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In this captivating memoir, family history and historical reflection, Rose Spencer Gibbs takes a step back into the history of Jamaican villages and towns that are a part of her family’s past. This is more than a memoir, as the book uses historical material to envisage the lived experience of Black Jamaicans like the author’s ancestors. The link between contemporary Jamaica and the legacy of enslavement is the underlying thesis. The author shares with us the realization that the legacy of enslavement runs deep through every nook and cranny of Jamaica, literally through all the spaces and the most loved institutions.

The book explores the history of Calabar, a free village created after Emancipation and named by formerly enslaved people for the original Calabar in Nigeria. The tiny, nondescript village of Calabar, Trelawny is where the foundation was first laid for the highly regarded Calabar Theological College which later became the high-achieving Calabar High School. We learn about the community of Elderslie in the parish of St. Elizabeth, a former plantation, given a Scottish place name by the original Scottish settlers, who were slave owners and probably owned some of the author’s enslaved ancestors.

The old capital of Spanish Town, a town that at one time exuded history on every corner, forms one of the backdrops of the story. The author takes us with her on her reflective journey from the former plantation areas on the edge of Spanish Town to schools in Kingston, also built on the legacy of enslavement. The author makes the connections between the historical places on her route to school with the business of enslavement. She describes her experience in a traditional girls’ high school and at summer camps. She unearths the history of the land on which those institutions have been built. The author explores the immigrant experience of her relatives through the Cuban and American connections. She acknowledges the haze that envelops much of the history of Black people as individuals and tries to shed some light through that fog.

This book gives us an insight into the colonial period on the island from a personal perspective. The author describes her coming of age during the sixties with its emerging sense of hope, self-confidence and limitless possibility. The author tries to answer the questions: How did we get here? What was here before us? How does the experience of enslavement affect our lives now? The question of identity and the need to understand who we are and where we come from resonate throughout the book. Rose Spencer Gibbs connects her experience in Jamaica with her work with high school students from minority groups in Ontario, Canada.

This book will take you on a journey through the distant and recent past of the island through the lens of the author’s recollections and research. It is a narrative filled with personal reminiscences and historical reflection that will resonate with those who love history and who have a need to make sense of the past.

St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica

A favourite view.