Through turmoil and triumph: The Tivoli programme

Part 1 of this feature - 'The Tivoli Gardens community-development model' - was published June 13, 2010.

Edward Seaga, Contributor

I created the Tivoli Gardens community-development model to fill a vital need in the development of housing schemes in the area. Rehousing the population of West Kingston was my primary objective when I became a member of Parliament for the constituency in 1962. The existing housing was among the oldest in the city. It consisted of wooden buildings that were 50 to 100 years old or more. Many others were built with mortar and bricks without any steel reinforcement. In some cases, it was possible to see houses with parts of the external wall in a collapsed state, exposing the inner area.

Back-o-wall was the logical starting point because of what existed for housing. Premier Norman Manley discovered in 1961 during a tour of the area, "shacks, the walls of which were made of pieces of rotten wood and cardboard and crocus bags covered with rusty sheets of zinc."

The area had to be demolished and redeveloped.

This redevelopment gave me the opportunity to use my experience gained through research in the area, carried out a decade earlier, to create not just a housing scheme, but a community with all the facilities needed for social and cultural development, from womb to tomb, benefiting all age groups.

Government financed the housing for sale and rent, as was customary, and I financed, through the newly formed West Kingston Trust and several private donors, a huge community centre, a mother-and-child complex (maternity centre, creche and basic school), playfields for football and netball (basketball followed later). It was a perfect partnership and it created the most comprehensive social-and-cultural development programme for major inner-city urban areas.

Had the area experienced peace on a continuous basis, the result of the programme would have been fully successful. As it turned out, however, it was subjected, from its fifth year, to serious disruptions and dislocations of one type or another.

When the government of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) lost the general election of 1972, the new People's National Party (PNP) administration of Michael Manley vindictively sent soldiers and police to remove all the equipment used for the training programmes in the community centre. These were put in storage and never used again. The students in training were enrolled in the Tivoli Gardens Junior Secondary school across the way, where the curriculum was expanded to incorporate these studies.

Lost intensity

The rest of the programme in cultural and social development continued. But not for long. The community of Tivoli Gardens was the target of political attacks, sporadically, throughout the decade. The instructors in folk singing, painting and sculpture soon withdrew their services. Those programmes with local instructors, modelling, steel band and drama, continued. But as the decade of the 1970s grew increasingly violent, the students became fearful and virtually all cultural programmes ceased. In the area of sports, however, football and netball continued.

After the next change of government in 1980, with no further threats of violence occurring, most of the programmes resumed, but not with the same intensity as the mood of the country had changed and the focus was now on employment. Further, after Bob Marley died, Jamaican popular music shifted from the 'conscious' lyrics of Marley's reggae to the more raucous deejay music, incorporating 'slackness'. Later, this morphed even more into brazen bling-bling styles of dress for sound-system dances and generally.

The use of drugs became more evident. The centre of activities shifted to the street from indoor settings. Dancehall had arrived. This musical form has dominated the music scene from the late 1980s to the present.

As narcotics trade and use of drugs intensified, gang activity grew. With that came murders and a heightened focus on finding money to afford the bling-bling, sex-driven lifestyle. Gang violence reached a peak in 1994 in the Tivoli area and I gave the names of 13 gang leaders to the police, including Christopher Coke, to bring them to police attention. In so doing, I put my life and career on the line. The police did nothing.

I had to use personal 'bullyism' to condemn atrocities and subdue the area. While that was successful to a point, had the police taken appropriate steps at the early stage, the growth of gang activity could have been moderated over later years. Instead, the security forces invaded Tivoli in 1997 and west Kingston (including Tivoli) in 2001, killing more than 30 innocent people. Not one gun nor gunman was found in 1997, nor 2001. Killing gunmen is one thing. Killing innocent people is another.

With all these distressing factors, some aspects of the cultural and social programmes continued - the Tivoli Dancers, the pre-eminent community dance troupe has maintained a long record of success, winning more gold medals in the annual Jamaica Festival than any other community group. It is so successful that it is able to stage its own recital every year at the Little Theatre to packed houses. In the recent festival, in the 18 categories of dance which they entered, they won 18 gold medals. The sports programme is also highly successful. In this past year, the results in the top-three community sports played in Jamaica in national competitions, Tivoli won the national championship in basketball, netball and was second in football. No other community equalled this record. The overall results show Tivoli to be the most successful community in sports, collectively, in the island.

A resident speaks

Little of these successes cited above, and others, would have been possible without the in-depth community-development programme of West Kingston. But it is not for me to speak. Let a resident, Winsome Dobson, speak through her voluntary testimonial to me on my retirement from active politics, published in The Daily Gleaner, January 22, 2005, incorporated in the last chapter of volume two of my autobiography:

"It is my conviction that when a person makes a difference in another's life, no matter how minuscule, credit must be given to that person while he/she has his/her faculties intact, and most importantly, before he/she expires.

"Shortly, after the last general election when it seemed as if all problems were heading your way, I decided to let you know that despite the trials and negativities, I, a member of your West Kingston community, am extremely grateful to you for fostering Tivoli Gardens, and affording me the rich, colourful, cultural and enviable childhood I experienced. Nevertheless, I should be charged with procrastination, because I have put this acknowledgement on hold.

"Mr Seaga, I thank you, and I know I speak for all of us that experienced the Tivoli Gardens that the young, vibrant Edward Seaga developed. You gave us Vincent Douglas, who placed us in the dance arena as the group to reckon with. You gave us Trinny - the sculpture instructor, as it was your dream to make us well rounded. You gave us the New Vibration Band that gave Morvin Brooks his break into the music world. Olive Lewin was among the numerous gifts you gave us, as she fine-tuned the voices of the Tivoli Gardens folk singers.

"Babsy did a thing in modeling with the help of Enid, teaching us young ladies posture and ethics. The summer camps with Mayor McKenzie added life and colour to one's composition when school reopened in September. Mr Seaga, you brought into our lives Mr Lazarus, an unforgettable man.

"Mr Lazarus kept us disciplined. He was a gem of a man. May God rest his soul. However, as a child whose single parent could not afford Christmas gifts, the best ever time for me was Christmas time when you presented me with those gifts. (It was my sister's child who destroyed the blender she got from you as a child, and a straw box that my cousin received, my grandmother kept her documents in up to her death in 2000).

"The annual float parades that we entered are so vivid in my mind, as well as the annual cultural-magazine publication, the frequent JIS film presentations, featuring the evolution of Tivoli from 'Back-a-wall' to Tivoli. Mr Seaga, you thought of everything for the new Tivoli. There was a First-Aid room, a library (still in service) and a business school among other things housed in the Tivoli Gardens community centre. The existing football, netball, drum corps, basketball and extinct cricket and softball teams were all your dreams. This community centre was parallel to none in the island. It kept us occupied and out of trouble and, again, we are thankful.

"Regrettably, now when I pass this community centre, I feel nothing. I see a building, that's all, but when I reminisce at home with friends and family, I will tell you that place comes alive and seems so real with passion and emotions. These are treasured memories that I keep with me and go down memory lane, momentarily, with those who can relate, and/or inform those who came long after.

"We truly have been blessed, for outside of the negative propaganda we have been well-packaged and marketed by the master himself, that we cannot be denied culturally. Thanks to you, for unlike most fathers in Jamaica, you stood by us. You come to see us any hour of the day and I cannot say this for any other member of Parliament. Tivoli may have been the primary reason for your popularity, or lack of it, and I know if you had to do it again you would, because of your unconditional love for this place. You could have chosen another constituency but you stayed with us through all the perils. An unknown writer once said, 'Love at first sight is no miracle. When two people have been lookingat each other for years, that's a miracle.'

"On behalf of my sisters who have been urging me to pen this acknowledgement, I want to say thank you. You are a part of our blueprint and we are truly grateful. Walk good and may God bless you and may you come to know God for what he truly is."

Sylvia Robinson says, "Some people think it's a holding on that makes one strong. Sometimes it's letting go."

Ironically, the stability which the business sector needs is the same stability Tivoli Gardens seeks to get on with its work to make more young people bloom like flowers again.

Edward Seaga is a former prime minister and is currently a distinguished fellow at UWI. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.