Hurricane Gilbert: A Jamaican Saga

By Desmond Lloyd Levene

Hurricane Gilbert: A Jamaican Saga is a story told from the beginning of the island's culture to its current existence. An introduction depicts ships, explorers, the need to occupy, a chronology of conquistadors, natives shocked with reality, the battle for a new hemisphere, slaves scattered in a diaspora, and Michael Manley introducing the politics of change.

Fast-forward to the presence of Melvin and Vanessa Lex that is told through the eyes of their son, Michael. It also reveals an antagonist with a need to possess every dollar he could claim. Rooted with love and romance, Michael and Jessica met in high school one day when it rained. He did his best to conceal a fear of lightning and thunder while she was enthralled with his handsome, chiseled demeanor and instantly found love at first sight--a delight distinct readers will appreciate. She blurted out, "Hey, new boy," and thus, the conversation started between two unstoppable forces.

Moments later Jessica's father is found dead, drifting in his fisherman's dinghy. Slowly, silently, the reader is exposed to a gutless profile of an antagonist gone loose.

Michael is sent off to England to pursue a career path designed by his father. He returned in midsemesters and somberly laid to rest his mother and father. The loss of both parents sent psychological shockwaves into Michael's being, transforming him into a journey; as time progresses, what seemed like a freak accident gradually unfolds as the murder plot that it is.

The boy returns from his studies with a bride on his arms, shattering the bond of love in devoted Jessica--a love which directed her not to relinquish. She is forced to make statements like, "I am a twenty-five-year-old virgin in love with a boy I met one day when it rained."

Hours earlier, she watched as he became married to another.

In only a moment, Michael and his new wife are ambushed by the antagonist whose intent to cover his tracks is laced with blood.

A background of Jamaican realities serves as stocking stuffers or a plate of ackee and salt fish as we follow our protagonist through life and death and love situations. At one point, it is climaxing the very moment Hurricane Gilbert creeps across the island to a final resolution as the antagonist is revealed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781098097011

Book preview

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Hurricane Gilbert

A Jamaican Saga

Desmond Lloyd Levene

ISBN 978-1-0980-9700-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-9701-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Desmond Lloyd Levene

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Dedicated to Raymond Garfield South. Raymond has been a major constructive influence in my life. As I will be engraved in futuristic stone, I’m honored to have him beside me.

Introduction

The Calm

The moment information surfaced of Christopher Columbus’s discoveries in the New World and the mention of treasures awaiting the picking, the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella solicited support from the Pope to solidify their claims of occupying the world. Thus, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed on June 7, 1494, and authenticated by Spain on the second of July and by Portugal on the fifth of September of that same year. According to the treaty, the non-Christian world or the newly discovered lands outside of Europe were divided into sections by, the Spanish-born pope, Pope Alexander VI. Half of the land was then awarded to the Portuguese and the other portion given to the Crown of Castile. At that point in time, the pope of Rome was the most powerful man on earth, and the payoff was done solely in the name of quelling a war between the Spanish and the Portuguese.

In the late fourteen centuries in the Caribbean hemisphere, the New World was invaded by exploring nations who concentrated primarily on mapping and documenting its oceans, seas, and waterways. Spanish explorers, the conquistadors emerged with a main focus to pillage the inland in search of gold and natural wealth. In only a moment, they had almost wiped out the aboriginals and enslaved their survivors by claiming validity on the pretext that they owned all newly discovered lands.

Christopher Columbus—the foremost Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist—sailed into Jamaica in 1494 and asserted himself discoverer. The native Yainos were in awe as they witnessed firsthand the shock of differences in skin and ethnicity. They had never seen white men or ships before. Must be from heaven, thought the natives and welcomed them with open arms. They transmitted their understandings of life, a sense of purpose, devotion to God, first and foremost, and their immense love for Xaymaca—the land.

The visitors absorb the language and teachings, assessed the soil for its agricultural novelties, and helped themselves to food, women, and whatever gold in sight. A review of Columbus’s journal disclosed that he was fixated on finding gold. He wrote about the precious metal seventy times in the first twenty-four hours he spent on the island. The natives resisted long and hard for many years till one grim, gray day when the Spanish Armada appeared and pounded them into fear. In only a moment, the populace subdued to being conquered, settled, ravaged, and pillaged. They were then forced to decipher Santiago—a new name for the island and also the fact that the land belonged to the King and Queen of Spain.

A few decades later, the other half of the globe was again divided by the pope in what was classified as the Treaty of Zaragoza. This act signed on April 22, 1529, established the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Throughout the next two centuries, Spain cemented its legacy as the first nation to create a universal dominion derived from birthright and occupation of regions in the old world and the New World—their inheritance. The Caribbean Sea, with its excess of sugar islands, and Peru, with its silver mines, were the most valuable in the Spanish treasury. Amplified trade between Europe and Asia Pacific inspired an era of piracy—armed contingents who robbed and pillaged coastal towns and vessels transporting goods on the water. The European landowner has had to follow their mandate to coagulate trading, colonizing rights, and to construct a broader base for their cultures and religions.

Bloody onslaughts, invasions, nations with navigation and artillery technology entered the Caribbean sphere. They contended across and beyond the area for outright ownership of the established New World. A corral of challengers vied for the prize, but none appeared and established themselves mightier than the British Empire. Under the leadership of William Penn in 1655, the British surrounded the island, fought for many years, and eventually chased the Spaniards out to sea. After the dust was cleared, a parliament, templates of British monarchy, were established, and within the same breath, a new name for the island became Jamaica. Right there and then, the victors scrutinized the spoil. To their amazement, the empire had inherited three hundred thousand African slaves in the process. It was a period of political turmoil and inadequacy. A horde of scrutinized slaves took advantage of the uneasy mode by escaping into the interior and formed large defended communes such as the Maroons. In the meantime, the British were a nation building.

The coastal town of Port Royal was one of the first major communities constructed in that era. It was designed to facilitate its huge harbor as a principal seaport to launch and receive vessels in the Caribbean and beyond.

The island was also divided into parishes and counties while religious codes, securities via penal institutions, police force, and the judiciary gained center stage. Hence, for the better part of the next two centuries, Jamaica prospered under the Elizabethan rule. At some point, the island’s destinations were considered a gem for tourism and, for the most part, settlement. A horde of pioneers arrived—whether presold or instant money—and took control of the fat of the land establishing massive mining, cultivations, and choice farming industries were built to withstand the test of time.

The populace increased, and so did almost one million Blacks who accepted their roles and contributed fundamentals by becoming the lower-class workforce; they adhered to rules and principles that assisted the society to strive. On the other hand, they had no choice. The system of oppression and segregation were firmly in place. Move and keep on moving or six months at hard labor and ten lashes were the orders of the day. A land with no real owner brews resistance. The argument we too have a right will ultimately emerge. About the same time, the American society was getting ready to embrace the Emancipation Proclamation. A small band of men assessed, only twenty thousand whites governed over one million and attempted revolt in Morant Bay, Jamaica. The rebellion was easily crushed betwixt fear and the hangman’s knot. In retrospect, the native’s plight was legacies of domination and slavery. Unable to fight the good fight, they buried their anger and remained idle till the turn of the century.

By the 1920s, women had the privilege to vote. A decade later, crown colony government in Jamaica had failed; social unrest was established as one of the main contributors. Responsible government from then on was a sought-after commodity. The contract to vote had shifted from men owning property to the man and woman’s right to suffrage. It was at that point that our Right and Left emerged and begun to slowly organize the nation. The Right and Left charted the same course but with different ideals and slogans citing the appalling need for better wages and living conditions. Although their intentions intended to motivate society, the importance of principles and individual responsibilities were catalysts that eluded them. Alas, the people were inspired but a deadly image emerged: one I will classify the division. The then two million descendants of slaves, aboriginals, and the master mix of illiterates unleashed a type of hate on each other—hatred that developed long before and carried like a malignant disease across the middle passage.

Before and when we lived on the continent, our ancestors dwelled in areas surrounded by tribal conflicts. Every tribe had a different enemy. Now, imagine all those people picked up and stockpiled in a pickle barrel. The next time they saw a friend or foe was on the work grounds surviving under the blistering sun. Given no time to settle differences, we drifted from one phase to the next. The problem exasperated while the society naturally progressed into the house of politics, and the immediate exposure was corruption paralleled with social disorder. The empire clearly understood what was happening; the same cycle was repeating itself in mostly all their other colonies.

After World War II, expenditures and human loss had taken its toll on the empire. The hold on power drastically slipped out of their hands. The colonization of too many settlements and huge involvement in multiple wars condensed the once Great Britain to a silhouette of its former glory. They had no choice but to grant us independence and departed us saying, Now, it is your turn to procure a nation. Jamaicans soak up these words. The price tag for independence was no different from slaves scattered in a diaspora and centuries of financial deprivation. Actually, it was none other than a condensed version.

Our island, the third largest of the Greater Antilles and the fifth principal in the Caribbean still had values but not its own constitution. It was quite alarming when our Right and Left realized we could not shed ties with the colonial past as easy as we thought. The British had left us with a price tag called constitutional reform. They knew beforehand that the character of the state, the nature of politics, and power can only change when the state has its own constitution. Better yet, no Caribbean nation that post their independence has ever accomplished constitutional reform. Even though the British’s constitutional acts very seldom provides amending formulas, the only country to have successfully modified the British-North American act and achieved constitutional reform are the Canadians.

Chapter 1

The Storm—The Politics of Change

On February 29, 1972, Michael Joshua Manley premeditated a new political order with a landslide victory in elections held that night; he was armed with his rod of correction—a walking stick made out of ivory and mostly wood given to him by his imperial Majesty Haile Selassie. Whenever Manley appeared with the rod, the often large crowd would react with excitement and chant melodies, Beat them with the rod of correction.

Manley’s better must come catchphrase, laced with reggae music trends, gained national support from the full-blown Rastafarian sector who revered Haile Selassie as Jesus Christ reincarnated and a society that was ready to embrace a new era in Jamaican politics. Manley became our first known star when he declared himself Joshua and suggested to the people that God appointed him on their side. In his own diligent manner, Michael tried his very best to convey to us the importance to love one another and especially our existence as a nation. Nevertheless, his rise to power was linked primarily to his affiliation with the communist bloc who secretly financed his great intentions. A zeal external forces in the guise of imperialism or better yet the CIA could not afford to give rise to a proclaimed comrade of Fidel Castro.

Within that same vein, Bob Marley and the Wailers uttered songs of praise, love, and freedom of the mind. They unleashed Three Little Birds to deliver natural mystic to a people involved in a rat race. Bob Marley’s greatest lament reminded us that Wi no know how we and dem a-go work it out, but someone will ’ave to pay for the innocent blood that they shed every day.

The historic elections and messages from the conscious mind were the catalysts which attracted pundits from a world community to invade Trench Town. They celebrated and danced for the next few weeks. While one part of the society was wrapped up in a political transformation, the other part was fleeing, escaping their assertions of the Manley-brand communism. The capital city of Kingston has seen its stance as an architectural and historic place devalued by a vast upsurge of political violence. Infernos, lootings, and shootings were the trademarks of the two political parties, out to discredit each other. As a result, many lives were lost, massive destruction to property, fear and panic among the citizens, a blatant blow to the struggling tourist industry, and extreme strain on the ailing economy.

Speaking to parliament on May 12, Prime Minister Manley described the violence and the nation’s crippling industrial unrest as acts by external forces out to destabilize the Jamaican economy. Forty-four-year-old Melvin Lex was married