North-East Port-of-Spain:  Belmont or “Freetown”

Belmont’s housing developments are deeply entwined within Port-of-Spain’s history.  Belmont was Port-of-Spain’s first suburb.   After emancipation settlement began in two forms.

(1)    1840-50’s – Africans rescued by the British from illegal slaving ships.  The chief of the Rada community bought land within Belmont and today, his descendants still reside on the land he purchased.

(2)    1840-90’s – Formally enslaved Africans seeking employment

Initially, shacks and settlements sprang up haphazardly. Today, the area is still characterized by narrow roads, lanes and crisscrossed curving roads. By 1970 Belmont was developed as a poor and working class community.[ (Dickman 1992) (Polese 1992)].  The area became known as “the Black St.Clair” as many persons of the black professional’s class resided there (Trinidad and Tobago Finder n.d.).  These professional were victims of racial residential segregation.  Nevertheless, with them came the introduction of large homes in Belmont.   Today, many of the gingerbread homes have been converted into concrete homes or business. Yet, some housing have remained in the hands of family. The area is currently a lower to middle class residential neighborhood.

The community is approximately a five minute walk from all of Port-of-Spain’s services and the urban experience.  Yet, from looking at the picture one might conclude that the area is serene.  Cars parked idly at the side of the road, lots of greenery, a man walking to the neighborhood parlor in the most nonchalant manner, with a gas tank on his head.  Definitely, the atmosphere is not representative of the usually urban hectic lifestyle.

Today, Belmont is viewed in a negative light.  Crime and gang violence have surface, which is common in very high density low income communities. Muhammad Muwakil, an upcoming Trinidadian poet expressed the change in Belmont, with his poem, “4 am in Belmont”. (Muller 2013-14)

“Reel at images of over-educated cocaine dealers under streetlamps,

and the sound of gunshots that usher souls away from the realm of men”

“Buy a dream from a crack head and stitch it to the fabric of your being,

to begin to understand the meaning of mayhem”. (Muhammad Muwaki)l

                                                                                                   (Muller 2013-14)

Bibliography

Muller, Nazma. Muhammad Muwakil: A world to change. 2013-14. http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-117 (accessed 04 06, 2014).

Polese, Mario and Sylvain Mendard. "Is down town on the way down?" Montreal: Montreal Interuniversity Group, 1992. 12.

Trinidad and Tobago Finder. Google.tt. www.tntfinder.com (accessed 04 06, 2014).