A museum that houses artefacts and documents of the Morant Bay uprising will form part of the Government’s development plans for St Thomas.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness gave an outline for the cultural building while campaigning for the local elections in Seaforth in western St Thomas yesterday.

He has expressed a wish to see a film made on the historical Morant Bay rebellion and the role Paul Bogle played in it. On Sunday, the prime minister laid a wreath at Bogle’s grave site and paid his respect to all those who lost their lives in the rebellion.

“The Jamaica National Heritage Trust is looking at the old courthouse which is a heritage site. They will advise me as to the best way to treat with the building. My own view is that we should incorporate it as part of the development of a museum. Remember now in the Morrant Bay urban centre, a state-of-the art first world court house is being built. I have had an opportunity to look at the plans and it is going to be fantastic so there will not be any need to use this as the court house. This has far more historic value which makes it better suited to be part of a museum complex.

“The rebellion was a turning point in Jamaica’s history. What we are doing here in St Thomas is to create a corridor of development leading from Port Royal all the way to Port Antonio. We have built a new cruise ship pier in Port Royal and also a new restaurant and museum. Port Royal is poised as a destination but when you have multiple destinations all in close proximity you can create an itinerary, you can create a corridor of development with tourism. Port Royal has history-rich attractions. As you drive out of Port Royal, you have the airport so you have means by which international visitors can access this corridor. You can access it by cruise ship or by aeroplane.

Can you imagine that you can cruise to Jamaica or choose to fly back home? In Kingston, we have experiences and sites. We have the National Gallery, The Institute of Jamaica, the Bob Marley Museum, the Blue Mountain Coffee Tour, Culture Yard…..we have so many places of interest. You can leave Port Royal and within an hour you can be here in St Thomas in a newly developed historic town that is Morant Bay where you can see and understand the history of Jamaica. That’s what we are trying to do. We have developed the road put in water mains, internet , new suewage works and an urban centre, but I want people to see the bigger picture of how this is going to affect the local community. It is going to be transformational,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness in St Thomas.

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