The Rastafari Coral Gardens Elders Home, established in Norwood, St James with funds provided by the Government of Jamaica is now operational.

It is the home of the survivors of the terrible events of ‘Bad Friday’ in 1963 in Coral Gardens, Montego Bay, in which scores of Rastafarians throughout Jamaica were detained, killed and many being tortured by the police and military forces following a riot in the community.

Back in April 2017, Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a formal apology in Parliament on the anniversary of the persecution, torture and killing of Rastafarians in Coral Gardens. Culture Minister, Olivia Grange, who officially opened the home on Thursday (April 1), said “the facility was set up to care for the medical and social needs of the survivors of the 1963 Coral Gardens Massacre.”

It is managed by the Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society. “It is pleasing and quite an accomplishment to have the Home now up and running and I must say job well done to the Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society, which spent the funds prudently to make the Home fully functional,” Grange said in her remarks.

She mentioned that the home is much appreciated by the Rastafarian elders Coral Gardens resident, the Rastafari community and the Member of Parliament for the area Dr. Horace Chang, who is Jamaica’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security.”

Update on Trust Fund for Coral Gardens victims

The culture minister spoke of what had been done since the apology in Parliament in April 2017 by Prime Minister Holness, when he announced the setting up of a trust fund to be administered by the Administrator General, as compensation to the survivors.

Minister Grange reported that the fund was now far in excess of the initial amount of J$13 million, which was placed in it in 2018. Survivors have been receiving regular disbursements since then.

She gave credit to those who assisted in establishing the home such as Dr. Chang; Food for the Poor through Craig Moss Solomon; Cultural Liaison, Barbara Blake Hannah, the team from the Ministry and private donors. Dr. Chang, who cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony, spoke out against discrimination while placing his personal respect and that of the Government towards the contributions of the Rastafari citizens.

He pledged to continue the work with the Benevolent Society to ensure that commitments for further development will be implemented. These, he said, included the promise of a permanent structure to house the elders, an office for the Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society and fifty acres of land to develop a community and farm.

In her presentation, Secretary of the Benevolent Society, Sister Pamela Williams called on the Government to determine policies on religious discrimination, especially against Rastafari at schools and in the workplace. Other speakers included attorney and broadcaster, Michael Lorne; ganja activist, Ras Iyah V and Sister Kathy Howell.

The opening ceremony, which was in the form of a mixture of face-to-face and virtual setting, ended with the beating of drums and the singing of Rastafari chants. Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry had submitted a report on the atrocities in 2015.

Cultural Liaison Barbara Blake Hannah notes that, “the Public Defender only found 37 survivors out of the ‘hundreds’ allegedly massacred.” According to Blake Hanna, Bad Friday was the culmination of a series of events, which she explains were, “all part of the Rastafari battle to try and turn Jamaica towards Africa, not Europe.”