Читать книгу Voices from the Hills - Ancil Neil - Страница 11

This study is a very unique one. Unique in the sense that it is, to date, a lifetime study of my own. I have been studying the problems of this community for the greater part of my life. Since this community was my birthplace and home until I attained manhood, and migrated to the U.S.A. Throughout this phase of my life I was also subjected to the same poverty, degradation and ostracism.

Having shared and experienced all the conditions common to other members of this particular community, I am indeed a true member of the community I studied. Another distinct and unique privilege, is that I was an active member of the steelband during part of the period under study. As a result the research for this study was divided into two main parts. The research methods and design are as follows:

1.Participant Observation

2.Non Random Sample

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Researcher as Participant Observer—As a member of the community I experienced the total impact of the social and economic changes of the community. My initial form of data collection was observing and participating in community affairs as I grew up. This was the period between 1945 and 1965.

I observed the community comprised of families who were poor. Most families earned salaries just sufficient enough to keep them together, managing with the bare necessities of life. There were slight variations of families being better off than others economically, so that this could be considered negligible.

Evidence to support these statements of poverty lies in the following facts. I remembered seeing some of my classmates coming to school daily without shoes. Attending school barefooted was a way of life for most children in the community. Mothers reported that they had to wash their childrens' clothes in the afternoon and iron them during the night so the children could attend school clean the next day. As a child I can also recall my own experience, the plight of having to be in this type of situation. My mother had to wash my brother's and sister's clothing twice a week to keep us clean in school. She would wash our clothes in the evenings, and iron them at night. This was done manually, because with no electricity, a washing machine, dryer or electric iron was not available.

Most people lived in over crowded homes due to the large size of their families. I know from personal knowledge and reported incidents, many children slept on the floor. Unemployment, illiteracy and lack of leadership had become an accepted cultural pattern of these people. These patterns indicated to me that the people who resided in this community seemed destined to be poor. Due to these social and economic shortcomings I concluded that poverty was indeed an inherent part of this community.

As a participant observer, I experienced violence in the community. I witnessed individual fights between members of the community and members of other communities. The most prevalent types of fighting, however, were gang fights. These gang outbursts were termed riots; steelband riots to be more precise.

Members of steelbands from different areas would engage in a series of fights with members of the steelband in the Laventille area over a period of time. Fighting took place in the streets, alleyways, backyards or any place members happen to be at a particular time. Weapons such as machetes, knives, bottles, rocks and even molotov cocktails were used. These gang wars or riots were very prevalent in the mid 1950's in Trinidad. However, the Laventille community members were deemed the ring leaders.

Violence was so predominant and lawlessness prevailed to such an extent that the community had become a haven for social disturbance. Thus creating a social stigma. With this combination of poverty and violence, the stigma grew and took root. Laventille, as a community, was viewed as the worst of all depressed areas in the entire country of Trinidad. Its members were ostracized from members of other communities. It was in this type of atmosphere that I grew up, not knowing the true causes or roots of these social ills.

A great deal of my involvement and association was centered around the steelband, and those connected with it. For the steelband was an integral part of this community. Collecting data on the steelband, as most of the data in this study, involved some direct personal participation. I was directly involved in the steelband as a player, for a short time. This lifestyle and social background enabled me to have a full concept of the steelband music, and its members

In the mid-1950's, I observed that the steelband in the Laventille area was generating community and national interest. The entire community, young and old, were captivated by the music and started developing a positive attitude towards the steelband members, and steelband as an indigenous art form. Unemployment, which once was impossible in certain professional areas for members of this community, was becoming more flexible. One outstanding example was the employment of a member of this community in the Trinidad Police Service. A few years later in 1961, 1, myself, was employed by this Government agency. Prior to this period these opportunities were unheard of. It was at this point in time that I began my initial investigation.

Informal Survey

During the period 1961 to 1965, I conducted a rather informal survey. This took the form of casual conversations and interviews. These conversations and interviews were conducted among residents of the community and people outside of the community. The majority of those interviewed happen to be friends and individuals I had come into contact with both on a social and professional level.

My intentions were to ascertain the following:

1.The reason why the community carried a social stigma

2.The reason for the lack of attention and general improvement of the area by the Government

3.The causes for excessive forms of violence in the area

4.The sudden impact of the steelband on the community.

Formal Survey (Non-Random Sample)

In 1974, I conducted a formal survey in the form of personal interviews using a cassette recorder. The survey comprised of a cross-section of the population by non random sampling methods; approximately 300 persons were interviewed.

The reduced size of the sample is not detrimental to the study for the following reasons:

1.Well over 10 percent of the population in the area under study were interviewed. This percentage included the 300 persons formally interviewed.

2.My first-hand knowledge and experience as a member of this community, qualified me to analyze and evaluate the social changes that took place in my time.

3.A very large sample was not a crucial requirement for this study of social change in this particular community since I had experienced most of the changes I was studying.

CHARACTERISTIC OF FORMAL SAMPLE

Age Group Interviewed—Ages ranged from 16 to 90 years (See Appendix: Table 1).

Sixty percent of all respondents have lived in the area all their lives. 40 percent for more than 15 years (See Appendix: Table 2).

The majority, 80 percent, fell between 20 and 60 years. Approximately 60 percent male and 40 percent female made up the sample (See Appendix: Table 1).

Approximately 100 steelband members, part of the sample, were interviewed. Approximately 25 of them were ex-members living in the United States of America.

Education

The sample revealed the majority of respondents completed elementary education. The older members of the sample never continued their formal education. Of the younger members, 20 percent completed high school (See Appendix: Table 3). The report of the urban redevelopment council on East Port of Spain (1972), states that an overall basic education was obtained, and that people with no schooling whatsoever, were found to be restricted to the older age group.⁹

Occupation

The data showed 10 percent of the employed respondents represented teachers, civil servants, nurses and policemen. Twenty five percent skilled and technical workers. Thirty percent fell into the manual occupational category. Fifteen percent engaged in clerical/sale occupations and 20 percent were unemployed (See Appendix: Table 4).

Religion

The predominant religious affiliation is Roman Catholic. On the basis of the sample and other information, the religious community was comprised of several religious groupings, the spiritual Baptist and Protestant groups followed closely behind the Catholic (See breakdown by religion in Appendix: Table 5).

Residential Stability

Slum communities are sometimes found to be largely unstable in that prevailing conditions, both within and around such areas, give rise to the considerable movement in and out of them. New arrivals of low occupational status converge for temporary cheap residence while engaged in jobs in neighboring areas, residents move in search of occupation or better living conditions.¹⁰

Knowledge of the residential stability of an area is of particular importance to agencies or organizations considering long term social and/or development projects, such as the part-financing of co-operatives, providing training facilities or assisting with the acquisition of property for recreational or other use. Justification of such projects depend in part on the active participation and cooperation of dependable community members.¹¹

The Laventille community seemed a fairly stable one¹² (See Appendix: Table 2). The population of the area under study was roughly estimated to be 10,000. This figure represents one-half of the population of the entire East Dry River areas estimated at 16,000. The unpublished figures from the central statistical office gives an overall total for the East Dry River area of 16,644-8, 026 males; 8,618 females.¹³

The population was difficult to obtain in terms of accuracy since the central statistical office gave an overall total for the entire East Dry River area or South East Port of Spain as the area is generally called. There are no separate census for the true Laventille area as outlined in this study. Faced with this dilemma, I had to use my personal familiarity with the area, and assumed the true Laventille community had a population that could be considered about two-third of the entire area.