By Esther Figueroa, Ph.D.
Esther Figueroa, Ph.D. is an activist independent film maker, writer, linguist and educator who focuses on the environment, social justice, indigenous knowledges and local content.
September 20, 2019 was Global Climate Strike, and as we look at the photos and videos from around the world, we are especially excited to see the enormous crowds gathered in large cities like New York, thrilled by the huge numbers of people who have come together to call for Urgent Bold Action on the Climate Crisis. Seemingly, the larger the crowd, the more important the location, the more significant the people and their message, the more successful the event.
But on that Friday in Jamaica, we had our Climate Strike in a very different type of place, Stewart Town Trelawny in Cockpit Country, and in a very Jamaican way with music, dance, spoken word, skits and students in their iconic school uniforms. Climate Strike – Save Cockpit Country Day was led by over 200 students, principals, head teachers and specialty teachers from 12 schools: Westwood High School, Stewart Town Primary School, Stewart Town Basic School, Brown’s Town High School, St. Hilda’s High School, William Knibb High School, Albert Town Primary School, Albert Town High School, Cedric Titus High School, Elderslie Primary School, Mulgrave Primary School, and Mount Pleasant Academy. These schools are in the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny and St. Elizabeth.
We chose Stewart Town Trelawny, the epitome of rural Jamaica, a place founded in 1815 and described in a July 24, 2014 Jamaica Gleaner article as “caught up in [a] time warp”, because anti-rural attitudes wrongly assume that such places belong to the past and not to the here and now and god forbid not the future. Stewart Town is in the North Eastern portion of Cockpit Country. It is unfortunately also in Special Mining Lease (SML) 173, the lease that has recently roused strenuous resistance against mining in Jamaica, including a march in Kingston from Heroes Circle to Parliament on Tuesday September 17.
In 2018, Mines and Geology Division granted SML 173 to Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners (NJBP), a public-private partnership between the Government of Jamaica (51% owner) and New Day (49% owner), a US registered corporation that bought this asset when Noranda Bauxite Ltd filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016 and was then restructured as Dada Holdings, LLC. Mining was slated to begin on/by September 20, but has not started because the Environmental Impact Assess-ment (EIA) process is not completed, and therefore the National Resources Conservation Authority has not granted the environmental permit that would allow legal extraction to begin. I am told that mining is planned to take place from Endeavor, St. Ann, all the way to the edge of Stewart Town, to the corner of the police station. There is a rugged trail that goes from Endeavor to the corner of the police station, and this track also happens to be Birds Caribbean’s birding trail, one of the most important birding sites in the Caribbean. If it were to be mined, a huge swathe of trees would be killed and all the vegetation removed, and that would be the end of the forested home of 25 endemic birds of Jamaica. Clearly a case of ecocide.
Myself, Jacqueline (Jacqui) Binns of Cockpit Country Warriors, and IRIE-FM, Jamaica’s leading radio station, organized the September 20 #ClimateStrike_SaveCockpitCountry! Jacqui, a farmer from Trelawny, who also happens to be an educator with 30 years experience as a teacher in the Bronx, New York City, contacted various schools in the area and encouraged them to find creative ways to share their knowledge about the Climate Crisis and to express their commitment to protecting Cockpit Country. In the week leading up to the 20th, IRIE-FM broadcasted and streamed information about Cockpit Country and the negative economic, social, environmental and health impacts of bauxite mining and the aluminum industry in Jamaica. And on Global Climate Strike day, IRIE was live in Stewart Town. Their outside broadcast began at six in the morning with DJ Amber and IRIE’s very popular morning show, aptly named The Wake Up Call. At ten o’clock the outside broadcast continued with Digital Chris’ Easy Skanking show until two in the afternoon. For this segment of the broadcast, renowned Dub Poet and IRIE-FM talk show host Muta Baruka was live from Stewart Town. The students and teachers were thrilled to interact with Muta, he interviewed many, and their voices were heard across Jamaica and the world.
The day began with bright sunshine, a shower of rain came in the early afternoon and cooled everything down, the sun returned and later heavy rain fell in the late afternoon. It was a joyful celebratory day where the students expressed their deep love and pride for the rural parts of Jamaica in which they live, and their commitment to protecting Cockpit Country. Each school participated in their own style, some shared information about climate change, others sang new songs or performed poetry they had written for the occasion, and the chant NO Mining punctuated their performances.
The students and their educators were joined by over 200 people from across Jamaica, including rastafari, maroons, church leaders, environmentalists, Cockpit Country residents, visitors, artists and performers, all united in demonstrating their support for protecting ALL of Cockpit Country. Our impromptu MC was Rachel Allen, a climate change expert who comes from a part of Manchester devastated by mining and alumina processing which has damaged her health and the health of all her family. Wendy Lee, long time environmentalist from St. Ann, who has been taking birding tours to Stewart Town for over fifteen years, was happy to see lines of people signing her petition to make the Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG) boundary recognized as the boundary for the Cockpit Country Protected Area. The CCSG boundary would protect places like Stewart town and the birding trail which are currently left out of the 2017 designated Cockpit Country Protected Area. Chief Pink of the Kushu Town Maroons (Scott’s Hall) spoke to the participants and blew his sacred abeng, expressing the undivided promise of all Maroons that there will be no mining in Cockpit Country which is Maroon territory. No Retreat! No Surrender! Other speakers included Hugh Dixon, founder of South Trelawny Environment Association and long-time advocate for protecting Cockpit Country, who explained in detail the ecology of Cockpit Country and the damage that mining would do. Valerie Dixon, Leader of the Marcus Garvey Movement (UNIA-ACL), talked about economic alternatives to mining. Diana McCaulay, founder and past CEO of Jamaica Environment Trust, another environmental organization with a long history of advocating for Cockpit Country, spoke with DJ Amber about the value of Cockpit Country. I also spoke with Amber about the threat of mining and why we were having the event in Stewart Town, and I filmed most of the day’s activities.
This being Jamaica, music is essential to conveying any message or creating the right vibe for a social gathering, so our house band were the Muzic Medz who can play any tune! They are from Albert Town Trelawny and include guitar player Mr. Reid who is the music teacher at Albert Town High School. Long time environmental and social advocates Tony Rebel and Queen Ifrica livened up the place. They have been stalwart in their call for NO mining in Jamaica and protecting ALL of Cockpit Country. As beloved national and international stars, these musicians’ ability to reach a very wide audience has brought attention to SML 173 and Cockpit Country in a way that only entertainers can bring. Rebel, who has called on other performers and famous athletes to join the cause, spoke to the gathering and performed his classic hit Sweet Jamaica – What A Nice Place To Live. Ifrica ended her set with her ground breaking song Daddy, against the sexual abuse of children, which was especially poignant given that she was singing to children and teenagers. Shasell Wilson, a Cedric Titus High School student, rocked the place with her amazing musical talent and charisma as she sang her original song No Mining, and her stirring rendition of the Whitney Houston hit The Greatest Love of All. Nana EQ did an ingenious and entertaining set including her reworking of Madonna’s hit Borderline to sing about the fight over Cockpit Country borders. There were other entertainers, including three from Panos Caribbean’s 2019 Voices for Climate Change Education project: Sister Mezmoore Fari poet and spoken word artist came to Stewart Town from White River St. Ann; and Swain “Rebellion” Washington and Calvin “City Lock” Scott Jr. came all the way from Rocky Point, Clarendon, to bring their messages about climate change and calls to action. It is fitting that the coastal dwellers came to the mountains to celebrate Cockpit Country, because the connectivity of Cockpit Country goes all the way from the mountains into the sea, as the rivers that begin in Cockpit Country flow into the sea, eels that live in the sea are born in Cockpit Country rivers, and every night bats fly from their homes in Cockpit Country caves to the coastline. Cockpit Country is directly connected to over half of Jamaica and knows no human boundaries.
Our demands for #ClimateStrike_SaveCockpitCountry are:
- Take the lives of our children and future generations seriously by immediate global actions to counter the devastation of the human made Climate Crisis
- Protect ALL of Cockpit Country not just the designated Cockpit Country Protected Area
- No Mining in ALL of Cockpit Country
- No Environmental Permit for Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners SML 173
- Review the practices of the Aluminum industry in Jamaica which is the leading cause of deforestation, pollutes the soil, water and air, makes residents ill, damages local agriculture, disenfranchises and impoverishes rural Jamaicans.
- Devise an exit plan for the Aluminum Industry in Jamaica, including options for economic replacement and reparations for the communities that have been sacrificed to the industry.
On Friday, September 20, 2019 in Stewart Town Trelawny, the message was clear: We cannot be so selfish, lazy, fearful, paralyzed, to allow business as usual as the forests burn and are cut down for mining, logging, cattle ranching and agri-business, as our oceans are filled with plastics, more green house gases than they can absorb and are warming at alarming rates. Jamaica is highly vulnerable to the Climate Crisis, already feeling the effects of global warming through sea level rise that is eroding our shorelines and beaches, killing our coral reefs, bringing record high temperatures, longer droughts and causing more powerful storms. Cockpit Country forests, the lungs of Jamaica, are essential to protecting Jamaica from the ravages of global warming and climate change, and must not be destroyed.
Our next action is today at the United Nations, Monday September 23rd, at 2:00PM at 1st Ave and East 45th St. in New York. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness will be addressing the United Nations Summit on Climate Change. This is a call for the Jamaican and Caribbean diaspora and all those who support us in this struggle. Wear Black, Green and Gold, bring the Jamaican flag, your colourful placards, and take a stand against mining in the Cockpit Country.
To find out more about Cockpit Country visit face book pages: Protect Jamaica’s Cockpit Country; Cockpit Country Warriors; Jamaica Environment Trust. Visit web pages www.cockpitcountry.com; www.savecockpitcountry.org. Follow the Jamaica Environment Trust on twitter and instragram. And you can watch my videos on my youtube channel (Esther Figueroa) including:
“Cockpit Country Voices From Jamaica’s Heart” (2007): http://youtu.be/x2Psj_UcqQY
“Cockpit Country Is Our Home” (2012): http://youtu.be/ylqTfu07PJA
To Sign the Petition:
