'The Dead Yard' is not dead yet

WAITING for their first glimpse of Ian Thomson's 'The Dead Yard', Jamaicans were anxious about what promised to be the latest media hatchet job. Booksellers have since declined to stock the book, even more anxious about potential lawsuits from society figures shamed within its pages.

The tone of the book is a little miserable and its content is not news: Jamaica suffers from poverty, crime and the British colonial hangover of race and class. In fact the focus of the book is the state of Jamaica's relationship with Britain.

Thomson, himself white and British, finds in Jamaica a mainly black poor and a complacent white or lighter-skinned establishment. Again, not news. However what does raise eyebrows are the juicy quotes he includes from the great and the good who hosted him in their homes and hotels.


Likely, because of his being white and British, his 'victims' felt comfortable opening up. "Oh, I could've whipped her. I sacked her," said one host about his staff.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, Thomson reserves most affection for Perry Henzell, a white but rootsy Jamaican and the creator of the 1972 movie 'The Harder They Come'. 37 years later, Henzell's movie remains the definitive portrayal of the sufferer trying to make it.

The protagonist, Ivan - modelled on real life outlaw Rhygin – comes to Kingston from the country, trying to make something of his life. Things go awry and his life ends in a hail of police bullets. It's a storyline played out daily in real life Jamaica, where the badman life seems as probable for young men at one end of society as a law degree is for the other.

"You visitors are always getting it wrong? Either it's golden beaches, or it's guns, guns, guns. Is there nothing in between?" one elderly woman asked Thomson.

For all it's ills Jamaica remains an alluring country — were it not then would journalists still be coming here to write about how awful it is, while not just enjoying the beaches but also the culture and a society more complex and sophisticated than one-off media portrayals give credit.

As the Afflicted Yard explains: "Our country is known for its extremes. A place packed with originality and creative energy that continues to flourish despite the current socio-political state that has removed the personal pride of many. An island filled with beauty unsurpassed and ugliness that would make a rat puke."

So life goes on. Jamaica is far from dead. Still, for an introduction to the 'real' Jamaica, 'The Dead Yard' is not half bad. Better yet, visit.

P.S. This book was released quite a long time ago...but then they didn't send it to local journalists either.