THE POLITICS OF SOCIALIZATION

I was named Paul Andrew Bourne by Janet Green and Percival Bourne. My first experience with the outside planet "real life" began on December 5, 1968 at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Downtown Kingston, Kingston, West Indies. After my grand arrival in the world, my mother who was a single parent continue to reside at 110 Waltham Park Road. This was a tenement yard with some four families in three dwellings. My father happened to live just four (4) houses away with his common-law-wife and two (2) children. It appeared that my mother was unable to accommodate my father's man stereotyped lifestyle and so she relocated to Bryce Hill Road in August Town some ten miles southern of Waltham Park. Apparently, my parents were not about to end the relationship although there was distance between them and so the union continued. It produced another child Kevin Roger Smith. What? Yes! Was this the apex of my father's patience. My father was a domesticated gardener and my mother a kitchen help. It seems that Mr. Percival Bourne was unable to grapple with the difficulties of his socio-economic realities and parenthood so he migrated to the United States. I have not the vainness of recall of the man call father. The end of the union between my parents produced another relationship. The man stood at 5' 8" fall. He was a well-built and evenly proportioned man like a weigh lifter. He was a carpenter who would repeatedly utter the words "I am a grade one carpenter." This dark skinned man was always unpleasant and very hostile.

Besides having lived with my mother (Janet Green), I was also raised by my stepfather, Alfred Beckford. I recall my stepfather physically abusing my mother every fortnight. Although I am eternally grateful for Mr. Beckford's financial assistance in advancing my present social status, his physical appearance in the family was a bitter