Like practically every other part of the world, St. Kitts was once a piece of territory over which European powers warred and practiced their savagery. Of course, they never regarded it as savagery, except when it came to the peoples of other parts of the world who endeavoured to defend themselves against their European hoards. That notwithstanding, one of the things that the Europeans did best was, once they departed, they left issues for others to deal with. A couple of examples are:
1. the no-man’s land between India and Pakistan, known as Kashmir, over which those two nations have come to blows every once in a while, and
2. the perpetual border dispute between Guyana and its massive neighbor, Venezuela.
In our case, one of our problems was imported by the French, during the time they occupied St. Kitts between the early 1600s and the late 1700s. They came across some pesky little creatures somewhere in Africa and brought them to our shores. Eventually, they either lost control of them or deliberately setting them free. I am referring, of course, to the monkey species known as the green vervet. As such, it has been here for as long as we have.
Within the last thirty years, there has been an increasing cry for there to be some measure, aimed at controlling the encroachment of this creature upon residential areas, given that it has come down from the hills in search of food. On the various radio talk shows, people, particularly the farmers and those who endeavour to grow food on their properties, and who pay a terrible price by way of the loss of their crops, have been complaining, and justly so, about how futile their efforts are, when much of what they plant is destroyed and eaten.
One cannot really blame the monkey because it is not responsible for producing its own food. It is meant to survive in the wild by eating plant material that forms part of its diet. Fruits, berries, vegetables, leaves etc., and, for centuries, that is what it did. He just needs to find it.
Another factor that could have led to the encroachment of the monkeys, is the hurricanes that we have experienced, beginning with, say Hugo in 1989. The destruction it visited upon us was quite noticeable, and many fruit trees had to have a period for recovery and rejuvenation. As a matter of fact, one fruit that was pretty plentiful, the manciport (mammy apple), all but disappeared around 1989. Other storms, such as Louis, Marilyn and George did their share of damage to the stock of plants and, if they did not produce as they were accustomed to, the monkeys needed to find alternative sources, elsewhere.
In my days growing up with a farming mother in Mansion Village, we lost some produce but, with so many other persons in the village doing the same thing in the hills, what the monkeys left us with, was sufficient for us to live on. Mom kept two gardens; an “upper ground” and a “lower ground”. In other words, one was closer to the foothills of the mountain ranges than the other. Not far from ours, there were always others that belonged to other families, who planted the same produce that we did. Peanuts, yams, sweet potatoes, dashines, tanias, bananas, plantains, pumpkins, and the list can go on. Not to mention the many species of mango, pear (avocado) and guava that grew wildly. I don’t know that monkeys ate breadfruits, but they were some of the most plentiful sources of food that grew in the hills that I knew so well as a child.
Take the experience that we had in Mansion, and think about it happening right across the entire island. You can only then imagine the massive amount of food that was being cultivated, and that it was sufficient for the monkeys to have had some, leaving the bulk of it for us to live on.
In terms of their population, I would be hard-pressed to believe that it has exploded to the extent that we are seeing and feeling the effects. As a matter of fact, if they have had to uproot from their places of comfort and now be content with what little they can survive on in places like Basseterre, their population must be taking a hit. It is easy to assume that they have increased in number because of the frequency with which we see them but it may not be so at all.
They have lost their natural fear of humans and are now moving around with as much ease as we do. It is my humble opinion as well, that our farmers are nowhere near as numerous as they were even thirty years ago. I say that because, whereas we can identify the relatively ‘few’ around the island, from the immediate surroundings where I grew up, I can name a good few persons whom, I recall, were effective farmers. There were people like Joseph “Joe” Bradshaw across the street from us; Joseph “Joe” Ham, three houses down the alley from us; across from him were Joseph “Joe” Abbott and “Short” Francis. There were people like Wentworth “Wenty” Caines, two houses away along the Main Road from us; Dada a.k.a. Perryman or Cocks, John Phillip, Godfrey and Bouncer Morris, William “Uncle Willie” Jacobs; Tempa Nada and my own Uncle Denzil whose proper name was Egbert Williams, father to the former Comptroller of Customs, Norman Williams. These 11 persons I named lived less than a quarter of a mile from us, in that third of the village that is closer to Estridge Estate and our ‘huge’ neighbour, Tabernacle.
Very few people in the village purchased provisions from anyone because they had the same thing. Purchasing provisions was something that the people in Basseterre did. They went to the Public Market to get what they were either unable to grow, for whatever reason.
So, again, from my perspective, the synopsis is that there are far fewer people growing food in St. Kitts, and those who are doing it have moved their operations closer to where they live. It is only natural, therefore, that the monkeys would follow. Our lands, from my perspective, can be seen in four segments:
• The Mountain Ranges
• The Hinterland
• The Sugar belt and
• The residential areas.
If you started in any village and moved towards the mountain ranges, you would encounter the lands where sugar used to be cultivated. Beyond that, it became too hilly for the machines that was later used in the sugar industry. That land was abandoned and became what I heard my mentor, George Washington “Washie” Archibald, refer to as “…the hinterland…”. Continuing, you would arrive at the mountain ranges. Bear in mind that St. Kitts is arranged in such a way that the mountain ranges, in the center, and having a maximum height of almost 4,000 feet, slope towards the sea.
Monkeys have traditionally been very much at home in the mountain ranges. It is their natural habitat. However, with the scarcity of food there, they have had to find it wherever it is, and our environment just happens to throw up sources here and there.Farmer’s plots, people’s back yard gardens etc.
So, now, the government is being called upon, as I have done before, to cull the monkeys and use them for food, as a means of bringing some relief to the farmers. Well, I have changed my mind about that. While I still support the use of the monkey as food, I would not support any effort at wholesale slaughter. I believe that there needs to be a revival of farming activity, on a massive scale, closer to the monkeys’ traditional habitat; activity that would attract them away from the residential areas and, thereby, we would be killing two birds with one stone.
Only a few days ago, I listened to a government official, in an interview with Winn FM, indicating, quite sarcastically, that we grow the bulk of our food at the port. He was referencing the fact that we import most of the fruits and vegetables we consume.
I cannot remember ever hearing of a boat bringing ground provision from Dominica during my youth but, today, if it failed to come, many would have to go without those bits and pieces that adorn and flavor their soup pots on Saturdays.
With the closure of the sugar industry in 2005, a lot of land is, quite sadly, returning to the kind and level of forestation that the Europeans met when they landed here in the late 15th century, because it is fallow. An effort has to be made to return the country to that time when we practically fed ourselves, and import only those things that we cannot grow. Hopefully, the equipment that was used in the sugar industry is still in working condition, and can be used to assist farmers in the preparation of their lands.
We did it before; we can do it again. The monkeys are counting on us.
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