Choc'late Allen listens intently to little April Joiles as she reads to her during Allen's five-day reading fast at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Library.

If you're dieting or taking on any other challenge, Choc'late will inspire you. No, not the candy, but Choc'late Allen, the diminutive, articulate 13-year-old Trini who has stolen many Jamaican hearts, even that of our gruff talk-show host Wilmot Perkins.

After hearing her spirited interview with Dionne Jackson-Miller, I had to meet this young lady whose mission is to help young people to understand their power and responsibility. This is Choc'late's first visit to Jamaica, and she is loving it. "Jamaica is very lovely, and I am trying to learn your dialect. By Tuesday, I hope to call myself a Jamaican," she says, flashing her kilowatt smile.

She has had similar visits to St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados. Everywhere, she encourages young people to read inspirational books to help them discover their beauty. Choc'late wants the world to see us as we really are, not as the violent people portrayed in the press. "The Caribbean is a beautiful place and our people have beautiful hearts. I want to paint a positive and true picture of who we really are."

Sitting in the lobby of the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Library, the beautiful, serene Choc'late said her mission for peace started when she read the biography of Mohandas "The Mahatma" Gandhi. With a stirring intensity, Choc'late quotes Gandhi from memory: "We will be free once we are pure, and not a moment earlier."

Some call it purity, some righteousness - Jamaica Council of Churches President Rev Karl Johnson says that churches are encouraging their members to vote, but to ensure that they vote for decent politicians. At the closing of the Jamaica Justice Reform Summit earlier this month Prof Barry Chevannes quoted a Rastafarian participant who offered that "if we have more love in Jamaica, we wouldn't have to worry about justice". So really, although at first glance Choc'late's favourite Gandhi quote may seem too idealistic, many of us are hungering for a cleaner, truer, purer way of living.

This only child of two former entertainment personalities, Calypsonian Kurt Allen and his wife/manager Fabienne Fraser, Choc'late is the main spokesperson for Caribbean Vision, founded by her parents in October 2001.

Kurt Allen had been travelling the Caribbean and the world, watching the energy of the young people from his spotlight on the stage, and decided that he could do more than just encourage them to "wine". His assistant Sara-Lee Smith, says Allen drew his inspiration from the West Indies Cricket Team and the University of the West Indies. "We are striving to unite the Caribbean through the cultural arts, lobbying for cultural and economic cooperation between the Caribbean peoples and their governments," said 21-year-old Sara-Lee.

Listening to Choc'late and Sara-Lee, I am thinking, "These young people are so bright!" Choc'late's grandmother Linda Allen looks on protectively and relates that she was a strong influence in her granddaughter's upbringing, encouraging her to eat natural foods. The child is a vegetarian.
I have to confess that even as I found every word she said inspiring, I wondered to myself about the wisdom of having this young, slight child on a five-day fast for whatever cause.

"This is a reading fast," asserts Choc'late, with a dictionary on her lap to assist the little ones who come to read with her. She admits that she finds it "very challenging at times". The beautiful clear-eyed child related that from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm she allows herself only water "if I feel dehydrated". In the evening, she has a bowl of thin vegetable soup, "very hot to deal with the gas". In the morning, it's a half-cup of thin unsweetened, cornmeal porridge.

Did her parents consult a doctor about her fast? "Yes, we did, and the doctor said I was pretty healthy so it was okay," she says. I must admit that she looked absolutely healthy, and on Thursday, the third day of her fast, she was alert and friendly.
She is so earnest, that I worry for her childhood, but
Choc'late assures me that she does everything an average child does. "I enjoy being with my friends," she says. "We go to the movies and the malls and we have sleepovers." Her favourite TV channels are Discovery and National Geographic.

The family lives humbly, funding their dreams from selling T-Shirts designed by Choc'late and supported by various companies including Courts, JMMB and the Caribbean Cement Company.

Seven-year-old April Joiles who had met Choc'late the day before, returned with a book to read with her. Choc'late listens intently and speaks lovingly to her little Jamaican friend. The home-schooled child who is already fully prepared for four CXC subjects has benefited from a loving family structure, supportive parents and grandparents. She shows the result of careful nurturing: confidence, competence and altruism - a role model for all Caribbean children.

Jaghi's grave
Yesterday, there was a ceremony on the east lawns of Taylor Hall, UWI, to officially recognise as a heritage marker, the grave of Jaghi, who was buried there in 1929. A 25-year-old indentured labourer from Basti Village in Uttar Pradesh, India, Jaghi came to work on the Hillside sugar plantation in Clarendon in 1905.

At the end of the five-year contract, he leased over 15 acres of land in Mitchell Town, Clarendon, where he engaged in cattle rearing and selling milk. With the expansion of his business, he relocated to the Old Papine Estate, where he leased over 40 acres of land to continue his agricultural activities. He lived and worked on the estate until his death.
It is significant that the ceremony takes place in May, the month in which Indo-Jamaicans celebrate the landing of the first set of indentured labourers in Old Harbour in 1845.
Jaghi's grandson Henry, a successful Kingston businessman, has made a pilgrimage to his grandfather's birthplace in India and has been instrumental in preserving Indian culture in Jamaica.

lowriechin@aim.com

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