LAST week the Georgetown City Council discussed the fencing of Le Repentir Cemetery. The cemetery was first used in the early 19th century and was one of the large blocks of land owned by Pierre Louis de Saffon after whom Saffon Street was named.

De Saffon was a native of France and emigrated to the Demerara colony in the late 18th century. The reason why he came to Demerara was that he had killed his brother in a duel and had become so distraught with grief and guilt that, as a penance, he exiled himself to the most remote and backward place he had heard of. But though his sorrow and mental suffering were never overcome, he became a wealthy man and came to own large tracts of land. Among his landholdings were Plantations La Penitence (Penitence), Le Ressouvenir (Remembrance) and Le Repentir (Repentance), all names reflective of his sorrow. He was also a philanthropist and cared for children and the poor.

The Dutch town of Stabroek from which Georgetown developed had no public cemetery and when the British took over the Demerara colony in 1815 by the Treaty of Paris, in addition to their military cemetery in Young Street, Kingston, they established the Bourda Cemetery.

The comparatively newly-established Georgetown Town Council took over the Le Repentir plantation for use as a public cemetery and with patient and steady work, they created the largest and best-kept cemetery in the West Indies. They drained the land by deepening the drainage canal which ran around the sides of the plantation and laid out the land into beds, dividing these into grave spots.

Two sturdy red-brick roads were built, west to east from Broad Street and going on for much over a mile and north to south from Louisa Row to Sussex Street. Suitable shady trees were planted along these roads including an avenue of Royal Palms. Hundreds of coconut trees of the tall variety were planted along the sides of the canal. There were internal drains between the beds and sturdy small bridges over them.

A mortuary was built which the Police and Health authorities helped to maintain. The cemetery was well-administered by the Sexton’s office which kept records of burials and information of the various beds, supervised the rangers who were part of the security arrangements and kept the cemetery weeded. High grass or trees growing among the tombs was never permitted. Later, an incinerator was constructed at the north-western corner of the cemetery, an area where no burials were permitted since victims of the cholera epidemic at the beginning of the 20th century were interred there.

The incinerator’s chimney was among the highest structures in the town and since almost all houses were eight to 10 feet above the ground, the soot from the incinerator rarely troubled them. The cinders were given to the Albouystown properties to build up their yards and unwittingly provided fertilised land for fruitful kitchen gardens. The two gates of the cemetery at Broad Street and Louisa Row were closed exactly at 6.oo p.m. and everyone had to be out of the cemetery by then. Anyone found in the cemetery after then was fined.

At the junction of the west to east and north to south roads, a cenotaph-like monument was constructed and donated by the Freemasons and had Masonic symbols. The ruins of this monument still exist with the year 1931 marked on it. On the parapets of the stretch of road between the monument and the Louisa Row gate, a festival of flowers was planted and always seemed to be in bloom. There were roses, marigolds, forget-me-nots, African daisies and other bright-coloured perennials.

On many of the tombs of the richer folk there were ornate metal vases and statuettes and exquisite grill-work fencing around them and sometimes embossed metal plates with information of the person thereat buried. Almost all of this invaluable metal work which was also a national heritage, was plundered by scrap metal dealers.

There are examples of various types of funerary architecture which have survived the wanton destruction and neglect. There are still a few Muslim maqbaras existing and in the Old Roman Catholic ground, there are examples of the Mediterranean vault tombs used by Portuguese families. There are also 18th-century Dutch-designed tombs of the type found at Fort Island.

This neglect, decline and destruction of the Le Repentir Cemetery began towards the end of the 1950’s and continued at a faster rate from the middle of the 1960s. The neglect coincided with the democratisation of the Town Council. In the 19th century and until the beginning of the 1950s the councillors were often wealthy businessmen, members of the learned professions or persons who had made their mark in national politics. Such persons were of the ilk of Mr L.F.S. Burnham, Mr Eddie Gonsalves, Mr Claude Merriman, Mr Rahaman B. Gajraj and Sir Lionel Luckhoo Q.C.

These and others brought their particular skills and capabilities to the task of City Government. With the democratisation, such persons as a group no longer served. Party politics took over the Town Council and most of this group were not aligned with the parties. Further, the office of Town or City Councillor became far less prestigious and respected than it was in the earlier decades of the 20th century.

It was recently reported in the press that Mayor Patricia Chase-Green wished to make a new beginning of restoring the cemetery to the status and aesthetic condition it enjoyed in the 1930’s and 1940’s. She wished to have the vulnerable parts of the cemetery fenced as a beginning but some of the councillors objected.

Though it appears to be a daunting and even overpowering task, the cemetery could be made to recapture its former glory. A written plan should be adumbrated along the lines of what was done in the 1920’s and 1930’s and gradually and consistently effectuated. Such a plan would cover matters such as Administration, Security, Aesthetics and Maintenance. Once maintenance is sustained, costs will begin to fall from the high point at which they are, until income and expenditure become equilibrial. Once the City Administration undeviatingly focuses on the Plan, the renewal of the cemetery and its continued maintenance could be achieved in four years.