TRAVEL:Ian Thomson's book ventures far from the sandy beaches and coconut trees of the island 'paradise' to the troubled, raw heart of Jamaica's impoverished citieS, writes AMANDA SMYTH
IN HIS exhilarating new book, The Dead Yard, Ian Thomson, (author of the highly acclaimed Bonjour Blancand Primo Levi) catapults himself into the troubled heart and soul of raw Jamaica, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey into island hell.
Here Jamaica is not the exotic, palm-tree-filled, white-sandy-beach paradise shown on advertising hoardings; in fact, Thomson never relaxes on a beach. He is much too busy visiting the real hotspots: downtown Kingston where, at Coronation market, the “higglers stood, hands on hips, over pyramids of yams and salted cod fish”.
In notorious Spanish Town, once the capital of Jamaica, “gangs of dogs, cowed looking, slunk through a roadside litter of plastic bottles, old mattresses, discarded KFC boxes”. He ventures to Rema Community Centre in Trenchtown just as two youths have been executed; above the entrance an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II is splattered with bullets.
Thomson hangs out in the Dead Yard(the house of a recently deceased man) while drummers beat a rhythm with their hands and the men and women dance in a wild, trance-like manner. He travels often on foot or by bus; in Jamaica this is unusual and considered dangerous, "a white man seen on a bus has either lost his mind or his place in society". He paddles up Black River where crocodiles lurk in the shadows, and mangrove roots stretch down like "organ pipes".
Jamaica is famous for its extraordinary music and breath-taking tropical beauty. But it is also renowned for violence, gun crime and political corruption. Thomson asks, is there nothing in between?
He examines the relationship between Jamaica and its British former colonial rulers.
There is a good deal of historical information here on how slaves were brought from West Africa, “fed, washed shaved and rubbed with palm oil until they gleamed healthily for the market place”.
Accounts of brutality and punishment for rebellion, where slaves were “pinioned to the ground and burned with a flaming brand, by degrees from the feet and hands”, make for uncomfortable reading. I was shocked to learn how limbs were amputated for petty crimes like stealing rum. Slaves were regularly raped, whipped, hanged from the cotton trees. Thomson tells us: “Jamaican society was created from slavery.”
He carefully chronicles the volatile journey from 300 years of British rule to independence in 1962, and asks: what has Jamaica done with its independence? Have the fruits failed to ripen? Is Jamaica better off now than when ruled by the British? Thomson writes engagingly about Jamaican politics, and the years of Michael Manley; his powerful “Garvey inspired vision”.
There is a sense throughout that Thomson has a good deal of affection for Jamaica, and he is a fine storyteller. His many encounters allow for varying perspectives. So we hear about Jamaica from the people of Jamaica: those who have left, those who returned and – after a robbery or murder – fled again, the intellectuals, the privileged, the poorer classes, the professionals. We hear from foreigners who fell in love with Jamaica and made it their home: PJ, the English artist who has lived in Kingston for 30 years, and American Patrice Wymore, widow of Errol Flynn, who inherited Flynn’s vast estate in Port Antonio.
We learn of Rastafarianism’s strong influence, and meet an intimidating Rastafarian Bobo Ashanti priest, “arrayed in a green turban and a green cape”. Thomson is led into the Bobo temple where the atmosphere becomes unnervingly tense when slavery is discussed. Yet Thomson himself never seems to be intimidated.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Thomson visits the politician Michael Foot, now 96, at his London home. His brother was the island’s colonial secretary in 1944. Foot seems saddened by Jamaica’s lack of progress, and points a finger at America. “We’ve abandoned Jamaica,” Foot says. Then, “Jamaica is in a fix”.
Squire Cooke, also 96, is a white Jamaican planter living in a dilapidated estate house in the hills above the former slave village of Bethel Town. One of Cooke’s chief regrets is not being able any longer to paint the glorious Eden-like view from his window. His love for Jamaica is as clear and immense as the cloudless sky. This tender encounter is affecting and almost dreamlike, and serves as another reminder: Jamaica belongs to many people.
In mansion-filled Mandeville, a retired couple, Blake and Hyacinth Norwich, have returned to Jamaica after years of living in London. Fearing the locals, the couple choose to live almost in isolation. They seem a little paranoid. This is not so surprising: nearly everyone in Jamaica knows someone who has been robbed or murdered.
THOMSON TALKS to the police, and in particular to DCP Mark Shields, on secondment from Scotland Yard, a “sort of Clint Eastwood figure”. He is not afraid to speak about corruption in the Force. Shields says, “If a policeman’s got a suspiciously big house, or a flash Escalade or Hummer car, but no visible means of income, we’ll go after him”.
Carolyn Gomes, director of the human rights organisation Jamaicans for Justice, believes “Jamaica’s justice system has not moved on with the rest of the world”. Thomson asks her about the notion of “respect”, often associated with gun crime, and whether it has been imported from America. Gomes says no, “the business of dissing and respect is home grown Jamaican. When your life’s so degraded, you need people to respect you, you need a gun to stand out”.
In The Dead Yard, Jamaica is exposed, scars and all. Thomson reveals a magnificent, snarling, wounded animal chewing on its own paw. Without fear, he walks up to it and strokes it; he peers right down inside its open mouth. These modern tales are deeply considered, thoroughly examined. There is nothing throwaway here: a fascinating account of a beautiful, treacherous country.
The Dead Yard,Ian Thomson. Faber & Faber, 433p. £14.99
Amanda Smyth is the Irish/Trinidadian author of the debut novel Black Rock,which was published earlier this year by Serpent's Tail