Diary Tuesday 20th
August 1996: Went through Fort Henderson on our way to Portmore and stopped at
a building I had long wanted to photograph. It is a huge white colossus on the
edge of the beach. An apartment, building, hotel, a large oblong with its short
side facing the street, with long galleries and countless doors on one side and
tiny windows on the other.. It is eternally being worked on by a handful of
enthusiastic devotees. Stopped the car, got out and asked one of the two men if
it would be alright to take a picture of the building. The man I asked was tall
with a brightly coloured vest, a hat with the Jamaican flag on as well as
Rastafarian paraphernalia “I dopn’t know” I then explained who I was and what I
do, so the other man said I could go ahead, nodding at me. I walked on and got
my camera ready. The tall man came up to me “Hold on, wait” He sidled up to me
looked at me askance “I don’t know you know, I don’t know. How do I know you
are not a spy?” “A Spy!” I replied, “No I’m not a spy, and anyway what would I
be spying on?” “Well, you know”, he said “I don’t know, bu you know, they
sometimes send a Chinaman, sometimes they send a Blackman, sometimes a
Whiteman. You Know?” “No,” I replied, “I am not a spy, I am a historian.” “Oh!”
he cried out, showing obvious relief, “Oh, a historian, Man, I am a historian
too, Yes Man. I study the history of the Jews, Yes Man, And of the people of
Africa. I am also a poet.” “Oh really?” I replied, “Me too.” “You Too? Oh man,
let me read you some of my poetry.” He fiddled around in his hip pocket
extracted some well-folded, properly used note-paper and proceeded to recite a
poem in a wonderfully aggressive rhythm, a poem with just two long couplets.
“Bad man, Bad dog, Bad Pickney…” and so it went on and then: “Mad man, Mad dog, mad pickney..” etc. I gave
him my address. He responded with an other poem called “Inna de Bus” which
described all sort of characters on the bus. I loved it although I could not
understand it all. I then photographed him and his mate, who had painted all of
the Disney characters on the wall and left.