By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE UNIVERSITY of the West Indies (UWI) has come under fire from major community tourism interests, who are contending that the institution has been negligent in implementing strategies necessary to foster tourism projects initiated by communities.
At the Caribbean Community Tourism Conference and Trade Show held on the weekend, some participants accused the UWI of ignoring major fundamentals mandatory to encouraging the growth of community tourism.
AFRICAN RETENTIONS UNDER-REPORTED
Spearheading the call for the UWI to move aggressively to document aspects of the Jamaican culture is Valerie Dixon, executive director of the Sustainable Communities Foundation (SCF). She said that too many aspects of African retentions in our culture are under-reported or misrepresented in history books.
"The African part of our history has been almost neglected," Ms. Dixon charges. "Find some brave historians who will go in and look at the history of Jamaica and correct all these misrepresentations and misinformation so we do not continue to feed into the future lies and lies about ourselves as proud Jamaicans," she said.
She warns that unless more formal documentation of our culture is done, Jamaicans will not recognise or treasure their heritage. Against this background, Ms. Dixon said tourism is being stifled, as villages do not see the value of using aspects of their heritage as the focus of community projects.
Underscoring the need for the UWI to have research persons scouting rural communities and documenting remnants of our culture, she points out that in Manchester, a dance known as 'Runkus' performed at wakes and 'tombing' and believed to be an African cultural retention, has not been documented by the nation's historians.
MAROONS MISREPRESENTED
Making an impassioned challenge to the management of the UWI, she continued, "I'd like here to get the support of this conference that we address the people at the UWI, to find out are they on board with us, with community tourism and the history of Jamaica on a whole?"
The SCF officials and some of her counterparts in the community tourism industry are of the view that historians have misrepresented aspects of Maroon history and are calling for a rewrite of those matters by the historians. "We have never given credence and credibility to the Maroons," Ms. Dixon pointed out. "I think this is why so many of them hide their identity. Because of how it is portrayed in the history books, they are ashamed."
Carolyn Hayle, a lecturer in hospitality and tourism at the UWI, threw cold water on charges that the institution has been inhibiting the growth of community tourism.
She says because of the university's extensive research in the area of Black heritage and Caribbean heritage, it has often been deemed "extremely Pan-Africanist in its outlook".
Knocking criticisms about the university Ms. Hayle said, "On behalf of the university, I don't think we can take credit for misrepresentation, we definitely don't do that."
The UWI official, however, promised the conference participants to convey their suggestions to the Department of History of the UWI.
The four-day Caribbean Tourism Conference, which ends today at the Wyndham Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay, has over 200 local and foreign representatives of community organisations from as far away as Germany and South Africa, sharing in the event.
