‘I live by charity’ – Bongo Isaac
ISAAC ‘BONGO Isaac’ Wright, a survivor of the 1963 massacre of Rastafarians in Coral Gardens in St James, says he survives through the mercy of his longstanding friend Fitzroy ‘Flako’ Floyd and Word Sound Power Collective, a 501(c)(3) NGO based in Seattle, Washington.
His cancer is at stage one, which gives Bongo Isaac a glimmer of hope. When The Gleaner visited the elder Rastafarian he was in excruciating pain, which he says is felt in his back, abdomen and sides. He is hardly able to find money to buy painkillers.
The only thing he owns outside of the one-bedroom house that is on government-owed captured land are two goats, which are remnants of the animals he had before. His cows were stolen. “I have nothing. I live by charity”, he stated.
NO BASIC AMENITIES
He has no electricity, and a water tank on his roof was given to him by Flako.
The man who is helping to care for Bongo Isaac sat next to the Gleaner team during the interview and was quick to point out that the 84-year-old man has been living a rough life.
“He has no kitchen facilities, so he cooks outside in the open with three stones used as his fireplace and wood is his fuel. He has no washstand or washing tub, so he has to sit on his bottom to wash his clothes. He has no closet to hang his clothes, so they are hung on strings in his room,” bemoaned Flako.
“He is not able to earn from his goats as the stock is now reduced to almost nothing.”
In 1963, when Bongo Isaac was locked away in a cell in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth, after he was forced to flee his home in Camrose, St James, it was prayer that fed his hunger.
Flako says the elderly Rastafarian is sometimes sad, because only a few Rastafarians visit him with words of upliftment.
“He is not able to provide his three meals per day and fresh fruits and vegetables, due to his cancer, and his mobility is not as vigorous as before, as the sickness slows him down,” lamented his trusted friend.
Bongo Isaac’s wife died many years, so did his only son. His adopted daughter, Judith, and her children give whatever assistance they can.
‘He has no washstand or washing tub, so he has to sit on his bottom to wash his clothes. He has no closet to hang his clothes, so they are hung on strings in his room.’