We know how to party

Lance Neita, Contributor

Onstage during the 1955 Tercentenary Celebrations in Jamaica, I dropped the ball. I had been given the mammoth task of reciting a poem, 'Augustus Was a Chubby Lad'. It was a soppy tale of a little boy who refused to eat his soup, and progressively got sicker and thinner, verse by verse, until he just faded away.

With each verse my voice was supposed to go weaker as I defiantly asked my keepers to "take this nasty soup away". But on my big day I got punch-drunk, and instead of whispering, by the last verse I was bellowing like an ox, and not at all as the poor, feeble Augustus "who had grown so pale and thin".

Of course I lost, to another boy named Allen from Red Bank School in Upper Clarendon, who gave a prize-winning rendition of a weak and stubborn Augustus. Allen disappeared and I have been trying to find him ever since, just to congratulate him, and if truth be told, to slip some of that Augustus soup down his solar plexus.

The year 1955 was unforgettable for those who can remember the grand Tercentenary Celebrations commemorating 300 years of British colonial rule in Jamaica.

It is the most sustained period of non-stop cultural presentations, exhibitions, concerts, sports, and other celebratory activities that have ever taken place in one single year in Jamaica.

All-island bandwagon

More than 225,000 people came out to sing and dance at the all-island bandwagon travelling concerts. Sabina Park was packed to the max on March 26 for the start of the first Australia vs West Indies Test series in the Caribbean. The national Arts and Crafts Jubilees involved thousands participating in poetry, dance, choral singing, folk culture, classical and popular music, speech, paintings, pottery and sculpture competitions.

It was a grand year, designed to showcase our progress and development over 300 years of association with England. However, it is a year that has become lost among the generation gaps over the decades, and also in the denial that our historical heritage became mixed up with that forced period of colonisation.

The idea was first mooted by the Jamaica Labour Party's finance minister, Donald Sangster, as early as 1951, and was taken over by the new government following the elections of January 12, 1955. The Jamaica 300 celebrations were spearheaded by Premier Norman Manley and ministers Noel Nethersole and Dr Ivan Lloyd. Gleaner editor, Theodore Sealy, was the Committee chairman.

The programme included royal visits from HRH Princess Alice on January 17, and HRH Princess Margaret on February 19, with state visits from President Paul Magloire of Haiti on February 14 and Puerto Rico's Governor Munoz Marina on June 8.

Major showpieces were the Denbigh Agricultural Show on June 8 and 9, the bandwagon, the art and craft exhibitions and the Industrial Fair at the Victoria Market, September to December.

Activities commenced with the staging of the pantomime 'Anancy and the Magic Mirror' at Ward Theatre.

First celebrity celebration

Nat King Cole's sold-out performance at Carib on March 29 was billed as "the first celebrity celebration", while Bim and Bam drew in thousands for 'Healing in the Balmyard' at the Ambassador.

May kicked off with the Boys Brigade All-Island Race which drew 100,000 spectators, and then it was time for the rolling out of the bandwagon concerts, produced by Robert Verity. Performers included the Frats Quintet, Ivy Baxter dancers, Lloyd Hall, Easton Soutar, Mapletoft Poulle, the Shortwood College choir, and the inimitable Louise Bennett and Ranny Williams.

Sports played a special role, with a JAAA track meet at Sabina July 9-13, when Jamaicans fell in love with the Spence twins, Mal and Mel, for their record-breaking performances in the 440 yards and the mile relay.

Twenty-five simultaneous services of thanksgiving were held on New Year's Eve across the island to wrap up the programme.

The crowds moved on to Club Havana, Sugar Hill, Silver Slipper, and Glass Bucket to ring out the old and bring in the new.

In 1955, as in 2010, Jamaicans knew how to party.

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