I was a patron at the Little Ochi Seafood Festival, last week Sunday (July 11), held annually on the Fisherman’s Beach in Alligator Pond, South Manchester. Since its inception, this event has grown to become one of Jamaica’s better-known and more successful integrated festivals, promoting the cuisine for which that area is popular, as well as other cultural elements.

By interfacing with people present, I discovered that many of the patrons were, in fact, regular customers to the restaurants that are permanent establishments on the beach and within the Alligator Pond town itself. I was very impressed by the turnout of the Manchester and St Elizabeth residents, in support of this home-grown event.

These patrons accounted for approximately 50% of the demographics of the crowd numbering over 3,000 adults and children, enjoying the wide fare of seafood and the excellent entertainment presented from the stage and elsewhere. The remaining proportion of the audience came from diverse communities across Jamaica; a substantial contingent of returning residents; and visitors from Europe and America who were introduced to this festival by various sources.

Over the last 10 years, these indigenous food festivals — including the Portland Jerk Festival, arguably the most famous — have sprung up and evolved to significantly broaden our annual cultural landscape and calendar. By so doing, they have carved out their own niche in targeting the family through concept and marketing thrust.

I am very concerned about the longevity of this one in particular, because of the unusual phenomenon which is presently occurring on the Alligator Pond Beach, where during the last year this site has lost some 40 feet of shoreline to the sea. This is a matter that will not only affect the festival, but the ongoing livelihood of the fishermen, vendors and restaurants that ply their trade on this location. For this reason, I was very happy to be informed that environmental scientists are investigating the reason for and source of this problem to see if and how the adverse effects may be mitigated. For example, is it caused by global warming and a general rise in sea levels? As one traverses along our southern coast it is easy to observe that many other beaches have similarly lost a perilous amount of beach front. Is the encroachment of the sea, therefore, an irreversible process?

Spending the weekend in St Elizabeth was a very pleasant respite from Kingston & St Andrew, with all the tension of the last two months. For me, it was also a vivid reminder of how enterprising the majority of residents of that parish are. It was a picturesque site as we drove along to see almost every house with its own home garden growing fruits, vegetables, ground provisions, spices, herbs and seasoning. What is of equal significance is that everyone exuded a friendly demeanour, and took the time to great you with pleasantries. Upon the moment of your departure, it was customary to be offered “a likkle sup’m” to take back to the city from their “grung”. The Jamaican society would be a far better place to live, and our economy would be in a less precarious state, if more Jamaicans took a leaf out of the true St Elizabeth Jamaican people’s book; both in terms of their hospitality and their industrious nature.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com