Sir Alexander Bustamante has been hailed as a more strident champion of the rights of poor Jamaicans than the intellectually superior Norman Manley, his cousin and fellow national hero.

Edward Seaga, a former prime minister, read on Saturday from the first volume of his yet-to-be-published memoirs at the 2009 Calabash International Literary Festival in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth.

"Everywhere I went, they spoke of him as a man of the poor," he said of Bustamante, who in 1943 founded the Jamaica Labour Party, of which Seaga later took the reins in the mid-1970s.

Bustamante was a friend

Seaga, having lived in Buxton Town, St Catherine, and Salt Lane, downtown Kingston, as part of his research into Jamaican life, said Bustamante was his friend as well.

However, Seaga said when he met the People's National Party (PNP) leader Norman Manley, he was "totally excited about the intellect he showed me" in a short discussion they had had at Manley's Drumblair home when Seaga had gone there with a friend, Mike Smith. Manley was aware of Seaga's research and, upon meeting him, immediately engaged him in conversation about Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds, a prominent intuitive painter of the period.

"I have wished on many occasions I could have had more discussions with him if not for the political divide," Seaga said of Manley, a founder of the PNP and premier of pre-independent Jamaica.

Total surprise

Seaga said his formal political debut came as a total surprise on a visit to Bustamante's Tucker Avenue home in St Andrew after the 1959 campaign in which he had done back-room duties for the JLP. Bustamante's secretary, Gladys Longbridge, was the only other person present and Bustamante said, "Ms Longbridge, do you see anyone here I have appointed to the Legislative Council?"

She replied, "Yes, Chief, Eddie."

"Busta turned to me and said 'Son, I have appointed you to the Legislative Council'," Seaga said. "I was stunned," he added, noting that he was surprised, but happy. "And so a completely new life began for me."

Not really an autobiography

He pointed out that the literary work was not "really an autobiography", as his publisher said it recounted very little about the author. Seaga said he did not have the kind of experiences that would make for a racy read.

"I didn't have those kind of occurrences. I was a 24/7 man in the public service," Seaga said. He also described himself as a "fly on the wall" throughout the period in Jamaican political life that his memoir covers, someone who had heard and seen everything.

"I am the only survivor of that period, 1950s until now," Seaga added.

Edward Seaga, Shaping History, Volume 1: Clash of Ideologies, 1930-1980 will be published in October. The second volume will hit the streets in May 2010.