Known affectionately as “St Bess” by parishioners , or more colloquially as St. E (saintE), the parish of St Elizabeth has to be one of ,if not the most fascinating of Jamaica’s 14 parishes. Why is this so? Because St Elizabeth presents a microcosm of the entire country of Jamaica in the range and variety of its physical features, its economic activities, the parish’s ethnic mix (out of many one people) and its cultural expressions and practices.
St. Elizabeth is also a parish of contrasts and contradictions. It is commonly acknowledged and described as the ‘bread basket of Jamaica’ but how could that be when parts of the parish are among the driest in the country, sometimes not having rainfall for up to a year while other parts are dominated by the country’s longest river wetlands and the influence of the sea?
Much of the character , evolution and unique features of St Elizabeth are the result of its geography and its history. The parish was at one time the largest ( today it’s the second largest) and is the oldest in the country having been established within a few years of the British conquest in the 1660s and is believed to have been named after the wife of Sir Thomas Modyford who was governor during this period. The area we know today at St. Elizabeth was much larger during the early years of its establishment as a parish and is in fact Mother to two other parishes when it gave birth to Westmoreland to its west in 1703 and Manchester on its more easterly side in 1814.
Physically, the part of the parish is dominated by its three mountain ranges – the Nassau Mountains, the Lacovia Mountains and the Santa Cruz Mountains . It is the Santa Cruz Mountains running north to south that are partly responsible for giving the southern part of the parish its dryness and the resulting vast stretches of savanna grass that makes it inhospitable for any agricultural activity except livestock rearing. Jamaica’s poet laureate, Lorna Goodison pens a short story entitled “Fool Fool Rose is leaving Labour – In Vain-Savannah” in which she writes”
“…..trying to teach Rose was like cultivating at Labour-In-Vain Savannah, a place in St. Elizabeth where no matter how hard the farmers tried, nothing they planted would ever grow because the ground was tough, unyielding and barren.”
The ingenuity of the St Elizabeth farmer is best expressed in the Jamaican expression ‘tek han mek fashion’ in devising a method of cultivation in which that infertile soil and lack of rainfall was converted into growing valuable cash crops including the melons, onions, tomatoes carrots, skellion and thyme that we get in our markets and supermarkets. A sight seen nowhere else in Jamaica is to drive through the villages and districts of south St Elizabeth and to see front plots of residences adorned not by lush lawns and gardens but by plots of skellion, thyme and other cash crops.
Only in SaintE.
Connecting the northern and southern parts of the parish is the enigmatic Black River – Jamaica’s longest, running some 53+ kilometres and ending in the town of its own name and the name of its parish’s capital. The Black River that most Jamaicans think they know begins life not as the Black River but as the Hector’s River in the hills of Manchester and as it travels westerly into the dense cockpit country of Trelawny parish it goes underground only to re-appear in Manchester as the One Eye River, then disappear underground again before eventually re-emerging at Siloah St. Elizabeth where it becomes the Black River! On its way, it is joined by many tributaries, on one of which is to be found one the country’s major local and visitor attractions ,YS Falls. But the effect of the Black River does not end there; as it reaches the lowland it creates Jamaica’s largest wetland , the Lower Morass, rich in birds and fish ; is a habitat for crocodiles and the source of pepper shrimps (swimps) a must-have when passing through the district of Middle-Quarters.
YS Falls is only one of the St. Elizabeth’s many attractions. No visit to the parish is complete without a stop at LOVERS LEAP, a drop of close to 500 metres where the Santa Cruz mountains meet the sea on the south coast. Who knows the legend of Lovers Leap?
It is said that during slavery two young enslaved lovers often met at the cliff’s edge. However, as the owner of the estate desired the girl for himself he arranged for her young lover to be sold. When the two lovers heard of the plot they fled the estate and as they were chased towards the cliff, rather than face re-capture, they raced to the edge of the cliff and holding hands, plunged to their deaths.
There is more to this legend; can anyone complete it?
St. Elizabeth’s other attractions are as varied as they are numerous; leaving the hordes of shrimp-sellers at Middle quarters, the traveller is soon greeted by Bamboo Avenue a 2-mile stretch lined by tall bamboo trees forming a continuous arch overhead and running parallel to what used to be the lush sugar-cane fields of the Holland Estate. Alas, sugar production at Holland ceased a few years ago. A few kilometres further along the main highway is the district of Lacovia and its landmark TOMBSTONE, a high brick tomb with a massive marble slab with the inscription:
(Photo showing inscription)
Who knows the legend of the tomb and the inscription?
The junction at Tombstone takes the traveller to what is arguably St. Elizabeth’s two most celebrated attractions that are also deeply embedded in Jamaica’s history. APPLETON ESTATE, located in the fertile Nassau Valley on either side of the Black River is the oldest and most famous of Jamaica’s sugar estates, with its origins dating back to 1655 at the time of the English conquest of Jamaica. This means the estate has been in continuous operation for two and a half centuries and today remains the only functioning sugar growing estate in the parish. But Appleton is much more than an old functioning sugar estate; it is the home of the Jamaica’s most famous rum and visitors can now travel in relative luxury to enjoy the Appleton experience (say more about that here)
This journey also takes the traveller to the ACCOMPONG MAROON settlement which is the only maroon town left on the western side of the island . It was officially founded in 1739 when land was ceded to the maroons (runaway enslaved Africans) as one of the terms of the peace treaties with the English. The treaty not only gave the maroons their own land but some internal autonomy in their settlements that still exists today. A Festival which is open to the public is held every year on January 6 to celebrate the signing of the treaty and the founding of the town. On this day, visitors can observe authentic Maroon rituals , purchase products and partake of , maroon speciality cuisine.
Then there are the people : Black African; light-skinned ‘brownings’ from south St. Elizabeth, mixed descendants from Tainos, Mesquito Indians from Suriname; remnants of early European colonizers and later German settlers from the 19th century post-slavery period. These have created a true racial mix which observers say ,makes St. Elizabeth the best example of Jamaica’s motto ‘ Out of Many, One People’.
How can one end the St Elizabeth story without the parish’s role in the development of tourism on the south coast of Jamaica? Centered on the quaint and rugged area of Treasure Beach, the area has increasingly attracted visitors in search of untrodden beaches offering authentic local experience. What it lacks in the pristine white sands beaches of the more celebrated north coast resort areas, Treasure Beach’s attractions lie in its rocky coves, fishermen enclaves and secluded swimming spots like Calabash and Great Bay, Frenchmans and Fort Charles. Offering a variety of tasteful boutique hotels , guest houses and private residences, Treasure Beach offers its own unique tourism experience , at the centre of which is immersion of the visitor in the surrounding community’s life and culture, including its local food and Festivals. At the centre of Treasure Beach’s contribution to Jamaica’s and South Coast tourism is the Henzell family-run JAKES TREASURE BEACH, first generation family of Perry Henzell the Producer/Director of Jamaica’s first and arguably only internationally acclaimed cult film The Harder They Come. While son Jason has built the 25-year old hotel into what has been described as “an authentic, whimsical artsy” hotel, daughter Justine is the quiet power behind the Caribbean’s pioneering Calabash Literary Festival held bi-annually at Jakes Treasure Beach in a unique Bohemian setting. Calabash has not only attracted scores of the world’s literati and created an international reputation for itself and Treasure Beach but it has also inspired and spawned a new generation of talented Jamaican writers.
The most recent boost to St.Elizabeth’s economic fortunes is the resumption of bauxite mining in the parish and the re-opening of the old Alpart works at Nain by Chinese investors JISCO. When fully developed, the new owners plan to create a major industrial complex that will include fabrication of a variety of industrial metals in what has been described as the single largest investment ever in the country
Bet you didn’t know
- The Parish capital Black River became the first town in Jamaica to have electric lights in 1893 when a local family, installed lighting in their house. Called “Waterloo”.
- Elizabeth has not one but two literary festivals located in Treasure Beach? The Two Seasons Literary Festival is held on the grounds of the Two Seasons Guest House in Treasure Beach and is the inspiration of its owner/operator Christine Marrett.
- Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation has been celebrating the parish for 25 years? It is the oldest organization of its kind established to focus on development of a specific parish and which aims to bring back its parishioners home once a year. Established in 1993, its activities have since been emulated by other parishes.
Jamaica’s second Prime Minister Sir Donald Burns Sangster was a native of St. Elizabeth. He held the post for only 48 days before dying unexpectedly at the relatively young age of 55 in April 1967, having succeeded Sir Alexander Bustamante as Prime Minister
