In this excerpt from Catch
A Fire, Timothy White describes the arrival of well-to-do hippies in
Jamaica in the early 1970s.
The early Hope Road scene could be described as a non-dogmatic religious hippie commune, with an abundance of food, herb, children, music and casual sex. Jamaica being a country with a small but obsessively ambitious middle class, the American hippie movement did not arrive on the island for quite some time.
It was not until well-to-do, hardcore
hippie vagabonds who had survived in the late 1960s began to make their
way to ready-made paradises like Maui, St. Martin, St. Bart's and other
tropical islands in the early 1970s that they discovered Jamaica.
These tanned young haves who masqueraded as have-nots established the beachheads
and campsites between Port Maria and Port Antonio on the North Coast, and
in the Chicken Lavish area of Negril, which was adjacent to Bloody Bay
and Long Bay on the South Coast.
| A Superficial
Affinity
There seemed to be a superficial affinity between rich hippies and Rastas, the former having inherited the means to turn their backs on much of society, the latter having inherited the conviction. The Rastaman knew he had no choice; the hippies, full of themselves, said the same thing as they sat half-naked on the patio at Rick's Cafe and sipped rum punch. Young middle- and upper-class Jamaicans were drawn to these hot spots and happenings, and they began to mimic the appearance of Rastas- but they completely disregarded the strict dietary rules, the religious beliefs and the humility of the authentic dreads. Rude boys did likewise. Eventually, these two groups of quasidreads began to trip on acid, share the rum bottle, sprinkle opium into their spliffs and cruise the hippie strongholds in search of various kinds of action. Jamaica had been trying to shake off the Caribbean malaise and establish itself in the world community since the days of Norman Manley and Bustamante. To this end, the government had undertaken a highly aggressive tourist campaign in the late 1960s, hoping to lure businessmen who would want to hold sales conferences at the island's hotels, purchase land along its coasts, and invite other investors and real estate speculators to help develop a poor but beautiful island that was not plagued with the population destiny and dictatorial oppression of other island nations in the area. But these promotional campaigns succeeded mostly in attracting American hippies, who in turn were discovering and celebrating the last aspect of Jamaican culture the government wanted to promote: the Rastafarians- a murky, mystical cult composed of sufferahs who were praying every day for the whole island to sink into the sea in a hail of fire and brimstone, while the rest of the population was praying for Tappan ranges, color TV and young doctors and lawyers who would marry their sons and daughters. |
|
 |
Photographs copyright Adrian Boot, 1997. Text from CATCH A FIRE: THE LIFE OF BOB MARLEY, rev. ed. by Timothy White © 1983, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 by Timothy White. Used by arrangement with Henry Holt and Co., New York and the author. |
