THE issue of Le Repentir Cemetery keeps coming up ever so often. The main issue is that the cemetery has been neglected over the years and whatever maintenance work was attempted was sporadically done. The result is that large trees had grown up among the graves, often damaging them and thick underbush had overtaken large parts of the cemetery. This neglect has made it very difficult and costly to carry out burials, even in family plots and some of the roads and paths have become impassable. Last month, at a statutory meeting of the City Council, the mayor exclaimed in disgust: “The cemetery is back to a jungle!”

It pains residents of the city to witness the horrible condition into which the cemetery had been allowed to sink since at one time it was like a well-kept park. The cemetery was once one of the estates of Pierre Louis DeSaffon, a Frenchman who had killed his brother in a duel and his grief was so overwhelming that he left Europe, banished himself to what he believed to be the most primitive and undeveloped part of the world, which he imagined to be British Guiana.

In Guiana, DeSaffon became a wealthy man and owned several plantations, the most well known of which were La Penitence (Penitence), Le Ressouvenir (Remembrance) and Le Repentir (Repentance). The names of his estates reflect DeSaffon’s continuing sorrow. It should be mentioned that he was a great philanthropist and helped orphans. Saffon Street in Georgetown is named after him.

Le Repentir was given over to the newly established Georgetown Town Council to be used as a cemetery. The council laid out the cemetery and burials began there. Each year, the council made improvements until, by the beginning of the 20th century, it achieved the status of a well-kept park. The main east to west and north to south roads were built of red clay brick, which gave a lifting colour. The east to west road which began in Broad Street was created into a tree-lined avenue tailing off into the backdam into an avenue of majestic Royal Palms, some of which are still standing today. The north to south road ran from Louisa Row to Sussex Street and the parapets were planted with various flowers such as marigolds, forget-me-nots, hibiscuses, bluebells, roses and so on. The administrative offices were near the Louisa Row entrance. The internal drains and the trench around the cemetery were always kept clean and flowing.

Though the neglect and decline of the cemetery began after independence, the pace became faster from the 1970s. Until then, an undertaker had always served on the council and for several decades, the country’s two most prominent undertakers, Messrs Claude Merriman and Mr George DeSebastiani, served. The presence and influence of these men ensured that the cemetery was kept in good condition.

Then, for the last 25 years, the cemetery was neglected until in the last several years when there was a great public uproar and the City Council was forced to turn its attention to it. At the end of last August, City Hall’s spokesperson declared, “We spent $240 million in the past and still had to go back shortly after and do maintenance work.” The council also declared that it would spend $100. million each year to keep Le Repentir in good order and has included a maintenance clause with Chung’s Global Enterprise.

In the past, when the city engineer was responsible for keeping the cemetery in good order, about 12 weedmen cum drain cleaners were employed and about five wardens. Since the vegetation in the cemetery would have been under control, the maintenance work was routine and not strenuous; the wardens used bicycles to ride about the cemetery. It should be mentioned that around the periphery of the cemetery, hundreds of coconut palms were planted. The roots of the these palms prevented slippage of earth into the trench which surrounded the cemetery, added to its aesthetics and provided the then council with income from the sale of coconuts.

If the city engineer’s office were once again to be responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery rather than outsourcing, $100.million per annum would be far more than adequate to keep the cemetery in order and also to be extended it when necessary.

Notionally, they could allocate $40.million for weeding machines, shovels and road repair and $60 million for wages. If 40 persons were employed as cleaners and wardens, their average salary would be $1.5 million per year or $125,000 per month, which such labouring categories would be most happy to receive, since such a wage would be better than what most clerical workers receive. It is our view that if City Hall and its technical staff have the commitment, will, knowledge and imagination to keep the cemetery in good order as past Town Councils had done; they could regain the reputation of Le Repentir being the best- kept cemetery in the Caribbean. .