Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

2 He earned the reputation for being able to compose songs instantly and was able to give ‘picong’ and include social commentary as well. It is then that the chant “le vrai”, French meaning ‘the truth’ came about leading to what we call today ‘lavway’. So it was around the turn of the century, around 1800, that the art form of calypso began to develop further with the other plantations trying to outdo each other after Gros Jean started to become well known for his singing, encouraged by his plantation owner. JONAS MOHAMMED BATH (1783-1838) H e was a slave at one time and an early Muslim leader to his fellow West African Mandingo slaves after arriving here around 1804. He worked on the Fort and construction of the five mile winding road to Fort Vigie, which later became Fort George. The date of his freedom is unknown. His known descendants today are from the St. James and St. Joseph areas. JOHN JACOB THOMAS (1841-1889) J ohn J. Thomas was born in central Trinidad who at the age of 17 was among the first to be chosen to be trained as teachers and became certified at the age of 19. In the areas of Couva and Savonetta where he taught he had to learn patois to be able to understand the children. He then wrote a book called The Theory and Practice of Creole Grammar , published in 1869. Thomas was a great inspiration to his people in all his areas of work, be it as a teacher, a civil servant or an author and always encouraged race pride among Afro-Trinidadians. His career as a civil servant included time at the Receiver-General’s office, 1867-1870, Secretary to the Board of Education and the College Council which governed QRC and St. Mary’s College, 1870-1879, and headmaster of the San Fernando Borough School, 1883-1885. Between 1879 and 1883 he completed an English translation of P. G. L. Borde’s Histoire de l’ile de la Trinidad sous le gouvernement espagnol. Thomas also mastered French, Spanish, Latin and Greek on his own. His last work was Froudacity (1889) in which he wrote against James A. Froude’s earlier work that attacked people of African descent of the West Indies.