KIDS - CREW

Sylvia Gilfillian Educator & Author

KIDS -

CREW

Black Like Me: Part 3 A young Jamaican girl learns to accept and love her dark skin

Characters:The child: Ebony,The adultsUncle Natty and Sandra Setting: Sandra’s car; Uncle Natty’s house in Stony Hills

Scene

Just outside of Stony Hill, Sandra made a left turn onto a dirt and gravel road and Ebony rolled down her window half-way so that she could breathe in the the aroma

of ripe jackfruit that always seemed to fill the air from the top of the road to Uncle Natty’s house in the valley. Uncle Natty is the oldest member of Sandra’s family. He is going on ninety but is still spry and remembers well the days when his mother used to take him to UNIA meetings in downtown Kingston. He had seen the great man Garvey at least twice and often reminded his family that unlike many who turned against the leader during his time of trouble, his own mother remained a steadfast supporter to the end of her life. Pulling into Uncle Natty’s yard, they could both see that the front door was open and he was not sitting on the verandah. Uncle Natty lived alone but had frequent visitors. His wife, Aunt Ann, had died soon after Hurricane Gilbert in September of 1988, from pneumonia contracted after the soaking that she took during the breeze-blow. Uncle Natty had also outlived his three children but had fifteen grands and six greatgrands. Ebony liked her cousins especially because they were all black like her and never teased her about her color. She attended the same school as two of the greatgrands but as they were older, and in a higher class she did not see them every day. Uncle Natty was heard calling from the back of his house, “Huol-aan out de an wait fi mi.” Uncle Natty soon emerged from a side gate in his backyard fence. He walked towards them, his white teeth glinting as he smiled broadly. “Well sa. A wa breeze blow yu op-ya now?” Soon he was leading them up the front steps to his spacious bungalow. Once they were indoors, Ebony looked around curiously to see if anything had changed since her last visit. As far as she could tell, the room was unchanged. Uncle Natty’s living room was nice. The walls were made of the most beautiful wood Ebony had ever seen. It was glossy with a bluish sheen and streaks of darker wood within lighter wood. She later found out from Uncle Natty that the walls were constructed from the national tree, the Blue Mahoe. Ebony was not conscious of the change in her mood since she and her mom drove out of Kingston but her mother was pleased to see her smiling and forgetting the painful experience of being teased for her dark skin. Whilst Ebony walked around the living room touching the familiar objects strewn about the center table and the

shelves that lined one wall, Sandra seized the moment to take Uncle Natty aside. She steered him outside to the back verandah to talk to him about Ebony’s troubles. When she was done talking, Uncle Natty patted her shoulder and kissed the top of her head before declaring, “Leave har to me mi daalin. I will get har head straight in a jiffy.” When Uncle Natty called to Ebony and asked her to join him in the backyard, he had already walked down the steps to his fenced in goat pen. Sandra passed Ebony on the steps and told her that she was going to the car for their overnight bag. While Uncle Natty talked, he filled a wheelbarrow with bags of goat feed and gestured to Ebony to open the gate to the goat pen for him. She did so and followed him into the pen that was rank with the smell of goat’s urine and grass. Ebony wrinkled her nose and Uncle Natty looked down at her and laughed. “Is di ram goat dat mek it smell so strong. Him is di king of renk. Wen uol-time people tel yu se yu renk like ram-goat, a big insult dat!” Before Ebony knew it, she was laughing too and feeling better than she had felt since she was hurt by her friends. As they poured grain into the feeding troughs, Uncle Natty asked a question she did not expect. “Which one a dese goats yu tink I like di best?” Ebony looked around at the herd of animals and saw so many colors, sizes and shapes that she threw up her arms and said, “How would I know? They are all different and they are just goats!” “Uh huh, is so you think?” Uncle Natty could sense that Ebony had had enough of the goats, so he turned the wheelbarrow towards the gate of the backyard and Ebony followed him through. After they climbed the steps to the verandah, Uncle Natty pointed Ebony to a green rocking-chair on one side of a small table. He took the other opposite, settled his lanky frame and began to loosen his work boots. When he began to speak, his voice was so casual that Ebony did not immediately 40 | KW MagazineJuly 2020

realize that he was addressing her. “Me own all di goat dem in a mi pen and every single one is of value to me . I care for all a dem and I enjoy every spot or shade of color dat mek each one different. No matter how two a dem look alike, I know dem different and I enjoy di differences. Now mek me ask yu something, mi likl putus. If me, mere mortal man dat I am, can appreciate variety, how much more yu tink yu Faada, Papa Gaad who mek dis wol worl and everything in it, enjoy variety? If him did want only black, white or brown people, yu no tink him wuda know fi mek only one color?” Ebony looked across the room at her blue/black great-uncle who looked so much like her, and smiled. In his face, she saw her own tip-tilted nose, cherry-red lips and when he smiled broadly back at her, she saw the same dimple shadowed by his sparse, white beard. Uncle Natty rose from his rocking chair and made for the doorway to the living-room but stopped and turned to look back at Ebony before speaking. “Tomorrow, I am going to tell you about your great African and Jamaican ancestors. I am going to tell you about the powerful Nubians who invaded Egypt and became their pharaohs and Moses’ black wife. I will also introduce you to the work of the great American historian named Henry Louis Gates by showing you a video he made on the great kingdoms of Africa.”

Ebony nodded, her eyes bright with anticipation. Her mind was no longer filled with hurt and shame about being black. She was now hungry for food but even more, for all that Uncle Natty would tell her about African History. p