Pioneering belt vendor David St Hill lives by faith and grace

After he could no longer farm in Festival City and North Ruimveldt after the land he farmed there based on the then government’s slogan of ‘land to the tiller’ was allocated for housing for members of the Joint Services, long-standing pavement vendor David St Hill turned to selling belts, wallets and passport cases to steer away from a life of crime, which he could have turned to. 

Asked if he would share his story with Stabroek Weekend, he said, “First thing is to give thanks and praise to Jesus the Almighty. I started the leather business in the 1980s in my 30s, and I am still here at 66 years.”

He said that though people call him ‘Rasta Man’ and ‘Black Man’ because of his dreadlocks and ‘Belt Man’ because of his career, he is just a member of the human race. Quoting from Vere T Daly’s “The Making of Guyana”, which in its introductory remarks state there is only one race and it is the human race, St Hill said, “I’m not a Rasta Man or a Black Man, I’m not a White Man or a Brown Man, I’m from the human race.”