No Telephone to Heaven

“The grandmother was long since dead, and the farm had been left by the family to the forest. To ruination, the grandmother would have said. The family, but one, were scattered through America and England and had begun new lives, some transplanted for more than twenty years, and no one wanted to return and reclaim the property—at least not until now.” 

In the first chapter of No Telephone to Heaven, Cliff introduces Clare’s family farm—and the ruination it has experienced—as a stand-in for many ideas. The farm’s “ruination” embodies the socioeconomic decay Jamaica has experienced, as so many people have fled to England and America. As the chapter explains, “no one wanted to return and reclaim the property” because no one saw the worth in cultivating their Jamaican roots. Through the revolutionary group, however, Clare effectively restores the land. The group members are not only able to grow ganja—which they trade for money and valuable supplies—but food that they share with the impoverished community around them. Thus, “ruination” gives way to new growth and rebirth, both literally and metaphorically (for both Clare and the revolutionary movement). 

“NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN. No voice to God. A waste to try. Cut off. No way of reaching out or up. Maybe only one way. Not God’s way. No matter if him is Jesus or if him is Jah. Him not gwan like dis one pickle bit. NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN.” 

Chapter 2 explains that the revolutionaries bought their truck from a man who transported women to-and-from the market and church. The motto painted on the side—“NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN”—is both a reference to the vehicle’s original use and to the revolutionary group’s frustration with colonialism. This early development of religious imagery also hints toward the significance of alternative iconography (as per Brother Josephus’s black Jesus).