ABSTRACT
SOJOURNER: . . . growing up in Jamaica and being left behind, you know, by my mother there was also a time when there was lots of excitement, because I remember, um, when we got independence in 1962. I think I must have been about (.) six, or seven . . . lots of flurry going around in the community, lot of people leaving (coughs) so for me there was an element of excitement, you know, where people work very, very collectively together . . . people would put together to support others to actually leave effectively, you know. Say if somebody didn’t have a shirt, somebody would give them a shirt . . . or a suitcase, somebody would give them a suitcase . . . that whole collective way of being in a community was very strong, you know, which I really enjoyed to see how people worked together . . . as you get older, of course, you, you reflect on all the things that was happening. And that sense of working together still maintain me today . . . Always understanding how to tap into people to ask for help. Also understanding that there’s always somebody out there to help you, you know. That’s the way I was brought up, you know . . . So there was a feeling about you holding onto a piece of your history, to actually see Jamaica become um, very independent, you know, So there’s a nationhood, there’s nation building there’s an element of identity for me which, you know, no one can actually take away from me because, you know, I was there . . . My mother left me when I was four and um, she left me with my grandmother which is my father’s um, mother. I lived with her until I wasss, um, eight.
