Paul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer

A section of the farm at Eastern Banana Estates, shows how complete was the destruction caused by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

More destruction in the 1800s and 1900s

THERE WAS a hurricane from October 12 to 14 in 1812, August 1813, October 1815, October and November 1818, August 1832, and October 1875. In the occurrence of August 18-19, 1880, in eastern Jamaica,…
From left: Poet Kacy Garvey, co-founder and managing director of JAIKU; Jodiann Edwards, executive assistant; and poet Britton Wright, co-founder of JAIKU.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Growth & Jobs | JAIKU promoting poetry as a business

JAMAICA HAS produced some great poets. Many of them were more than writers, engaging in other endeavours to eke out a living, and they perhaps did not see poetry as a structured business as we know it…
The Jamaica coat of arms is painted on one of the structures at Great Huts Eco Resort in Boston, Portland.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Great Huts promoting the Afro-Jamaican heritage

WE ARE still in Jamaica’s heritage month, and Heritage Week was concluded on Monday, October 20 with the annual National Honours and Awards Ceremony at King’s House. But, there is a place in Boston,…
From left: Morgan ‘Marz’ Marson, Jody-Ann ‘Drummy-Jo’ Brown, Justice McKenzie and Erica-Louise ‘Rica G’ Richards, some of the women involved with Well Ample Productions at the recent Kingston Creative’s ‘Demo Day’.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Well Ample Productions giving female creatives a safe space to prosper

“Our first event, ‘Our Love’, was held in February 2022, and that really marked the beginning of our journey. We officially registered Well Ample Productions in 2023, after realising how much impact…
The two famous cousins, Sir Alexander Bustamante (right) and Norman Manley, in a photograph taken at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation’s building in Kingston in 1969.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Bustamante and Norman Manley – the fathers of Jamaica’s political Independence

ALEXANDER BUSTAMANTE and Norman Washington Manley are widely regarded as the fathers of Jamaica’s political independence, the process of which ended on August 6, 1962 when Jamaica officially ceased to…
Basil Watson’s bronze bust of National Hero Paul Bogle mounted in 2018 in Emancipation Park, St Andrew, Jamaica.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Bogle and Gordon changed the government indirectly

PAUL BOGLE was born James Bogle. He was called Paul after he became a deacon in the native Baptist Church. He fathered at least three children – William, Richard and Cecelia. He was a small cane…
Basil Watson’s bronze bust of National Hero Samuel Sharpe mounted in 2018 in Emancipation Park, St Andrew, Jamaica.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Sam Sharpe did not start the fire, but …

FROM 1823 rumours were going around that the king of England had granted the enslaved their freedom. The rumours were rife in late 1831, especially since Reverend Thomas Burchell was off the island.…
Governor General Sir Patrick Allen laying a wreath at the monument of National Hero Marcus Garvey in National Heroes Park on the occasion of Garvey’s 130th birthday in August 2017.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

Marcus Garvey ‘the greatest black man ever’

THE CAMPAIGN against Marcus Garvey in the US came from the wider community and people within his own organisation. Chief among his detractors were W.E.B. DuBois, Wilfred Adolphus Domingo, and A.…
Basil Watson’s bronze bust of National Hero Marcus Garvey mounted in 2018 in Emancipation Park, St Andrew, Jamaica.
December 9, 2025 by Paul H. Williams

The inspiration and manifestation of Marcus Garvey’s UNIA

IN UNFLATTERING circumstances Malcus Mosiah Garvey was born in St Ann’s Bay, St Ann on August 17, 1887. Somewhere along the journey Malcus was changed to Marcus. He became a printer’s apprentice,…