People in the Caribbean know that from June 1 to November 30 is the Atlantic Hurricane Season. However, no one expected that within the first month of the 2024 season, Hurricane Beryl would turn into a Category 5 storm, barrelling on a westward journey from the Atlantic Ocean across the islands into Central America and upward into North America. It left a trail of destruction.
I send condolences to all who suffered loss through Beryl. We as Jamaicans rejoiced over the miraculous hand of God turning Beryl away from a direct hit after making landfall on some Caribbean Windward Islands. The movement of this hurricane, more than others, emphasised that in the Caribbean – all a we is one – as declared by Trinidadian Paul Keens-Douglas in his ‘Tell Me Again’ poem: Tell me again bout de big island an de small island, an de rich island an de poor island, how all a we is one, an how Cari - com an Cari - gone, tell me again.
Tell me again how I love you an you love me, an how blood ticker dan water, an how we is brudder an we is sister, an yu won’t cut me t’roat cause we come on de same boat, tell me again ...
I have been intrigued by the trans-Atlantic pathway of these seasonal hurricanes throughout the centuries. Columbus used this pathway and made landfall in the Caribbean in 1492. Then the slave route shipping Africans to the Caribbean followed.
Hence the reflection by Paul Keens-Douglas - ‘cause we come on de same boat – brings to mind that Jamaica was the first to.