HERE I STAND: I am endorsing Conroy ‘Mix’ Huggins!
I LIVE IN CANE GARDEN and vote in East Kingstown, why therefore am I endorsing Conroy ‘Mix’ Huggins? This is a personal story that says more about me than ‘Mix’. Cane Garden I have always described as a collection of houses. You often don’t see the occupants.
I am a Barrouallie man from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot.
What I am today has mostly to do with my having been born in Barrouallie. My Quow and Lampkin families would have been central to this. I learnt the art of socialising with everyone. I used to take food on Sundays to three different persons. I played football and cricket and did what other youths did, spinning marbles and tops, riding scooters, using slingshots, and on Sundays going to Peters Hope to look for tamarinds. I am also a Central Leeward man to the core. As a youngster I regularly visited my relatives in Layou- the Hornes, Everard an Agricultural Officer, and Elise a nurse. They produced three children, Patrick in New York, Dr Stan Horne living at Prospect, and Margaret, now deceased. I got to know many families in Layou.
So Barrouallie remains dear to me!
I worked as a graduate teacher at the Grammar School for seven years before being invited by CADEC (the development arm of the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the St. Vincent Christian Council to take up the position of Coordinator of the Glebe Development Scheme). The Glebe lands belonged to the Anglican Church. The project involved surveying the lands and providing titles to those who lived on the land. The Project involved organising the community- the youths (young men and women) farmers and fishermen. Assistance was to be given to householders to repair or rebuild their homes, and income generating projects were to be generated. Taking up the position meant getting a lower salary and with no pension built into the job.
Efforts to get government to give me three years unpaid leave never worked out. I nevertheless accepted the job because I wanted to give something back to the community.
From the beginning there were problems. The authorities felt that my only reason for taking up the job was that I wanted to be a candidate for Central Leeward. All obstacles were created to block the smooth working of the project. The political directorate was so serious that a delegation comprised of my father, Hudson Tannis and Hobbs Huggins visited my mother urging her not to allow me to get politically involved.
When my mother reported this to me, I smiled because for one I had no interest, and if I had and decided to go that way my mother could not have stopped me. She was moreover likely to give me her full support.
One good thing about my involvement in the project was that I was able to visit all householders and develop an understanding of how they lived, what were their challenges and their expectations. Quite a number of things were done. For those persons familiar with Glebe, a track which ran diagonally uphill from V. Layne’s shop as it was known, became a motorable road. A Community Centre was built and some of the youths, now adults reminded me that their first employment came with that project. This is how I came to know Buccament. I had to buy stones; taken from the seashore to be a component of the infrastructural work we were doing. When the first three years of my contract came to an end, because of the stumbling blocks, I decided not to renew it and took the decision to continue my studies.
I had since then been asked on different occasions to be a candidate for different parties. I like politics but wasn’t set up to be a politician. My experience on the Glebe project allowed me to see the conditions under which many lived and made me very concerned. With the exception of the period 1951- 1967 when Edmund Joachim and Sam Slater, both from Barrouallie, entered the legislature, no other person from Barrouallie was successful in representing the community. Barrouallie was then part of the North Leeward constituency. Since 1972 when Barrouallie became part of Central Leeward no resident of Barrouallie was successful in any of the elections, for any of the political parties. The list includes Parnel Campbell, Fred Joachim, Cyril Alexander and Norrell Hull.
Moreover, but interestingly, Barrouallie is the largest community in Central Leeward.
Barrouallie today is not the vibrant community that it once was. It is listed as one of the areas rocked in poverty. I longed to see Barrouallie retain its past glory. Sometime ago while attending a funeral in Barrouallie I was alerted to the fact that efforts were being made to invite one Conroy Huggins to be a candidate for the NDP. I did not know him but was told that he was likely to accept the offer. I met Conroy after and was thoroughly impressed. I found him easily approachable, very knowledgeable about the community, was an agronomist having studied in Cuba, a one time secondary school teacher and with Project Management skills. He displayed the kind of Christian discipline that one hopes for in more politicians. He is an excellent orator and has added to the language of the political campaign. He was more- over committed and wants to see Central Leeward develop. I could not have imagined a better candidate for these times in an area that has long been neglected. He appears to me to have much to offer and to be committed to the task he sees before him. When I am thinking of a suitable political candidate, I look at their track record, for there is nothing else that will give you an understanding of how that person is likely to act when given positions of power.
Conroy has been working hard, identifying aspects that need addressing. Among those are infrastructure development and Sports. He has identify ed the sad state of the Barrouallie Police Station, which along with that in Colonaire was built during the period 1834-1838. It is an historic building. If it is found impossible to rebuild it, maintaining the present façade then let us use it as a Museum. Barrouallie and Layou are known for producing outstanding
cricketers and footballers. I will just mention two names; Vibert Bute of Barrouallie who in the early years was considered the equal of Vivian Richards. From Layou there is Lester Huggins, perhaps the most outstanding sportsman to come out of SVG; an exceptional goal keeper, outstanding allround cricketer and athlete par excellence. ‘Mix’ seems deeply committed and has the kind of skills that Central Leeward needs. Let him be the first from Barrouallie to represent Central Leeward in Parliament!
_ Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian
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