Meet me at Golden Grove

Avia Ustanny, freelance writer

Tourist, white man wiping his face
Met me in Golden Grove market place
He looked at my old clothes brown with stain
And soaked right through with the Portland rain
He cast down his eyes, turned up his nose,
And said, 'You're a beggar man, I suppose'...

From, Lament of the Banana Man, Evan Jones

EVAN JONES' Banana Man has been replaced with the female sugar cane worker in Golden Grove, St. Thomas. On a very hot day in May our car gently coasted to a halt by a field ditch where, a few feet away women are cutting cane.

We are begging. With generous swipes of the machete, swish, swish, the older woman cleans away the dry trash from the sugar cane stalk. It is a gift for the inquisitive reporter and photographer. We are grateful.

Miles of almost mature sugar cane feature in Golden Grove at this time of year. Our benefactor, a woman aged 60, stopped from her job of rescuing harvested cane from trash to admit that she has been working in the cane field since 1968. "We weed, we fertilise, we carry out the grass. This job pays 300-odd dollars per day. I have been doing this since 1968, manuring and carrying out grass."

Retire

Her children and grandchildren live in Kingston and Winchester, she told us. "I plan to retire soon. I wouldn't mind if I could do it today." She is hoping to leave with a pension.

Around the corner and down the road, seated under the shade of a spreading fruit tree are younger boys who say that there is no work to be had.

"The young boys leave school and have nothing to do," another woman with many grandchildren running inquisitively around her skirt, said in their defence.

It is a smooth road that hurtles eastwards and carries visitors to Golden Grove in St. Thomas (not Portland, though it is near enough). It is an area of ironies, and the contrasts deepen with every few hundred chains, that you travel. The roads are excellent and the little town has every amenity ­ a bank, gas station, schools, stores and more. But, one wonders where is the supporting community.

Golden Grove was once a more vibrant place. It is said that in the '60s and '70s the area was relatively prosperous, buzzing with the activities surrounding Duckenfield Sugar Company and the Bowden Wharf where ships docked to stock up with sugar and bananas for market in the United Kingdom.

The first owner of land in the area was said to be Thomas Cussans, and afterwards Sir Simon Taylor, large landed proprietors of the 18th and 19th
centuries. Lady Nugent records the earliest impression in her 'Journal'; "It is an excellent house, surrounded by sugar works, cane fields, coconut trees etc."

Older generation

Today, the Golden Grove Estate still exists, along with the town. Forty-four-year-old Erica Vassell, who has been cutting cane for four years, is among the older generation of residents who still contribute to the centuries-old economy.

Miles of almost mature sugar cane line the road. Further along, going into Portland, the banana estates begin.

The estates however, are not employing as much as they used to. "I have been living here since I was 12. I am now 52," said another woman. "I work 14 years at Eastern Banana until I get redundant. Life rough bad, rough rough." She is mother of six children aged 12 to 34, eight grandchildren. Only two of the children work. 'You hear them come ­ gimme little dinner.' She has to share what she has with them.

We are curious about her stilted house and the others which surround it. This area is flood prone. "That is why we build the houses like that. Water come up to our neck sometime. All the children can swim. We take them to the river to learn. In the lower area, when it flood, boat have to take them from them house top."

While they struggle to overcome poverty and the river which always rises, the dreams of others are unfolding. On a hill overlooking acres of sugar cane planted land surrounding the small town, the dream of a farmer-entrepreneur, Joslyn Mosely ­ a Serenity Park type development, features the natural beauty and offers the allure of history too.

On his property is 'Duppy House', a ruin, constructed in the great house style of several centuries ago. It is said to have been built at the same time as Stokes Hall Great House nearby. "Everybody calls it the Duppy House. There is some story about hauntings and buried gold," says Mosely.

The rooms, clearly demarcated by the stones that still support one another, are choked with shrubs. On the exterior, oven baked brick and imported stones (brought over as ballast on the sugar ships) are distinctive features in window areas and around a fireplace with chimney. There is no need to be afraid, he said. It is a part of the area's golden past.

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