Lead Stories

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

ON the day he left Islington, St Mary, to attend the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, 20 years ago, Derrick Thompson knew he would not be returning to live in his hometown. He had worked a year after completing high school, earning more money towards his education, and was putting his feet permanently on the tarmac towards the city.

"When I left I knew that was it. First of all, you were encouraged that the route to success was through school to the highest level. You always knew that the 'country' itself does not offer the opportunities in terms of employment," he said. Then there were other factors, such as entertainment and social mobility. Plus, there were his siblings, who had already taken that path - and had not returned to live. "You had the trend. You never got in the mindset that you would return," Thompson said.

The Islington he grew up in was a rural area within a rural parish, already behind most of the rest of Jamaica on key economic and social indicators. Predominantly dependent on farming, the mainstay of the community was banana, coconut, plantain, fruit crops and cocoa (chocolate). Although he was required to help take the produce out of the approximately two to three acres his family farmed (including breaking and moving the cocoa pods), with pigs and chickens reared in the backyard, Thompson was not heavily involved in agriculture as especially his grandparents were, farming for personal consumption as well as for sale.

His grandmother and mother would go into Kingston for market on Thursdays, returning on Saturdays. There were other outlets too, through the then Agricultural Marketing Corporation as well as the copra factory, banana going to the packaging plant and then transported to Port Antonio for export. Thompson's eyes glow as he recalls the Christmas bonus on chocolate paid by the board from money set aside on each box of cocoa purchased throughout the year.

He chuckles too at memories of the vibrant chicken farming when he would go to Port Maria and purchase chicks and supplies such as feed and medicine, though it took him a while to realise that electric lights were installed in the coop to make them eat more and so mature more quickly.

education harvested

Eventually, though, the scales tipped more towards subsistence farming. And at all stages, it was clear that whatever was sown, education was to be harvested. "Your parents placed more emphasis on school. They saw their role as doing this so as to help you not do this, to become 'smaddy' - a lawyer, doctor, but make sure you go to UC (university)," Thompson said. "Every cent from the farm would go to school books and fees to help with that mobility."

And his eyes do not glow as he remembers his peripheral farming involvement. "The farming is labour-intensive and I never saw myself as being able to handle the hard work. And the water; it was always wet, always muddy. Going to the farm meant you were going to tackle some mud and some gully. Then the farm was so far from the house and you had to carry out the load," Thompson said. "I never had the desire to go into farming."

However, now that he works as the telecommunications manager at the UWI Open Campus, Thompson finds himself being pulled back to the land in Islingston. He has always stayed close to the community, notably through sports, getting involved in cricket and football, and visiting regularly. But he seems to be getting back to the root he and his siblings reaped an education from, working with his cousins on a plan to set up a farm.

"It is their initiative. The feeling in the country is that it is time to do farming. Some have gone back into the field already. They are saying that they can go to Port Maria (to sell) and have a consistent income," Thompson said. "They just need help."

And he projects that he will get involved personally. "I see myself going back and getting hands-on in a family plot at the back of the house," Thompson said. He already has, clearing a patch in March with the intention of planting vegetables for reaping at year end, although it has not quite worked out yet. He will be trying again.

It is a figurative and literal turnaround from the days when he packed his bags and headed to 'UC' as a student, "But now you think differently. You think that you would go back and help," Thompson said.