See Part 1 Here
Part Three will be carried in Diaspora Voices, June 14, 2026
Carolyn Cooper is Professor Emerita of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. In the 1980’s, she was an active member of the Women’s Studies Working Group at Mona. In the 1990’s, she wrote a bilingual English/Jamaican column for the Jamaica Observer. From 2009-2024, she wrote a column for the Jamaica Sunday Gleaner. Today’s column, in three parts, was delivered in June as a plenary lecture at the 50th annual conference of the Caribbean Studies Association in Kingston, Jamaica.
HELD HOSTAGE
I called the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) office in Kingston to ask about access to Pearly Beach. I was advised to send an email to the director of corporate communications, which I did. I proposed that one of the priorities of urban development ought to be ensuring access of all Jamaicans to public beaches in ways that are consistent with local cultural values – for example, self-catering. Patrons should not be held hostage by beach operators who attempt to force them to buy food and drink on the property. UDC has not yet responded.
The Jamaican Government needs to take lessons from Barbados. All beaches in Barbados are, by law, national parks and cannot be privatised. Every citizen of Barbados has access to all beaches. One of my favourites is Accra Beach, named after the capital of Ghana. Both locals and tourists enjoy the beach which reminds me of Hellshire. Full of vibes!
By the way, if the Government doesn’t move quickly to build back the reef at Hellshire, the beach will die. Imagine, Kingston is sitting on the seventh largest natural harbour in the world and we don’t have a single beach in the city. We have turned the harbour into a cesspool.
There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about record visitor arrivals. We welcome these foreigners. But we simply can’t forget about local tourists who also want to enjoy the beauty of our homeland. We have to launch a national campaign to take back Jamaica’s beaches from private operators. In the 1970s we used to say we’re more than a beach, we’re a country. Now, we need to claim our beaches. They should belong to all Jamaicans. Not just a few hoteliers.
And the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) needs to look carefully at its ads for the North American market. There are hardly any black tourists! It seems as if even Jamaicans in the diaspora who come home often are not recognised as tourists. We only want their remittances! The issue of beach access may not just be about locals. Perhaps, for the JTB, the ideal tourist is really not black.
The following week, I wrote a column headlined, “Chanting Down Greedy Hoteliers,” which documented some of the responses to “No Beach For Local Tourists,” which had touched a very sensitive nerve. I got so many emails from both Jamaicans and other Caribbean citizens who are very concerned about the way in which hoteliers dominate the conversation about public access to our beaches. Diana McCaulay, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), highlights this troubling issue of special interests in her excellent article, “The Problem of Beach Exclusion,” published in The Gleaner on Wednesday, January 11: In 1997, the NRCA [National Resources Conservation Authority] began work on a beach policy to address issues surrounding public access and a Green Paper was drafted which proposed open access. There was immediate pushback from the tourism industry.”
Of course, there was pushback! Hoteliers don’t want open access to beaches because this will reduce their control of valuable resources. Their all-exclusive hotels would become much too inclusive for their liking. They want to erect barbed wire fences, stretching into the sea, to keep out the locals. We cannot sit back passively and allow our beaches to be captured by greedy hoteliers, irresponsible politicians and all those who benefit from the current state of affairs. We have to take action. We, Jamaicans, like to think of ourselves as militant. We boast about our Ashanti warrior heritage. But we don’t always put up a fight for important causes. We need to follow the example of our uncompromising Caribbean neighbours who refuse to be shut out of their beaches.
VIRAL PROTEST
I got an inspiring email from Antigua. Here’s an excerpt: “A few years ago, Butch Stuart [sic]tried to get the Government of Antigua and Barbuda to ‘allow’ him to turn one of our most visited and, by far, favourite beaches – among locals and visitors – into a private enclave for his guests. The protests from the locals and nearby residents were not only unrelenting, but in your face. Some of the protests even went viral. He eventually backed away and the Government did not have to intervene … the people with the power had spoken.” One of the most outspoken warriors in the fight to keep Caribbean beaches out of the grasp of hoteliers is the Barbadian calypsonian The Mighty Gabby. His 1982 calypso, “Jack,” was a classic piece of throw word confronting Jack Dear, chairman of the Barbados Tourist Board. Dear, who was certainly not dearly beloved, had declared that hotel owners had the right to develop their property up to the waterfront of the island’s beaches.
This is how Gabby launched his counterattack:
I grow up bathing in seawater
But nowadays dat is bare horror
If I only venture down by the shore
Police telling me Ah can’t bathe no more
Cause Jack don’t want me to bathe on my beach
Jack tell dem to keep me out of reach
Jack tell dem I will never make the grade
Strength and security build barricade
Da can’t happen here in this country
I want Jack to know dat di beach belong to we
Da can’t happen here over my dead body
Tell Jack dat I say dat di beach belong to we.
I used to sell coral an lime
But Jack insist dat is a crime
Now when I see di police face
I run in haste wid my briefcase
Tourism vital, I can’t deny
But can’t mean more than I and I
My navel string bury right here
But a tourist one could be anywhere
Yet Jack don’t want me to bathe on my beach.
Gabby’s use of “I and I” is an assertion of Rastafari consciousness. It empowers him to chant down the forces of oppression. Gabby knows that the barricades are all about the tourist dollar. And he’s not prepared to sell his birthright. He highlights the fact that vendors who make a living on the beach are criminalised. In the protectionist economy of the capitalist hotel industry, tourists are often forced to purchase souvenirs only at in-house gift shops. In Jamaica, enterprising vendors whose access to the beach is restricted, set up shop in the sea, enticing tourists to come out to them. A total subversion of land-based operations!
BIG UP WI BEACH
Tourism is now vital to our economies across the Caribbean. But we have to find a way to balance the requirements of the tourist industry and the needs of citizens. We can’t just fence in tourists and fence out locals. Many hoteliers assume that their property is like a cruise ship. And the ship is the destination. But some tourists actually want to escape the all-exclusive prison. They want to meet the people outside the barricades.
In St Lucia, there have been vigorous protests against privatisation of beaches. Taj Weekes, St Lucian roots reggae singer and environmentalist emphatically declares in his song “No One,” on his 2024 album Eyes to See,
No one owns the water
No one owns the sand
They are gifts from the Earth
No cost, but free
In the hands of the greedy
The Earth requires a fee
Greedy expatriates were the target of a 2020 beach protest in St Lucia, covered by the Curacao Nature Conservancy.
In Cayman, there has also been resistance to beach access, as illustrated in this photo by James Whittaker published in 2017 in the Cayman Compass. Right next to the sign showing access to the beach, there is a fence blocking the path. An officious sign, Private Property KEEP OUT,” challenges the authority of the official beach access marker. I can’t help wondering if the Cayman Islands Corsairs would endorse this piracy of natural resources. In 2024, The Cayman Islands’ Public Lands Commission launched its digital Shoreline Interactive Map (iMap) which documents over 300 shoreline access points. The Commission’s website confirms that, “A public shoreline access point gives members of the public access to the shoreline and land seaward of the high-water mark. As per the Prescription Act (2018 Revision) and subject to other legal requirements, the public may at these areas, (e.g. marine parks zoning, etc) fish, undertake purposes incident to fishing or bathing or recreation.” Will the Government of Jamaica ever produce such a map? Diana McCaulay shows us the way forward in that Gleaner column, “The Problem of Beach Exclusion”: “It is true that harassment is a problem for the tourist industry – or indeed for any visitor to a Jamaican beach. But the response cannot be exclusion. The response has to be commitment to a set of articulated principles – frequent access points; provision of well-managed public beaches, including the requirement for behaviour by beach users that does not present a nuisance or threat to others or to the beach itself.”
I relentlessly wrote several more columns on beach access. “Who Is Guarding Our Beaches?”was published in June 2018. Yet another one, published in July 2019, was written in the Jamaican language with this headline, “Hotel Guard Fi Stop Harass Wi Pon Di Beach!” In English translation, “Hotel guards must stop harassing us on the beach.” Recently, there has been renewed debate about making Jamaican an official language as a result of an unfortunate incident in Parliament. An MP for the Opposition People’s National Party, Ms Nekeisha Burchell, opened her maiden speech in the Jamaican language. She considered this entirely appropriate in her capacity as the Shadow Minister for Culture, Creative Industries, and Information. She was immediately shut down by the Speaker of the House, the Most Honourable Mrs Juliet Holness, who reminded her of the Standing Order that the sole language of the Parliament must be English. I consider this an opportune occasion to use the Jamaican language in formal discourse. An excerpt from “Hotel Guard Fi Stop Harass Wi Pon Di Beach!” is followed by an English translation.
Mi did go a MoBay fi gi speech a one conference. Mi did a stay a S Hotel, side a Doctor’s Cave Beach. Inna di morning mi go tek a lickle walk pon di beach. An mi have on mi Spanish Court wristband. Wen mi reach Decameron Hotel, one security guard im come up an tell mi seh mi no have on no wristband fi di hotel. As if mi never know. Im never get no chance fi seh nutten more. Mi tell im seh mi deh pon di public beach. Mi no deh ponDecameron property. Im seh suppen like seh a ongle warn im a warn mi so mi no come pondi property.
Mi tell im seh if mi no deh pon Decameron property, im nah no right fi seh nutten to mi. A harass im a harass mi. An mi aks im fi call di hotel manager or one supervisor. Im seh imkyaahn dweet. So mi seh, alright, mi a go a di lobby. Im seh if mi come pon di property, ima go ‘restrain’ mi. Im seh mi fi put on mi clothes, go out a road an go eena di hotel lobby from out deh so.
WAT A POPPY SHOW!
Mi never plan fi waste out mi lickle beach time a quarrel. So eena di evenin wen mi come back from conference, mi go a di front a Decameron Hotel an aks di guard fi mek mi go talk to one a di hotel manager dem. Mi tell her di whole story bout me an di guard from eena di morning. Shi tell mi seh a ongle guest shi can let een. Shi mek mi talk to one supervisor from di security company. Same story. Mi can’t go een sake a ‘protocol.’ Wat a poppy show!
Wen mi come back a town, mi call Decameron. An mi tell one a di top manager dem wahappen. Im seh im sorry an im a go talk to di security company. Lickle after dat, one a di security company owner im call an im seh im sorry an im a go ‘discipline’ di guard. Mi seh, “No! A nuh di guard fi discipline. A oonoo. Di guard must a do wa oonoo tell im fi do.” An a no deh so di discipline fi done. Di whole a wi, weh a fi a fight up fi go a good beach, wi a fi discipline Govament. Wi a fi mek di politician dem know seh dem better stop sell wi out. Backra day done.
Here’s the English translation:
I went to MoBay to speak at a conference and stayed at the S Hotel, next to Doctor’s Cave Beach. In the morning I went for a little walk on the beach, wearing my armband. When I got to the Decameron Hotel, a security guard approached me and told me that I didn’t have a wristband for the hotel. As if I didn’t know! He never got a chance to say another word. I told him I was on the public beach. I was not on the Decameron property. He said something like he was just warning me so I wouldn’t come on the property
I told him that if I wasn’t on the Decameron property, he had no right to say anything to me. He was harassing me. And I asked him to call the manager or a supervisor. He said he couldn’t do that. So I said, “Alright, I’m going to the lobby.” He said if I came on the property, he was going to ‘restrain’ me. He said I should put on my clothes and use the street entrance to the hotel lobby.
WHAT A CIRCUS!
I had no intention of wasting my little beach time with quarrelling. So in the evening when I came back from the conference, I went to the street entrance to the hotel and asked the security guard to allow me in to speak to someone in management. I told her the whole story of my encounter with the guard in the morning. She said it was only hotel guests she could let in. She made me talk to a supervisor from the security company. Same story. I couldn’t go in because of ‘protocol.’ What a circus!
When I got back to town, I called the hotel and told one of the senior managers what had happened. He apologised and said he would talk to the security company. Soon after, one of the owners of the security company called to apologise. He said he was going to ‘discipline’ the guard. I said, “No! It’s not the guard who should be disciplined. It’s you. The guard must be following your instructions.” And that’s not where the discipline should end. All of us who are fighting for the right to enjoy good beaches have to discipline the Government. We have to make politicians know that they had better stop selling us out. Plantation slavery is over.
Several more columns followed: “Another Public Beach Gone Private!” was published in September 2019; “Fort Clarence Beach Still Locked up” in April 2022.
See Part One Here
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