Outstanding issues of Coral Gardens massacre will be addressed - Grange

WESTERN BUREAU:

OLIVIA ‘BABSY’ Grange, minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, has given the assurance that the Government is committed to dealing with all outstanding issues of compensation to members of the Coral Gardens Benevolence Society in relation to land, cultural facilities, and educational assistance to their children.

“I know there were some issues that were still outstanding, and we are addressing them. We have addressed some financial issues already, just recently, and the other matters will be addressed,” Grange said on Saturday at an official ceremony to honour Ethiopia’s late Emperor Haile Selassie’s grandson, His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, with the Keys to the City of Montego Bay.

That commitment from Grange came shortly after Gregory Taylor, chairman of the Carol Gardens Benevolence Society, called out the Government on unfulfilled promises it made to the affected members of the Rastafarian community for the atrocity meted out to them by the State 59 years ago.

Taylor, who teaches information technology at Cornwall College, pleaded his case to the Government in front of Prince Ermias, where he highlighted several critical areas that are of grave concern to his members. He also noted that a promise to provide scholarships for Rasta survivors’ children is not being addressed.

Remind the Government

“We also need to remind the Government of the following recommendations which have not yet been addressed. That the State assists the Rastafarian community to develop a monument or museum for the preservation of culture. Second, the State creates a public document outlining all forms of discrimination against the Rastafarian community,” urged Taylor.

“And third, that the State assists members of the Rastafarian community who want to repatriate back the homeland,” he said.

Amid those demands, Taylor thanked the Government for what it has done so far, which includes the provision of $112 million by way of a trust fund, which is being distributed proportionally to survivors of the Coral Gardens incident in 1963, on a monthly basis. This includes the provision of an elder care home with caregivers, whose services are being paid for entirely by the State.

Responding to the demands, Grange said the National Land Agency has not yet completed the transfer of land as previously requested.

“I searched my email and found that there was no response to a letter that was sent to the National Land Agency to transfer the land in Albion. Your member of parliament, Dr Horace Chang, deputy prime minister, was under the impression that the transfer was done. And when I heard that there was this concern, I did my research and found out that the transaction was not completed. It will be completed,” Grange assured the Rastafarian community.

Dispute over lands

The 1963 massacre reportedly stemmed from an incident in which a Rastafarian sympathiser, Rudolf Franklin, was shot and seriously injured by a property owner in a dispute over lands. Franklin and others decided to exact revenge by burning down the Ken Douglas Shell service station. That incident caused a massive state crackdown on Rastafarians. Three Rastafarians, three other civilians and two policemen died as a result of that incident.

Then Prime Minister, Alexander Bustamante went to St James with the commissioner of police and head of the Jamaica Defence Force. A strong detachment of police from neighbouring parishes was dispatched to Coral Gardens and surrounding areas, where more than 150 ‘bearded men’ were rounded up and arrested.

In 2017, Prime Minister Andrew Holness acknowledged that the Coral Gardens incident had been a source of pain and hurt for the Rastafarian community.

“The Coral Gardens incident was a grave injustice,” Holness said in Gordon House, while promising that such an incident would never occur again in Jamaica.

Pinnacle in St Catherine, where Leonard Howell, founder of Rastafarianism in Jamaica, established the first Rastafarian community in 1940 was designated a protected heritage site, which would also include a Rastafari village.

Heritage site

President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, Prince Ermias, noted that history has recorded different versions of the 1963 incident committed against the Rastafarians, having now heard from the survivors themselves.

“It’s funny because you read things in the history books, but when you actually meet the people who are victims of it, there is a whole other sense, it’s a whole other feeling, so it brings reality home,” said Prince Ermias, who was in Jamaica as a special guest of the Government for National Heritage Week celebrations, which ran from October 9-17.

“...The fact that you have invited me to participate in this healing is very humbling for me, and I know Minister Grange will do what she says ...,” the Ethiopian prince said.

“And I am particularly grateful to the Rastafarian community, who have held up our flag and our heritage high when nobody was standing beside us,” he added.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com