Fri | Oct 17, 2025

Gordon Robinson | Ride yu donkey!

Published:Tuesday | July 25, 2023 | 12:06 AM
Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, J. C. Hutchinson (left), hands over a donkey named ‘Prosperity’ to farmer Dionne Blake in Cornwall,  St Elizabeth.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, J. C. Hutchinson (left), hands over a donkey named ‘Prosperity’ to farmer Dionne Blake in Cornwall, St Elizabeth.

So PM was in St Elizabeth recently for another handing over ceremony under Government’s H.O.P.E. programme.

Houses were handed over in Burnt Savannah, Barton Wharf, Paradise, Thornton and Oxford Settlement. While on his ribbon cutting tour, he was engaged by a lady farmer who said she just come from “bush”. She had a request that seemed, at first, to take PM by surprise.

When I was but a little laddie

my daddy bought a fiddle for me

and the only tune that I could play,

(yes sir) the only tune that I could play was

Ride yu donkey....

She introduced herself “I’m the lady asking for the donkey”.

PM laughed out loud. So she repeated herself. A bemused looking PM asked “you’re the lady asking for the donkey?’ She confirmed. By that time PM had somewhat righted himself but was still looking slightly lost “Where you get donkeys to buy? I don’t know…..”

The lady farmer told him donkeys were for sale “down here on di level part of di land”. Then he asked “How much for a donkey?”

Well, I admit I fell from my couch when I heard it was all of $100,000 for a donkey. Clearly there’s a demand. So, in a public post, I expressed surprise that, in 2023, farmers still used donkeys. Whatever the reason, I felt (and still believe) that Governments have failed to develop rational policies to assist small farmers.

Well, in the words of the great Paul Keenes-Douglas, who tell me say so? JLP trolls who take every policy critique personally, were quick out of the blocks and generous with their personal abuse. According to them, I’ve never left a Kingston gated community and only know Bernard Lodge Farms.

Yawn.

In reality I’m well aware small farmers’ problems are a legacy of immediate post Emancipation when the British (oops, sorry, Jamaican) State deliberately excluded them from preferred lands to keep them subservient and, whenever possible, working for former slave masters on the estates.

Ride yu donkey,

None Such for me.

Gallop yu donkey

was my major key.

George Murphy and Maurice Johnson initially formed The Tenors circa 1966, as the new rock steady beat swept Jamaica, but were later joined by Norman Davis. Their huge 1968 hit Ride Yu Donkey was especially popular among turfites as Champion Sprinter, None Such, was in his heyday. It enjoyed a recent resurrection as part of the soundtrack for Broken Flowers (2005) starring Bill Murray, Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange.

Between 1834 and 1974 little was done, even after “independence”, to alleviate the dire circumstances under which small farmers toiled. In the 1970s Land Lease was intended to improve their lot (no pun intended) but, again, the factors militating against small farmers’ success weren’t properly addressed as many lease-holds were located on unsuitable lands. Access to quality lands continued to be denied so small farmers were also beset by poor or no feeder roads and high cost of transport to market. These created opportunities for rapacious middle men to leverage profits by manipulating prices paid to farmers.

ENDANGERED SPECIES

These remain serious strictures resulting in small farmers’ further marginalization. The small farmer is an endangered species as offspring, educated after excruciating struggle by parents, are abandoning their forebears’ occupation for more lucrative professions.

Meanwhile Governments focus on big ticket infrastructure items while ignoring small farmers’ knotty issues like arable land, proper irrigation and access to market. This neglect has driven farmers like this St Elizabeth lady to shock even PM by asking for a donkey.

According to the Observer, her request had more to do with “poor road conditions in the area” than anything else. But whether poor roads or poor terrain, this complex national problem needs fixing.

Face it. If, anywhere on earth, farmers still use donkeys to transport produce then something is cockeyed somewhere. If we’re too tribal to accept that simple fact we’re in trouble because political footballs are usually kicked aimlessly down the field. So PM found himself in a sticky situation and extricated himself with what seemed genuine empathy.

Nobody should ridicule a farmer for asking for a donkey. But every Jamaican should ask themselves what are the underlying reasons why donkeys are still needed in modern farming. That’s an indictment on every Government for the past 60 years but thin-skinned JLP apologists perceive every general critique as “mischief” intended to destabilise the current Government. Sigh.

Peace and Love

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com