Mikhael or the hill

Diary Monday 16^th December 1996:There is a Rastafarian Commnity just behind Papine on the way to Gordontown. It is called the Black Lion Community. The centre of the commnity is on its edge and consists of a row of shacks, brightly painted, on the edge of the road. It tries to profit from tourism. To get to Mikhael’s house you drive a little further and cross the aqueduct running next to the road, walk down to a small shallow river, the hope river, emasculated by the Hope Viaduct which takes most of the water to the Mona reservoir. One crosses the river near a waterfall and walk back up the mountain on the other side. There was a Rastafarian washing his children in the river. He had long locks, which he was washing. That is the place where the community hold their baptisms. A priest from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church would be specially flown over to conduct the ceremony. We walked down a steep path with irregular steps moulding themselves around large boulders. Every so often the path is punctuated by an entrance to a plot of land, a house announced by brightly coloured washing hanging on lines to dry in front of brightly coloured walls. We went up the hill. Right at the top of the community, slightly removed from the others are two shacks. The larger one faces out and enjoys its view. It is where Mikhael lives. The other faces Mikhael’s house. This is where Ikon lives. Between the two houses is a tripod with fire. Ikon is a quiet man, something of an amanuensis to Mikhael. Ikon paints. He is an artist, paints like a child. Together they look after a baby left there by a sixteen year old girl, who has disappeared. Boxes of pampers and a baby-carrier accompany the baby. Ikon shouted for Mikhael and left us to go to his own house. Mikhael came out and led us into his house. The house is made of a thick concrete floor, painted red with wooden posts supporting a zinc roof. To muffle the zinc the ceiling is clad with bamboo slats. “For aesthetics” the posts were here and there filled in with timber , but a lot of space was left open. The rectangular plan divided into two squares one of which is dominated by a mattress laid diagonally acroos the room with a radio and a light at the head. The other half had a carpet, a small bookshelf and a line strung across the room to hang clothes. Mikhael and Ikon were busy building the retaining wall behind their houses. Building is a ritual, Part of that ritual involves carrying the stones from the river up to the house. Ten stones everyday and ten at night. We sat in Mikhaels’ first room and spoke. We talked of Michael Manley “our great and charismatic leader” of Mikhael’s beliefs. His rejection of materialism of the “hedonistic architecture of the cities” Of Greek philosophy and Ethiopia. When the baby began to cry we fed it with a bottle. Mikhael told us that “Big Daddy”, the leader of the Black Lion Community assigned land to each member of the community on the basis of character. Each member, having been assigned land, had to build their own house. Only recently did a number of people join the community who would let others build their house. One of them left with the house still unfinished. Mikhael’s house is hung with prayers, slogans, newspaper artices making a point, pictures of His Majesty, of Michael Manley and a painting by Ikon. The house is his world, his utopia. The house is him to the world and the house is against the world. Mikhael believes in solar power. He has three solar cells mounted on the roof with which he charges a car battery to run a radio and a notebook. He sells T-shirts and tea and complains against the world, materialism and the Jamaicans, how they are lazy and do not work, do not think about how to build their country, how the world is going to end. His favourite DJ is Buju Banton.

Diary Tuesday 17^th December 1996: Mikhael came to visit me yesterday. He had enjoyed our visit and wondered if I wanted to give some money for a tent he wanted to buy for the community.