The healing stream

Lance Neita, Contributor

Jamaica's indigenous culture remains the saving grace for a country battered by crime, economic woes, indiscipline, natural disasters, and political wranglings.

We have been repeatedly savaged by acts of violence and a coarseness that have threatened to uproot our social stability. It must be the traditions and values inherited from earlier generations that help us to withstand the shocks from the daily outrage.

In spite of the hardships and the constant struggles to meet the cost of living, Jamaicans continue to smile and to perform deeds of kindness and unselfishness. We seem able to draw down on an inner strength and resolve forged out of a background of religion and morals inculcated into many of us at an early age.

This is not meant to be a rhapsody about contentment. The reality is that notwithstanding the recent 'satisfaction polls', we live on edge. Too many of our people face life in the shadows of relatives or friends lost to the gun, coping with fear, or going through forced removal from home communities to find more secure shelter at addresses unknown.

Sense of humour

Often it is our culture of kindness and sense of humour that forms a wedge to protect our sanity. We have been fortunate to have had a Bim and Bam, a Miss Lou and Mass Ran, and the irrepressible Oliver, to show us how to laugh at our misfortunes and ourselves.

Many years ago, my mother fainted while shopping on King Street and was immediately helped up by a group of those rotund women who traditionally sold Christmas cards on the sidewalk by the General Post Office.

By the time I reached the scene, the street vendors were fanning her vigorously and rubbing her with white rum. To my surprise, she opened her eyes and started laughing. Later she explained, "I had to get up when I heard one of the ladies insisting 'Rub her foot, Zelda, da part dey always ded fus'."

Some of our secrets are locked so tightly in the village vault that not even the chronicles of Roving with Lalah can expose them.

Ask for someone in a village by name and watch the pursed lips and the eyes 'quinting' at each other without any response. The person will not be identified unless you can give up your name, and the reason for wanting to find him.

Be warned that if anyone in the crowd breaks out into song, then you have had it. Singing is a means of communication when talk is prohibited. Much information and instruction can be conveyed through simple songs.

A donkey derby

Then there are the traditions that are quietly carried on outside of the limelight and the glare of the media. At Calderwood in the Dry Harbour Mountains of St Ann, they have been celebrating the August 1 holiday for years with a donkey derby. It was a tradition started long before Independence. The villagers have stoutly maintained August 1 as the correct holiday date handed down by their ancestors, and have kept up their celebrations every year even after August 6 was declared the official holiday date in 1962.

Closer to the ground, 'day work' or 'morning heat' where neighbours turn out to help with field clearing, house building, or yam, hill digging is a tradition based on unselfishness and neighbourly help.

Alexander Bedward still has a following through his church founded in St Thomas, and is remembered for his eccentricities which led him to declare that on December 31, 1920, he would fly to heaven. Thousands of Jamaicans and followers from as far as Central America and around the Caribbean flocked to August Town to witness Bedward's ascension. Unfortunately, it failed to take place as he recanted and said it wasn't the right time.

Bedward is still regarded as a folk hero who sprang from the mass of the people and his story inspired several songs, including the immortal Sly Mongoose and The Healing Stream.

There are countless similar stories of everyday life around Jamaica which demonstrate the capacity of Jamaicans to find space, patience and courage when facing the harsh realities of life. Our vast repertoire of cultural practices and behaviour find expression in a steely resolve to carry on regardless.

Comments may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com or lanceneita@hotmail.com

Our vast repertoire of cultural practices and behaviour find expression in a steely resolve to carry on regardless.