The Savannah

I am in one of my favourite places in the world – Port of Spain, Trinidad. Early this morning, I had one of the greatest joys – I walked around the Savannah. The Savannah is a 260-acre park in the centre of the city. Not only is it the physical centre, it is the heart of Port of Spain. It is also reputed to be the largest round-about in the world!

Yesterday afternoon as I headed back to my hotel, I passed a Savannah full of life and living – joggers and walkers were making their way on the perimeter path, lovers were strolling, families and friends were liming, drinking a sweet, fresh coconut jelly or two. On weekends, you are likely to see a number of “fete-matches” – football, cricket or rugby matches interspersed with fêting (or perhaps it’s the other way around – feting interspersed with the game!). Despite being a bit dry, the Savannah was sparkling yesterday, expressing and reflecting the joy of being alive, important and significant.

The Savannah is a space for the people of Port of Spain, and has become their heart. I recall that when I first came to Trinidad Carnival many years ago I could not understand the buzz that went up when the mas bands entered the Savannah. I could not understand why masqueraders got so nervous when preparing to “cross di stage”. I could not understand why the “big yard” was such a big thing for the steel bands and mas bands. It was not until I had played mas a few times that I felt that buzz and understood. The Savannah is now truly ingrained in my heart as a place of wonderful experiences and memories. Whenever I come to Port of Spain and I see the Savannah, I feel as if I have come home. My heart rests.

It occurred to me that as individuals we have a fundamental need to be centered. Our lives feel out of balance when our core is troubled, or worse, when we have lost touch with our core. Communities and cities also need a centre. The Savannah does that for Port of Spain. Central Park does that for New York; Hyde Park for London.

Perhaps that’s one of the problems with my home town of Kingston, Jamaica. National Heroes Park is our Savannah. The layout of the two cities, Kingston and Port of Spain, is similar. However, our park in Kingston is a shabby dust bowl with 3 main purposes – a cemetery for important people, a “kick ball” space for the youths in the poor, neighbouring communities, and a car park for the Ministry of Finance. There is little joy here.

Kingstonians have rushed to the recently built Emancipation Park in New Kingston in droves. Planners and the “powers that be” cannot understand why. The reason is our basic human need to be centered – individually and as a community.

There is a relationship between individual and community centering – the less we are centered individually, the more we require community centering. As individuals grow in consciousness, we will find less and less need for physical centering space. The truly evolved can centre themselves anywhere – in the midst of chaos, mayhem, war. However, most of us require physical refuge and sanctuary – in our homes, communities, cities and nations. Then, we feel we can focus on our inner centering and feel peace.

There are two things we can each do for humanity – learn to centre ourselves wherever we are by meditating; and make sure that our physical surroundings have places of green, quiet space where we can commune with nature and each other – in peace. The two go hand in hand in creating a world of peace, love and harmony.