Spying

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.