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Monday,
December 07, 2015

11:15 PM

'Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive!'

Published:Sunday
| April 7, 2013 | 12:00 AM

Carolyn Cooper, Contributor

Those
are the infamous words of Sir Alexander Bustamante, national hero and first
prime minister of independent Jamaica. Bustamante's turn of phrase comes
straight out of the Wild West: "Wanted dead or alive." Bustamante
apparently conceived all Rastafarians as outlaws in a Hollywood western who had
to be exterminated by any means necessary.

Issuing a death sentence,
Bustamante literally turned all Rastafarians into villains. Guilty or innocent,
they could no longer expect to enjoy the protection of the law. All
Rastafarians were completely demonised and became victims of comprehensive
state brutality. How did this come about?

Half a century ago, at about 4
a.m. on 'Holy' Thursday, six bearded men set fire to a gas station in Coral
Gardens. They were armed with machetes, guns, bows and arrows. I suppose it was
cowboys and Indians, Jamrock style. The leader was Rudolph 'Franco' Franklyn,
who had a big grievance against the owner of the gas station, Ken Douglas.

Franklyn and several other
bearded men had long been squatting on land in Coral Gardens. They lived in
relative peace until the land was sold to Douglas. Naturally, the new owner
asserted his right to the property and attempted to drive the squatters off the
land. As is often the case, the squatters refused to budge.

During one of several attempts
at eviction, Franklyn was shot by the police. He survived but was told by a
medical doctor that he would die sooner rather than later from a bullet lodged
in his body. Determined to take revenge on his assailants, Franklyn sought
allies to launch his counter-attack.

DREADLOCKS
AND COMBSOME

At the time, there were two
groups of Rastafarians living in MoBay: the dreadlocks and the combsome. The
dreadlocks lived on Railway Lane and the combsome squatted in Coral Gardens.
Franklyn irrationally proposed that both groups of Rastas join forces to burn
down Montego Bay. The dreadlocks rejected the scheme on the basis that Rastas
defend 'peace and love'.

Franklyn, who seemed to
subscribe to the philosophy "I don't give a damn, I done dead
already", pressed along with his plans. Instead of burning down all of
MoBay, he settled for Douglas' gas station, an obviously flammable target.

On the morning of the attack,
there was only one attendant at the station, Mr George Plummer, who fled for
his life to the nearby Edgewater Inn Motel. He, clearly, had no shares in the
company. A Mr Marsh, who was at the motel, foolishly ventured out to investigate
the matter. In a most unfortunate turn of affairs, he was murdered. By midday,
seven others lost their lives, including Franklyn.

According to a Gleaner report published on April 13, 1963, "The Montego Bay Fire Brigade had responded to
the fire alert at 4:53 a.m. from the house of Dr Carol Delisser. The blaze at
the gas station was brought under control after 5 a.m. led by Supt Sydney
Burke, who joined the police squad that rushed up from Montego Bay under
Inspector Fisher. Five vehicles, including two civilians, started into the
hills after the Rastafarian gang. Among those chasing the gang was Mr Causwell,
who was on his way to Kingston but decided to give some help to the chase.

"They
drove through two miles of rough terrain from the ruins of Rose Hall Great
House. The search party ran into the gang or rather ran into an ambush. The
bearded men attacked from an overhanging cliff above. In the fight which
ensued, two of the gang were shot to death and Corporal Melbourne and Mr
Causwell were cut down. By then, it was discovered later that Headman Fowler
had been already cut down about a mile from his home on Tryall Farm."

The day's gruesome events
became known as 'the Coral Gardens Incident'. But this was much more than an
isolated 'incident'. Franklyn's murderous rampage was a sign of the fundamental
inequities of Jamaican society. Landlessness is a recurring a problem which has
never been properly addressed by successive pre- and post-Independence
governments.

WINSTON
CHURCHILL'S CIGARS

The response of Bustamante's
government to the terrible actions of six bearded men was brutally excessive:
"Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive!" Why should all Rastafarians be
exterminated because of the actions of six men, especially since the ringleader
had already been killed? Bustamante's irrational call signified much more than
a need to restore the peace. The Coral Gardens 'Incident' was a chilling
episode in a long history of state violence against Rastafari.

In 1954, under the premiership
of Bustamante, a major Rastafarian encampment, Pinnacle, was burnt down. The
camp was located in St Jago Hills, close to Sligoville. Pinnacle was a
productive agricultural hub, yielding rich crops such as cassava, peas, corn
and, of course, ganja. Maintaining African traditions of collective labour,
Pinnacle flourished under the leadership of Leonard Howell.

French journalist Hélène Lee,
author of The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and
the Rise of Rastafarianism, published in 2004, proposes that Howell was
the first Jamaican 'don' in the best possible sense of that word. He was a don
in the British sense of a university professor. Howell was a Garveyite who
valued scholarship.

He was also a charismatic
community leader who gave hope to landless Rastafari who left Kingston's
concrete jungle for the hills of St Catherine. Pinnacle comprised approximately
5,000 acres, even though Howell owned only a conservative estimate of 150 acres
and, possibly, up to 400.

According to anecdotal
evidence, much of the ganja produced at Pinnacle found its way to the warfront
during the Second European War. Ganja was seen as therapy for the troops. It
was even rumoured that Winston Churchill's famous cigars contained much more
than tobacco. In 1953, Churchill visited Jamaica, staying at the Tower Isle
hotel. Was there any connection between his visit and the destruction of
Pinnacle? I leave the answer to conspiracy theorists.

Carolyn
Cooper is a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the
West Indies, Mona. Visit her bilingual blog at http://carolynjoycooper.wordpress.com. Email feedback to [email-masked] and [email-masked].

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