thereby contributed to the demise of the South Africa’s apartheid system. Though the day does not seem to have been afforded much significance in Anguilla, I have always found it interesting that the highpoint of the Anguilla revolution took place around that same time. In the minds of many older West Africans, say Anguilla and the memory of Biafra comes alive. As is the case with most other African-centred observances, it is the Rastafari communities in several of the other Caribbean countries and territories that kept the spirit of African Liberation alive by spearheading the activities to commemorate African Liberation Day.

It is not possible to escape family and all that goes with the different relatives and relations bound up in what is supposed to be the foundation of community, society and nation. This week I was privileged to enjoy the company of two of my favourite cousins and a third young woman who is cousin to both of them on both my mother’s and father’s sides that she must be my cousin also, though none of us knew the family tree well enough to trace it. You should have heard the cousin visiting from the USA rattling off those relationships with the third young woman in typical Anguilla style. “Your great grandfather on your mother’s side and my father’s mother were brother and sister. But you know she was the outside child.” I knew this cousin’s name way before we ever met and I have this early childhood memory of our family, then resident in Nevis, receiving a barrel from America and later showing off what I believe were the first hoola hoops on the island. That was the early sixties, when the hoola hoop made its debut and quickly became the most popular of the modern toys or games of the day. I never mastered the hoola hoop like those who could start with the hoop around the little finger, work it up around the neck then down again to the foot and so on. However, I never forgot the names of those cousins who put us a step ahead of our little peers with our hoola hoops. It is the girl from that family who is a very beautiful sister today and whose name changed when she converted to Islam many years ago. When we sat to share a meal last evening, I invited her to say grace because though I have many Muslim friends, I could not recall ever having Allah bless my table. We held hands as three sisters and shared a wonderful prayer. Think what you may, I got my blessings.

Some time last year, I read with interest a letter to the Editor from a lady who complained about too much Rastafari in this column. While I was sorry that the good reader felt that way, I did not reply because so many of you from all walks of life regularly and consistently take time out to tell me how much you look forward to the weekly reading of HY. My passive response was therefore a passing thought about the impossibility of pleasing everyone and the importance of documenting the historical and current experiences of these people who give the gift of Rastafari culture to the world. I do not see other material about Rastafari written anywhere else in Anguilla and we are very much alive, well and making our contribution. As others document what is important to them, I document what is important to I and I and not only to Rastafarians but also to others interested in Pan-African perspectives. This week a young, shy-looking school girl made my day when I picked her up to give her a ride to school. During our short conversation, she made an observation of unusual depth and when I complimented her, she told me that in her heart she is a Rastafarian and that by her regular reading of this column she is learning more about the history and culture of “The Earth Most Strangest Man”. She also encouraged me to proceed with the monthly community lectures and reasonings on Rastafari indicating that they would be helpful to young people sighting FarI and also to their parents. It is with humility that I give thanks for that brief encounter with my student which served to reinforce my commitment of service to youth. Unlike that student, those who cannot yet appreciate the value of self-knowledge will continue to be victims of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome and the principle of self-determination which Anguillians hold so dear may mean nothing more than a tenacious cling to the status quo of plantation about which there seems to be national denial. The Rastafari Nation will not buy into this denial and will continue to resist the status quo by knowing, telling and documenting not only His-story but Her-story and I and I story of creation, persecution and redemption.

I’ve finally got used to the idea that even when there is no response to announcements inviting registration for any activity, I should continue to expect and prepare for participants who will show up on opening day. So it was with the recently concluded Stingray Easter Vacation Drumming Workshop. The workshop was scaled down and pushed back after the Dominican drummer called to say that he was taking advantage of the opportunity to go to Cuba to have eye cataracts removed at no expense to him. Disappointed as we were, we appreciated and accepted the fact that it was an offer he could not refuse and one that Stingray could not make. We therefore decided to again postpone the drum making aspect of the workshop and the more we think about it, the clearer it is becoming that one day drums will be made by participants but that more immediately we will need to purchase some drums. The remaining options were to introduce the children and young people to the use of the drum kit or trap set and to the basic Nyahbinghi drums and rhythms. The decision had been made but I still could not answer sensibly when the tutors wanted to know how many children were expected. All I could do was hope that more would show up than the four children whose parents had called to confirm.

In recent weeks there has been a higher level of interest shown in the Anguilla Stingray Music Programme than usual and I have noticed various media reports that have referred to the programme as a guitar class or in one instance a guitar project.

It was the new expanded Dunespace that the capacity crowd at Moonsplash 2007 refused to leave till Bankie Banx begged them to near four a.m. Palm Sunday morning.

People often ask me why the Rastafari woman is referred to by titles of royalty such as Queen and Empress. One reason is the reclamation of an African heritage replete with Kings and Queens, Chiefs and other leaders whose great achievements are legendary and who created civilizations from which all humanity has learnt and benefited.

It’s that time of year again when I make an annual pilgrimage to join mostly members of the Empress of Zion collective of Rastafari sisters to celebrate the Earthstrong of Empress Menen. This year the gathering takes place in Jamaica and the theme, “Healing, Reconciliation and Rejoicing is most fitting”. Bruk pocket being the norm, one of the leading sisters secured a buddy pass on Delta airlines to afford me a very unusual route to Jamaica via St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and Atlanta. The flight was fine but an encounter with Homeland Security on St. Thomas’ Cyril E. King’s airport was no joke. I spent the night with one of my favourite cousins and for several reasons ended up a bit late for check in. The security line was so long that as she parked the car, I went through, thinking that she would realise that I could not wait to say goodbye. Somehow she used her clout to get into the area where the larger bags would be inspected before passengers joined the line for the security checks on hand luggage and on the person. We hugged each other across the barrier for the queue and I thanked her for her hospitality. She muttered something in my ear, which I thought was the customary “you’re welcome.”

Only the Anguilla Public Library seems to be commemorating the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade by Britain so today I am sharing email from Ras Siphiwe Nathaniel Ka Baleka also known as Nathaniel Blake of the Rastafari Global Government’s Issembly for Rastafari Iniversal Education (IRIE) and the Western Hemisphere African Diaspora Network (WHADN). It is his well-researched response to an article found at http://jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20070217T160000-0500_119302_OBS__PAY_US_FOR_SLAVE_LABOUR__.asp
and it is directed to the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee’s Sub-Committee on Reparations. Hopefully, it will spur other influential Africans born in Anguilla into action but I will not hold my breath. I have underlined certain sections for emphasis.

“…bone lie, bone lie, what dis yuh tellin i an’ i bone lie, bone lie, yuh trick yuh dog but yuh cant trick i..” (Mutabaruka – Bone Lie)

In 325 CE, over three hundred bishops from within and without the Roman Empire responded to the call from Emperor Constantine and gathered for the first ecumenical conference of the Catholic Church in Nicea, now the modern city of Iznik in Turkey. One of the main items on the agenda was to put an end to controversy about whether Yeshua the Christ was all man, all God, part man, part God or fully Man and fully God.

No one who attended the Youth Empowerment Solutions Conference at Chandeliers last week Thursday and Friday can claim to have come away unaffected. It was a faith-filled moment of enlightenment that rekindled our passions and empowered us all to go forth better prepared for the process of reclaiming Anguillian manhood. The last two days of the four-day process were designed to empower those in attendance with scientific knowledge, evidence-based information and the experience of professional practice built on the bedrock of Christian principles that Anguillians may have unwittingly trapped inside church buildings.

Today words will not come the way I want them to because Mr. Watkins (Watco pronounced “Wocko”) Hodge, another father of the nation has gone. Today I don’t care to be politically correct because even if Wocko had not been recognized as a hero in the sphere of Anguillian politics, his fatherhood must be acknowledged. Were it not for his kindness many Anguillians, including me, would still be in want of basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter, especially shelter.

The response to the call to promote peace, love and unity in the community at the Anguilla Unite event on Saturday night was heartening. Thanks to J W Proctors, Best Buy Supermarket, Ashley and Sons Ltd. and Protect Construction Company, patrons were able to enjoy not only the talent of young people delivering serious messages in spoken word, song and dance but also delicious ital food which we always promote too. Thanks to all who assisted in making the event a success.