Martin Henry

I have had the pleasure of interviewing Sir Howard Cooke twice while he was Governor-General. Talking with those who made national history is utterly fascinating. The first occasion was for an article, which we simply called 'The man from Goodwill' (his birthplace), for the British Moral Rearmament magazine 'For a Change' (Feb/Mar 1994). The other was in 2004, as part of the documen-tation of the story of community development in the St. Ann town of Walkerswood, which was commis-sioned by Walkerswood Caribbean Foods.

Sir Howard, perhaps the only surviving founding member of the People's National Party, member of both the West Indian Federal Parliament and the Jamaican Parlia-ment (Upper and Lower Houses), minister of Government, public citizen, and Governor-General, has a full-blown biography, They Call Me Teacher by Jackie Ranston, and a CPTC-produced video documentary.

I was thrilled to discover on the Internet a voice recording of a Marcus Garvey speech which had been done as a 78 rpm record. Virtually all of Garvey's memora-bilia, including this rare recording of his staccato voice firing away, are held in overseas centres. While there is talk here now of clearing his name of a criminal record in the United States, there isn't even a whisper about repatriating even copies of his stuff.

Last Thursday, while Earl Moxam, Yvette Rowe and myself discussed crime on the Good Evening Jamaica programme on Power 106, clips were played of Roy McNeill as Jamaica Labour Party Minister of Home Affairs declaring a limited state of emergency in 1966 and of Michael Manley, who declared a national state of emergency 10 years later in 1976 explaining why he had attended the funeral of the area leader Burry Boy. Fascinating! Those voice archives, like the text archives of the National Library of Jamaica, are hardly touched as sources of history.

Oral history

In 1965, the centennial of the Morant Bay Uprising was celebrated by a proud young nation. Years later, I watched the commemorative film which the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation had made with Uriel Aldridge playing Paul Bogle.

The nation missed a golden opportunity then to speak with the grandchildren of the rebellion and to document their living story. A few years ago, I had a most interesting conversation with Jasper Marshalleck of the old St. Thomas plantocracy, who had fresh memories of his family history in the parish and his own clear views of Bogle.

Families too have history which anchor their lives. Yesterday was my mother's birthday. Some years before her death, we wrote down from her memory and ours the simple story of her life. Although the story may not be on the national scale, the manuscript is a family treasure.

The heroes Garvey, Manley and Bustamante fall within living memory and there are many living or recently passed national treasures whose life stories, captured from the memories of those who knew them well, could enrich ours. Sir Howard, an N.W. Manleyite and avid Garveyite, retired with a burning desire to have the people's story documented and told to the young in simple catching ways as an important part of nation building. Sir Howard recounts how Manley charmed him as a young school master at Mico to join the political party being planned. And Sir Howard declares, "Garvey was no accident." He was formed for his place in history directly out of the St. Ann history of a proud, free village peasantry going back to Emancipation.

Martin Henry is a communication specialist.