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The day Claudius Grant boxed Bustamante
By HG HELPS Editor-at-Large [email protected]
Sunday, August 14, 2011
WHEN Claudius Grant collared and slapped then-chief minister of Jamaica, Sir Alexander Bustamante across the face, he didn't know he was in a tussle with his favourite politician.
If was in self-defence, Grant insisted, but he thought then that his attacker was an ordinary citizen.
Reflecting on his life at his Tivoli Gardens home last week, Grant, who turns 100 this Thursday, August 18, said Bustamante took him on in an incident of road rage in Clarendon during the early 1950s, and he opted not to roll over and play dead.
"Bustamante was mi favourite politician, but me and him fight one time," said Grant, who, perhaps fittingly, lives on Bustamante Highway in the West Kingston community.
"Me a drive me truck to Chapelton because me hear say Bustamante ah go talk up dey ah one public meeting. I never know him in person, but a know him name and always want fi meet him.
"So while me ah go a Chapelton fi de meeting, one car fly past me and me pass it back. The car a try fi pass me again, but me hold road pon him, because me a rush fi hear Bustamante, without knowing say a Bustamante inna the car.
"When me stop near Chapelton fi find out whey the meeting a keep, this tall man jump out the car, tell me fi come out ah the truck and then him collar me. So me collar him back and we start wrestle 'til me shot him a box.
"Busta tear off mi red shirt and me tear off fi him, until a policeman hold on pon me and say, 'You nuh know a who dat?...You know what you doing? You know that that is the Honourable Chief Minister? You want mi fi lock you up?'" the retired haulage contractor recalled.
The incident was soon forgotten, Grant said, as he and Bustamante became good friends after that.
"Busta drive off and lef me, but me meet him at the meeting and me and him tun fren after that and we talked all the while.
"Him announce what happen at the meeting to the people and call me 'Brave Bwoy' and hold up me red shirt, which him give me back after the meeting," said the now-blind Grant with a broad, mischievous smile.
"When I came back to Kingston, I was a famous man, because by that time everybody hear 'bout the incident," he said.
Bustamante, originally named William Alexander Clarke, served as mayor of kingston in 1948 and 1949. He became Jamaica's first chief minister when the post was created in 1953 and also emerged as Jamaica's first prime minister after Independence in 1962.
Hanover-born Bustamante, one of the founders of the Jamaica Labour Party, died in 1977, aged 93. He was later named a National Hero.
Grant also knew another former chief minister and National Hero, Norman Manley well, but had no such encounter with the barrister-at-law and cousin to Bustamante.
Norman Manley co-founded the People's National Party and served as chief minister of Jamaica from 1955 to 1959 and premier from 1959 to 1962.
"I always liked to go to meetings with Norman Manley and later on with (his son and former prime minister) Michael Manley," said Grant.
However, in later years, it was the relationship with another former prime minister, Edward Seaga, that he grew to cherish.
"Seaga was my personal friend long before I used to live in Tivoli," he said of the longest-serving parliamentarian and former member of parliament for West Kingston, who retired from active politics in 2006.
"We used to move good, and Seaga always used my truck to serve as a platform for when him have political meetings," he said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1V1orZDi4
By HG HELPS Editor-at-Large [email protected]
Sunday, August 14, 2011
WHEN Claudius Grant collared and slapped then-chief minister of Jamaica, Sir Alexander Bustamante across the face, he didn't know he was in a tussle with his favourite politician.
If was in self-defence, Grant insisted, but he thought then that his attacker was an ordinary citizen.
Reflecting on his life at his Tivoli Gardens home last week, Grant, who turns 100 this Thursday, August 18, said Bustamante took him on in an incident of road rage in Clarendon during the early 1950s, and he opted not to roll over and play dead.
"Bustamante was mi favourite politician, but me and him fight one time," said Grant, who, perhaps fittingly, lives on Bustamante Highway in the West Kingston community.
"Me a drive me truck to Chapelton because me hear say Bustamante ah go talk up dey ah one public meeting. I never know him in person, but a know him name and always want fi meet him.
"So while me ah go a Chapelton fi de meeting, one car fly past me and me pass it back. The car a try fi pass me again, but me hold road pon him, because me a rush fi hear Bustamante, without knowing say a Bustamante inna the car.
"When me stop near Chapelton fi find out whey the meeting a keep, this tall man jump out the car, tell me fi come out ah the truck and then him collar me. So me collar him back and we start wrestle 'til me shot him a box.
"Busta tear off mi red shirt and me tear off fi him, until a policeman hold on pon me and say, 'You nuh know a who dat?...You know what you doing? You know that that is the Honourable Chief Minister? You want mi fi lock you up?'" the retired haulage contractor recalled.
The incident was soon forgotten, Grant said, as he and Bustamante became good friends after that.
"Busta drive off and lef me, but me meet him at the meeting and me and him tun fren after that and we talked all the while.
"Him announce what happen at the meeting to the people and call me 'Brave Bwoy' and hold up me red shirt, which him give me back after the meeting," said the now-blind Grant with a broad, mischievous smile.
"When I came back to Kingston, I was a famous man, because by that time everybody hear 'bout the incident," he said.
Bustamante, originally named William Alexander Clarke, served as mayor of kingston in 1948 and 1949. He became Jamaica's first chief minister when the post was created in 1953 and also emerged as Jamaica's first prime minister after Independence in 1962.
Hanover-born Bustamante, one of the founders of the Jamaica Labour Party, died in 1977, aged 93. He was later named a National Hero.
Grant also knew another former chief minister and National Hero, Norman Manley well, but had no such encounter with the barrister-at-law and cousin to Bustamante.
Norman Manley co-founded the People's National Party and served as chief minister of Jamaica from 1955 to 1959 and premier from 1959 to 1962.
"I always liked to go to meetings with Norman Manley and later on with (his son and former prime minister) Michael Manley," said Grant.
However, in later years, it was the relationship with another former prime minister, Edward Seaga, that he grew to cherish.
"Seaga was my personal friend long before I used to live in Tivoli," he said of the longest-serving parliamentarian and former member of parliament for West Kingston, who retired from active politics in 2006.
"We used to move good, and Seaga always used my truck to serve as a platform for when him have political meetings," he said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1V1orZDi4
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