Tobago
Newsday
Rita Pemberton
THE NAME Gilpin is currently associated with one of the oldest, most popular and prestigious trails in Tobago’s rainforest.
This two-mile trail leads to some of the forest’s treasures and offers some of the most desirable visitor experiences in the area. Along this trail, exotic rainforest flora can be seen, and in addition, it offers excellent birding opportunities, especially for seeing the rare white-tailed saw-winged hummingbird, which was thought to be extinct until it was discovered there in 1974.
But apart from its tourism and environmental role, there is another important dimension to Gilpin’s history.
Gilpin was one of two villages in the remote recesses of the hilly areas of northern Tobago, a considerable distance from the Bloody Bay estate.
This village was established off the main road (a track), within the rainforest surroundings. This settlement, which was deliberately located away from other human settlements, was an attempt by the newly liberated population to challenge the dominance of the plantations over the earth’s resources and to lead an independent existence.
DESIRE FOR
iNDEPENDENCE
Remoteness, isolation and lack of facilities were not scary to the peasants, for whom it was very important to break free from the restrictive, repressive and exploitative stranglehold of the plantation’s tentacles and settle into spaces they could call their own.
However, it is very instructive that the village was founded on the remains of an estate. Its presence reveals that despite the imperial ban on settlement in the area and the popular view that this restriction was strictly observed, there was some clearing of parts of the rainforest.
An Englishman, after whom the trail is named, defied the law and created and ran an estate in the forbidden territory, down in a hole “behind God’s back” and out of sight of the island’s administrators. When he gave up cultivation, the land was sold and/or occupied by freed Africans.
The villagers of Gilpin established a symbiotic relationship with Dead Bay, the other isolated village in the area, which was the route to Parlatuvier, for access to essential services.
OLD TOBAGO
NAMES AND WAYS
Gilpin was home to a small, close-knit community that included the Baptist, Blake, Burris, Horsford, James, Lewis, Moses, Thomas and Winchester families.
Water for domestic purposes was obtained from springs and the Bloody Bay River. There was no commercial activity in the village and groceries had to be bought at a shop at the junction of the track and the main road, or at Parlatuvier.
The track could not accommodate vehicular traffic, so donkeys became the main means of transport.
There were no schools, so the children attended the Anglican school in Parlatuvier. After Hurricane Flora, a building owned by the RC Church was built to house the school and church, and the priest, who was based in Delaford, led a service every other Thursday, usually after school dismissed.
Gilpin was a largely self-supporting agricultural settlement whose inhabitants lived by farming, fishing and hunting; life was organized around these activities. The villagers, who were farmers by day, cultivated cocoa and food crops, especially greens, dasheen, plantain and cassava.
Fishing and hunting were mostly done on weekends. The community’s diet was mainly based on fish, because the sea is full of species such as robin, jacks, bonito and salmon.
On Saturdays, banking was done and the catch included grouper, snapper, amberjack, plum head (a small red fish of the red snapper family) and georgie.
Crabs were also collected from the river: the area was known for large crabs – said to be the largest in Tobago.
The abundant wildlife in the rainforest was a hunter’s paradise. Hunting was a Friday and Saturday night activity, when animals such as armadillo, agouti, iguana, maniku and wild boar were caught and provided alternative sources of protein.
Since there was no refrigeration in the community, meat and fish were preserved with corn – dried, smoked and stored for future use. Baked fish was a popular delicacy.
GILPIN VILLAGE LIFE
The community’s diet centered on the food they produced, all cooked in coconuts, with the main foreign ingredients of salt, salt beef, tails and snout, bought from the shop in Parlatuvier. The corn was ground and used to make corn noodles, corn porridge and paimi.
There were limited alternative forms of employment. Odd jobs on the road were offered to some people by the government, but the steamboat service around the island became an important route for generating income for the villagers, who supplied food crops and animals – pigs, goats, sheep, cows and donkeys. – who were gathered for sale in Trinidad every month
Until the age of gas lamps, light was provided by
iron balls (flambeaux), sometimes made with a bottle, but usually from a piece of bamboo with three or four joints, which are cleaned, then the length is filled with kerosene. The upper part is covered with a piece of old cloth, rubbed with lemon and sealed with mud. Held aloft, these fixtures provided ample light for homes and hunters moving through the dark forest. This was one of the last areas of Tobago to be electrified.
Recreation was limited to cricket, played on the side of the village nearer the bay, and bird-catching. Children played face-to-face cricket and football in the street.
Traditional celebrations were important activities for the villagers. Christmas was a time of visiting and sharing food and drink On the hill where the cemetery now stands preparations were made for the social activities associated with the seasonal holiday, which included flying kites.
Despite the small size of the community, death announcements were made with the traditional refrain “Awake, O people, awake,” which echoed through the early morning.
Weddings were held in the church on the hill. People followed the wedding procession to the reception venue. The night before the wedding, called the night of celibacy, a ceremony was held that included the throwing of rice and corn, with music by a tambourine band for the reel dance. All the villagers participated.
Carnivals were very popular in the community. Gilpin was known as the center of black devils and the calypso competitions, which the villagers enjoyed, were highly controversial.
Country calypsonians included Mighty Spitfire, Ranger, Lord Vincent, Volcano, Mighty Whitehat and Growler. The whole village attended these performances.
The most significant change to the community occurred when, during the 1970s the main road to Roxborough was built, the entire population of the village of Gilpin moved to create the village of Bloody Bay. The village of Gilpin disappeared and Gilpin became a no-vehicle farm road. The area once occupied by the village became the Gilpin Trace, the road to the inner secrets of the Forest Reserve.
