Creating wealth from culture

In December 2015, The UNESCO Creative Cities Network dubbed Kingston a 'Creative City of Music'. This distinction confirms what we already know. Kingston's culture is world-class. In spite of all the problems of urban blight, the city does have the potential to become a livable home for all of us, and an attractive destination for tourists.

But the history of the city is far from glamorous. Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place of refuge for survivors of the Port Royal earthquake. They camped on the seafront in dreadful conditions. And mosquitoes ravaged them. Approximately 2,000 survivors of the earthquake died from diseases carried by mosquitoes.

It wasn't ZIKV or chik-V. And, by the way, chik-V didn't come to the Caribbean in the 21st century. As early as 1827, the disease was already in the region. In a case of mistaken identity, it was called dengue. That name comes from the Kiswahili language of East Africa. The word 'dinga' means 'seizure, or cramp'.

But the big difference between chik-V and dengue is arthritis. Chik-V weakens the joints. And it has devastating consequences, both physical and social. For example, The Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases reports that, in 1827, "when the disease first appeared in St Thomas [US Virgin Islands], several Negroes, who, being all at once attacked with pain in the knees, had fallen down, [and] were actually apprehended by the police for drunkenness".

 

SUSPICIOUS OF GOVERNMENT

 

Kingston gradually recovered from its disastrous start. By the middle of the 18th century, it had become the commercial centre of the island. Sitting on the seventh largest natural harbour in the world, the city was ideally located to be a global player in international trade.

In 1891, Kingston hosted the Great Exhibition. It was a very ambitious affair. Its aim was to show Jamaicans all the latest in foreign products and machinery; and to exhibit Jamaican products to foreign investors. The Jamaican economy was in decline and a small group of visionaries realised that something grand had to be done to drive productivity. One of them was George Stiebel, who made his money in shipping and mining.

Devon House was one of his homes.

The Exhibition wasn't an easy sell. As Joy Lumsden reports in a 1991 article in the Jamaica Historical Society Bulletin, "From the start, it was feared that the attempts to get people to send produce to the exhibition was an indirect way of finding out how much they produced so that taxes could be increased."

Sounds familiar. Many players in the field of the creative/cultural industries are now very suspicious of the Government's relatively new interest in their work. Where was the Government when the music industry, for example, was struggling to establish itself in Kingston's concrete jungle? And why the sudden interest in the earnings of the industry?

 

DISTINGUISHED WRITERS

 

UNESCO identifies seven creative fields in which selected cities are judged: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music. I think Kingston's creativity extends way beyond music. We could just as easily have been recognised as a creative city of literature. And it's not only Kingston; it's the entire country.

Jamaica has produced a whole heap of distinguished writers. Edward Baugh, Erna Brodber, Colin Channer, Michelle Cliff, Kwame Dawes, Neville Dawes, H.G. DeLisser, Lorna Goodison, John Hearne, Roger Mais, Rachel Manley, Claude McKay, Kei Miller, Mervyn Morris, Tony McNeill, Velma Pollard, Claudia Rankine, Trevor Rhone, Andrew Salkey, Olive Senior, Dennis Scott, Tanya Shirley and Sylvia Wynter are just some of the writers whose work has received international recognition. Many have won major literary prizes.

Linton Kwesi Johnson, who was born in Chapelton and migrated to the UK as a child, enjoys the distinction of being the second living poet and the only black poet to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series.

Marlon James recently won the 2015 Man Booker prize and a 2015 American Book award for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings.

With all its blood and gore, the novel is Kingston hard-core. James' transformation of the murderous reality of the city into brilliant literature is a powerful manifestation of the creativity of Jamaicans.

 

CULTURAL CAPITAL

 

In the 1970s, the Jamaica Tourist Board rebranded the island this way: "We're more than a beach. We're a country." UNESCO's designation of Kingston as a 'Creative City of Music' is good news. But we're much more than music. We're a creative country in so many domains.

So how are we going to turn our new UNESCO branding into cultural capital? And where is our museum of Jamaica music? It's on Water Lane, an alley in downtown Kingston. The creators of our music deserve much, much better than this.

The director/curator of the so-called museum, Herbie Miller, has been given basket to carry nuff water. He has done his best to apply tar. Every Sunday in Reggae Month, he hosts a public forum on our music at the Institute of Jamaica's lecture hall.

This year, the focus is on Don Drummond. Today, at 2 p.m., Kwame Dawes will chair a forum in which Lorna Goodison, Mervyn Morris, Jerry Small and Raymond Mair will celebrate Don Drummond as an inspiration for their poetry. Kingston is, indeed, a capital city for music and literature. If only all our politicians could understand this and invest in our culture!

- Carolyn Cooper is a cultural consultant. Visit her bilingual blog at http://carolynjoycooper.wordpress.com. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com.