The Festival Train was conceived to carry a special cargo the best of the JCDC Festival Competitions to the nooks and crannies of Jamaica. -File photoAmina Blackwood-Meeks, Contributor
"ME DEAR Cousin Min, yu miss sinting yu shudda min deh yah fe see how Independence celebrations capture Jamaica."
Well de independence don't come yet, which is to say maybe we don't fully grasp yet what independence means and how to honour it in every aspect of the celebrations. But the Honourable Louise Bennett-Coverley, OJ is in Jamaica and she just capture Jamaica like how she did write to you in that letter of years past bout how de rumpus of the independence celebrations.
Me watch de whole ting and sey to meself: Self, you know what I would want if I was Miss Lou, I would like a likkle train ride. For chu being as how she was on a train, (truthfully it was a tram but never mind) when inspiration grab her an she produced de first serious piece of writing what did sweet har madda who give her de first big encouragement. I would love to see what she would produce now if such an episode in her could be recreated.
Look here nuh, to a whole generation of Jamaicans, a train-ride has as much validity as Jurassic Park, something in somebody's imagination based on some notion excavated by people who dig up garbage and then try to figure out what the fragments mean.
I don't mean those Jamaicans who are blessed with the facility to travel and experience an efficient, comfortable travel by train and then call the talk shows on return from their Jurassic adventure to lament that as a nation we cannot enter into this world of
modernity.
And some there are who understand, that really, it is that we do not know what to preserve from that time which gives relevance and meaning to this time.
I certainly don't mean those who used to rely on the trains to get them, the donkey an bankra full a market goods to unknown, mainly to Kingston, so that people whose hand too good fe dig de soil cudda put sumpen inna dem belly.
This in order to give dem strength to laugh and share amusements at the little ditties their nannies from the country taught them.
I mean those who don't have an inkling that in the short-sighted days of cheap oil and the mental slavery of wanting to travel like how it was thought Massa travelled some there were who derailed de train.
They dig up de track and now kean even find de first dollar fe excavate de pieces to put it back fe ease de congestion an indigestion of the foray into modernity. I want to share with you about one of these trains.
FESTIVAL TRAIN
Once upon a not so long time ago, there was a train named the Festival Train. It was conceived in the year 2002 and designed to carry a special cargo the best of the JCDC Festival Competitions to the nooks and crannies of Jamaica.
Country people would get a chance to see and enjoy the richness that country children produce and teck to Kingston to bring people so much joy and pride in things Jamaican.
The teachers who train these children, the likkle country shop-owner who don't get qualified to be called 'Sponsor' and who empty him cash register and 'make a donation' to help outfit de school from his district and transport dem into town, could go into the square with granny an feel proud how de likkle round-face bwoy pan train all around Jamaica.
It meck him madda head swell and odder parts of Jamaica hear fe dem district name call every time emcee sey "We now present Round Face Bwoy from Dung Dey So..."
I was on that train. On some of
the stops the people got like couple hours notice that the train was coming and quick time dem wash dem foot an dress up and reach before de train. Excitement. Happiness. Patriotism galore. This was their equivalent of going to Jamaica House or Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre or Emancipation Park. Dem would get a chance to see what dem give to Jamaica. And in the process give back more.
TWINS
One night in Hanover we spotted a pair of twins and decided to give a prize to the first pair of twins that reached on the stage. Ten pairs of twins of various ages appeared. Is so come we hear that Hanover is supposed to be the parish with the highest number of twins.
Into Black River now we decided to give a prize for the best bammy-making recipe. All one likkle 10-year-old boy enter. The winner was a man who rendered his recipe into an extempo rhyming mento composition that should also have won a prize in the traditional music segment.
People making friends with people from neighbouring communities. Some people followed the train into the next parish. A nuh likkle time me an Charles Campbell, the train manager, hug up an shed yeye wata like two idiat, how de ting sweet an how much potential it have for building back de Jamaica what Stanley sing sey him dream bout, 'de land of peace and love'.
DI TRAIN STAP BAPS
Now what would you say is the value of that to the Jamaican people to the culture we say we love to tourism? I think plenty more than the $8 million it cost for transportation, accommodation, meals, fees, everything to take the train to all 14 parishes and more than 27 stops.
Cuz, dem tamper wid de train. First dem cut down de number of days it would be on de road. Den dem cut down de amount of time it would stop in one place--but at least we still going and we start hype up weself fe how we still goin to get de maximum out of it. Well de week before de train was to pull out dem pull up de tracks, derail de ting--sey it cannot be afforded. Same time dem proclaiming great love for Miss Lou and what she did for Jamaica.
What Louise Bennett did was to go around Jamaica with a budget not even big enough to meck a shoe string, all hours a day and night -- down in the trenches, whatever the cost, building the kind of community, interaction and experience which give birth to a lively, vibrant, positive, uplifting culture an meck plenty Jamaicans aspire to be a Miss Lou. We must also love Miss Lou in the way we practise her example.
DISHONOURING CULTURE
How difficult is it to find $8 million? That's less than one million dollars per parish. I know of a beach party that is rumoured to have cost $20 million. I know that de Boston Jerk Festival collected over $16 million at the gate. Forty seven thousand people paid to get in.
We do not lack the means to find the resources to do the things on which our lives depend but we losing we life because we will not direct our energies to those things which sustain. When I was a little girl there was a festival song named Boom Shack a Lacka--an dat same Miss Lou did give har views pan it pan de radio. As I remember she said the song was unclear about what was lacking -- an chu it was food shortage time she did meck up har own version of the lacks...
Boom Shacka Lacka (we lack a saltfish)
Boom Shacka Lacka (we lack a pigstail)
Miss Lou, is what we lacka now in 2003, that we cannot see what's good for us and how to honour the past by the choices we make about how to celebrate our present existence?
I don't want to hear any lamentations pan de radio bout what we see abroad, unnu put back de festival train. De rest of Jamaica wants more, deserves more than to turn on their television sets to watch how 2000 invited guests circulate between Jamaica House, Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre and Emancipation Park to enjoy national occasions. Nothing less than an up close, personal taste of what they produce for Jamaica is honourable.
And long live Deninee Campbell of JIS, Sunsplash and RockAway whose indomitable energies fuelled the Eastern Leg of the 2002 Festival Train and who, just before her passing, put so much effort into laying the ground work for the 2003 train which was deemed to be not affordable. We honour her too, by saving our children the cost of future excavation.
