The most English town in Jamaica : myths, memories and other returning resident dilemmas

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Abstract

Mandeville has long claimed the title of “the most English town” in Jamaica. Noting the prevalence of “fair”, “coloured” or “upper-class” residents living in Mandeville, Fernando Henriques described Mandeville as “Jamaica’s Cheltenham”, and Jamaican historian H.P. Jacobs observed that “Manchester was the only area in which the English ever came anywhere near to achieving their original idea of establishing a tropical New England”. For many Jamaicans and others, the arrivals of UK returners – and estimated twelve hundred return migrants who emigrated to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s and later returned to Mandeville in the 1990s to retire – represents the latest incarnation of British influence in Mandeville. As Harry Goulbourne describes in an article focusing on the policy implications of return migration, the hill town of Mandeville has acquired the reputation of being a desirous destination for returnees who create a prosperous ghetto characterised by some English pastimes: tea in the afternoon, the cultivation and display of well manicured lawns and gardens ordered for many aesthetic pleasure than practical use, which stand in sharp contrast to the utilitarian kitchen and fruit gardens of rural Jamaica. Some would see an irony here because the town of Mandeville in the parish of Manchester, like Simla in the Himalayan foothills, used to be the retreat for British administrators in the colonial past during the hottest months.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)56-61
Number of pages6
JournalJamaica Journal
Volume30
Issue number45323
Publication statusPublished - 2007

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