KEITH CUMBERBATCH was one of Barbados’ best endurance runners.
In terms of distance running, he started relatively late, at the age of 20, but his undeniable talent took him across the world, including to Canada and the famous Boston Marathon in the United States. And among a plethora of prizes, he was crowned the 1988 10K Milo champion in Grenada.
Cumberbatch was a fierce marathoner until he decided to hang up his boots in 2002.
It was then that he realised that the money he was spending to prepare for races, and the pressure his body endured to train for and execute them, was not commensurate with the prize money, particularly when he competed at home.
That was when he made the decision that a full-time career as a coconut vendor was the best route for him.
Many may be shocked at this transition but, to be fair, Cumberbatch has been selling coconuts now for the past 32 years. Even when he was an athlete, as a side job he was quenching the thirst of hundreds of locals and tourists.
It is something he just loves to do.
“I enjoy climbing coconut trees,” he said. “I climb barefoot. Sometimes I climb the trees on mornings at 5:30, a hundred feet high and look around Barbados and see the beautiful view. And the atmosphere and the wind, the nice oxygen you get feels nice.”
The father of one said he believed his occupation, though shunned by some, was as important as any other because of the purpose it served – to support himself and his family.
His daily routine starts almost every morning around 5 o’clock. He packs the coconut cart, runs 20 miles, then returns home to begin his work.
Cumberbatch says the work requires much willpower and certainly he seems to have had what it takes for him to have real staying power.
“Nobody ain’t discourage me [from selling coconuts]. I feel the glory was there with coconuts because they were bringing a paypack – money. It made sure the bills paid and make sure everybody okay and make everybody feel good around you. It may be a bad idea for some but it was a real nice idea for me.
“The idea was more profitable than going ’round the block and liming and doing nothing, when you could put your mind somewhere and develop it and bring some sort of income to make you feel happy like anybody else,” he said.
“You might be working in the little raggedy clothes but you can still make yourself look clean as a coconut man, so that when you come out you can come out just like a collar and tie man and pull your pocket the same way.”
Every tangible gain that Cumberbatch has acquired in life has been through selling coconuts, he boasted. From his “little piece of The Rock” to the actual construction of his own home in Dalkeith, St Michael.
“Everything in life you do, you got to mek something out of it and make yourself happy and be proud of yourself. Please don’t look down on the coconut men; we doing an essential service. Not that we can’t do no better; in this world there is room enough for everybody. There are scavengers, the coconut man, the vendors on the road, people selling food. There are a lot of things that people devote themselves to [in order to] get through in life and a dollar can come like you working in the big office.”
However, Cumberbatch has warned his colleagues against bad habits that can have a negative impact on the business. These include stealing coconuts from homeowners as well as not showing due care for the trees, the source of their income.
“They bring a system where these fellows climbing tree with spikes. That has to stop because they’re destroying the trees. When you climb the trees with spikes, the coconuts are not developing the way they are to develop ’cause you can’t just get up on mornings and juck a tree all the time and don’t expect nothing will happen. Eventually, the tree gine die and that is what we have been seeing.
“They [are] picking the coconuts too young and when some of them go in the trees, they don’t even clean the debris out of the coconut tree. They leave all the stuff and the trees aren’t getting enough oxygen and that hinders the growth of the tree,” he said.
“Some of the coconuts now coming out with a fungus on them – blight – so there is no development from there. But they just looking for a fast dollar but not a long guarantee that it [the industry] gine live on long enough to pass on to future vendors or even satisfy the demand we have now,” he said. (SDB Media)