Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

Colonel Frank Lumsden of the Charles Town Maroon Council dances with Cashaine Richards, at the recent Quao Day celebrations at Safu Yard, in Charles Town, Portland. - Photo by Paul Williams

There are four major Maroon settlements in Jamaica. Charles Town is one of them. It seems though that the Maroon culture in this village - located just a few miles from Buff Bay, Portland - is the most diluted. Migration and inter-breeding have significantly fragmented the Maroon posterity of the area, which was once the haunt of Captain Quao, Maroon leader and hero.

However, all is not lost as the revival and preservation of the Charles Town Maroon heritage rest squarely on the shoulders of the leader of the Charles Town Maroon Council, Colonel Frank Lumsden, not as colourful as Quao, but just as daring and dedicated.

He said, "I have always though about my heritage, I have always thought about representing it ... I always saw the need for it to be represented in the international market, but first you have to have the authority to do so."

But Colonel Lumsden has not always been at Charles Town. In fact, he was only been named colonel two years ago, and before that, he had come back to Jamaica permanently in 1998 after spending several years in the United States.

Born in Buff Bay, he is the last of seven children - one girl and six boys, including Vin Lumsden, who played cricket for Jamaica and Cambridge University. His Maroon lineage goes back to his great-grandaunt, Jestina 'Tun-Tun' Campbell, who gave him many a "protection bush bath", she being Maroon chieftain and 'scientist'. These baths were cut short when Frank Lumsden's youthful life in Buff Bay was interrupted when his family moved to Kingston to find better educational opportunities for the children.

In Kingston, he attended Morris Knibb Prep. School, with people such as Winston 'Merritone' Blake, Trevor Munroe, Laurie Foster and Billy Sheriff. From Morris Knibb, he moved on to Kingston College (KC) under very unusual circumstances. He sat an exam for the Merrit Scholarship but didn't get through. However, he did well enough to get into a secon-dary school. So, his mother just took him and arbitrarily placed him in a class at KC, Form 2A1.

He recalled: "My mother believed in doing things her own way ... and she just banded me off and sent me to Kingston College. I wasn't registered or anything ... My mother told Bishop Gibson (then principal) that she had four children in school (all at KC) and the fifth one, she wanted as 'brawta', so she didn't pay for one child." Frank didn't even get a report that year because of his unregistered status, but stayed on.

Having settled at KC, he played cricket and football for the school at the highest level and was a member of the the 1958 winning Manning Cup team, with Churchill Neita, Duke Fuller and Mabrichio Ventura, et al. At Boys' Championships, he represented KC in the half-mile. His most memorable moment, though, was when he "scored a goal in Manning Cup from a distance out against Machael Thelwel of JC". He reminisced, "It was really a spectacular goal. The only goal that I scored in Manning Cup."

After KC, he worked in the capacity as clerk of works with the Jamaica Railway Corporation, "travelling all over supervising construction, measuring of work done, preparing pay bill". All this time his brother, Lance, was at Southern Illinois University (SIU) on a tennis scholarship. Lance helped him secure a track and field half-scholarship at SIU, so he left his railway job in 1965 and found himselfin a new place, a new culture.

At SIU, he immersed himself in philosophy and psychology, though they were not his major. He turned his back on track and field and formed a football team, which was rated number three in the Midwest. For his efforts, he got a tuition award. He described the total experience at SIU as "very good" having learned much in and out of the classroom.

"I had no problems with teachers because once you are mannerly and can express yourself and show respect for teachers, you have absolutely no problem," he said.

During two 'memorable' summers at SIU, he sold encyclopaedias door to door in all-white neighbourhoods in places such as Topeka, Wichita, Kansas City - all in Kansas, and Independence, Missouri. This was the turbulent mid-960s when America was at war with itself, tightened by racial tension. He was held up at gunpoint quite a few times, and chased out of neighbourhoods. In addition, he was arrested thrice for selling books without a licence. His employers believed it was cheaper to be arrested and fined than to pay for a licence, which was only good for the area in which the books were being sold.

Duration In Jail

"But it didn't matter if you were making a US$100 per book," he reasoned. The longest he stayed in jail was overnight, but he was never fined. On one occasion, he sang calypso to drunken inmates. Yet, he was not deterred by these unpleasant incidents, as they helped him get rid of his fear of rejection, and prepared him for a career in sales and trading.

When he left SIU in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business management, he delved into computer sales, and the world of trading commodities and securities for major companies, such as Oppenheimer where he was associated with Allan Greenspan, who was to become the chairman of the United States Federal Reserves. One of his duties was to trade Greenspan's investment ideas. Nerve-wracking, but fulfilling was the trading experience for him.

Then one day, Frank Lumsden traded in his calculator and unfolded his canvases. The need to paint could no longer be suppressed. The artistic bug had been biting him from the days at SIU; art played a strong role in his life, but it wasn't major. However, his paintings got better and better every day, and he decided to answer the call from the arts.

"I could draw ... and my ability to draw got better every year even though I wasn't practising ... and so I decided to see what it was with this talent that I had."

Sell His Own Painting

In his new venture, he had early successes as he used his sales skills to sell his own paintings, mainly done in oil. His main subjects were, and still are, leaves and flowers. This would take him back to Jamaica from time to time to view the abundance of plants that we have here. His work can be found in hospitals and homes in Chicago, Austria, Germany, etc. There are 11 pieces in St. Anthony's Hospital, St. Petersburg, Florida. Right now he's setting up a museum in Charles Town, where he will showcase and sell his work and others', which tie in with their Maroon background.

While he was away, he always remembered his heritage so, when he had to return to Jamaica in 1998 for family reasons, it was not difficult. His brother Keith was already doing resuscitation work in Charles Town. He had formed a council of elders to resuscitate the Maroon heritage. Frank got involved and was spending much time with the council, which was registered in 2003 as a corporation. He was subsequently appointed colonel of the Charles Town Maroon Council (CTMC). The aim of his stewardship is to use culture as an "anchor" for development, and to bring opportunities to the Charles Town people.

In addition to being leader of the CMTC, he's also the founder curator at the Charles Town Maroon Museum. But how did he get to his present status? What is he doing back in Charles Town? Is it to get some more of Tun-Tun bush baths? No. Tun-Tun is long dead. Frank Lumsden is back to help preserve hers, Quao's and all the other Maroon's legacy. To the young descendants of the Charles Town Maroons, he said of their heritage:

"It is what will make them strong, it is what will give them direction ... so that when they travel abroad they will not be affected by every wind that blows. They will be able to focus on their purpose, and that the Maroon identity is vital for their development."