Neil Richards | The evolution of Emancipation Park

A strong commitment to Jamaica, and considerable sensitivity to history must have guided the decision to name a public park in remembrance of the occasion of freedom of a people from being legally owned, traded and dehumanised.

Emancipation Park, at the corner of Knutsford Boulevard and Oxford Road in the Trafalgar precinct of south-east St Andrew, is a fitting and functional memorial to the ‘freedom come’ occasion on August 1, 1834, which was fully realised at midnight on July 31, 1838.

As a symbol of permanent release from physical enslavement, the park is hopefully serving a deeper purpose than admiration of its features and satisfaction with its recreational offerings.

Though static, except when wind bends its yielding foliage, the park is hopefully a silent ‘influencer’ of freedom from inclinations and actions colloquially referred to as mental slavery. If so, Massa Day would finally be truly done!

Events leading to the emergence of Emancipation Park began during the late 1990s when the local government authority of Kingston & St Andrew granted permission to an applicant who sought approval to subdivide several acres of land adjacent to the southern boundary of Liguanea Club.

The approved subdivision consisted of a cluster of six lots, among which was a comparatively large lot with an area of approximately eight acres (or 3.17 hectares) which was the focus of attention by leading corporate interests whose intention was exclusive use of it. That expectation failed.

Arguments that the largest lot (on which Emancipation Park would emerge) should be used as a business district or a multi-functional entertainment complex were without merit, and unworthy of serious consideration, for the following reasons:

• There would have been considerable overbuild of the site when there were no immediate or medium-term intentions to install extra public engineering infrastructure, and no pending proposals to enhance traffic flow.

• There was not a commendable public park of a particular size and with ideal recreational facilities within the Kingston & St Andrew municipality – which was a quite shocking city-planning deficiency.

• A secondary, but crucial function of such a park would be its potential as a primary evacuation site during a public emergency (acts of God, major fire and other public crisis) within the New Kingston business district and environs.

PUBLIC INTEREST

The public interest was clearly foremost in consideration, when then Prime Minister P. J. Patterson steered decision-making towards public benefit, enabling the site to be ‘set free’ of the prospect of being locked into exclusive private ownership.

In 2002, the Cabinet of the Government of Jamaica granted approval for transfer of the land to the National Housing Trust, on the condition that a park would be built and maintained at that location.

Principal designer of the park was Jamaican architect Kamau Kambui who responded creatively to guidelines that symbols of African ancestry of enslaved Jamaicans should be among an array of other features.

A broad footpath enables pedestrians to walk without hindrance across the belly of the park, with the option to roam to various recreational opportunities.

Personalities who led the achievement of emancipation and de-colonisation are expertly depicted in sculpture atop pedestals along an exhibition pathway that showcases National Heroes.

Born free, brutalised, but undefeated and now risen in strength despite the horrors of enslavement, is not an unreasonable interpretation of the symbolism expressed in the prominent sculpture by Laura Facey at the south-east corner of the park.

FOLIAGE

Carefully selected foliage dominates the setting. The variety of plants include Blue Mahoe, Royal Palms, Bull-Thatch Palms, Lignum Vitae, Poinciana, ‘Poor Man’s Orchid’, and Yellow Poui trees. Lantana, Ixora, Roses and Bougainvillea are among an array of flowering plants. Within the two sidewalks adjacent to the park, trees with the common name ‘Black Olive’ stand like sentinels guarding freedoms gained.

It would be patriotic and a demonstration of personal gratitude if a minute’s silence were observed on location at Emancipation Parkto honour the sacrifice and service of those responsible for the joys of freedom from physical enslavement.

Emancipation Park was officially opened on July 31, 2002. Its value to Jamaica would be even more profound if it is an ‘influencer’ towards pride in heritage, and the belief that “none but ourselves can free our minds’’ from negative-laden values, attitudes and practices.

- Neil Richards is an architect and town planner.