BLENHEIM, Hanover – Hundreds of Jamaicans flocked this deep rural community yesterday to celebrate the 123rd anniversary of National Hero Sir Alexander Bustamante’s birth.

The celebration featured the official reopening and rededication of Bustamante’s house in Blenheim.

The house, which was destroyed by a bush fire in March 2005, was restored largely with funds from the Cultural, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) fund and the technical expertise of several agencies under the direction of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT).

“What we are presenting to you is a modified replica of the house in which William Alexander Clarke, later known to the world as Bustamante, spent his carefree and formative years,” said Laleta Davis-Mattis, executive director of the JNHT.

According to Davis-Matttis, the JNHT took the time to landscape the surroundings with a view to giving visitors the space for reflection.

The new Blenheim, which will be open to individuals and tour groups daily between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm, features several quotations of Bustamante, which, according to Davis-Mattis, provide an “insight into his thoughts, what he stood for and just how far he travelled to make his life a success”.

The new site also features:

. a garden labelled ‘Mother Clarke’s Kitchen Garden’ with samplings and information on the medicinal value of the famous Lucea yam and other foods;

. a small gift shop, which formerly served as the buttery;

. the hero’s shoe prints cast in concrete at the entrance to the house; and

. a formally attired statue of the hero complete with gloves and top hat.

Davis-Mattis also announced the launching of the ‘Friends of Blenheim Initiative’, a group which will assume the responsibility of harnessing support for the preservation of the heritage site.

“… a consistent water supply is crucial in maintaining the lushness of the site,” she said. “It is difficult to maintain the grounds by buying water on a regular basis. In the fulness of time, it is our hope that we can acquire the funds needed to pump water up from the river below.”

Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba urged the residents of Blenheim to protect the site, which she said was an added attraction to Jamaica’s tourism product.

“With the operation of heritage sites such as Blenheim, we intend to reach not just visitors to the island to learn more about our heritage, but also our own people – especially the children,” said Assamba.

“I challenge the JNHT and other cultural agencies to take the necessary steps towards creating a new awareness, especially among the younger generation, who did not themselves experience the various stages of political evolution through which the country has passed, to go out there and learn about their history.”

Assamba also spoke about the historical and cultural importance of Blenheim as a powerful driving force in national development.

“It prescribes the means by which we define ourselves as a people while instilling a sense of who we are,” she said, echoing sentiments expressed earlier by Jamaica Labour Party leader Bruce Golding, who paid a tribute to Bustamante’s political legacy.

Pointing to the struggles that Bustamante, also known as ‘Busta’, went through in his bid to empower the deprived working classes of the 1930s, Golding said that it was time to change the country’s economic landscape, which he fingered as one of the main contributors to the poor concept of self displayed by those who bleached their skins in an attempt to identify with success.

“We have a problem… when we think the most effective way to tell off somebody is to say ‘Yu black and ugly’ we have a problem, and the way to fix that problem is by uplifting people and removing the perception that the colour of their skin is linked to their economic circumstances,” Golding said.

“Many associate the fact that they are poor with the colour of their skin… when they are unable to afford a good living, send their children to a good school, they do (what they think) is the next best thing…bleach their skins in attempt to look like those who do… If you fix the class problems, you fix the colour problems,” he said.

In addition to Golding and Assamba, several politicians and other dignitaries attended yesterday’s celebrations, which were kept lively with musical contributions of the Hertford Folk and Cultural Group and the Herbert Morrison Technical High School band.

Among them were Wykeham McNeil, junior minister of tourism, entertainment and culture; Pearnel Charles, vice-president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union; Councillor Vasca Brown, mayor of Lucea; and Professor Verene Shepherd, chair of the JNHT.