BAAM Magazine Vol2 Issue2

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features

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table of contents 14

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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BRENT MALONE: FATHER OF BAHAMIAN ART

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The Ministry of Youth Sports & Culture Thompson Blvd Nassau P.O. Box N-3913 Telephone - (242) 502-0600 - 0605

The Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson Minister Calvin Balfour - Permanent Secretary Eugene Poitier - Deputy Permanent Secretary Phedra Rahming - Deputy Permanent Secretary Tim Munnings - Director of Sports Daron Turnquest - Director of Youth Dr. Linda Moxey-Brown - Director of Culture Cleophas Adderley, Jr. - Director of Music & Heritage Published by The Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture and Bahamas Information Services in association with Projects Masters Business Limited and A Culture Shock Media. Earlin Williams- Editor.

Teejay Olander-Creative Director. Cordero Williams, Daniel Williams

-Research, Pedross Smith - Proof Reading. Special Thanks: Michaela Moss Ministry of Tourism, Kent Minnis Broadcast Division BIS, Jackson Petit, National Art Gallery, sirrandolfawkes.com.

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THE SPIRIT OF JUNKANOO

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OUR CULTURE ICONS

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POEM: SAILING WEST

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THE PRICE OF FREEDOM: SIR LYNDEN PINDLING’S REMARKS AT 1990 YOUTH CONVENTION

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PRIME MINISTER CHRISTIE: NEW HEAD OF CARICOM

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HERO WORLD GOLF CHALLENGE MOVES TO ALBANY, THE BAHAMAS

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WE RUSHIN: TONY MCKAY THE OBEAH MAN

GOVERNOR GENERAL PRESENTS THE 2014 ARTS FESTIVAL AWARDS

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DR. LINDA MOXEY-BROWN

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LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN: THE CHURCH OF GOD OF PROPHECY IN THE BAHAMAS “THE JUMPERS”

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LET THE CHURCH ROLL ON

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VOLA: PERCY FRANCIS THE GRAND, OLD, YOUNG MAN OF JUNKANOO

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JAMAAL ROLLE FROM CHARCOAL TO YOUNG MOGUL

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PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR AN OVERHAUL OF JUNKANOO

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EXCITING NEW TELEVISION

SHOW ON CULTURE IN DEVELOPMENT 59

PM AND DELEGATION VISIT SIR SIDNEY POITIER IN CALIFORNIA

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BERT WILLIAMS’S EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK

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INTERVIEW WITH HON. JEROME FITZGERALD

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LPGA HOLDS JUNIOR CLINIC AT OCEAN CLUB

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ROYAL BAHAMAS POLICE FORCE BAND WOWS HEAT AUDIENCE

Did y ou kno w?

Charles Carter These are Bahamians born from The Young Bahamian Show Charles Carter’s most important contribution to the National Culture of The Bahamas is contained in a voluminous body of work he has compiled over 50 years which chronicles radio, television interviews and commentary with the dynamic personalities of the times and the events and circumstances there to. Edward Charles Carter is the eldest son of the late Harcourt and Mary Carter, of Augusta Street Nassau where he grew up in a large family of six boys and two girls. His father, who was a successful businessman, had unique ideas about everything and one of those things was to give all his sons the same middle name; and just for the record, the girls were Maria Cecilia and Madeline Cecilia. Edward Charles, the one we know as Charles Carter, was born on April 13th 1943. Charles Carter went to St. John’s College, Nassau and later graduated from Rhodes School in New York. He entered New York University in 1961 where he studied Business Administration in the Bachelor of Science Programme. He then went to Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Toronto Canada where he obtained a degree in broadcast management. Afterwards, he went on to complete his studies in 1974 at the University of Manchester, England where he obtained a certificate with distinction in public administration.

In 1964, he joined the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas as a Radio Announcer, a position he held for over seven years. In 1970, he was promoted to Programme Director and directed a staff of 15 announcers. In 1976, he was elevated to the position of Assistant General Manager and was responsible for the setting up of the television service. Two years later, he was appointed General Manager of Television, responsible for a staff of 70 employees and the national television of The Bahamas.

Mr. Carter’s impact on the community was made through broadcasting: first in the radio as the host of the “Young Bahamian Show” and later on in television where he hosted “Focus”, the first ever Bahamian television series. He was also the voice for the majority of national events including Independence.

He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1982 and served for ten years as the member from the Holy Cross Constituency. Mr. Carter created Carter Marketing in 1993 with sons Eddie and Mark, a company that organizes the advertising and public relation interests of a number of businesses in The Bahamas. In late 1999, he was granted a license to open a radio station. Charles Carter is married to the former Muriel Willhite of South Bend, Indiana.

The Island FM radio station courageously entered the airwaves unapologetically dedicating its format to Bahamian Music. The station continues to do just that.

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features

IN THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

We are delighted to present the first edition 2015 BAAM for your pleasure, enlightenment and library.

VO LU M E 2

ISSUE 2

As we want BAAM to be a regular resource tool in our nation’s libraries and schools and colleges, we welcome your criticisms and your literary, artistic and photographic contributions to future issues.

As Director General of Bahamas Information Services, I congratulate my staff and the hard work team who produce BAAM on the direction of the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture; and our collaborative partners, The Projects Masters Business Limited and A Culture Shock Media Group.

We anticipate the launch of the television broadcast of “Run Come See” as produced

by BIS in association with Bahfari Films and also under the direction of the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture will begin airing weekly 30 minute episodes. We salute the talented, beautiful and energetic young cast of “Run Come See” as they continue to work on this exciting project.

We want to promote and tell the story of Bahamians and to show the connectivity with the history of the nation, current events and the country in world affairs by using multi-media platform media.

You will find BAAM, the first publication for 2015 to be an eye opening and mind exhilarating read.

Sincerely, Luther E. Smith Director General BIS

P E O P L E

NASSAU ZNS Radio Building Harcourt “Rusty” Bethel Drive off Collins Avenue P.O. Box N-8172 Nassau, Bahamas Tel: (242) 326-5803 Fax: (242) 326-5816

A N D

G O V E R N M E N T

FREEPORT Office of the Prime Minister Government Complex East Mall Drive, 4th Floor P.O. Box F-60137 Freeport, Grand Bahama Tel: (242) 352-8525 Fax: (242) 352-8520

Luther E. Smith, Director General Fredericka Lightbourne, Executive Director Elcott Coleby, Deputy Director

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table of contents 82

OSBOURNE “GOOSE” LOCKHART

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TUREANO JOHNSON: BRINGS HIS TITLES HOME

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INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA D. COULSON

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DARRON TURNQUEST, DIRECTOR OF YOUTH PRESENTS THE GREAT EIGHT

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A TRIBUTE TO MAUREEN DUVALIER

DR. DANIEL JOHNSON, MINISTER FOR CULTURE OPENS “THE ANTILLEAN -AN ECOLOGY”

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FROM POMPEY TO PINDLING

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NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY

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RACE + CLASS + COLOUR IN THE BAHAMAS

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IF YOU BELIEVE: JULIEN BELIEVE

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THE BLACK BAHAMIAN IDENTITY AND WHY IT REMAINS A TIGHTLY GUARDED AGENDA

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EMANJI CIRCUS ARTS

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JOSEPH ROBERT LOVE

SALUTING, RECOGNIZING AND COMMENDING THE CONTRIBUTION BAHAMIAN CULTURAL ARTISTS FOR THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS

C.R. WALKER SPEECH TO BURMA ROAD COMMISSION

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HOW BAHAMIANS SPEND THEIR SUNDAYS

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BAHAMAS INFORMATION SERVICES L I N K I N G

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W.E.B. DU BOIS

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON ALFRED FRANCIS ADDERLEY

STEPHEN DILLET: DEBUNKING THE ANTI-HAITIAN MYTH IN THE BAHAMAS

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RHODES SCHOLARS

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SEEING THE INVISIBLE SENSE AND SENSIBILITY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY RELATIONS IN THE BAHAMAS

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM

MINISTER JOHNSON’S

COMMUNICATION TO

PARLIAMENT ON “THE

2014/2015 MID TERM BUDGET”.

COPYRIGHT © 2015 BAAM: BAHAMAS AMBASSADOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF A CULTURE SHOCK/ PROJECT MASTERS, IS HEREBY PROHIBITED. BAAM: BAHAMAS AMBASSADOR, P.O. BOX N10042 , NASSAU, N.P. THE BAHAMAS | www.bahamasambassador.com

Did y ou kno w?

Fred Ferguson

Fred Feguson is everybody’s favourite musician, composer and arranger. This Bahamian artist is in a class all by himself at the height of the highest level and has opened the door to a new vibrant Rake N’ Scrape sound while penning lyrics which display his poetic range and intellectual focus.

A few things have changed for the lifelong musician who surrendered to the industry’s pull in the golden age of the 1980s. The former Baha Men member declares Rake ‘n Scrape his favorite genre. And he is perhaps known as much for the projects he has produced as for his skills on the guitar. Ferguson dove into production after leaving Baha Men in the 90s. A short time later he struck gold with the hit “Look What You Do” which he wrote and produced for Ronnie Butler and Sweet Emily.

At industry standards Fred Ferguson can be expected to churn out even more critically acclaimed work and judging from the enjoyable body of work that he has already produced; only the very best can be anticipated.

Music Masters Celebrates the icons of Bahamian music & culture-

MESSAGE FROM THE RT. HON. PERRY G. CHRISTIE, MP, PRIME MINISTER OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

I welcome this opportunity to once again bring greetings and warm wishes to the readership of BAAM 2015. As you would know, BAAM has been specifically launched with a view of creating a heightened cultural awareness about all things Bahamian and as a forerunner of the inaugural Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival which will be held May, 7-9th in our capital city of Nassau. We expect that this event will attract visitors from around the region and beyond who will come to join with Bahamians in this inaugural event.

It is fitting that the theme of this particular edition of BAAM 2015 has focused on “Who are we?� it is an interesting question aimed at delving into the multi-layered social, racial and political history of The Bahamas and to find out from whence did we come and what were the determining features of our total and multi-dimensional historical evolution that has brought us to this point in time.

My understanding is that the various articles and photographs seek to address this question. It is interesting to note that there are hidden corners of our history that even the most informed might not know about. This is due in part because we have always taken a survey approach to our development which while concentrating on major events often ignored the personalities and specific actions that have brought about these developments.

This particular edition seeks to provide the subtext to some of these events. I hope that it will spur others on to do further and indepth research and in this way contribute to the invaluable body of information which our people, and in particular our students might use to develop awareness of our country.

From all indications, plans are well underway for the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival 2015 and I say to the readership of this edition of BAAM 2015, we invite you to join us for three days of a unique experience here in our capital city of Nassau.

Best wishes to all!

The Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie Prime Minister/Minister of Finance

A REAL BAHAMIAN THING!

MESSAGE FROM THE HON. DANIEL JOHNSON, MP MINISTER OF YOUTH, SPORTS & CULTURE

My Ministry is profoundly proud of this 2nd edition of BAAM (Bahamas Ambassador). We have attempted to bring to our people and the world at large a cornucopia of information which astutely answers the question, WHO ARE WE? We are Bahamians.

Our rich history and culture which Columbus encountered when European civilization had its epoch encounter with the Lucayan Indians- the first Bahamians; through the long trajectory of Colonialism and the vagaries of events and circumstances of Slavery; to Abolition, to Emancipation, to Majority Rule, to Independence.

We make no apology for who we are and our ranks remain open as our multiculturalism continues to spawn and achieve new merit and growth.

We are convinced that a People who know who they are and from whence they came are more prepared to grasp the future and leave for generations still to come a Bahamas that must and shall endure.

Of course, colonialism and the industries of the earlier centuries enveloped its Race, Class and Culture on our society; however we are to be humbled and gracious to the realization that we are one Bahamas.

BAAM will continue to mine the ocean floor, soar the skies above and plough the earth beneath our feet throughout our archipelago to bring you the best, the finest and the uncompromising, uncensored story of the Bahamian people.

I suppose the major charter of my Ministry, which is to Guide the Youth, is the wind in our sails because it is to them that we must rely to take us beyond the new frontiers.

This is for them. That they may always be able to Lift Up Their Heads to the Rising Sun and declare triumphantly, Yes I am proud to be a Bahamian.

Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson, M.P., Minister of Youth, Sports & Culture

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Ronnie Butler

A REAL BAHAMIAN THING!

Peanuts Taylor

A REAL BAHAMIAN THING!

Dear Bahamas Ambassador Editor, I live in Providence, Rhode Island with my husband and our dogs Kate and Thriller. Our kids are all grown up and our daughter is in Montreal, Canada with her family and our son is in Bristol, the UK. Both my husband and I taught in Nassau in the late 1970s in the Catholic Education System. A dear friend mailed us a copy of BAAM knowing our fascination and interest in Bahamian Culture and people. We were delighted. Your Issue brought back so many wonderful memories about the Islands and the warmth and charm of the Bahamian people. We also found stories on old friends and two of my husband’s former students. This magazine is a winner and will do so much for your country. We are now thinking about coming for the Carnival. Please don’t let this magazine fade away. This is the best thing in print to come out of The Bahamas in many years. Our children have seen it online since you started your website. We treasure our copy and occupies a special place on the coffee table in our princess room.

Yours truly, Rod and Kelly Knight Providence, Rhode Island

Did y ou kno w?

Mychal Sweet Bells Thompson

Mychal George Thompson (born January 30, 1955) is a retired Bahamian professional basketball player. Thompson played both the power forward and center positions and played for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.

Thompson was born in Nassau, in the Bahamas, but moved to the United States as a youth, playing high school basketball at Miami Jackson High School (1974) in Miami, Florida. He then attended the University of Minnesota where he had a standout collegiate career.

The Portland Trail Blazers made Thompson the number one pick in the 1978 NBA Draft, the first foreign-born player to be selected first.

He was brought to the Lakers in February 1987 to back up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and defend Boston Celtics forward Kevin McHale, against whom he played great defense. This gave the Lakers a team that had four players who were overall #1 selections in the NBA draft, the others being Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and James Worthy. Of those four, Thompson is the only one not enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Thompson helped the Showtime Lakers win consecutive titles in 1987 and 1988, and he retired in 1991.

BRENT MALONE The Father of Bahamian Art H e was known as the Father of Bahamian Art. Brent Malone inspired, a new generation of Bahamian artist and led the way in focusing on Bahamian themes. He was a photorealist painter and a gallery owner.

BAAM - Launch Edition 2015

and print making in New York.

At the Ravensbourne College and at Beckenham School of Art, Brent excelled. In 1964 he returned home and became Director of Chelsea Pottery but

it soon closed. This business experience toughened Brent in his approach to other galleries he would go on to own and manage: - Loft Gallery, Matinee Gallery, Temple Gallery and Marlborough Antiques. These galleries serve as important exhibition points for new Bahamian artists.

He travelled extensively through North and Central America and the Caribbean and mounted numerous one-man exhibitions since he returned home from college in the early 1960s.

In 1991 Brent founded the organization BECAUSE along with artists Antonius Roberts,

Stan and Jackson Burnside and John Beadle. BECAUSE is dedicated to the promotion of Bahamian art.

Malone was a strong supporter of the Junkanoo festivals and depicted many of them in his work. His style, though basically photorealistic also contained elements of surrealism. His subjects ranged from sea scapes to character studies to dramatic and powerful realist depictions of the Junkanoo experience.

Malone died suddenly of a heart attack in Nassau at Doctor’s Hospital.

>>>>brent malone>>>>>>>

He began his career as an apprentice at the former Chelsea Pottery in Nassau. He later would study at Don Russell’s Academy of Fine Arts and in the USA and furthered his studies in the UK. He followed up with studies in etching

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JUNKANOO

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by Chris Justilien

One of the most celebrated art forms in the Bahamas is that of Junkanoo. Junkanoo has evolved to include art, dance, and music. In the area of art, many contributions have been made by artists like Antonius Roberts, John Beadle, Eddie Minnis, Jackson Burnside, John Cox, and the late Brent Malone just to name a few.

These artists over the years have developed their own way of capture the celebration of Junkanoo.

On Boxing Day (26 December) and New Years Day in the wee hours of the morning, thousands of Bahamians make their way to Bay Street in the heart of downtown Nassau.

Following the traditions of male secret societies of West African Poro and Egungun dancers, Junkanoo is a procession that incorporates music and dance. Much like the ancestors, Junkanoo festivals are celebratory in

nature and at times may satirize politicians, social issues, or any other subject matter of concern to the Junkanoo dancers. The use of a drum ensemble would also carry out the tradition as laid down by the ancestors.

This art form was and still is widely male dominated and in fact did not include females until Maureen Duvalier took to Bay Street with her dance troupe shortly after the suspension of The Street Nuisance Prohibition Act which lasted from 1899 to 1954. The original music of Junkanoo in the Bahamas was played with goombay goatskin drums, cowbells, conch shell horns [later replaced by bicycle horns], and whistles (Chipman, 2004). Although the music of Junkanoo is reflective of a strong drumming tradition, the influence of other European instruments continues to be introduced into the music.

The earliest of such instruments was the bugle; in fact, the bugle is regarded as an original instrument

used in Bahamian Junkanoo music. Similar to goombay in its rhythmical variety, the music of Junkanoo has been passed down by a system of training gained only by taking part in one of the many groups that participate in the parade festivals. Today, Junkanoo music has been adapted to stage instruments and can be heard in the music of most contemporary Bahamian recording artists.

This adaptation was strongly influenced by Tyrone Fitzgerald [a.k.a. Dr. Offfff] who entered the stage along with his group fully masked in performances.

In his recordings of Junkanoo music, Dr. Offfff, for the first time, complemented the rhythm section with a complete Junkanoo band along with singing of original song lyrics. Not until 1997 would there be any recording of Junkanoo music by a major Junkanoo group. These recordings done in 1997, 1998, and 2001 were produced

by Christian Justilien and featured arrangements by both him and his brother

Yonell Justilien. Influenced by Dr. Offfff, Christian set the latest of the three recordings to original song lyrics.

In an earlier recording entitled 'Religious Songs And Drums Of The Bahamas' (Folkways 1953), it is quite evident that Junkanoo drumming has gone through a series of evolutions over the years. This is due in part to a failure to pass on the rich oral drumming tradition.

The death of great drummers has therefore been equivalent in The Bahamas to the loss of libraries during wartime in Europe. On a positive note, however, the availability of technological resources provides an opportunity for The Bahamas to preserve its unwritten traditions.

Among the many drummers that are actively trying to keep this drumming tradition alive is John 'Chippie' Chipman of Chippie & The Boys, and Howard Bethel, drum coordinator for the National Dance School of The Bahamas and drum section leader of the Colours junkanoo organization, and Quintin

'Barabas' Woodside, leader of the Tribes Junkanoo group.

Unless concerted efforts are made to train and improve Junkanoo musicianship, we run the risk of losing volumes of information that can positively impact not only the music of Junkanoo, but also the socialization of the thousands of young men and women that participate in this most colorful music festival.

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The Spirit of Junkanoo . . .

...begins with the drum.

Music Masters Celebrates the icons of Bahamian music & culture-

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OUR 1

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Alphonso Blind Blake Higgs (d) - ‘Jones! ‘O’ Jones Please Bring My Woman Back Home’ Amos Ferguson (d)- ‘Solo Exhibition at the Smithsonian’ Antonius Roberts – ‘Slave Memorial at Clifton’ BahaMen –‘ Who Let the Dogs Out’, FIFA World Cup 2014 Becky Chipman (d) ‘Set the world on Fire dance’ Beginning of the End – ‘Nassau Gone… Funky Nassau got Soul’ Brent Malone (d) ‘Father of Bahamian Modern Art’ Buttercup (d)–‘Limbo King of the Caribbean’

CULTURE 4

41 Cultural Icons

The Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of independence, July 10th 2014-“The Year of Culture”- presents to the country Forty One CULTURAL ICONS for National Recognition, Honour and Highest Commendation.

Drawn from a multi-layered field of endeavor, our 41 CULTURAL ICONS have distinguished themselves through their art form and expression; and accordingly have humbly achieved status amongst their peers and the public consensus of appreciation.

It is with profound gratitude, we present the 41 CULTURAL ICONS:-

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Cleophas Adderley Jr – ‘Our Boys’ …Wind under the wings of the National Youth Choir’ Charles Carter –‘The Young Bahamian Show ‘…’ These are Bahamians’ Maureen Duvalier (d)-’ Gin N’ Coconut Water … ‘ Ask Me Why I Run’ Pandora Gibson Gomez (d) -‘Dramatist …Educator’ Percy ‘Vola’ Francis and Winston Gus Cooper (d) – ‘They Coming!’

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Ronnie Butler –‘The Godfather of Bahamian Entertainment’ Shirley Hall Bass (d)- ‘The Lady of the Dance’ Meta Davis Cumberbatch (d) ‘ The Mother Teacher of our Emerging Culture’ T Connections – ‘Doing Alright on Saturday Night’ Timothy Gibson(d)- ‘My Country of Thee We Sing’ Tony Mackay(d)-‘He Came Down on a Lightning Bolt’ …’We Stronger than Steel’ Wendal Stuart (d) – “ I Thank Heaven’ Freddie Munnings Sr – ‘Conservatory trained voice’… ‘Social Activist’ … ‘Abaco Beware’

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22. Jeannie Thompson – ‘Zeke and Sophie’… Miss Lye … ‘Fergusons of Farm Road’ …Satirically Speaking’ 23. John “Chippie” Chipman – ‘Dat Goatskin Sweet’ 24. Jackson (d) and Stan Burnside … ‘ Band of Brothers :The Defining Canvas of Junkanoo’ 25. James Catalyn – ‘Summer Madness’… ‘Laffin At We Self’ 26. King Eric (d) -‘Once Is Not Enough’… Elite Recording Studio’ 27. Leroy Duke Hanna (d) - ‘Small Hope’… Led Musicians Union’ 28. Count Bernardino – ‘Take Your Meat Out Me Rice’… “Six Young Girls Across My Chest’ 29. E. Clement Bethel (d) – ‘Sammie Swain’… ‘ Muse of the National Arts Festival’ 30. Joseph Spence (d) The Unsung -‘Mr. Guitar Folk Music Giant’ 31. Kayla Lockhart Edwards (d) - ‘Contract Voices’… ‘Back Up for Perry Como’ 32. Patricia Bazard –‘Prepared the children for Independence 1973 …

Educator’ 33. Paul Meeres (d) -‘The toast of Five Continents’ … ‘ Dancing Machine’ 34. Susan Wallace –‘Children’s Literature in the Eye of the Sun ‘… ‘Who is the Woman in this House?’

35. Edmund Moxey (d) –‘Cultural Political Activist’ Muscle and Guts …

Jumbey Village’ 36. Winston Saunders (d) ‘Horse’… I, Nehemiah’ 37. John Berkley Peanuts Taylor – ‘The Drums are Alive’ 38. George Symonette (d) ‘ Little Nassau’ 39. Jay Mitchell – Princess Towers ‘Junka-Party’… ‘Tribute to Smokey’ 40. Eddie Minnis – ‘Hey Mr. MP lemme see your bank book’ …Pot Luck …

“Naughty Johnnie” 41. Ezra Hepburn – ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’… ‘Stop the World I want to Get Off’

WWW.OURCULTUREWARRIORS.COM

Pompey, the slave on his boat to Nassau from Exuma to demand that the British Governor step in and stop a Plantation Owner from abusing the law as it related to transferring Slaves and breaking up families.

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The author Robert Elliot Johnson was born on January 4th 1948 at Fox Hill Nassau Bahamas.

He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies with an Honours degree in English. This Poem, Sailing West” first appeared in “The Road” published in 1972.

Sailing We st Up out of Africa’s tawny side The dark ships sailed west on the surging tide: Far from the sea coast’s shimmering sand, On, to the shores of an alien land.

Across the Atlantic, riding the waves, The proud ships sailed on with their cargo of slaves; Flung to the ocean, on wild seas to roam, Our silent forefathers came, sold from their home.

Out of the holds of the anchor-bound ships Ears tuned to the sound of the curse and the whip, Black backs asweat in the hot Carib sun, The niggers filed down to the shore, one by one.

Here in the pink unfamiliar sand They bent to the womb of a new mother-land; The blue glint of water assaulted their eyes; A sharper blue glint pelted down from the skies.

Centuries sped, while their proud bodies toiled Bent to the face of the Bahamian soil; Plantations flourished to the sounds of the whip, The flash of the cutlass, the coming of ships.

In time they all learned to savour the breeze, The hot sun, the salt sea, the coconut trees; With eventual freedom they determined to hew A nation with hands which once only drums knew.

No longer had the strange tints assaulted their eyes No longer they gaped at the thundering skies; No more did the fist grip an alien blade No more did they pride in the African shade.

Monuments

“We, unlike our father, see Needs to erect another house Truer than that which aged above Our heads since Spain’s empire; “Our fate is still entangled In Columbus’s mistake.”

Winston Saunders August 1972

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Sir Lynden Pindling's Remarks at the 1990 Youth Convention of the Anglican Diocese of Nassau and The Bahamas including Turks and Caicos Islands, St. John's College Auditorium, Sunday, August 19th, 1990 "My generation has always believed that children are a gift from God, 'the author and giver of all things good.' Sadly though, mankind is failing young people.

Throughout much of the world children are the principal victims of all of society's most troubling ills. In this decade of the child, it is children, the fruit of humanity in developed and developing countries, who must quietly endure the ravages of war, hunger, poverty, disease, and illiteracy.

In the so-called advanced countries of the world we are seeing evidence of a spiritual poverty, a sense of hopelessness and despair, that leads to drug addiction, crime, gang violence and other forms of anti-social behaviour, particularly among young people. And in The Bahamas we find ourselves struggling to deal with a spiritual poverty of our own as we try to respond to rising expectations in a rapidly changing economic, political and social environment.

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"We are not a rich country, but we certainly are not poor. We do not have all we want; neither do we have all we need; but we do have more than most people have and for that we should be grateful. Everywhere people are struggling for the very things many of us take for granted.

We have peace, stability, freedom of speech and religion and the right to go where we please whenever we please. The poor are still with us, and, like death and taxes, they will always be but, thank God, poverty does not stalk our land and everyone has access to basic health care and education. Millions of our neighbours, however, can only dream of living as we do. Yet, how many of us give thanks to God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us?

"We have known hard times in The Bahamas too but most of you are too young to remember them, too young to know what your grandparents had to do to survive. You can't imagine the sacrifice they made to bring you to where you sit today. You are too young to know that, back then, the only place they had where they could take refuge from the daily battering their spirit and their pride took from racial and economic oppression was the church. It may be difficult for you to understand that the only peace many of them ever knew in those days was that moment when they fell to their knees and asked God to guide them.

"We were not a Nation then. At that time we could not be a Nation because a majority of the people were not free to determine their own fate. Some of them knew freedom would come one day, but many were not so sure. Some of them believed it because they knew that God would never abandon them; and they knew, too, that He would make a way out of no way. Still, however, there were others who did not believe.

They believed that they would be free because they had faith and they kept that faith, the kind of faith the Bible talks about in Hebrews; faith that 'is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' They had that kind of faith, the kind of faith that God rewards, and they worked to achieve the things hoped for because they also learned, long before John Kennedy ever said it, 'that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.' I should like to remind you young Christian warriors this evening that Bahamians as a people have always had faith, and though some may waver, and others profess doubt, as a people we do still trust in the Lord.

"Today your generation of young Bahamians, facing new challenges and seeking still greater goals, needs the faith that sustained your parents and grandparents during those trying times. Besides being members of that generation you are also believers in God so I ask who better than you to spread that faith. If not you, who? And if not now, when?

"Your world is different from mine. You face a different set of challenges and problems than those I faced. Your interests and priorities, even your language, have changed and you are growing up with a global culture in a global village where the whole world is your backyard.

Your music, which is a reflection of much of what your generation feels and embraces, is constantly changing. Your attitudes about life, love, work and faith are still being formed, however, and I pray that they are consistent with what The Bahamas needs to prosper as a Nation for all that you achieve and all that you believe will rest on the values you adopt during these formative years.

"A government's mandate is primarily the

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physical world, the material world. However, the spiritual domain is no less important and it clearly is the province of the church. Bahamians needed a vision to come this far and, from the day Prince William landed in The Bahamas and founded Bethel Baptist Church 200 years ago, the church has played an important role, spiritually strengthening our people for the battle for freedom and equality. Your generation will need a vision of its own, a vision for the 21st Century, a vision of the kind of society in which you and your children will want to live. Your vision may be a new one but, in planning your life and the society you want to build, you will find that the foundation of your vision will be the same as that which fortified your forefathers before you. Their foundation was built on three very important things: God, Family and Country, and I can tell you now that you will not be able to find better ones.

"You see, freedom does have a price. It is not free. Freedom means responsibility, a responsibility to properly look after our families and ourselves; and citizenship demands more than simply paying taxes and voting for one's leader. In addition, each of us has a sacred duty to love and protect this blessed land God has given to us, to build it up and make it better for future generations. All of us have a stake in being Bahamian."

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BAAM - Launch Edition 2015

Prime Minister Perry Christie New Head of CARICOM

PM inks new agreements with China, world‘s #1 economy for further benefit of Bahamas and region

By: Elcott Coleby

W

hile developed super power nations of the world are patting themselves on their backs for attracting billions of dollars in investment from the People’s Republic of China, Bahamians are once again being short changed in the debate by insidious derogatory rather than the nation grasping the benefit and fortune that could lie ahead with the presence of the mammoth wealth of the Chinese.

On the BBC the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the Minister of Finance of Great Britain has been scoring with his proud boast that the UK has attracted almost triple the amount of Chinese investment to Great Britain than their neighbours Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry G. Christie has moved to bring more of that Chinese investment to our country.

bean countries) meetings in Beijing China on the 8th and 9th of January and this trip dominated government news this week in The Bahamas.

Bahamas Prime Minster the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie became the Chair of CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, on 1st January 2015.

Surprisingly his lofty appointment was only publicly acknowledged by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and his party. In fact this is a great honour for The Bahamas as Mr. Christie is the effective political head of CARICOM. Also, The Bahamas will host the next CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Nassau in February 2015.

The Prime Minister delivered a statement on behalf of CARICOM where he announced that a proposal to acquire funds from China’s $3 billion dollar investment fund will be made on behalf of the Bahamas as one of the initiatives that The Bahamas will pursue in coming weeks.

The first official duty as the Chair of CARICOM was to represent the region at the China/CELAC (Community of Latin American and Carib-

“Welcoming the 3 billion dollar commitment on China’s part for investment on concessional terms” said the Prime Minister, “We will be raising at the Conference the proposal to use this funding for budget support, as well as debt restructuring and refinancing.”

In addition, Mr. Christie said that

the Bahamian government will also be promoting opportunities for investment in the energy sector, gas exploration, mining, forestry, tourism, airline services, financial services, agriculture and fisheries.

He explained that given that energy, water, sanitation, coastal protection, and protection of critical coastal infrastructure are central to the capacity of CARICOM countries, all efforts must be considered to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“The reality is that a five foot rise in sea level would eliminate 80 per cent of The Bahamas. Climate change is real for The Bahamas; it is a threat to our very existence,” he said “In this context, we actively encourage the building of the Sino-Latin American and Caribbean Cooperation Fund to provide resources according to the

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The Bahamian government will also be promoting opportunities for investment in the energy sector, gas exploration, mining, forestry, tourism, airline services, financial services, agriculture and fisheries.

needs and priorities of the recipient countries.”

Following his address to the China/ CELAC Forum delegates on Thursday 8th January, the Prime Minister met with the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang where a number of bilateral issues were discussed and agreements executed.

During his thirty minute meeting with President Xi Jinping, the Chinese President announced an agreement in principle that would allow The Bahamas to be a country where debts involving international parties can be settled. He also announced an agreement that would allow The Bahamas to trade in Chinese denominated currency, the Renminbi (RMB) Chinese Yuan making The Bahamas one of only three countries in the world where the Renminbi is traded. This is very good news for the financial services sector.

Prime Minister Perry Christie also met with the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Li Keqiang, on Thursday afternoon following his inaugural address to CELAC delegates. It was during the meeting with the Premier that the nation’s chief raised the issue of the execution of local infrastructural projects; he also introduced talks of another national gift to the Bahamian people in the form of an multipurpose indoor stadium to facilitate youth and cultural development in The Bahamas. In the end both sides agreed that The Bahamas would draft a paper for the proposed indoor stadium for review.

On Friday, two important agreements were signed between The Bahamas and the People’s Republic of China. One was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Civil Aviation Authorities of both countries which in essence is a reciprocal air services agreement

between the two countries for direct flights between China and The Bahamas. This is good news for, Baha Mar, tourism generally and both Bahamasair and the forty-one private airlines that operate in The Bahamas.

The second MOU was signed between China’s Ocean University and the Bahamas Agriculture Marine Research and Science Institute, or BAMSI, located in North Andros.

The agreement will enable technical cooperation, research and student exchanges for studies in agriculture and marine sciences.

Additionally, the Prime Minister held discussions with the chairman of Genting/Resorts World Group and also took some time out to host Bahamian students living and studying in China to a reception.

On Saturday and Sunday it was on to Shangai where the delegation was

joined by Baha Mar Chairman Sarkis Izmerlian and Senior Vice President Robert Sands. The Bahamian delegation met with hotel and airline operators with business interests in Bahamar. The Prime Minister met separately in a series of meetings with leaders in the business community where a number of business and trade opportunities between the two countries were discussed.

Mr. Christie was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Tourism Hon. Obie Wilchcombe and the Minister of Transport and Aviation Hon. Glenys Hanna Martin.

The ministerial delegation was supported by a team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Eugene Torchon Newry, Bahamas Charge in Beijing Sheila Carey and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister Sir Baltron Bethel.

Did y ou kno w?

Freddie Munnings, Sr.

Freddie Munnings Sr was one of this country’s leading musicians/composers, bandleaders, and entrepreneurs. He was the owner of the famed Cat and Fiddle Club, a venue where top Black artists from around the world came to entertain in the 50’s and 60’s. Among such artists were Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Harry Belafonte, Paul Anka, Count Basie and Roy Hamilton. The club also featured talented artists from Spain, Mexico and the Caribbean. The Cat and Fiddle was definitely the place to be in the 50’s and 60’s.

Mr. Munnings was a Social Activist and he lent his voice and acumen to the struggle for Majority Rule and campaigned vigorously against the class and racial prejudice and bigotry that was pervasive in the Bahamas in particular after World War II.

His classic social commentary, “Abaco Beware” conjures up memories of the period and shows the resilience and dignity that Mr. Munnings knew resided in the people on the road to “The Quiet Revolution.

Mr. Munnings above all this was trained at a distinguished Music Conservatory in the Southern USA and his voice was compared to the great tenors of the day.

He passed on his musical and business genius to his sons Freddie Jr., and Raphael Munnings (The Beginning of The End).

Mr. Munnings strode the runway at a time in this country when the masses of people, through poverty and political injustice seemed doomed to remain second class citizens.

By lending himself to the progressive course of the people he opened the eyes of many and gave them the courage to take a stand.

Music Masters Celebrates the icons of Bahamian music & culture-

BAAM - Launch Edition 2015

Hero World Golf Challenge moves to Albany, The Bahamas in 2015

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Tournament to be contested at luxury resort community owned by Joe Lewis, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els locale and backdrop for their prestigious international event,” the minister said.

Minister Wilchcombe’s comments were made in the wake of an

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, shared that, “The Bahamas is overjoyed, and looking forward with anticipation to hosting the exciting Hero World Challenge PGA Golf tournament for the next three consecutive years, beginning in 2015.”

“As the closest offshore destination to the United States, and boasting warm tropical weather, an exciting culture, scenic beautiful beaches and among the world’s top golf courses, The Bahamas can offer the Hero World Challenge an ideal

announcement

by Tiger Woods Tuesday, at a press conference, in Orlando, Florida, where the 2014 tournament is taking place at Isleworth.

During the Press Conference, Woods speaking on behalf of himself and his partners, Joe Lewis and Ernie Els said, “We are excited to announce that we have signed a deal with Albany in The Bahamas, for the next three years.”

Albany features an array of residential offerings and amenities for all members of the family, including a luxury boutique hotel, a 71-slip, mega-yacht marina for vessels up to 300 feet in length, a

fitness complex featuring a core strength and weight studio, yoga and Pilates studio, boxing studio, cardio and spin studio, lap pool, luxury spa, adult pool, family pool and family water park, a kids’ clubhouse (known as the Conch House) and a variety of casual and fine dining restaurants.

The event being hosted in The Bahamas over the next three years is expected to be a considerable boost to the Tourism economy as it is expected to deliver a week’s worth of hotel stays for players.

The tournament is also expected to draw Pro-Am participants, high net worth clients and individuals, media members, TV production crews, and fans.

The event televises in up to 224 countries, with broadcast coverage led by NBC Sports and The Golf Channel. Commenting on the broadcast coverage expected, the tourism minister said the Hero World Challenge, now in its 16th year as an exciting golf event, featuring the world’s best PGA TOUR professionals, including Tiger Woods, “has the potential to be a great boost to The Bahamas

Tourism economy, and also provides a global media platform that can serve as an immeasurable source of awareness and exposure for the entire country.”

“The Bahamas is continuing to make great strides in its branding as the Sports Tourism Capital of the Caribbean and the western world” the Minister said,” adding that “the Hero World Challenge event will become one of a number of major Sporting Events that the country has hosted over the past few years.”

Other major events include the 2013 NBA Championship Heat’s Training Camp in October of 2013 and the IAAF World Relays in May of this year. In December, The Bahamas will host the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl.

Participants and the affluent fan base of the Hero World Challenge will find a warm welcome in The Bahamas with luxury accommodations available at first class resorts such as Albany, the Baha Mar Resort, One&Only Ocean Club and Atlantis Paradise Island.

N WE RUSHI TONY McKAY

The Obeah Man By: Alfred Sears, QC

former MP and Minister of Education and Attorney General Chairman of College of Bahamas Council

Exuma, the Obeah Man, was born in Cat Island and christened as Tony McKay. He grew up on Canaan Lane, off Shirley Street, Nassau, Bahamas.

D

rawing on the traditional Bahamian folk songs, the infectious beat of Junkanoo, ring play, myths and linguistic idioms, Exuma, through his musical recordings, performances and paintings, has promoted Bahamian heritage and extended Bahamian music throughout the world more so than any other contemporary Bahamian recording artist.

Exuma left The Bahamas in the early 1960s to study architecture in New York. After running out of money, Exuma started to perform around New York during the rising sentiments against the war in Vietnam.

Soon thereafter, Exuma started to perform, using Bahamian rhythms in the Greenwich Village folk scene.

In the village, Exuma often performed along with Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, Peter Paul and Mary, Jimi Hendrix and Barbara Streisand at the Café Wha on Third and McDougal Streets, Café Bizarre on McDougal Street and Café Bitter End on Bleeker Street — all in Manhattan, New York.

Exuma landed his first major recording contract with Mercury Records, which released two albums by him:

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‘Exuma, the Obeah Man’ and ‘Exuma II’. Later, Exuma signed a recording contract with the Kama Sutra/ Buddah label, which released four albums by Exuma: ‘Reincarnation’, ‘Snake’, ‘Life’ and ‘Do Wah Nanny’, and the single, ‘Bam Bam’.

In pursuit of artistic independence, Exuma established his own record producing labels, Nassau Records, through which he released ‘Rude Boy’ and ‘Going to Cat Island’.

In the early 1970s a song from Exuma’s first album entitled ‘You Don’t Know What’s Going On’ was used on the soundtrack of the movie ‘Joe’ that starred Peter Boyle and Susan Sarandon.

Exuma’s compositions and arrangements are also very much in demand by other top artists.

For example, Nina Simone recorded three of Exuma’s compositions: ‘Obeah Woman’, ‘22nd Century’ and ‘Dambala’.

Also, Jimmy Castor Bunch recorded Exuma’s compositions ‘Bam Bam’ and ‘Do Wah Nanny’.  Many contemporary Bahamian recording artists, including Eugene Davis and the National Youth Choir, have recorded and performed many of Exuma’s compositions, such as ‘Going To Cat Island’, ‘Exuma, The Obeah Man’ and ‘Bam Bam’.

As a performance artist, Exuma has carried the unique Junkanoo sounds in his arrangements and pictures of Bahamian cultural life, folklore and myths in his lyrics to the major concert halls of the world.

Exuma has performed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, opening the show for Patty LaBelle; at the Bitter End Club in New York City with Curtis Mayfield; he opened for Rita Marley at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and at the River Boat President; toured with Peter Tosh; performed with Toots and the Maytells at the New Orleans Jazz Festival; opened many times for Sly and the Family Stone, Bush, Spirit, Steppenwolf, X and Black Flag.

Between the years 1978 through 1991, Exuma performed each year at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and regularly performed and toured with the Neville Brothers.

In 1974 Exuma was invited by the Queen of Holland to perform for her with the Edwin Hawkins Singers.

Under the patronage of the then Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley, Exuma was invited to perform in Jamaica in the National Arena in 1975, where he was invited to record a reggae album, under the direction of Clancy Eckles, in collaboration with some of the leading Jamaican recording artists. In 1982 Exuma was invited to perform at the Nancy Jazz Festival in Nancy, France, along with the Neville Brothers.

Exuma’s contribution to Bahamian and Caribbean music was recognized

by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in

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1978 when she awarded him the British Empire Medal. Exuma is also the recipient of The Bahamas Tourism Award.

As a self-taught painter, Exuma paints in oils scenes of everyday Bahamian life – children shooting marbles in the yard, a man on the dock enjoying a kalik beer, etc.

In 1992 the Baltimore Museum authenticated Exuma as a folk artist.

His paintings have been exhibited in 1990 at the Key West Lucky Street Gallery in Florida, in 1990 at the Piccadilly Restaurant, Parliament Street, Nassau, Bahamas and in 1993 by Antonius Roberts at the Bay Gallery, Bay Street, Nassau, Bahamas.

Exuma’s paintings have been purchased by many art lovers, including the well-known movie director, John Demme, director of Silence of the Lambs. Exuma conveys the mystique and beauty of Bahamian life as stunningly in painting as in song.

A Bahamian visionary, humanistic philosopher and people’s poet, Exuma gives expression to the beauty and power of the cultural life of The Bahamas — the people’s every day experiences, folklore, myths, stories, Junkanoo, rake ‘n’ scrape, pain, joy, struggle and survival.

His life and art reflect the wonderful cultural heritage and personality of Bahamians, drawing on the roots of Africa and the branches of the Amerindians, Europeans and Americans.

Did y ou kno w?

EDDIE MINNIS Bahamian artist Eddie Minnis was born on October 14th, 1947. He was educated at St. John’s College and Government High School in Nassau.

He graduated from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1971 with a BSC. Degree in Architecture. However, since his first love had always been painting, he decided to pursue a career in art instead of architecture.

Eddie is a self-taught artist. He has worked in a number of mediums including ink, watercolors and pastels, but he now specializes in oil painting with the palette knife. His interest in his method of painting began in 1965 and since he has developed a unique technique. Eddie’s paintings are strikingly dimensional in appearance and vibrate with the bright color and light of The Bahamas.

Mr. Minnis held one man shows in 1969, 1972, 1976 and 1986.

He has participated in numerous group shows both locally and abroad. His paintings are in private collections in many parts of the world including the U.S.A., Canada, Britain, Australia and Korea.

Mr. Minnis created a satirical cartoon “Pot Luck”, in 1970 which appeared in the Nassau Guardian for 7 years and in the Tribune from April 1977 until October 1981. Although he has discontinued the cartoon, he still does caricatures by special request.

Since 1971 this artist has also carved another name for himself as a singer and songwriter. He now has 10 Calypso Albums to his credit - “Der Real Ting”, “Nicole and Shan an…”, Island Life’, “Mind Your Own Business”, “Junkanoo Jam”, “Guilty”, “Hey Mon”, “Discovery”, and a family man, his wife is the former Sherry Thompson.

They have three (3) children: Nicole, Roshanne and Ward who are also artists.

“Later for You Mike”, “ Naughty Johnnie”, Grannie and Fleabs

By Gena Gibbs

Governor General Presents the 2014 Arts Festival Awards and Encourages Artists Encouraging cultural self-expression has been one of the goals of the National Arts Festival since 1959.

"The National Arts Festival, which has been in existence since 1959, has done a very good job in highlighting the arts in schools throughout The Bahamas," said H.E. Dame Marguerite Pindling, Governor General.

On October 30, the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture presented the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival Awards in the Government House Ballroom on Mount Fitzwilliam. Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson introduced Her Excellency, Dame Marguerite Pindling to honorees and supporters.

"Young people are our primary source of inspiration. They are our pride, joy, and moreover, will become our future leaders and our hope for a better world to come," said Governor General, Dame Marguerite.

Dame Marguerite said students who learn one of the disciplines in the arts, whether craft, visual arts, drama, music or dance, usually are disciplined in other areas of their lives. She said usually they do well in school, on the job, in their churches and in the community.

development of the creative economy," she said.

Dame Marguerite extended thanks to the Bahamas Government for remaining faithful in funding the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival and other such festivals of its kind with financial and moral support.

"Art involvement and art appreciation are important ingredients in the education and development of the whole person. These two attributes help to instill individual self-esteem and self-worth," she said.

"I am confident that the budding young and professional artists are appreciative of the Government's efforts," said Dame Marguerite.

Dame Marguerite also acknowledged the contributions of older participants in the E. clement Bethel National Arts Festival, who are the civic minded parents and grandparents, also involved in the arts.

"Yes, even the not-so-young benefit from the categories, which the Festival offers. The arts can help to improve the quality of life of the individual and community and can also create careers and industry, and are important in the

"I wish to extend a special commendation to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and specifically the organizers for their hard work and commitment to ensure the success of the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival.

However, most of all, I wish to pay tribute to you, the participants, for your dedication to your art.

Dame Marguerite encouraged the artists to continue to bless the nation with excellence.

Dr. Linda Moxey-Brown Director of Culture

Dr. Linda Moxey-Brown Director of Culture As a respected commentator-Our Ty Emmerson sat down with Dr. Moxey-Brown for this interview.

TE: Director how would you describe 2014 – The Year of Culture and exactly what does it mean?

What would you categorize as the highlights?

DLMB: Prime Minister The RT. Hon. Perry Christie declared 2014 as ‘The Year of Culture’ so that Bahamians would focus more on all things Bahamian. The highlights of the year included: the announcement of ‘Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival’; the recognition of 41 cultural icons and the signing and ratifications of two UNESCO culture conventions.

TE: How important is it for the Bahamian people to understand their Culture and freely express themselves in its multi-layered themes?

DLMB: It is extremely important for all Bahamians to truly understand and appreciate who they are as a people and express it openly and freely. When a nation of people cannot do that, mama use to say, ‘then all buck-up goes’.

TE: In your opinion is the

Culture of our country too inter-woven with foreign connects or are we as a people capable of discerning Bahamian Culture for ourselves and is our culture a derivative of others in our region but just re-branded as Bahamian Culture?

DLMB: Unfortunately, during the last 20 years of the 20th century to now, there has being a shift in what is truly Bahamian. This is due in-part to the over growth of our Haitian and Jamaican immigrants.

The younger generation have somehow abandon their music for the Jamaican reggae. I have traveled throughout The Caribbean, and have never heard a Bahamian song being played on any radio air waves, or heard it played in someone’s home or at a night club. Yet, we allow reggae music to be played here in our country all day and night any and everywhere. Worst of all, it is played on the National radio, ‘because they are Bahamian artists.

TE: When you see our little children performing at National Arts

Festival, Junior Junkanoo, the various art shows, does it make you feel confident that the Culture is vibrant and fertile? And if so how is your Department moving to capitalize on it?

DLMB: It’s a joy to see our young people participating in the E.C. Bethel National Arts Festival and Junior Junkanoo. It tells me that all is not lost and there is still hope that this present generation will focus on what makes us uniquely Bahamian and be proud of it.

TE: This question relates to Question 3. Are you troubled when you hear secular criticisms about expression as to how our children adopt African and West Indian dances and some see this as a vulgar import, for lack of another term?

DLMB: It is troubling when I hear and see the vulgarity of the way our young people ‘gyrate’ when dancing. It is the negative side of Caribbean Carnival infused with movements of our Haitian and African heritage. Our students who participate in Junior Junkanoo are

told this is a no – no, and won’t be tolerated.

TE: As in most cases in The Bahamas our performing artists seem to get their start in their Church choirs, ensemble and drama groups. How do you encourage this development and chaperone the move to secular performances which seems to be the goal of many artists who get their start in Church?

DLMB: The Bahamas has said over and repeatedly to the world, that ‘we are a Christian nation’.

Yes, back in the days when I was growing up, church was morning, noon and night. As there was a lack of musical instruments, our voice blended forming beautiful harmonies. Acapella singing was the order of the day. We all got started in the church choir, saying ‘recitation’ or reciting poems, acting in various

Christmas and Easter plays. God has truly blessed Bahamians with outstanding gifts and talents.

I see nothing wrong with our people venturing out into the word to explore other genres of the arts.

However, we must never forget who we are and where we came from. There are a number of persons who have paved the way for others to follow in the international arena like: Sir SydneyPoitier in acting; Ms. Florence and Ms. Roker in sitcoms/drama; Lenny Kravitz in music and Myles Munroe in religion. And the list goes on. I want to encourage all Bahamians to take bold steps and venture out, as we live in a global village and our gifts and talents are not limited to The Bahamas.

TE: As a Ministry charged also with Youth Development how do you walk the tight rope of Culture which demands freedom and abhors censorship?

DLMB: How do you really? Our young people are the future Bahamas. They are the next nation builders, the ones that will further enhance (in positive ways), what has been done over our many years of existence. Yes, the rope is tight, but sometimes we have to slacken it a bit so that their creative juices are allowed to flow. Technology continues to change and so to the ways of doing things in the past. However, in-spite of all of this, we must not allow our young people to forget who they are and the importance of keeping our culture alive.

TE: Your hands must be full with the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival on tap for May 2015 and the numerous Heritage and Cultural festivals headlined for the New Year.

Is the country in your opinion in a state of readiness as to what is expected from us for a successful Carnival?

DLMB: According to Prime Minister Christie, ‘The Bahamas will have ‘Junkanoo Carnival’, in May of 2015. However, there is

always opposition to anything new that is suggested, until the event actually happens. Back in the days of slavery where our most formative expressions of our culture was birthed, Junkanoo’, who would have envision it developing to what it is today? The first government of our country declared in Parliament as a ‘nuisance’ and to this day is still on the books as such. Since taking over the directorship of the culture department, I have made many suggestions to the junkanoo leaders as to how to benefit financially from the parades by turning it into a business. Today, ‘Colours Junkanoo Group’, is the only one that’s doing it. The whole idea for the ‘Junkanoo Carnival’ is to boost The Bahamas economy and help the junkanooers make money for themselves and their groups. This staple event will be an annual affair, so ready or not, there will be ‘Junkanoo Carnival’.

TE: You must also be challenged by Budgetary Constraints. If you could get the Ideal Budget you know your Department requires, where would you allocate these resources and how would your new agenda positively impact the Cultural Development?

DLMB: Budget has always being a major problem for the department of culture.

Culture covers the entire Bahamas and our junkanoo parades take about three quarters (3/4) of what is allotted. An ideal budget for culture should be no less than four (4) million dollars. Nassau is not The Bahamas and until we truly understand this, proper funding for culture will continue to be insufficient. All things cultural should not happen in Nassau alone, but in every inhabited island in The Bahamas, no exception, and funding must be allocated for new programmes and staple events. As our islands are not connected by bridges, travel is expensive, but they must be covered. Also, we will be able to showcase our culture to the world more through culture exchanges and participating in cultural meetings.

TE: How do you deal with the “Prima Donnas” so to speak who feel that they must have the last word ... or the definite voice on Culture in this country, ignoring the voice, contribution and effort of so many other artists and disciplines? Do you agree that there is this perception that culture, broadly speaking, is restricted to a few. Somehow there seems to be a corelation between culture and elitism, the exception being Junkanoo which is a mass movement.

DLMB: Unfortunately, there are many who believe and try to speak on cultural matters.

However, a lot of statements and comments are misleading and confusing. Yes, there are those of us who have studied the progression of our culture, but are not given the opportunities by the mass media, to educate our people. Some so called ‘elitists’, still frown upon what is truly ours. It still amazes me how when we were British citizens we gladly obeyed every rule & regulations. However, today after forty one (41) years of independence, a lot of us still show no respect for what is ours. From singing our national anthem, to expressing ourselves through ‘Junkanoo’.

TE: There are many who argue that we have not had a major international Cultural Icon in the mold of Jamaica’s Marley and countless others, Trinidad’s Nicki Minaj and Machel Montano and Barbados’s Rihanna. Why are we so far behind and does it matter?

DLMB: Unfortunately, this is true as far as our music is concerned. ‘Bahamen’ became ‘world’ known with someone else’s song. Bob Marley came up with a ‘rhythm’ dub ‘reggae’, which is recognised and copied around the world, even some of our own musicians singing and rapping to that rhythm. Now tell me what’s wrong with this picture? I have as yet to hear of a Bahamian group or vocalist having a Bahamian concert in any Caribbean country or elsewhere. Lenny Kravitz is the only Bahamian (through blood ties) who is performing on the international stage, along with some songs from Johnny Kemp. We will continue to be left out of the international arenas as long as we keep our talents locked away.

TE: Carnival is being built as a vehicle to drive a third engine of cottage industry for creative artists. How is your Department ensuring that full advantage is taken by Baha-

„

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Today, ‘Colours Junkanoo Group’, is the only one that’s doing it.

The whole idea for the ‘junkanoo carnival’ is to boost The Bahamas economy and help the junkanooers make money for themselves and groups.

mians and foreigners do not reap the macro portion of the economic benefits?

DLMB: On September 27th, 1976, The Bahamas signed and had ratified by UNESCO, the ‘universal copyright convention, protecting all Bahamians from foreigners benefiting from all things Bahamian. This includes every genre of written, played or sung Bahamian music. Again on May 15th 2014, The Bahamas signed and had ratified by UNESCO, two more very important conventions. First the 2003 convention for the ‘safe guarding of intangible cultural heritage’. This means that no one or country, can copy or use any form of our ‘junkanoo’, rake n scrape music, folklores and ‘handed down’ traditions, to benefit them, anywhere in the world. It’s illegal and I know that no government will allow that to happen.

TE: What would you like to see introduced into every school’s Curriculum which in your opinion will lead to The Bahamas taking more advantage of our Culture to remain relevant in the Tourism Industry by selling our Heritage, Culture and National Character?

DLMB: For some time now, I have being trying to have a culture curriculum implemented in our government school system in the first instance, then into every school private or otherwise throughout our Bahamas. Every child

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should be well rounded in his/her culture. The proposed curriculum which hopefully comes on stream in September 2015 will cover all aspects of our culture. It is envision, that by the time our preschoolers reach grade 12, they will be well on their way to become producers, song writers, story tellers, poets, dancers, singers, visual and handicraft artisans and entrepreneur. All ready to take our culture to the next levels and be successful at it.

TE: What do you enjoy most about your job?

DLMB: My enjoyment comes from my Family Islands visits. Just to sit at the feet of our senior citizens listening to stories of their childhood and the traditions ‘handed down from their grand and great grandparents like, manners and respect, the love for God and each other, the value of family, education and church. Sing familiar songs with them and share old time stories. I also enjoy attending international meetings where am able to talk about my country and our rich cultural heritage, and invite others to come and experience the country where ‘God really lives’, because it is ‘Better in Our Bahamas’.

TE: Give us an overview as to how you see your Department impacting the Cultural Mission of this country in 2015.

DLMB: The Department of Culture is ready to move full speed into 2015. We are looking forward to implementing a number of new programmes and events. Some of these will include the ‘branding’ of a major festival in every family island; the naming of our national dance, dress, music and sports; hosting of our national ‘rake n scrape’ festival; a weekly Bahamian cultural review and recognizing our Bahamian icons.

Bahamas, as we forge ahead, remember ------‘no culture, no country’, and we are the only ones who can truly tell ‘our stories’.

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By: Fenton T. Williams

H

istorical details concerning the ‘Jumper Church’ in many instances may vary as there are different accounts that have been compiled by various historians. David G. Roebuck, Ph. D; director of the Research Center and assistant professor was one of the historians to capture the early life of some of the leaders who paved the way in the “Church of God Chronicles”, which is listed by ‘Google’.

His account states how Wilmore V. Eneas, came home one day and met his sick wife Arabella healed from a sickness that had brought her severe suffering.

He remembered Arabella’s new spiritual friends had played a role

concerning her restoration. Mr. Roebuck notes that these were new Pentecostals visiting the Bahamas.

Their style of worship he described as demonstrative and not lining up with the Wesleyan Methodist church where Wilmore V. Eneas attended or the Bethel Baptist Church where his

wife Arabella played the organ.

The new Pentecostals were said to have been invited by Arabella to the homestead after overhearing a nearby message being preached. The Pentecostal brought a new awareness.

First of all you needed to be saved, sanctified, and with the emergence of the Holy Ghost in your life, there should be the evidence of speaking in tongues (spiritual language).

Roebucks writes, “Church of God ministers Edmond and Rebecca Barr had arrived in Edmond’s homeland in November 1909 with the Pentecostal message.

They were joined a few weeks later by

R.M. and Ida Evans. By the time the Barr’s and Evans‘s returned to Florida from the Bahamas; W.V. Eneas had emerged as the leader of the Church of God in Nassau.

In 1915, he led in building a thatch place of worship called “The Camp.”

He goes on to note that in 1918 the congregation grew and a proper wooden building was erected. Out of derision for their enthusiastic worship, the townspeople branded the Pentecostals as “Jumpers” and referred to the new location of the Church of God house of worship as “Eneas Jumper Corner”.

Wilmore soon became the first black Church of God Bishop in the

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Bahamas, and served as pastor of the local church, now East Street Cathedral, until 1961. He also was appointed as National Overseer of the Bahamas.

When a church body in the Bahamas gets the nick name “Jumpers” it is as literal as it gets. In the early nineties the Christian religious base was expanding throughout the Commonwealth of the Bahamas with ‘The Church of God’ being one of the religious institutions paving the way.

In the 1992 edition of the local magazine, “Our Christian Heritage” the pioneers leading the charge seeking self-determination and independence from the British were men such as W.R. Franks, Peter Patton, W. E. Eneas, John H. Davis Sr, K.D.Josey, Asa Sargent and others were some the foundational builders of the movement.

“

The Azusa Street Revival which is the Corner Stone of the Pentecostal movement took place in Los Angeles, California and was led by William J. Seymour- an African American preacher. Wikipedia records the first meeting on April 9, 1906, which continued until 1915. Wikipedia documents the highlight of the Revival in these words: “They shouted three days and three nights. It was Easter season. The people came from everywhere. By the next morning there was no way of getting near the house. As people came in they would fall under God’s power; and the whole city was stirred.

“They shouted until the foundation of the house gave way, but no one was hurt,” said the report.

When the Azusa spirit catapulted into the Bahamian religious community via ‘The Church of

The great historical Revival of the early 1900s’ would mark the inception.

Although the Church Of Gods’ organization suffered some division; it experienced in turn a massive expansion of membership as other stalwarts like John B. Curry, John D. Miller, Hubert A. Pinder, Ambrose J. Tomlinson, Alvin S. Moss, Stanley R. Ferguson, Brice H. Thompson and others sought to keep the movement vitalized.

Before the prestige, the various titles, the divisional name changes Church Of God folk carried the stigmatized blatant name tag, “Jumpers”. The great historical Revival of the early 1900s’ would mark the inception.

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God’, to frame them “Jumpers” fitted the description but in other ways was a verbal type attack on a new movement not fully understood.

The international press in the early stages had ridiculed the “Azusa Revival” so their offspring “The Jumpers” were nicknamed in a jeeringly manner. The worship style was just too free for a people not yet fully realized as ‘free people’.

William J. Seymour the African American preacher and one of the true founders of the Revival had the ability to form an integrated church

body during the era of ‘Jim Crow’ in itself spoke to a high level of spiritual manifestation. Pentecostals world-wide recognize the Azusa Street Revival as significant and instrumental to their foundation.

Wikipedia notes on the Services and worship of the revival as the following: “Worship at 312 Azusa Street was frequent and spontaneous with services going almost around the clock.

Among those attracted to the revival were not only members of the Holiness Movement, but also Baptist, Mennonites, Quakers, and Presbyterians. An observer at one of the services wrote these words: “No instrument of music are used. None are needed. No choir- the angels have been heard by some in the spirit. No collections are taken. No bills have been posted to advertise the meeting.

No church organization is back of it.

All who are in touch with God realize as soon as they enter the meeting that the Holy Ghost is the leader..

The human body has a couple hundred muscles according to

how you determine their purpose.

Members of the early ‘Jumper Church’ who were actually Church Of God folk could be credited on using ninety five percent of those muscles individually during a heated church service.

Imagine taking a fifteen round boxing match and congesting it into a one round fight with two poorly coordinated fighters where one of the two usually goes down and you get the visual of the old ‘Jumper praise and worship’ with enthusiastic members at their spiritual peak.

When the referee shouts ‘box’ and the frenzy breaks out you can analogize the Preacher or another spirit filled person chanting the right words for the commotion to begin.

The kind of spiritual aerobics that I’m talking about goes a bit further than a coordinated performance; let me explain. Jumpers did not get their name on slack, they earned it.

There was energy and spiritual vitality in the early Jumper church, there was no priming up or diluting the Azusa Pentecostal fervor where the speaking in tongues were birthed.

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honored it, some abhorred it, many, believed it and lived by it. You may have shown up clad in a neat suit, a fine dress with a pretty hat but when the Spirit hit you, it took you to a place of no control.

There are many spirituals rituals and practices that can induce the mind to transform your brain. The early ‘jumper church’ were the benefactors of a new spiritual ideal that was, unique, audacious, spiritually uplifting, but more importantly it was theirs.

The stories that have been expressed while under arrest of the Spirit are vast in imaginative complexity and were hardly believed by nonbelievers.

One may have experienced going to heaven or visiting hell, seeing a bright light or a giant angel, but the person slain by the Spirit was totally convicted and would use this experience as a testimonial teaching.

There was no cushioned seats and central air for the sophisticated or church celebrities to lounge. There was no caution for who was looking or listening. What you saw is what you got: unadulterated, unashamed, spiritual hysteria that made sense to those who understood its purpose.

It is a proven scientific fact that daily exercise produces excellent health, the ‘Jumpers’ had figured this out a long time ago and they used the movement of ‘Praise’ to enhance their Consciousness.

The dynamic external hysteria that shaped an entrance into the doorway of spiritual bliss may forever remain a secret. Some played with it, some

Within this spiritual frame work there were genuine experiences and there were the fraudulent deceivers who may have some other deceptive agenda.

I’ll never forget my first viewing of a suspect, when I was around ten my mum sent me and my three brothers at the time to visit the home church of her insurance collector, Lionel Rolle, who was an enthusiastic member. The church was located on East Street, just a step away from St. Luke’s Baptist Church and opposite Andros Avenue. I could remember tearing away my hand from my oldest brother who walked us to church and being offered some candy at the end of the service.

“

There are many spirituals rituals and practices that can induce the mind to transform your brain.

When the organist and the drummer got heated up and the preacher shouted ‘the Holy Ghost is in this place’. There was this lady that exploded in a spiritual frenzy and violently beat a hole in the paneling wall of the board structured church, she was shouting ‘Jesus’ at the top of her lungs.

Four rows of benches toppled, she lost her wig in the frenzy and it took about six persons to restrain her. Through my young lens I expected some sight of spiritual expectation for the young lady but at my age I only saw a woman who had embarrassed herself and cost the church a few dollars. I was frightened out of my wits and begged my mother never to send me back there again. Looking back today I knew this woman was feeling something move deep inside.

In my adult life I have witnessed many sincere believers who were transformed by the ‘Spirit of God’. There is an old story told about a lady who was paralyzed that came to a meeting in a wheel chair and got caught up in the move of the Spirit and was dancing and speaking in tongues when someone tapped on the shoulder and asked her where was her wheelchair

she had to search in the crowd to locate it. Miracles in those days were second guessed but were more acknowledged as genuine.

Jumpers’ didn’t plan or choreograph there service, they showed up, sang and danced, preached, spoke in tongues and waited on the ‘Holy Ghost’ to show up. It was simple as that. The old wooden floors were used like rhythmic bass sounds, the clapping and singing were not practiced items like the praise and worship teams undergo in our modern era. The newly composed recitals of the latest hits that praise teams present today would have been looked at as worldly in the ‘Jumpers’ viewpoint.

They called their praise and worship ‘Song Service’ and it had the spiritual capacity to direct the service into another dimension. The pastor in some cases never got to preach his message.

These were the days when customs were strict women for a long-time were not permitted to wear earrings, cosmetics and of course dresses were worn well below the knee. It took many years for some of these measures to be altered. The three pillars passed down to the Jumper church from the building block of the Azusa Revival were Salvation, Sanctification and more importantly Baptism in the Spirit. In the old

Bishop Stanley R. Ferguson 1924-1934

Bishop Alvin S. Moss 1934-1974

Bishop Dr. Brice H. Thompson 19274-1999

Bishop Dr. Elgarnet B. Rahming Bishop Franklin M. Ferguson 1999-2013 2013-Present

Jumper Church there was no class warfare. The wealthy were affected by the Holy Spirit and the poor with their burdens were slain according to their measure of Grace.

They may have lost their name, and a bit of their jump but jumping for glory has established a lasting establishment of spiritual empowerment in the Bahamian society.

HOW THE JUMPERS BECAME SEPARATED There has been much examination and explanation of how the Church in the Bahamas separated into different major entities. However each group has its genesis in the 1923 Church.

Some light is shed through research on this. The early Church leaders in Cleveland Tennessee ended up in a

legal battle after internal challenges to their administration and dogma.

On May 2nd 1952 after a heated complex engagement emerged in Bradley County Court, over the archetype christened ‘The Church of God’. the J E. Tomlinson coalition was sanctioned to add “of prophecy” to their name , “because this “Church of God” then viewed itself as the New Testament church of the last days, or, so the court reasoned. Thereafter the Church uses the appellation “Church of God of Prophecy”.

Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson better known as “A.J.,” who was one of the most central pioneers on producing the COGOP was a charismatic prestigious leader whose historical background defined him as a strong defender of racial discrimination in the early Church of God. He was born in 1865 and made his living as a Quaker Bible salesman and headed

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Jumpers’ didn’t plan or choreograph there service, they showed up, sang and danced, preached, spoke in tongues and waited on the ‘Holy Ghost’ to show up.

A.J. Tomlinson’s “Fields of the Wood” Tomlinson’ praying on the mountains in June 1903 is believed by members to have begun the restoration of the true Church of God. In 1907, the organization took the name Church of God, and within a few years, joined the Pentecostal movement. Before he died in 1943, he inscribed into the hillside in rock the “world’s largest Ten Commandments.” Now known as the Fields of the Wood, the site is a Bible park operated by the Church of God of Prophecy.

Tomlinson was also very concerned about the racial divide in the Bahamas when he began his Ministry in the Bahamas. Writing in his journal about the campaign in the Bahamas, he noted, “Blacks and whites all come to meeting together.”

The Racial Reconciliation that Tomlinson spoke to in his recorded journals would have given credence and elevation to both sectors after the dissection of C.O.G and C.O.G.O.P as a short quotation would read, ‘Tomlinson seemed agitated that prior to 1919, blacks were only called on extemporaneously during the assemblies. Tomlinson added, “Our dark-skinned brothers and sisters have received the Holy Ghost as well as we, and we have long ago learned

that God is no respecter of persons.”

The Bahamas would become the prototype for Tomlinson’s racial integration and with Stanley Fergusons support a messenger for ‘The Church of God’.

Tomlinson was highly appreciative of the work of Bahamian Stanley Ferguson who stood with him and encouraged him.

The dispute that struck Cleveland, Tennessee, Headquarters of The Church of God earlier in 1923 would resonate in The Bahamas in April 1925. Bishop Ferguson, the Overseer of the Bahamas at the time and a number of loyal members “were insulted and deprived of their church building in Nassau” This resulted in a church division in which there were two groups operating as the Church of God; one involving Bishop Eneas and others led by Stanley Ferguson, who had to virtually start the work afresh.

These differences would have to be settled in the Bahamian court to arrive at a settlement. Separate Incorporation Acts by Parliament were set up to establish both institutions their names.

LET THE CHURCH ROLL ON “But you are a chosen people- a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God’s special possession. That you might declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” – 1st Peter V2-9.

The Reverend Reuben Cooper found himself in the enviable position as President of the Bahamas Christian Council in July 1973 and thus uniquely qualified to deliver the ecumenical message to the new nation on the morning of July 10th 1973 as we began our first days as an Independent nation.

Dr. Cooper in choosing his text from 1st Peter V2-9 caught the imagination and purpose of the country in appealing to the Christian instinct which had been handed down from slavery and through emancipation.

Parceled over-the-hill, or in the black belt district where large communities of black people settled after Emancipation in 1838, the Church remained the grounds keeper of the community’s pathos, passion and personality.

Freed slaves Prince William and Sambo Scriven had founded the first Baptist church – Bethel Baptist Church on Meeting Street in

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1848 and this would be joined years later by the St. John’s Native Baptist Society.

The European influenced Episcopalian or Church of England Anglican communes were nestled in Christ Church Cathedral down town in the city, St. Mary’s on Virginia Street, St. Barnabas on Wulf Road and Blue Hill Road and St Agnes at the drop of the hill at the intersection of Meeting Street and Blue Hill Road.

The Methodist community was at Wesley on the corner of Chapel Street and Meadow Street and Blue Hill Road. The Trinity Methodist Church down town next to today’s Central Bank would take some time assimilating a fully emancipated congregation.

The hybrid break away AME or African Methodist Episcopalian Church was at Peter Street and Blue Hill Road.

Talmadge Sands took over the pulpit of the Zion Baptist Church on Shirley Street in the mid-1950s and the Salem Baptist Church had moved from Bay Street to Parliament Street to its current locale.

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The Churches of the colonial Bahamas were freighted by social scientists that used their theology to uplift and educate their people.

While Dr. W McPhee from his roost at the Mount Calvary Baptist Church on Blue Hill Road fraternized with the minority ruling Oligarchy, he is credited with opening the doors of the prestigious Richmond Seminary to Black Bahamian clergymen and pioneering the conferment of honourary religious doctorate designations to qualified applicants.

Dr. Cooper reigned at Hay Street and East Street and his son, Reuben Junior has ascended to the pulpit and is credited with launching the Atlantic College tertiary education institution from his priory.

Speaking of priories, the Roman Catholics fought heavy prejudices to get established in the Bahamas with their patriarch Father Chrysostom Schreiner a German Immigrant largely responsible for the Catholics leap of significant influence and their ambitious social outreach programmes through their network of churches, schools and monasteries.

Our Lady’s Catholic Church on Deveaux Street for more than 30 years administered pediatric

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Weir, Edwin Taylor, Colin Archer and Carla Carey at Wesley Methodist Church. C C.H. Thompson and Garnet King at Transfiguration Baptist Church on Market and Vesey Street.

Anglican Suffragan Bishop Gilbert Thompson and Father Calnan at St. Barnabas Church.

The late Latin scholar and social thinker Father William Thompson at St. Agnes church, tragically murdered in his rectory, paving the way for I Ranfurly Brown today.

medical care to children from the inner city through the noble work of Dr. Julie Wershing and the Agnes Hardecker Clinic.

The Our Lady’s, St. Francis and St. Joseph’s and St. Cecilia’s Pre- Primary and Primary schools have educated thousands of today’s successful Bahamians.

A review of some of the larger than life men who strode the pulpits of these awesome churches gives colour to the pomp and circumstance they brought to the mysticism

which anchored their communities.

Arthur S. Colebrooke at St. Paul’s on Bias Street. William Granger and Foster Pestina at Christ Church Cathedral. Father Peter Grist and Warren Rolle at St. Mary’s. The late Enoch Backford at Salem Baptist with Dr. Charles C. Saunders from Moss Town, Exuma and Sir Baltron Bethel from Palmetto Point Eleuthera at the pulpit. The eclectic H W. Brown and his radio question – “Son of Man Can these bones live?” at the Bethel Baptist Cathedral making way for Timothy Stewart for today. Emmette

The liturgies seem to have all composed themselves into a harmonious Bahamian anthem when the churches of Over the hill raise voice in crescendo to the chorus of their unshakeable faith:“Though with a scornful wonder We see her sore oppressed; By schisms rent asunder By heresies distressed.

Yet Saints their watch are keeping; Their cry goes up HOW LONG? And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song.”

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VOLA

PERCY FRANCIS

THE GRAND OLD YOUNG MAN OF JUNKANOO The night of Festivals: “I have never before witnessed such a Christmas Day; the Negroes have been beating their tambourines and dancing the whole day and now between eight and nine o’clock they are pursuing their sport as hotly as ever. How my heart was pained to see the Redeemer’s birthday so commemorated.” - Excerpted from “Slavery in the Bahamas – 1648

-1838” by Dr. Gail Saunders with reference to Dowson’s Journal 18101817 in which a Methodist Minister the Reverend W. Dowson recorded observations in The Bahamas on Slaves celebrating holidays.

The Son of a Preacher Man’ and the perennial Leader of the Saxons, a vibrant and decisive Junkanoo Force

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“

Drums were going all year in that area when I was a little boy. The Saxons started as a small group called the ‘East Street Gang’.

“Drums were going all year when I was a little boy”, recalls Percy Vola Francis, the Leader of The Saxons.

Today his name, his annual Junkanoo signature performances on Bay Street; in the full splendor of his Royal Robes and kingly sceptre, complete with his Emperor’s Crown doing the “Vola Shuffle” are revered across this country and has ignited Junkanoo for more than two decades.

The Saxons started as a small group called The East Street gang and were sponsored by the Shalimar Theatre, Mr. Francis recalls. From reports today The Saxons have grown from a group of about 40 members to a massive entourage numbering about 600 men and women and including 100 drummers more than 90 cowbells ringers about 50 dancers a brass section of 50 odd and about

150 women dancers and instrumentalists.

The area he refers to is around Masons Addition, McCullough Corner and East Street where the Silver Slipper Night Club and the Shalimar Theatre and a number of other saloons were situated. This area is the known as the heart of Junkanoo.

The Saxons have represented The Bahamas abroad and their award winning costumes and pieces have become collector’s items for an emerging new artistic interest in Junkanoo art.

Mr. Francis is also the ideological force behind the creation of Junior Junkanoo and the push to get Junkanoo into the classrooms. Students

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in the primary, junior and senior divisions can have hands on learning and training experience with every aspect of Junkanoo. These students get to show off their work in the annual Junior Junkanoo parade and compete for bragging rights and prestigious prizes.

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The objective is to take Junkanoo as a cultural form to the organized classroom in hope that this parade which emerged from the country’s Slavery past can continue to evolve and transform itself as a mega attraction and jewel in the country’s cultural crown.

Mr. Francis hails from a very religious family and his late father Dr. Earl Francis is the founding pastor of First Baptist Church, Market and First Street Coconut Grove. Mr. Francis grew up in church and he recalls that it was his dad who took him as a little boy to watch the Junkanoo parades.

In such clashes of culture where certain behaviours are misunderstood it is insightful today to look at the Reports in various earlier century journals to learn of the disconnect between the European and the African culture.

Junkanoo was not intended as

“

“

Ironically White religious missionaries in the 18th century when they came upon this African tradition celebrated on Christmas Day they found it to be “heathen” and debunked it.

I can say that we have now become dedicated to sending a message with our theme.

a Christmas Festival but rather Christmas Day was a holiday given to the Slaves and accordingly to this holiday they brought their parade, dance, music and revelry.

Looking back at earlier parades that his Saxons have performed Mr. Francis reports that “anything we do we try to put God first. We want

to let our light shine as a beacon of hope and courage in the world.”

Looking at earlier themes and the messages Mr. Francis reports that his group is in a new wave in theme selection for the Saxons’ parades.

“I can say that we have now become dedicated to sending a message with our theme.”

One need only review recent parades in which the Saxons effortlessly pulled off their theme balance and message. In a previous parade they promoted love and peace dealing with Life on Boxing Day and Light on New Year’s Day. They did the games that people play like cards games, checkers, dominoes and their message was one should not gamble with life.

“Life is not a gamble and we used the game form to really send the message,” Mr. Francis said.

With so much accomplishments in Junkanoo under his belt Mr. Francis has now re-dedicated himself to a final push and drive to bring the inter-

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national focus of the world on Junkanoo in The Bahamas.

“We need to really promote Junkanoo as the most colourful festival in the world. I have seen Mardi Gras and other festival but none are as colourful as Junkanoo.

For example we use special crepe paper out of Germany to create the colourful vibrant costumes we see on Bay Street and there no festival that can match that.

The Ministry of Tourism really needs to promote Junkanoo as the number one festival in the world to say come down to the Bahamas and join us in fun,” Mr. Francis says.

The Saxons have evolved into the mammoth successful prize winning outfit through blood, sweat and tears and when that call cries out in the wee, wee hours of the Junkanoo morning…. ‘ They Coming’, thousands of Bahamians and millions of fans who have come from abroad and witnessed the intensity of Percy Vola Francis and his Saxons know the show is about to begin.

Did y ou kno w?

Theodore Elyett

Fashion Designer Theodore Elyett is a regional and international trend setter and is making waves in the fashion circuit. To his credit was an exciting and much deserved win in the Caribbean Fashion Reality TV-series –Mission Catwalk Season 3. In June 2014 Elyett was honoured with a Caribbean Style &Culture Award for Excellence in recognition of Caribbean American Heritage Month in Washington DC. He has also received the Governor General’s “40 under 40” Trailblazer Award, been chosen as Designer of the Year and enjoyed a design scholarship at the affluent Parsons Design School in New York.

Elyett is a positive influence to every aspiring Bahamian fashion designer. He started at a tender age in fashion with the encouragement of his family and this support base has kept him going.

JAMAAL ROLLE, known as The Celebrity Artist is an award winning Bahamian visual artist who is famous for his life-like portrait depictions of world figures, government officials, billionaires and A-list celebrities. Jamaal has received critical acclaim for his portrait depictions of notable persons such as HRH Prince Harry, US President Barack Obama, US Senator John McCain, Oprah Winfrey, Sir Sidney Poitier, Johnny Depp, Mark Wahlberg, and Pope Francis.

Jamaal is a gifted artist who has the keen ability to present lifelike images on his canvas and viewers are mesmerized by the subject’s likeness. Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Jamaal is a self-taught artist although his artistic roots derive from his parents Harry who is an artist and bronze sculptor, and his mother Judy who is a conch shell artist. Jamaal has been a professional artist since 2001 and his oil paintings and portraits are creating international fame.

Jamaal has been featured in many international news publications

such as BBC, CBS, ABC, WSVN, TSN, People Magazine, The New York Post and more.

Jamaal Rolle is a Bahamian icon. In 2012, he won The People’s Choice “Artist of The Year” Award. In 2013, he was recognized as one of fortyfive great men honoured for their invaluable contribution towards the advancement and development of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Jamaal Rolle is a Rotarian who believes in community building and supporting the youth and charitable organizations.

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Prime Minister calls for an overhaul of Junkanoo

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rime Minister Christie has called for an overhaul of Junkanoo and asked Culture Minister Danny Johnson to begin dialogue with the Junkanoo community on how to fix what many agree has gone wrong at the Xmas and New Year’s parades.

Mr. Christie, as is customary, was on Bay Street watching the New Year’s parade when he made the following comments:“I was very disappointed in what I saw. It clearly needs a review.

“I’ve spoken with the Minister responsible for Culture Danny Johnson, in a meeting yesterday (Wednesday December 31st 2014). I told him it’s very important for us to meet with the Junkanoo community to advise them that the Government is deeply concerned about the lack of precision organization here.

“People are bored. Last week we had an extraordinary chanting from the northern stands

that “we want Junkanoo, we want Junkanoo”; because a group was delayed and they couldn’t have another group fill in. The parade has to be reviewed, it has to be organized.

“The route has to be examined. You can see how the route has become narrower and narrower because they are trying to put more seats in.

“Something is dead wrong with Junkanoo when the ‘A’ section groups become so large it appears that hundreds of people are dancing without music.

“People watching people dance without music is just boring. At least hearing the music causes you to join the dancer and feel that something is happening. We either have to determine the technology available to (place microphones on) the route so when a band strikes up the music is thrown along the entire route. Or alternatively to give them different sections of the group to put some music in; so at least people could be dancing and appear to be enjoying what they are doing as opposed to looking like they’re out for a hard day’s work in front of a group that’s dancing without music.”

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Exciting new television show on Culture in development

Currently in development is a weekly television production called “Run Come See” being produced by the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture in association with Bahamas Information Services and Bahfari Films.

The show stars five young Bahamian College students examining and enquiring into the Culture of the country and talking with persons who impact and shape culture.

The show’s producer, Kent Minnis says, “ We are creating a show which will stand on its own merits with any American, Canadian or European show in the same genre. ‘Run Come See’ will bring the Bahamian people to the world and the world will in turn come to The Bahamas.” BAAM is honoured to introduce the cast of Run Come See to our readers:-

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SHAQUILLE SANDS

Shaquille Sands is a graduate of the Charles W. Saunders Baptist High School where she was the Deputy Head girl during the year 2009-2010.

Miss Sands an essayist, poet, and public speaker was the winner of the Dr. Martin Luther King Essay Competition in 2010, and The Ministry of Health HIV Awareness Speech Competition in 2009. She has been an advocate of The Bahamas Crisis Centre since 2010, and has worked closely with The College of The Bahamas’ Spectrum Journalism Team, and McKinney Broadcasting News Network as a reporter. Currently, she works throughout the year closely with other young, vibrant, and driven teachers at FOCUS (Forward and Onward to College, Upward to Success) – an organization sponsored by the Lyford Cay Foundation. This organization’s purpose is to prepare public school students for college in the future.

Shaquille is passionate about promoting education and Bahamian culture inside and outside of the classroom.

She enjoys interacting with people, and her passions spill over in every aspect of her life. Shaquille is a senior presently enrolled at the College of The Bahamas in the Bachelor of Arts Secondary Education program, with a concentration in English Language and Literature, slated to graduate May 2015.

SHAWN TINKER

Shawn wants to tell you in his own words a little about himself: -“I was born on January 28th, 1993 in New Providence. Growing up an only child had very little effect on me. I was not spoiled, nor did I ever feel lonely, and regardless of my smart-mouth, I knew my place. Even as a 5-year old, I was always very level headed and upfront.

I was never that kid who would be afraid when another kid told me that

he would call an adult, I was that kid who waited for that other kid, ever so patiently, to follow through on that threat. I knew I didn’t do anything so, what did I have to be afraid of? As I got older, being able to stand up for myself and knowing my worth were two traits of mine that I knew should be treasured.

“My parents did a phenomenal job.

At 18, we welcomed my first sibling, Skye, after I gave up any hope of a little brother or sister 8 years prior. I think she got most of the best genes so, obviously, I was ready to return her. But she’s proven herself to be a worthy addition to our little family.

The family cat is the only one who feels differently.

“At 21, I’m the eldest of nearly 30 grandchildren, and I love it. I attended Dandelion’s Primary School from 1998 until 2002, before moving

to Nassau Christian Academy, where I completed elementary and went on to be elected a High-School Prefect, graduate with a 3.3 GPA and, in 2010, earn my High School Diploma. In Junior High School, I was very quiet and reserved, never had anything negative to saw towards any other student, never had a problem with completing my assignments and I never had a problem obeying authority.

“It wasn’t until Senior High School that I truly began to understand the type of person that I am. I held no bias when it came to expressing how I felt and what I thought. I also exercised my quit-wit in any situation I deemed appropriate.

I’m currently in pursuit of my Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resource/Office Management at the College of the Bahamas, where “4-

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year programs” never take only four years. In addition to furthering my education.

ANGEL CARTWRIGHT

Angel Cartwright was born on the 17th August 1994 in Nassau. Her close friends describe Angel as a model student and leader; who is mannerly, purpose driven, determined, intelligent, admired and respected.

Angel graduated from Anatol Rodgers High School in 2011 and received the awards at graduation for salutatorian, honor student, most outstanding prefect, outstanding business student, Mathematics and Commerce. She is currently an honor student studying Business Management at the College of the Bahamas and proudly holds the positions of President of the Business Club of The College of The Bahamas and the Presidential Adviser for National Society of Leadership and Success College of the Bahamas Chapter.

Angel’s passion for Youth Empowerment has allowed her to be apart of organizations such as Circle K International, The College of the Bahamas Union of Students, Miss Teen Bahamas International 2013 and work along with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture. In her spare time she enjoys fishing, snorkeling, reading and researching. Angel also loves to travel and learn about different cultures and people.

ELNICKA GIBSON

Elnicka Gibson was born in Nassau, Bahamas on July 18th 1990. She attended Cupids Pre-School and then onto Our Lady‘s Catholic Primary School. She graduated from St. John‘s College in 2009 and is currently enrolled in the College of the Bahamas, studying Media Journalism.

Her hobbies include; drama, public speaking, softball, poetry, traveling and pageantry. She was served as the 2013-2014 Miss Cultural Bahamas Queen, having won the highly competitive pageant over a very talented field.

JONATHAN THOMPSON

At 24, Jonathan Thompson secretly aspires to change the world.

He started his pre-school and primary education in South Florida as his parents, Carlos and Kim Thompson had relocated from the Bahamas. On returning to Nassau Jonathan entered St. Thomas Moore and then Progress Academy where he completed primary school and graduated from Aquinas College.

Growing up Jonathan says he “expressed interests in the dozen or so things boys find interesting - such as cartoons, or comics, and videogames, but it was something about inaccurately reproducing what I saw that peaked my imagination.

Thus I began to explore the use of the pen and pencil as a way to convey my appreciation of my favorite characters and as a way to express myself. My mother encouraged me along the way, using it as a tool for me to keep still. I was a hyper boy.”

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Jonathan’s Aquinas experience promoted his focus on Fine Art and he achieved an ‘A’ grade at BGCSE Art. “After graduation I enrolled in the Art program for COB, left the course and decided on journalism. I ended up helping to create a film called ‘Jasmines‘ that somehow won the first COB film festival as well as a foreign film festival. I had aided on writing the script. Throughout the course of my college life I had been involved with the group Next5, very briefly, have worked on a Radio Show called the, ‘Mix Down‘ - gaining radio personality experience, as well as participating in another film festival with the film ‘Father may I’.

I am still in the process of completing my Bachelors program, and I do hope to pursue other areas to make me more versatile. I still have an interest in the arts, and one day i do hope to strengthen my inner talent. My hobbies are currently video-gaming, writing, drawing, and reading.

Did y ou kno w?

Sir Sidney Poitier Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE born February 20, 1927, is a BahamianAmerican actor, film director, author and diplomat.

In 1964,Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor,for his role in Lilies of the Field.The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films, all of which dealt with issues involving race: To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, making him the top box-office star of that year.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.

Poitier has directed a number of popular movies, such as A Piece of the Action, Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again, (with friend Bill Cosby), Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder) and Ghost Dad (also with Cosby). In 2002, thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated “To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.”

Since 1997, he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.

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PM and Delegation Visit Sir Sidney Poitier in California

O

n his way home from a successful trade mission to China, Prime Minister Perry G. Christie and his delegation made a courtesy call on Sir Sidney Poitier at his home in Los Angeles, California. From left to right at the home of Sir Sidney Poitier in his library Sir Baltron Bethel, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchel, Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin, Sir Sidney, Bahamas Honourary Consul HE Cedric Scott and Prime Minister Perry G. Christie.

Prime Minister Perry Christie, accompanied

wanted to pay a courtesy call on the now

by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred

retired actor to pay tribute once again and

Mitchell, Minister of Tourism Obie

to reaffirm the iconic status and esteem with

Wilchcombe, and the Minister of Transport

which Sir Sidney is held in The Bahamas.

and Aviation Glenys Hanna Martin along with Sir Baltron Bethel, Senior Policy Advisor to

The Prime Minister recalled that Sir

the Office of The Prime Minister, visited Sir

Sidney was responsible for helping the first

Sidney Poitier, the Academy Award winning

majority rule government win office in 1967

Bahamian actor who now lives in Beverly

and so it was appropriate that on the eve of

Hills, at this home on Sunday 11th January.

the national observances, he was able to pay that courtesy call. The occasion was also an

The occasion was a rather moving and

opportunity to introduce the new Honorary

emotionally gratifying one, recalled the Prime

Consul for The Bahamas in Los Angeles,

Minister. The Prime Minister said that he

Cedric Scott, formally to Sir Sidney

Bert Williams Born: November 12th, 1876 Nassau, Bahamas Died: March 4th, 1922 New York, USA Pioneer of the stage and star of the silent screen W C Fields (“My Little Chickadee”) called Bert Williams, “the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest”.

Key Shows: *Abyssinia *Bandanna Land *In Dahomey *Ziegfeld Follies of 1910 *ZiegfieldFollies of 1911 *Ziegfeld Follies 1912 *Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 *Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 Related Artists: .Eubie Blake .Fanny Brice .Eddie Cantor

“A Black face, run down shoes and elbow out make – up give me a place to hide. The real Bert Williams is crouched deep down inside the coon who sings the songs and tells the stories” -Bert Williams

.Noble Sissle .Florenz Ziegfeld “Facing racism. Racial prejudice shaped Williams’s career.

Unlike many other blackface performers Williams did not play for laughs at the expense of other African Americans or black culture. Instead he based his humour on universal situations in which any member of his audience might find themselves. In the style of vaudeville, Williams performed in black face make up like his white counterparts. Blackface worked like a double mask for him. It emphasized the difference between Williams, his fellow vaudevillians and his white audience.” (Excerpted from B’Way”)

“I have never been able to discover that there was anything disgraceful in being a coloured man. But I have often found it inconvenient… in America” -Bert Williams

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Bahamian Delegation led by Glynis Hanna-Martin host

Bert Williams’s exhibition in New York Transport and Aviation Minister Glynis Hanna-Martin, representing the Minister of Tourism Obadiah Wilchcombe led a Bahamian delegation in October to the New York Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition on Bert Williams, the Bahamian superstar of Broadway and Vaudeville at the turn of the 20th century.

high school and opted out of attending Stanford University for a planned career as an engineer, choosing instead to follow his passion as a singer, comedian and dancer.

Bahamian Bert Williams was the First Mega Star of the American Broadway Theatre and #1 Comedian and Vaudeville Star Bert Williams was born in the Bahamas on the 12th November 1874 to Bahamian parents, Frederick Williams Junior and Julia (nee Moncur) Williams according to his birth certificate in the Registry of Records in Nassau at entry 24 in St. Matthew’s Parish.

At the age of 11 young Bert left Nassau with his parents for South Florida where the family remained for a long spell before moving to California where Bert completed

He quickly became the toast of the New York Broadway and his lifetime is praised as one of the most significant “coloured artist” to have broken the racial barrier in a time when race mattered most in America.

His Vaudeville character which he personified to great success was that of a “slow talking, deep thinking victim of life’s misfortunes”.

His famous line was, “even if it rained soup, I would be found with a fork in my hand and not a spoon in distant sight”.

One of his celebrated great performances was in the smash hit, “In Dahomey” in which he got to relish the history of Africa and the pride of his race.

Bahamian Bert Williams was the First Mega Star of the American Broadway Theatre and #1 Comedian and Vaudeville Star Bert Williams was born in the Bahamas on the 12th November 1874 to Bahamian parents, Frederick Williams Junior and Julia (nee Moncur) Williams according to his birth certificate in the Registry of Records in Nassau at entry 24 in St. Matthew’s Parish. At the age of 11 young Bert left Nassau with his parents for South Florida where the family remained for a long spell before moving to California where Bert completed high school and opted out of attending Stanford University for a planned career as an engineer, choosing instead to follow his passion as a singer, comedian and dancer.

He quickly became the toast of

the New York Broadway and his lifetime is praised as one of the most significant “coloured artist” to have broken the racial barrier in a time when race mattered most in America.

His famous line was, “even if it rained soup, I would be found with a fork in my hand and not a spoon in distant sight”.

One of his celebrated great performances was in the smash hit, “In Dahomey” in which he got to relish the history of Africa and the pride of his race.

He was the first Black performer allowed on stage with White Women and in interviews with the American Press he was always quick to point out the racism in which he endured and how he set about conquering it.

The American Vaudeville icon, W. C. Fields, hailed Bert Williams as

the greatest comedian he had ever met and Fields’ own biographers said that next to Bert Williams, Fields was the greatest comedian and vaudeville star of the time.

Bert Williams made several recordings for Columbia and his signature song, “NOBDOY” became an instant hit and a classic.

At the top of his career starring in New York in Ziegfeld Follies, Williams was earning $62,500 per year or $1.5 million in 1920.

He said his greatest performance was in the UK at a Command Performance for the King of England.

“It was the proudest moment of my life… to appear before my Sovereign for I am British born hailing from the Bahamas.”

Williams died at the age of 47 and even in death broke the colour barrier as he was laid out in the All White Masonite Lodge in Manhattan having become the first Negro admitted in the lodge’s century old history.

The press of the time said more than 5,000 people filed passed his casket and even more than that number was turned away.

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Hon. Jerome

FITZGERALD MINISTER OF EDUCATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

CULTURE IN THE CLASSROOM Interview with the

Hon. Jerome Fitzgerald

Minister of Education, Science and Technology COB/UNIVERSITY STATUS

Q1. Minister what is the time table now for University status for the College of the Bahamas JF: The College of The Bahamas will become the University of The Bahamas by year end 2015. As you are aware, becoming a university is a process with many checks and balances and this process and been underway for several years now and I am confident that all the necessary measures are being put in place to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. For all the individuals who have been involved in this transition over the years, I am certain that they will be delighted to see this finally happen.

Q2. Minister how can the country benefit more from studies, research and papers on issues of national, regional and international importance produced by the College?

JF: A major thrust of any university is research of which The College of The Bahamas is already actively engaged. The College’s Research Edge forum has already presented findings to the public based on research that has been conducted in October 2014, January 2015 and three more events are scheduled; two in March and one in April 2015 respectively. The benefits to our country from localized research will have a positive impact on policy development and anyone who knows me knows that I am data driven. I do not believe in making haphazard decisions and with research being conducted at The College of The Bahamas by Bahamians or those who understand the psychology, sociology and culture of our country, we can have more authentic findings that will help to propel us forward nationally. The College of The Bahamas as our primary tertiary institution should be able to serve as a consultant to the government so to speak and should be on the cutting edge on what is happening locally, regionally, and globally so as to inform and influence decisions that will undoubtedly affect us as a country.

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that we have not been able to access and as we move forward we should see positive impacts all around.

Q3.Given the diversity of the country how does the College interface with the Marine Academy in Freeport, BAMSI in Andros and Campbell Shipping in Nassau JF: Our county’s diversity and archipelagic nature poses some challenges but those challenges allow us to use our brilliant minds to create solutions. The College of The Bahamas’ northern campus in Freeport Grand Bahama serves as the liaison for the Marine Academy in Freeport and as such, interfacing is not as challenging as one might think; likewise for Campbell Shipping in New Providence with the College’s major campus in such close

proximity. The most unique situation has been with BAMSI and it has allowed us to see how important multi-campus sites are and it gives us an opportunity to create academic environments outside of the capital.

Essentially, the College is responsible for the curriculum and instruction to ensure that the academic aspect of these programs meet international accreditation standards.

Q4. What Budgetary concerns will we face on the road to University status and socially and economically how does this status impact and or change this country?

JF: The Government of The Bahamas

knows that there will be some changes to the College’s budget and with the expertise of the College’s Administration and the financial minds in the Ministry of Finance, we will do whatever is necessary to mitigate against financial deficits. I am certain some adjustments will be necessary and we may not get it right in the first year and we do expect a learning curve. However, The University of The Bahamas will create a paradigm shift both socially and economically and there are many opportunities that can arise to positively impact the country as a result of a strong university. The University of The Bahamas will allow up to tap into markets

Q5. Are you satisfied that the College is able to generate for its graduates the level and standard or job opportunities commensurate with the salary and perks offered to foreigners with qualifications similar but from other colleges? I know this requires a social policy and mindset from the local corporate community. Are we there?

JF: The College of The Bahamas’ graduates have always been very marketable. In many instances, they are sought after because of the rigor and comprehensiveness of the programs offered. To answer your question, yes, I am satisfied that COB will be able to generate for its graduates an education experience equal to or exceeding that of international institutions and to provide them with equal opportunities. Furthermore, we will put necessary measures in place by means of policy and consultation and partnership with the private sector to ensure that COB graduates are given the same benefits as foreign employees and not just for COB graduates but all Bahamians who qualify for posts that are oftentimes reserved for foreigners.

Culture Charter Schools

Q1. Minister are we out of the game so to speak in properly preparing the artists in our primary and secondary schools when it appears that immersion in their genres and focus have become afterschool pursuits and not a general concentration between 9 to 3 pm?

JF: I don’t think we are out of the game so to speak as it relates to preparing the artists within our schools. When you consider the program offerings in the arts within our public schools, we can boast of

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exposing our children to the gamut of art forms and without fear of contradiction, we are light years ahead of the private schools when it comes to art. Students in our public schools are exposed to the performing arts, visual arts, culinary arts, fine arts and literary arts. Contrary to what many believe, most of the concentration takes place in school and the afterschool programs are meant to compliment in school instruction and serve as an extra-curricular activity like sports does for the athletes.

I would dare to say that we are ahead of the curve; and can more be done?

Absolutely! And we will see to it that we constantly evolve and make allowances for our artistic students to thrive in our school system while being able to develop and showcase their talents.

Q2. Do you think there is an urgent need to associate career paths that lead to decent sustainable jobs with decent wages for students who are artistically gifted? Is the general psychological “fun and past time� as associated with Junkanoo and even Fine Art stifling the fuller development of such students and your Ministry’s direction in this regard?

JF: We have identified that career paths are crucial to the success of

our students and have taken serious measures to ensure that all students have a place to belong in the career paths identified. For a long time, greater emphasis was being placed on our academic students while overlooking those who were natural artists. We are now elevating all areas of study so that the student who wants to be a doctor and study the Sciences is not regarded as being superior to the student who wants to do Technical Drawing and become an Architect or the student who wants to be a Sculpture or the student who wants to be a Fashion Designer. We are changing the culture in our schools to allow for greater expression and acceptance of our gifted and brilliant art students in all genres.

Q3.On a very serious note, what does Minister want his students to gather or learn or appreciate when he allows a national icon like Ronnie Butler to perform at a Primary or Secondary School?

JF: When I think of the likes of Ronnie Butler and other premier Bahamian Artist, I want students to know that they are respected, admired and embraced by Bahamians for being true to themselves and cultivating their craft. Ideally, I would like to know that we can get back to days of old when Bahamian artists were revered and esteemed and they were able to make a living from their talents. I would like to see a modern-day King Eric, Joseph Spence, Edmund Moxey, Maureen Duvalier,

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Eddie Minnis; and we have them among us, we just have to have to create the environment for these people to make sustainable careers from their crafts. It is imperative that we do so, or we will lose a generation in the process and kill our culture if we do not act and act with intentionality.

which can so greatly impact the lives of young Bahamian artists?

JF: For the most part, our students are learning the true art forms of Junkanoo by authentic, experienced Junkanoo artists. The annual Junior Junkanoo that our students participate in each year provides the opportunity for them to be exposed to the various aspects of

Q4.With all of the conversation we have put into Arts in this country, there is still this pervasive indifference to allow the truest form of Bahamianization to take place. In other words how does a student learn the art of Junkanoo pasting if he or she is not taught by a Junkanoo artist, or better still where are the courses for your Art teachers to be trained in the craft. And then even in music, the general complaint is that Bahamians CANNOT read music but can play by ear. There is obviously a disconnect towards reaching for the highest international standards. How do you propose to fix these very simple issues

Junkanoo. Is it happening with all of our students? No, but those that are interested are getting the hands on experience and interaction with veteran junkanoo-ers that they need.

When I hear our students play a musical instrument, I am blown away by their natural abilities and I think if we can get more students to read music we can empower them in ways that could truly transform their lives. Rather than just play an instrument they can become composers, song writers and become the next generation of the Bahamian Music Industry. We must take aggressive measures to ensure that our

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students who are musically inclined are taught to read music otherwise we do them a grave disservice. We cannot be about business as usual, we have been doing the same things for far too long, and I am committed to ensuring that all of our students are given a fighting chance for a successful future.

Q5.There is no question that the future for young artists in this country who have passed through your schools depends largely on how the country is able to join the Tourism Market to a Creative Artist Cottage industry.

The Fine Artists discovered this quite some time ago and their industry appears quite robust. But you have your dancers, musicians, comedians, singers; souvenir craftsmen; what are your goals in this regard?

JF: Our public schools are bursting at the seams with artistic talent. Ideally, I would like a Bahamian Juilliard with concentrations in Dance, Drama and Music to cover the gamut of arts and in so doing revive our national art forms and be able to offer the country with national

shows on a yearly basis. Admittedly and regrettably, we have not given the art industry the attention that it needs and the sooner we realize that the vast majority of students are good with their hands and have a natural liking to the arts, the sooner we can reconstruct and reconfigure the system that should be aimed at

bringing out the best in our students.

As I think beneath the surface of this question, I envision commercials on US television inviting the world to come to The Bahamas to see worldclass performance at a state of the art Bahamian Performing Arts Center.

It’s time to step out of the box!

Q6. Minister the Public Schools are replete with fantastic stories about your teachers and how they have nurtured and worked with students who have gone on to great success. Take the artist Jamaal Rolle for example and his experiences at the R M Bailey School and students who have come under the sphere of the Justilien Brothers.

Yet with these successes is the country still to marginalized into thinking the education one expects to receive in

our Public Schools is only concentrated on the ‘3 R’s’ and anything else is a distraction or failure?

JF: What are the ‘3 R’s’ (laughing)? I think there has been an awakening in the art movement not just in our schools but in our country and this ‘renaissance’ so to speak has fueled greater interest and respect within our schools. I am going into my third year as Minster of Education, Science and Technology and every day, I am still amazed and blown away by the talent in our schools; not just among our students but more notably among our teachers. We have amazing teachers in our public schools and they are now elevating their subjects and bringing to the forefront the talents of their students and demanding recognition.

Q7 What are your comments on how your Ministry can better serve the new Peanuts Taylors, Maureen Duvalier’s, Ronnie Butlers, Max Taylors, Winston Gus Coopers who sit in your class rooms waiting to be mentored and encouraged JF: We are re-culturing the status quo in our schools and removing the stigma that has been attached to the non academic subject areas and the students who fall in this category. I believe that ALL of our students are gifted, we just have to tap into the

aptitude of our students and for too long we have skewed the denotation of aptitude by its connotative use of meaning someone who is academically astute. Truth be told, when we focus on our students’ natural gifts and talents – their aptitude, and marry that with passion, the result will create a national resurgence educationally, socially and economically.

We are making sure that we provide our artists with the opportunities to fully explore their natural talents.

We are committed to the arts in our schools and we know that we have artistic geniuses in our classrooms and we are encouraging them to see their talents as career options and not to diminish their gifts. This is where our after-school programs are able to help enhance what is done in the class-room to ensure that we give them the platform to engage in wholesome, meaningful activities geared towards their interests.

Education

Q1. Minister the generation of your parents took advantage of Majority Rule to train and qualify themselves to own and run the new country they were working towards in 1973. What are you telling young people today from another generation that they need to work towards on the Bridge to the Future?

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JF: This generation of Bahamians needs to work toward ensuring that they are globally competitive. We live in a completely different era from my parents and as was then, education will still be the determining factor between those who survive and those who thrive. Too many Bahamians have become comfortable with existing in survival mode but as globalization becomes a reality, we must prepare our children to be able to compete with the best in the world and not just in The Bahamas.

The world is becoming smaller and more localized and Bahamians need to position themselves to move this country forward into the global market. Bahamians need to qualify themselves to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that they claim are being given to the foreigners. I want every school-aged child to realize that having a good education will always put them one step ahead and one step closer to fulfilling their dreams.

Q2-2. The improvements seen in the grade scores at BGCSE and the direction to continue on an upward trek.

JF: I would like to note that the 2014 Mathematics BJC results were the best in the country in the past decade. This improvement was the results of data analysis and being able to identify the problems we were having and being able to aggressively address them. We have been determined to improve academic performances and our teachers have done a yeomen’s job in ensuring that our students receive the necessary intervention to aid in student success. We are taking it step by step and any improvements that we achieve, we celebrate to let our students know that we recognize their accomplishments.

Also, with the implementation of the Bahamas High School Diploma, we will see even greater academic success among our students.

Q2-3. The fierce international competition which this country now faces and the urgency of the hour for our brightest minds to come forward and build country and people.

JF: The Ministry of Education is embarking on a new initiative in the Fall. When school opens in September 2015, five schools will be designated as Advanced Placement (AP) Schools. This will provide an opportunity for our high flyers to challenge themselves academically and provide our students the opportunity to be on an even keel with their international counterparts. We want to put systems in place to ensure that we provide our students with the most possible options for success, so that our inability to adjust to educational global trends does not stifle our students. This will also give our public school students greater opportunities for scholarships locally and abroad and one of my chief aims is to ensure that the gap between the scholarship recipients among public and private school students is drastically reduced and that more of our public school students are able to go to college on scholarships. Again, this calls for greater equity in education.

Q2-4. Has the renaissance in education taken place?

JF: Absolutely! The renaissance in education has been taking place on the back end, and now we will see it manifested on the front end. When I took office as Minster of Education, Science and Technology, I made an oath that I would do everything in my power to transform our educa-

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tion system and give it the over-haul necessary to serve in the best interest of our students. I knew that having buy-in by the various stakeholders would be crucial to its success; as such, I got every level involved; from the teachers on the ground who are in the trenches every day, to the principals and other school administrators; to district superintendents to the senior management in the Ministry, and a strengthened working relationship between the

of The Bahamas, I have been able to form a bi-partisan committee made up of pe nbg rsons from all political parties to construct “A Shared Vision for Education 2030� which will be the blueprint for education in The Bahamas for the next fifteen years. I am determined to ensure that education is devoid of political interference so that whichever government is in power; the best interest of our children is upheld. I would also like to mention the five million dollars

Ministry and Department of Education. Some unorthodox approaches were taken and I think I was able to bring my business experiences to education without any pre-conceived notions to objectively assess the education system. We have understudied some of the best education systems and models in the world and teams of stakeholders have travelled to Finland, Canada, Singapore, and this year we will travel to Australia and New Zealand to observe their education system so that what we put in place will outlast all of us who are currently in Education. More notably, for the first time in the history

that was invested to upgrade computer labs in all junior and senior high schools throughout the country and the heightened emphasis placed on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in our schools and our partnership with Microsoft.

I can fill this entire magazine with details of the education renaissance that is happening in our system and I would like to thank our dedicated cadre of education professionals who go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that our students are given the best education and opportunities for their future success.

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Annual Awards Presentation

by Ministry of Education Science and Technology BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) Examinations In Government Schools

NASTACIA TURNQUEST - H. O. Nash High School, Nassau Nine (9) ‘A’s Parents/Guardians: Theresa & Noel Turnquest Career Goal: To become a Psychologist In Independent Schools WHITTLEY DELEVEAUX -Queens College Nassau Seven (7) ‘A’s Parents/Guardians: Whittington & Charmaine Deleveaux Career Goals: to become an Orthondist ETHAN GOODMAN -St. John’s College, Nassau Seven (7) ‘A’s Parents/Guardians: Eugene & Shirelle Goodman Career Goals: to become a Medical Doctor DE’ANTEZ KNOWLES -Temple Christian Schools, Nassau Seven (7) ‘A’s Parents/Guardians: Lavern Knowles Career Goals: wants to become an Engineer SARAH RAHIMI -St. John’s College, Nassau Seven (7) ‘A’s Parents/Guardians: Shyauddin Rahimi & Sabiha Tasneem Career Goals: To become a Cardiologist DANIELLE SMITH … St. John’s College, Nassau Seven (7) ‘A’s Parents/Guardians: Alicia Brennen-Braithwaite & Derek Smith Career Goal: to become a Scientist and play in the WNBA

BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY A MALE STUDENT IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS PEDRO MARCELLO -Major High School, Long Island Seven (7) ‘A’s 1 B Parents/Guardians: Pedro & Lyn Marcello Career Goals: Wants to become a Professional Baseball Player and CEO BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN THE BAHAMAS GENERAL CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION (BGSCE) in Independent Schools REBECCA HENDERSON -Queen’s College Nassau.

Ten (10) ‘As and 1 B Parents/Guardians : Mark Henderson & Nicola Henderson Career Goals : She wants to become a Medical Doctor BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN BGSCE IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS BEAUTISCA KING -C. R. Walker Senior High School, Nassau Seven (7) ‘As1 B Parents/Guardians: Agatha & Beaufort King Career Goals : To become Natural Health Physician or Chemical Engineer

Did y ou kno w?

The Honourable Livingstone N. Coakley ‘THE EDUCATION MINISTER’

Livingstone Nathaniel Coakley (“Sir Coaks”) (1925 - 2006) was born in the settlement of Simms Long Island on April 3rd 1925 to parents Aremina and Amos Coakley. A bright and intuitive student he pranced through the Cambridge level examinations and like many youthful scholars of his time found employment with the Board of Education as an Assistant Teacher. When World War 11 broke out young Livingstone signed up for the Army and shipped off to Jamaica for training where he rose to the rank of Sergeant, never saw battle but was Instructor to hundreds of soldiers.

At the end of the War he travelled abroad to further his education in the American city of Boston, where he earned his B.Sc. degree in Economics and Accounting. Such zeal and fervor for higher education was new to most Black Bahamians.

Upon graduating he turned down opportunities to stay and work in the USA and returned home where his mirth, resourcefulness and learning led him to join the infant Progressive Liberal Party. In 1968 he was elected to the House of Assembly for the constituency of George Town Exuma and Ragged Island. He had made many friends in Exuma where he has spent considerable time as a teacher and also as a Principal in his native Long Island.

“His was a number of firsts in Education. It was during Mr. Coakley’s tenure as Minister of Education that the College of the Bahamas (COB) was actually founded. The Institution had a rocky beginning as it sought to fuse several disparate institutions and programmes into a cohesive whole. Working closely with the first Chairman of the College’s Board the Rt. Reverend Michael Hartley Eldon and his then Permanent Secretary Mr. Baltron Bethel and members of the COB Council and the first Principal of the College Dr. John Knowles the institution found its niche. Sank deep roots and today is the flourishing bountiful institution now headed for full University status.

“Many of the early decisions Mr. Coakley had to take did not find immediate acceptance by the education purists including some of the Members of the Cabinet in which Mr. Coakley served but he persevered and would often seem oblivious to criticism. This was because he was a man on a mission.

“Today hundreds perhaps thousands of COB students spread around The Bahamas and the world should remember and pay tribute to his wisdom, leadership and tenacity of this formidable figure. Mr. Coakley took hold of the recommendations made in the White Paper on Education – “FOCUS ON THE FUTURE” and moved resolutely to develop and expand secondary education throughout the country.

Prime Minister Lynden Pindling appointed Mr. Coakley to several Cabinet portfolios including Education, Labour, Works, Health and Youth and Community Affairs.

“It was during his tenure that Secondary Schools were established in Andros, Abaco, Exuma, Eleuthera and Cat Island and the era saw expansions in New Providence,” Prime Minister Christie said.

Mr. Coakley is also credited with starting in-service awards and training and upgrades for teachers and promoted further university and college training abroad for educators.

However it was in his portfolio as Education Minister Mr. Coakley is revered. He served in that portfolio longer than any other Cabinet Minister to date – from 1972 to 1979. During this time the modern Education system in the country was developed.

Paying tribute to him at his State Funeral on June 26th 2006, then Prime Minister Perry G. Christie said this of Mr. Coakley :-

Mr. Coakley believed in a well-rounded student and recruited Dance and Music Instructors for the nation’s public schools. Under this portfolio the National Arts Festival thrived and the National Dance School was created. He was largely responsible for recruiting Shirley Hall Bass and Madame Lavinia Williams to The Bahamas, premiere world class Dance instructors.

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LPGA

Holds Junior Clinic At Ocean Club

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ver 50 students from several schools in New Providence got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn and play golf with some of the best female golfers in the world.

The opportunity came on Tuesday at the LPGA Junior Clinic as the athletes prepare for the third Pure Silk LPGA Bahamas Classic held at the Ocean Club Golf Course from February 5 – 8.

Tournament Director Matt Truax said the Junior Clinic is an important part of the event.

“One thing that has always been

important to us is doing the little things we can do here and there for the community,” he said.

“We want to get them exposed to the game and come out to enjoy some of the players. If nothing else we want them to have a good time to a place that they wouldn’t normally get to go to.”

more, I will become better at it,” he said.

Jessy Delancey from C.V. Bethel has been playing golf for the last 10 years. She said learning from the pros is an invaluable experience.

L’Narjaye Minnis of Galilee School said he has played golf before, but was excited about the experience.

“I really enjoyed the experience.

The questions that I asked helped with my golf swings. My short term goal is to join the national team this year and this has helped,” she said.

“It’s a lot of fun because I am learning more than I did before.

I would want to get more experience because it is becoming very clear to me that if I play

The Bahamas will be in the spotlight from the beginning of the event on the Golf Channel, which will air 10 hours of coverage each day.

Royal Bahamas Police Force Band Wows HEAT Audience The bands performance was a part of a Bahamas Domination night at The HEAT‘s vs Lakers game. The Domination included audience in attendance for the battle between the NBA rivals, being exposed to The Bahamas through a number of means. Vignettes of HEAT 2013 Traning Camp in The Bahamas on jumbo tron video clips; Bahamas messaging, an ad in HEAT magazine, and announcements encouraging people to visit Bahamas booths that were located on two levels of the arena.

The exposure began with the Royal Bahamas Police Force performance pre-game just outside of the arena where they were joined by costumed Junkanoo dancers. The performance included signature RBPF formations as well as lively upbeat music of popular Bahamian cultural songs.

T

he world famous Royal Bahamas Police Force marching band, recently wowed a crowd of thousands as they not only executed the military precision steps they are known for, but performed a lively modern line dance, during their halftime performance at a Miani HEAT game in the American Airlines Arena.

The Junkanoo dancers performance was HEAT organizations second exposure to this cultural activity, having been exposed to a Junkanoo reception when the team visited The Bahamas in October of 2013 for their annual Training Camp.

The Bahamas Day Domination at the HEAT game was a part of the The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism’s Sports Department contractual agreement with the HEAT organization aimed at exposing The Bahamas product to the thousands of HEAT fans.

The Islands Of The Bahamas have recently taken an aggressive stand towards targeting major sporting organizations to assist in the marketing of the destination, to increase the number of visitors especially sporting groups to the country.

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Cecil Cooke

Cecil Cooke (May 31, 1923 – May 1, 1983) was a sailor and Olympic champion from the Bahamas. He competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he won a gold medal in the star class, together with Durward Knowles.

Cecil Cooke will long be remembered as the quiet and dedicatedforce in Bahamian Yacht Racing history. To many of us with whom hecame into contact, he will remain the knowledgeable personalityforever comfortable with nature’s elements, particularly the sea.His great strength was his seamanship, which definitely made thedifference between the Bronze Medal won by the team of Sloan Far-rington and Durward Knowles in the Melbourne Olympics of 1956 and the Gold Medal won by himself and Durward Knowles in the To-kyo Olympics of 1964.A Champion swimmer himself, Cecil was perhaps more widelyknown in local circles for his assistance with the introduction of orga-nized swimming in New Providence schools. He was a source of in-spiration during this country’s first ever interschool swimming cham-pionships, held at the former Fort Montague Hotel’s swimming poolin 1966.He remained a primary champion of The Bahamas Swimming Feder-ation, assisting in the development of this sport throughout The Ba-hamas. He was a permanent fixture at all swim meets, either as anofficial or meet organizer.Aside from his Gold Medal performance at the 1964 OlympicsGames, Cecil Cooke’s greatest credential was the promise e held forand encouraged in the young people of The Bahamas

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Sir Durward Knowles Sir Durward Randolph Knowles (born 2 November 1917) is a sailor and olympic champion from the Bahamas.

He competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he won a gold medal in the Star class, together with Cecil Cooke. He received a bronze medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.[3] He had previously competed for the United Kingdom in the 1948 Olympics finishing in 4th place in the Star class together with Sloane Elmo Farrington.

Durward “Seawolf” Knowles was introduced to the sport of sailing byhis father who was himself an ardent sailing enthusiast. Durward hadalways favoured the star class yachts and it is in this category that hehad astounding success at the Olympic Games, participating in them formore than forty years, earning two medals for The Bahamas in theprocess.Durward’s first major international competition was in 1946, whenhe finished third in the World Championships in Havana, Cuba. Thefollowing year, “Seawolf” along with his crew, Sloan Farrington,teamed to win the World Championship in Los Angeles, California.

The Bahamas had no Olympic Charter of its own in 1948, so toparticipate in the Olympics that year, Farrington and Knowles had totravel to London where they handily won the British elimination series,and qualified to represented England at the Olympic Games in 1948. Inthose Games the Bahamian pair finished fourth, having suffered abroken mast in one race and a disqualification in another, therebyaccumulation points in just four of the six-race series

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Thomas A. Robinson

Thomas Augustus “Tom� Robinson (March 16, 1938 – November 25, 2012) was a track and field athlete from the Bahamas, who competed in the sprint events. He was born in Nassau, New Providence. Thomas Robinson Stadium (15,000 seats) in the Bahamian capital Nassau is named for him since its construction in 1981.

Robinson represented his native country in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1956. At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, he won gold in the 200 yards dash and silver in the 100 yards dash. He again won silver in the 100 yards in the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. He claimed a gold medal at the 1962 Central American and Caribbean Games. Robinson was a contributor on the University of Michigan track team from 1958 to 1961, winning multiple team and individual Big 10 championships during his tenure.

He was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1985. He was a finalist in the 100 meters at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games but finished 8th due to injuries.

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Frank Rutherford

Frank Garfield Rutherford, Jr. MBE (born November 23, 1964) is a retired triple jumper from the Bahamas. He competed in three Olympic Games, and won a bronze medal in 1992, becoming the first Bahamian Track and Field Olympic medalist. He now runs a program which prepares young Bahamian students to play college basketball and American football in the United States. He was a four-time participant at the World Championships in Athletics.

Rutherford won the Bahamas its first World Championship medal with a bronze in the 1987 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He was the US Indoor Track and Field champion in the triple jump in 1991 and still currently holds the triple jump record for the University of Houston. He followed that with winning a silver medal at the 1992 World Cup in Havana, Cuba. Rutherford is considered the Olympic pioneer in the Bahamas because he was the first to win medals at the Olympic and World Championship levels. He is considered the Father of Track and Field in the Bahamas.

He started the Frank Rutherford Foundation, a Houston, Texas-based programme to assist young Bahamian sportspeople in gaining academic qualifications through college. much like Rutherford. The Foundation’s goal is to help the students attain a college scholarship. More than 60 Bahamian young people have been helped by Rutherford and his foundation and all of them have graduated from college.

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Pauline Davis- Thompson

Pauline Davis-Thompson (born July 9, 1966) is a former Bahamian sprinter. She competed at five Olympics, a rarity for a track and field athlete. She won her first medal at her fourth Olympics and her first gold medals at her fifth Olympics (Sydney 2000) at age 34 in the 4x100m Relay. In 1984, she was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 1984 CARIFTA Games.

She ran at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics the following year and although she narrowly missed out on a medal in the 400m, she helped the Bahamian team to a silver medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay. She suffered a dip in form in 1997 – she made both the 400m and 100m relay finals but failed to win a medal in either event. She received her first World Championships gold medal two years later, in 1999, aiding the Bahamian relay team to victory.

She won a gold medal in both the 200 metres and the 4×100m relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She originally finished in second place in the women’s 200 m behind Marion Jones, but in October 2007 Jones admitted taking performance enhancing drugs and was stripped of the title. On December 9, 2009, DavisThompson was finally awarded the gold medal.

After her track career, she went into athletics administration, being elected to the IAAF council in 2007

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Tonique Williams Darling Tonique Williams-Darling (born January 17, 1976 in Nassau, Bahamas) is a Bahamian sprint athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Williams-Darling had a breakout year in 2004. She started with a bronze medal at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, running a personal best behind Russia’s Natalya Nazarova and Olesya Krasnomovets. Then in July, at the Rome meeting of the IAAF Golden League, Tonique broke Mexican world champion Ana Guevara’s 23 race winning streak in the 400 meter race.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece Williams-Darling beat Guevara again. Winning the race, she became the Bahamas’ first individual Olympic gold medalist.

After the Olympics she secured the win in the overall Golden League-jackpot, cashing in US $500,000 after splitting the US $1M pot with Christian Olsson. She also won the gold medal in the 400 meters at 2005 World Championships in Athletics, in a head-to-head race with American 400-meter specialist Sanya Richards.

In November 2012, she was elected as Public Relations Director of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) for the period 20122015

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The Golden Girls

The tiny islands of the Bahamas are proud to be home to one of the fastest female team athletes in the world!

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the five „Golden Girls“ of the Bahamas proudly accepted four gold medals and one silver medal— an amazing record for a country this small. Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, Sevatheda Fynes, Pauline Davis-Thompson, and Eldece Clark-Lewis were dubbed the Golden Girls in 1999 after their first place finish at the prestigious World Championships in Seville, Spain.

Their incredible achievements at the Olympics a year later showed the world why they had earned that name.

Ferguson, Sturrup, Fynes, and Davis-Thompson all won gold medals in the 4 x 100 meter relay.

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The Golden Knights On Friday, August 10th , 2012 The Bahamas team of Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu, and Ramon Miller shocked the world when they defeated the United States in the Men’s 4x400m relay. Only two other countries in history had won this event. In 1952 in Helsinki Jamaica won with Arthur Wint, George Rhoden, Les Laing, and Herb Mckenley.

At the 2008 Beijing Games The Bahamas won the silver medal with Andretti Bain, Michael Mathieu, Andrae Williams, and Chris Brown in 2:58.03. Ramon Miller ran in the first round. They also won the Silver medal at the Osaka World Championships in 2007 and the Osaka World Championships in 2005. In Helsinki the team of Nathaniel McKinney, Avard Moncur, Andrae Williams, and Chris Brown, in a national record of 2:57.32.

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sbourne Lockhart was born in 1954 and grew up on the small island of Ragged Island, a bustling seaport community of 300 persons during this time. Lockharts’s father was a sea captain who supported his wife, Naome and 11 children by hauling fruits and vegetables from Haiti and nearby Cuba to the Bahamas.

As a young boy, Osbourne and his siblings would harvest salt fronm the salt ponds and gather wood gathered from the forest to put on the fire to cook with as there was no electricity at the time.

In the 1960’s, Fidel Castro staged a revolution taking over their trade partner, Cuba. In doing so, the residents of the island could no longer do trade with the island and without cold storage, Haiti was too far a journey without a stop and the fruits and vegetables would not survive the journey and become spoiled before reaching a market.

In 1962 when Osbourne was seven, the family relocated to Nassau where he eventually got a job as Huntington Hartford’s forst sea captain, taking tourists to Paradise Island and back.

At first, Osbourne loved soccer. He became the youngest athlete to ever join the Bahamas’ national soccer team at age 15 when he played for the Bahamas in the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia. He could only play basketball sparingly as he was required to be home and inside before sunset in accordance with his family’s Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs.

This all changed however when after the 11th grade, Lockhart moved to Miami at the suggestion of his biology teacher, Beverly Taylor who informed him of the many different opportunities being offered there. He entered 10th grade at Jackson by the Dade County public school system. There he wanted to play soccer but the schoold didn’t have a soccer team

so he was immediately declared eligible to play basketball even though normally he would have been required to sit out a year. For the next three years, Lockhart helped the school team “General” to an 81-7 record and a state championship. Later he moved to the University of Minnesota averaging 12 points a game as a four year starter and selected team captain in his senior year.

So, Lockhart caught the eyes of the NBA and was drafted by the Philidelphia 76ers, but was later cut during their rookie camp.

Shortly thereafter, he would renowned Harlem

Globetrotters invited Lockhart to try-out at camp in California. There he again impressed and was singed on the spot making Lockhart the first non-US citizen ever to be signed by this internationally celebrated team.

As a Globetrotter, Osbourne played well over 300 games entertaining audiences and fans around the world on four continents.

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2014 Sports Hall of Famers The history of sports in The Bahamas is a very rich one, filled with many firsts and many outstanding achievements of national and international significance. The accomplishments of our sporting heroes of yesteryear have laid the foundation for many of our aspiring athletes who are making an impact in the international arena.

It is a momentous occasion, not only for the inductees and their families, but also for our country.

The induction of these fifteen pioneers of sport demonstrates that we as a nation have taken note of, and are recognizing them for their contribution to sports and the further development of our nation.

The National Sports Hall of Fame was established as a means to demonstrate, show appreciation and to award suitably qualified nation builders for their contribution. Therefore, as we celebrate Sports Heritage Week, the National Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2014 should be applauded and commended as those before them were, for their unselfish sacrifices toward the development of sports in our nation.

On behalf of the Government of The Bahamas, I take this opportunity to congratulate the Honorees of this induction Class of 2014.

The Honorable Daniel Johnson MP.,

Minister of Youth, Sports & Culture

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Donnie Martinborough

Born May 23, 1959 in Nassau, Bahamas, Donald ‘Donnie’ Martinborough attended Queen’s College. The son of a gas station operator, young Donnie as a teen worked in the station and it was his attention to cleaning the window of a car belonging to real estate agent Robin Brownrigg, that caught his attention. Brownrigg went on to ask Donnie’s father if he could employ his son when he graduated from high school. Today, Donnie is a Director of Bahamas Realty, and responsible for thousands of square feet of commercial space throughout New Providence. Although he never attended college, learning on the job instead, it was his attention to detail and service that helped him achieve what he has professionally.

SAILING RECORD • 16-time National Bahamas Champion • 3 - time World Champion • 12-time winner of Bermuda Race Week • 1-time winner of the International Sunfish Masters Championship.

Sunfish World Champion: 1983 - San Andres - Colombia 1985 - Riccionne - Italy 1988 - Nassau - Bahamas Bermuda International Race Week Champion: 1981 - 1993 (12 time winner) Bahamas National Sailing Championships: Nassau Bahamas 1995 - 2010 (15 time winner) 2013 - Champion International Sunfish Masters Championships: 2009 - Davis Island Tampa Fla (winner)

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Antoan Edward Richardson (born October 8, 1983) is a Bahamian professional baseball outfielder in the Texas Rangers organization. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees. On November 13, 2013, he signed a minor league deal with the New York Yankees. On September 25, Richardson pinch-ran for Jose Pirela in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Baltimore Orioles. He scored the winning run on a walk-off single by Derek Jeter in the final Yankee Stadium at-bat of Jeter's career

Kenneth Andre Ian Rodgers (December 2, 1934 – December 13, 2004) was a Major League Baseball shortstop who played for the New York and San Francisco Giants (1957–60), Chicago Cubs (1961–64) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1965–67). He also played one season in Japan for the Taiyo Whales (1969). He batted and threw right-handed. A native of Nassau, Bahamas, Rodgers was the first Bahamian to play in the major leagues. He was a talented cricket player who paid his own way for a tryout with the Giants in 1954. Rodgers failed to make the team that year.

He had to learn the rules of baseball, not to jump away from curveballs, and consequently, he adjusted and made his debut in 1957.

>>>>BASEBALL IS BACK >>>>> BASEBALL IS BACK >>>>> BASEBALL IS BACK >>>>> BASEBALL IS BACK >>> >

Edison Rosanda Armbrister (born July 4, 1948 in Nassau, Bahamas) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who had a five-year career from 1973 through 1977 with the Cincinnati Reds. Armbrister is probably best remembered for his involvement in a controversial play in the 1975 World Series. In the tenth inning of Game 3, Armbrister collided with Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk while attempting to sacrifice bunt, leading to a wild throw by Fisk and his subsequent failure to get Gerónimo out; home plate umpire Larry Barnett did not make the expected interference call on Armbrister, a decision which was harshly criticized after the Reds won the game 6–5.

Percival Edmund Wentworth Ford (November 25, 1946 – July 8, 1980) was a Bahamian professional baseball player. Born in Nassau, he was a right-handed pitcher who stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 165 pounds (75 kg) (11 stone 11). Ford's professional career lasted for ten complete seasons (1966–1975), all spent in the Atlanta Braves' organization. He appeared in four Major League Baseball games for the 1973 Braves.

>>>>>BASEBALL IS BACK >>>>> BASEBALL IS BACK >>>>> BASEBALL IS BACK >>>>> BASEBALL IS BACK >>>

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Elisha Obed

Obed entered the amateur ranks at age 12. Fighting almost weekly, he ran up an undefeated record of 46-0 (16 knockouts). At 14, he decided to turn professional.

For almost 6 years, he lingered on small promotions on the island of the Bahamas. He was billed as undefeated, but he had lost a fight by knockout to veteran Kid Carew. His loss to Kid Carew was unlisted for almost 8 years, as he was reported incorrectly as undefeated in the press until his loss to Eckhard Dagge. In 1975 he captured the WBC Light Middleweight Title by defeating Miguel de Oliveira. He defended the title twice before losing the belt to Germany’s Eckhard Dagge in 1976 when he quit, claiming he had blurred vision. Obed stated that he had been thumbed in the eye by Dagge. In actuality, he was later found to have a detached retina and is legally blind in that eye.

Obed decided to enter the middleweight ranks. By 27, he was back to where he started from, fighting on local fight cards in Nassau. He retired in 1988..

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Gary Bain

Gary Bain was legendary on the Bahamian horse racing scene in the 1970s. In 2015 he has rode numerous winners on the South Florida racing. He began his career as a 12 year old boy at the former Hobby Horse Race Track at Cable Beach and for almost five consecutive years he earned the title Jockey of the Year, having amassed the majority of wins on his mounts over the four month local horse racing season.

In 1979 Bain moved to South Florida after the controversial closure of the local horse track. A number of horsemen at the time including Trainers George Burrows and Larry Demeritte also relocated to the US. Burrows has gained a solid reputation as a breeder in Ocala, Florida where champion thoroughbred horses are bred. Demeritte is a champion trainer in Louisville Kentucky.

Gary Bain, at 62 is still going to the Winners Circle at Gulfstream Park and Calder Horse tracks in Florida. He has won the WHAS Stakes on Kentucky Derby Day in 1996 aboard Hoop Coyote Hoop and in 1983 in the Reality Division of the Florida Stallion Stakes on My G.P. “I’m 62 going on 19” says Bain. “I do a lot of galloping in the morning to stay in shape.”

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BAHAMIAN BOXING CHAMPION TUREANO BRINGS HIS TITLES HOME The people’s favorite Middle-weight Tureano Johnson wins WBC Silver Championship in “Throne Boxing” at Madison Square Garden Theater

N

assau, Bahamas, January 10, 2015…

In the presence of a jam packed Madison Square Garden Theatre with The Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson, Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture leading Bahamian supporters, ‘The People’s Champion’ Bahamas’ boxing middleweight contender Tureano Johnson out fought contender Alex Theran to win the World Boxing Champions (WBC) Silver Championship and the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) International middleweight belts.

Greg Rolle, Director of Sports for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism joined the Minister, Tureano’s family and a large contingent of Bahamians in New York as Johnson took to the ring on the debut event from Roc Nation Sport’s “Throne Boxing” event that was televised on Fox Sports 1. Johnson landed and took

power shots until referee Gary Rosato waved the fight off and declared Johnson the winner.

"Bahamians are all thrilled that our own Tureano Johnson’s victory” said Minister Johnson. "Tureano’s performance was nothing short of extraordinary as was his graciousness in victory” he continued. “Our islands continue to make great strides in Sports Tourism so Tureano’s victory is a true celebration. We know the fight following this match will be even bigger and we are working closely with Tureano and his management to bring a fight to the Bahamas, with Tureano as the headliner.”

The celebrity packed audience including entertainment mogul Jay-Z, pop star Rihanna, movie actor Jake Gyllenhaal, talk show host, Rosie Perez, producer Spike Lee among others witnessed Johnson’s grand arrival in the ring as he proudly waved

the Bahamian flag. Johnson was ahead on all scorecards, and simply needed to make it to the final bell to get the victory. In the immediate aftermath, he gave several emotional interviews with various media outlets but the real celebration began when he joined his family, Minister Johnson and his loyal fans after the media disbursed.

Theran, including a tougher weight training regiment, as well as tougher roadwork – both added mileage overall, and a faster pace on his usual four mile runs. Moreover, he believes a bit of technical boxing might be necessary against a tall southpaw, something he has in his back pocket thanks to nine years spent training in Cuba.

Johnson claims he’s made major adjustments in his training regimen as he prepares for

“You’re training among some of the most phenomenal, experienced and intelligent

fighters in the world in Cuba. I’m not much of a technical fighter, like the Cubans are, but I was able to learn some of the boxing skills which are a contribution to my 17 wins as a professional fighter,” said Johnson.

His most important skill might prove to be his charm, though.

On January 9, Johnson tweeted: “Who should be the co-feature on @RocNation card? I think the show needs some Bahamian flavor.” It appears that boxing fans,

and in particular the Bahamians got their wish.

The Islands Of The Bahamas continues to lead the Caribbean in Sports Tourism and has hosted several recent sporting events, such as the 2013 NBA Championship Heat’s Training Camp, the 2013 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, the 2014 Popeyes Bahamas Bowl, the 2014 and 2015 International Association of Athletics Federation’s World Relays.

JOANNA EVANS BIOGRAPHY Joanna was born on July 25th, 1997 at the Sunrise Medical Centre in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Her early education took place at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic School, before joining the Bishop Michael Eldon School Warrior Family in Grade Seven.

Joanna hit the water at an early age and her first Swim Club was the Freeport Aquatics Club.

This talented student athlete has been consistently on the Chairman’s Honor Roll for her entire high school career. Joanna has a current average of 91%. Academically, Joanna is a brilliant student. She has obtained excellent results in all of her national examinations as well as the SAT. Her results are as follows: BJC Examination results (2011 & 2012): 7As

(English Language, Mathematics, Technical Drawing, Health Science, General Science, Social Studies, Religion) Ministry of Education Award for Best Performance in a BJC examination for Technical Drawing BGCSE results( Grades 10 &11) : 9As (Mathematics, English Language, Religious Studies, Combined Science, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Spanish) Ministry of Education Award for Outstanding Results in the BGCSE (2014) PSAT score (Grade 10): 1710 SAT score: 1870 SAT II Math score: 570 She is a natural leader and was named BMES’s Head Girl for 2014-2015.

While swimming is her premier sport, Joanna has been seen representing her

school on the track, running an impressive 1500 or 3000 meter race.

Joanna’s swimming accolades include the following: Bahamas National Team Member: • Commonwealth Games (Glasgow, July 2014) – 12th place 800 free, 16th place 400 free • Youth Olympic Games (Nanjing, August 2014)– • Bronze Medalist 800 free, 5th place 400 free • CAC Games Mexico- Silver Medalist800m Freestyle and 400m Freestyle Qualifying times for: • World Short Course Championships (Qatar 2014) • World Championships (Russia 2015)

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Tim Munnings

Timothy Alexander “Tim� Munnings (born 22 June 1966 in Nassau) is a Bahamian athlete who mainly competes in the 400 metres.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics he ran in the heats for the Bahamian team who eventually won the bronze medal.

His personal best time is 45.81 seconds, achieved in June 2001 in Nassau. Set the day after his 35th birthday, at the time, it stood as the Masters M35 World record for over three years. Later that year, he anchored the World Champion relay team in National Record time, sprinting past Jamaica with a speedy final 100m. While Bahamas lost to the United States in both the 2000 Olympics and 2001 World Championships, the USA was disqualified years later due to the PED doping violation by Antonio Pettigrew. After numerous appeals, the Bahamian team medals were upgraded. During the 2013 medal ceremony, Munnings was credited by teammate Carl Oliver with starting the Olympic renaissance that developed into Bahamian medal success through the decade.

Tim is now the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Youth, Sports & Culture.

DEFINING THE NATION'S RICH HERITAGE

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“

I start from the belief that Caribbeanness is a system full of noise and opacity, a nonlinear system, an unpredictable system, in short a chaotic system beyond the total reach of any specific kind of knowledge or interpretation of the world.

- Antonio Benitez-Rojo

D

r. Daniel Johnson, Minister for Culture officially opened the “The Antillean-An Ecology” an exhibition in a series produced by the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas on Friday December 12th calling for earnest national maturity and perspective on race and ethnicity in our country.

The Exhibition focuses on Blackness.

A discussion on “Whiteness Privilege and Invisibility” was held on Tuesday December 16th at the NAGB. College of the Bahamas Antroplogist, Professor Nicollete Bethel, a former Director of Culture, entrepreneur and adjunct professor Joey Gaskins and Sonia Farmer, artist led the discussion with Mrs. Ann Coulson, Director of the NAGB as moderator.

On its website this is how the NAGB describes the collaboration, effort and enthusiasm which went into creating the exhibition:“For the past 11 years, the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (NAGB) has committed itself to fostering of local artists who continue to push the frontiers and foundations of culture across the islands. The institution assumes a critical role in the development of visual arts and a strong economy of thought and language that devotes itself to exchanges, the shoring up of national identity, scholarship and education. Every two years, the NAGB presents a group exhibition to showcase works being currently produced in The Bahamas. The focus is largely on contemporary artists of Bahamian descent or those living and

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working in The Bahamas today. Since the fifth edition in 2009, the exhibition has been given a theme so as to create a more focused overall show and artists are invited to respond to a specific call with the final works being selected by that edition’s specific curator(s).

“The seventh edition -- the NE7 -- will coincide with an important international conference organized by Duke University in collaboration with The College of The Bahamas, whose theme will be reflected in the call for works and will challenge Bahamian visual/ creative practitioners both resident and afield to respond broadly to the dynamics of race and class.

The NE7 will be curated by lecturer/ artist Michael Edwards and Director of ARC Magazine Holly Bynoe; it will open on December 11th, 2014 and run through May 210h, 2015 at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas “The NE7 will have a symbiotic

relationship with "Blackness: A Comparative, Cross-National Investigation of Meaning and Significance," Complexities of the modern notions of Blackness, Whiteness, and the in between, will be analysed and interrogated to consider how these markers have been manifested socially,

politically, culturally and economically. We invite artists to investigate, within a broad disciplinary field and through various mediums, the impact and implications of the dynamic relationships that have been forged by the passage of time, and issues arising out of race, ethnicity and its contemporary discourse.

“To do this, we look towards citizenship, migration, the landscape, collective traumas, slavery, Indentureship, trade, racial delineations, the hybrid and rhizome; we look at things that have shaped our identities. We consider the imagination, memory, language and mythologies and how they offer a critical space to intersect with stereotypes that are deeply ingrained in our social fabric about personal and public personas.

"The Antillean/Antillanité," a context developed by the Martinican writer Édouard Glissant, embraces the multiracial and transracial culture of the Caribbean as syncretic.

The Antillean is mammal; he or she is submarine, lying outside of the borders of a normative existence, embodying multiplicities, defying singularities and tangling with liminality – a mind and body that simultaneously occupies the center and periphery of never ending possibilities.

“Are we then ready to confront the contentious relationship that we have with race and ethnicity?

What would that unearthing look like and is there room for counter narratives? How will these definitions of Blackness, Whiteness and the dynamic range in between, fit into the social diversity of the nation? What kind of

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shift will this bring about in our public and private relationships? What types of freedom, permission and possibilities would this engender?

“The NE7 calls on visual and literary artists to engage with these complex ideas of self, and how they have been affected by social and racial codes, complex histories and global convergences that are seeking to determine representation and meaning.”

The Curators of the Exhibition: Michael Edwards received a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000, and a Master of Science in Art and Technology from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden in 2006. Edwards has been a visiting critic at Valand School of Fine Arts, The University of Gothenburg, studio assistant at Sam Gilliam Studio, Washington, D.C., and Senior Education Officer at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

Presently, he is a lecturer in the School of Communications and Creative Arts at The College of The Bahamas.

Holly Bynoe is a visual artist, curator and writer from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and is currently living and working across the Caribbean.

She is the co-founder and director of ARC Magazine, the premiere visual art and culture publication focusing on contemporary visual art created throughout the Caribbean and its diaspora. Recently, she has overseen production of Caribbean Linked a roving emerging artists residency program, was appointed curator for the International Biennale of Contemporary Art: Martinique, and curated a segment of Transforming Spaces 2014 in partnership with Liquid Courage Gallery and the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.

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“Who am I and what am I lending to the national discourse …

What is Bahamian”- The Curators provide a synopsis of the Seventh National Exhibition – Antilllean: An Ecology

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“What is Bahamian?” and more discreetly and discerning, “Who Am I, and what am I lending to the national discourse?

“We tend to circumnavigate those issues that make us uncomfortable or force us to be honest in our daily lives. Race and Class concerns exist on the surface of our everyday lives.

Race and Class concerns exist on the surface of our everyday living and within the recesses of our very existence- historically and presently.

During our curatorial collaboration, we gleaned a succinct understanding of the social constraints held within this space, and believe that is important to provide accessible platforms for varied perspectives and realities to come to the fore.

“Without such opportunities, we are threatening to close ourselves off from each other, by and large fracturing the very constituent of why we can exist. We sat through various meetings speaking about forgotten stories reclaiming lost narratives and we have been privy to the varied perspectives on Bahamian political ideals and the ways in which the borders- visible and invisible- have shifted based

on religious and political agendas of the pundits. We heard firsthand stories of problems relating to Citizenship, Haitian immigration, gender inequality and the rampant corruption that has been brought to shores due to the development and the birth of modern day tourism.

“On the flip side we have seen a creative community coalesce and engage in conversations that are proving to be therapeutic, timely and without a doubt critical to the progression and development of the national artistic discourse. We have delighted in personal stories of families, birthrights, legacies and ruins. We have waded through the murky waters and recesses of discrimination to see the spirit of humanity exerted with empathy and a deep love and appreciation for self and other. We have seen the struggle for women artists coming to terms with their place within the convoluted network of gendered societal webs. We have seen courage, vulnerability and determination peak within a consortium of

emerging artists who are moving beyond stereotypes, pushing the envelope with respect to subjectivity and shifting the present set in place for them.

“With biting social and personal critique, the selected artists are steadily emancipating their futures.

They are attempting to answer the question “What is Bahamian?” and more discreetly and discerning, “Who Am I, and what am I lending to the national discourse? Am I loud, silent, aggressive, passive, observant, shy, indiscreet, clever, bitter, enamoured, indifferent, and ambivalent?” How will these representations add to the social diversity of a developing nation?

What kind of shifts will this

bring about in public and private relationships?

“The struggle to find a way to speak about national identity can be, and often is, problematic, as the articulations can devolve into discourse that is insular, incestuous and reductive. Thankfully the artists can bring a heightened sensibility and critically nuanced language to their creative projects. Facing present realities, they sustain their reflective engagements in ways that contribute to renewing, revitalizing and reshaping the archipelagic space” Holly Bynoe and Michael Edwards Curators.

Artists participating in “ANTILEAN: AN ECOLOGY”

The show opened on December 11th 2014 and will run until May 10th 2015 at the NAGB. The exhibition is comprised of works of 52 literary and visual artists who are either living in The Bahamas or part of the Bahamian diaspora. The exhibition also uses visual art, critical essays and poems to form its “biting social critique.

The participating Visual and Literary Artists in the critically acclaimed Exhibition are:

John Beadle

Kendal Hanna

Anina Major

Marie Sairsingh

Dionne Benjamin-Smith

Jalan Harris

Jace McKinney

Heino Schmid

Ian Bethel Bennett

Ken Heslop

Jeffrey Meris

Steven Schmid

Jason Bennett

Jay Isaacs

Jodi Minnis

Nadine Syemour-Munroe

Sun Bennett-Williams

Sony Jean-Jacques

Kareem Mortimer

Craig Smith

April Bye

Tyler Johnston

Piaget Moss

Dave Smith

Dede Brown

Sue Katz

Angelique V. Nixon

Obediah Michael Smith

John Cox

Arnold Kemp

Holly Parotti

Giovanna Swaby

Sonia Farmer

Helen Klonaris

Lyn Parotti

Maxwell Taylor

Tyrone Ferguson

Dominique Knowles

Khia Poitier

Tessa Whitehead

Kendra Frorup

Scharad Lightbourne

Dylan Rapillard

Eleanor Whitely

Yutvia George

Toby Lunn

Omar Richardson

Natalie Willis

Steffon Grant

Susan Moir Mackey

Leanne Russell

Keithley Woolward

Did y ou kno w?

Priscilla Rollins

Priscilla Jasmine Rollins (born March 24th 1944) affectionately known as the Bahamian Queen of Soul is a Bahamian entertainer and international recording artist.

Born in Nassau Bahamas Priscilla got her musical start as a teenager singing with her mother in a now defunct gospel group of the late 50s - 60s called the Strachans Choral Group. In 1972 Priscilla left the group to pursue a solo career, teaming up with famed Bahamian producer and entertainer Tony McKay a.k.a . Exuma.

Independence Morning was release to commemorate the Bahamas attainment of independence on July 10th 1973. The song made Priscilla a household name in the islands of the Bahamas. Priscilla also performed in a command performance that year for H.R.H. Prince Charles to celebrate the Bahamian Independence. Letter from Miami was also released that year and internationally sold over a million copies. The song was adapted by McKey & Rollins from an old ring play song that children sang in the islands.

Music Masters Celebrates the icons of Bahamian music & culture-

Gregory's Arch is the

national symbol of where over the hill begins. it opens up to the government ground where Marcus Garvery spoke along with all of the great political leaders of this country.

From Pompey to Pindling

P

oor non privileged White Bahamians with no lineage to the political gentry were victims as well of the race and class discrimination exercised by the ruling oligarchy. Poor whites, whose votes were needed could find jobs in Kelly Lumber Yard, The Betty K Shipping Agency, Donald D’elbenas and Sons Wholesale Grocers, The Stop N’ Shop, The Nassau Shop, Navios Corporation, MacAlpine Construction Company, insurance companies and the banks.

Former Chief Justice Sir Leonard Knowles, a White Bahamian in writing his history of The Bahamas said Sir Stafford Sands was an avowed “white supremacist”. Holding sway over the colony’s economic and political power base for over quarter of a century, Sands abandoned The Bahamas when his party lost the government on January 10th 1967, taking up residence in Spain; never again to return. His seat in the House of Assembly was vacated and contested in a subsequent bye-election. His rationale- he could not live in a Bahamas where the pendulum was now swinging in another

direction. He died in Europe in 1975.

The story book illusion of a Tourism Industry that was revived by the Development Board and Sir Stafford Sands, the country’s first Minister of Tourism in 1950 must be countered against the back drop of the easily verifiable facts and issues; which during this period a large segment of the Bahamian People were basically denied the fullest participation not just in the Tourism Industry but also in the governance of their affairs.

The tale which is the Stafford Sands story about the Development Board, which was the forerunner

of a Ministry of Tourism, must be seen in the context that this took place less than eight years after the Royal Governor the Duke of Windsor empanelled a Commission to discuss the Burma Road Riot of 1942 and how such unrest is to be avoided in the future. The Burma Road Riot came about as a result of labour disputes between the Black Bahamian work force and the American Pleasantville Construction Company and its White American workers. If Airports are critically essential to Tourism then the fact the project was the Airport must account for a critical understanding of the period.

One of the most outstanding leaders of the masses during this period was Dr. C Walker and he was summoned to appear before the Duke’s Commission and assist with the solution.

Said a courageous Dr. Walker, “The underlying causes for this social unrest are manifold. We are in the Majority but we have minority problems. We are poorly housed, poorly fed and poorly educated.

Truth to tell, we are the wretched of the earth.”

Yet various histories on line and in text books on Tourism in this country under the Stafford Sands module basically ignore these essential fibres and choose rather to present a dishonest dispatch of a unified people united behind a popular government and its

economic and Tourism agenda.

Nothing can be farther from the truth.

would move his landmark Resolution calling for Racial Discrimination to end in the colony.

This is a period of wide spread social, labour and political unrest in the then Colony of the Bahama Islands where a plethora of injustices exist. It is during this same period; where many historians have told this illusion about the Tourism Industry under the Sands module, that the majority of the Bahamian people supported The General Strike, Black Tuesday and raised monies for their new political leaders to address the United Nations and the Imperial Government in the UK on these racial and political injustices and disparities.

How it is that historians ignore these major tenets of the oppressed life in the colony while painting this illusion of a fully participatory and healthy democracy is disingenuous.

Just as significantly this was also the period when Tribune Publisher and Editor Sir Etienne Dupuch

Consider this:-The main thoroughfare of down town Bay Street was unapologetically racist. Blacks could not see a movie in the Savoy Theatre down town or eat a meal in the Grand Central Hotel. Major restaurants such as the Grand Central Hotel did not allow Black Bahamians to sit on the bar in the cocktail lounge or in the back of the dining room. The celebrated Bahamian Entertainer Freddie Munnings Senior made history

when he entered the establishment and demanded to be served. Black Bahamian workers at the Royal Victoria Hotel could not enter the dining rooms.

Tempers would flare again when Black Bahamian Actor Sidney Poitier starred in “No Way Out” and the minority Government banned the showing of the film in the colony. Blacks vigorously protested. Leaders like distinguished Black Bahamian Jurist Alfred Francis Adderley and Dr. Walker were livid. Eventually the government relented and Blacks were allowed to see the flick in over the hill theatres.

Black Bahamian entertainers were recruited as part of the Bahamas’ overseas marketing team. They played and performed in major

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COLONIALIZATION vs BAHAMIANIZATION

US and European cities and then returned home to the inequities of their country.

When the famous Black American soloist Nina Simone stepped onto the stage of a local five star hotel in Nassau and did not see Black faces sitting up front for her performances she rebuked the White gentry which had , as was customary filled all of the front row seats and pushed the few Blacks bold enough to buy a ticket to the back.

Tourism offices overseas were fully manned and operated by White foreigners; many of whom had never even been to The Bahamas.

Travel agencies like R H. Curry and other shipping companies and airlines like BOAC, later British

Airways and Pan Am and Chalks were manned by all White foreign staff.

There were no Black Bahamian hotel managers and fewer matrie’d’s.

In the Casinos foreigners held all of the croupier and pit boss jobs.

There were no Black Bahamian Executive Chefs. Policemen were recruited from elsewhere in the Caribbean and the top ranks were usually held by White foreigners.

Few Bahamian policemen advanced beyond the rank of Chief Inspector.

Foreigners served as Secretary to the Cabinet, Secretary of Revenue and Permanent Secretaries were mostly recruited from overseas.

Major Government agencies like

Lands and Surveys were also headed by expatriates.

This was not lost on the established Church. The Catholic and Anglican Dioceses and Methodist were headed by expatriates.

Milo Butler, already a successful businessman and admired politician would angrily confront the manager of The Royal Bank of Canada down town and demand to know why no Black Bahamians were working as Tellers. The very first two Black Bahamians hired to work as clerks in the banks were Paul Allen Dean and Anthony Tony Allen.

In Cable Beach and West Bay Street where the tourism district

was being built, The Brown Land Company put into ordinances in Real Property conveyances that Blacks could not purchase land in Westward Villas, Skyline Drive and the Grove. “Only for the Caucasian race”.

In Freeport, Grand Bahama the Port Authority governed with a firm hand and executive and front of the house jobs in the hotels, restaurants and store fronts were staffed by foreigners. Grand Bahama also had the iniquitous proposition of a supernumerary Police Force manned by an all foreign staff. A Gate divided Freeport from the outlying districts and Bahamians needed a special approved Pass to go into Freeport and after 8 pm daily they were required to

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spurt of activity during the period of Prohibition (1930 - ); and whilst Tourism grew from a three to six month seasonal enterprise into an annual industry, it is not only at the dawn of Majority Rule that Bahamians were given a national ideology on their involvement in this industry.

This came about through the education programmes that the new Government led by Lynden Pindling set out to achieve. Premier Pindling in recognizing the importance of the industry assumed the Cabinet portfolio of Tourism in the administration.

be behind the gate. A large work force from Malta- Whites , were recruited by the Port for many of these jobs.

The modern history of Tourism in The Bahamas and the fullest participation of the Bahamian people began to unfurl as then Colony of The Bahama Islands achieved Majority Rule on January 10th 1967.

Prior to Majority Rule the Bahamian people were largely viewed as incidental to the industry; which provided limited employment and business opportunities for domestic workers, taxi drivers,

shop clerks, dining and entertainment workers. The issues of class and race still decided who worked where in the industry and the accesses that would be allowed. Few if any Black faces were out front in the department stores of down town Bay Street and Blacks had to enter through the back door of the restaurants and hotels in which they worked.

US newspapers had written about the stark racism that governed the British Colonial Hotel whose racist owner refused to allow Black Bahamian employees beyond his back gate and even

in hotels he owned in New York, this businessmen refused to even allow Black Americans to work as Elevator Hops, which was a job basically subscribed to Blacks in US. Various labour protests in Nassau finally convinced the owner of the British Colonial Hotel to grudgingly allow three blacks to work as doormen and bellmen. While the former minority Governing Party can be credited with reviving the Tourism Development Board in 1950, which had been started as early as 1914 and floundered with the Great Depression and seen some

Capitalizing on the new government’s popularity and credibility with the masses Pindling set about on an education campaign. The colony adopted as its watchword the slogan, “Look Up and Move On. The World is Watching�.

It is largely through this message that the Bahamian people were strengthened on their participation in the Tourism Industry.

The Government commissioned an educational programme in the form of a Comic Book in which Black Bahamians involved in various sectors of Tourism played out their daily lives and coached each other on hospitality, courtesy, honesty and the value of the industry to the further development of the country.

“WE BUILT SOUTH FLORIDA”

Black Bahamians were finding jobs in the Southern United States from the turn of the 20th century. They were instrumental in the building of Del Rey Beach, West Palm Beach, Miami Beach, Key West and Coconut Grove and Liberty City in Florida.

“There is very little they can do” “We have the worst class of labour in this colony it is possible to have. Our labourers are beyond anyone’s imagination. It doesn’t take much for him to live and he doesn’t want much. If his pay is 10s (shillings) a day for a week of six days and raise it to 15s (shillings) he will only work for four days. Give him longer hours in one day and increase his pay he will quit work right now. The next thing is there is very little they can do. I am not one to run down our people – I have tried in my business to help them in every way but they are impossible”. Sir Roland Symonette, Premier

‘Hewers of wood and totters of water’

“It is my considered opinion that the Bahamian Coloured people are by nature and inclination essentially employees and that they are little fitted to be independent producers… there are of course some exceptions; but as far concerning the mass of the people experience of them forces me to the conclusion that they will do far better as agricultural labourers than as producers.

Royal Governor His Excellency Charles Dundas

FIRE ON GOVERNMENT HILL “The negroes are busy complaining now that the base is nearing completion and some of them are being laid off. I should not be surprised to see more trouble – but this time one is somewhat prepared and there is more fire power on the island to deal with the situation,” wrote Wallis Simpson , The Duchess of Windsor to her Aunt in Europe in September 1942 from Government House in The Bahamas.

Say It Loud, I‘m Black And I‘m Proud

Coloured Bahamians are not treated with much consideration

With all of the recent international notoriety around the Police incidences in Ferguson Missouri and New York where Black young men have died as a result of Police interaction, and Grand Juries have returned with verdicts which have led to street protests, Bahamians would be shocked to learn than in 1927 a Black Bahamian suffered a similar fate in Key West Florida.

In 1927 this Bahamian was shot by a White Florida policeman after a traffic accident. The British Government demanded compensation for the victim’s family and the issue dragged on with The Tribune reporting on July 8th 1931. “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and “I Can’t Breathe” would have met with a much different reaction in the South Florida of 1927.

Ambassador James Bryce urged the Foreign Office in London to investigate but admitted to Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey that “coloured people are not treated with much consideration. Cases such as these are unfortunately so frequent as to exact no censure in the Southern States.”

CAPITOL LABOUR

This type of electioneering would be condemned in today’s modern Bahamas but in 1962 this was the message of then governing party, UBP.

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A Changing of the Guard.

RACE + COLOUR + CLASS IN THE BAHAMAS: Can we have this conversation without rancor, evasion, bitterness and cover-up or apology?

R

ace has become the topical hot button issue. In the Northern United States, that nation is finally asking the question about how White Americans truly regards the heirs of the Great Migration from the Jim Crow Southern United States over 100 years ago. Could it be that the unprecedented killings of Blacks

by White policemen suggest a serious undercurrent of a race problem and issue?

On Sunday January 11th 2015 the editorials and Op-Ed pieces in several major US newspapers were raising this question.

In our own Bahamas, in November 2014 the National Art Gallery opened a profound exhibition entitled “The Antillean: An Ecology”. The Exhibit sought to explore the race from the Black Bahamian’s point of view. The exhibits, some no doubt troubling; seemed to suggest that the common brotherhood of the Black man in this country may be displaced in how the people of Haiti are viewed in some quarters.

One week after this Exhibit opened, another group gathered at the Museum in a Panel Discussion to discuss and dissect what it means to be White in this country and how does Privilege play out in the normal scheme of things. Mostly made up of White Bahamians and by some who described themselves as “mixed” what was very clear and evident is the secret discomfort White people have about how they claim this country views them and how Black Bahamians perceive them.

They were unafraid to speak honestly and from the heart. It is usually other people who prefer to speak from their bending knees. In this Issue of BAAM we review the common shared struggle of Black Bahamians who left to work in the United States at the dawn of the 20th century.

We review how foreign Colonial and Bahamian Leaders held controversial views on the enterprise and future of the Black Bahamian and his entitlement to share in the economy of the country of his birth.

Finally we present the profiles of several remarkable personalities whose influence on the world and the Bahamas during this period still reverberates today.

Bahamians can easily glide into subjective prejudices such as the comment often presented that Jamaicans are “biggity and uppity and if you don’t watch them they will boss everything”.

We present a profile on Dr. Robert E. Love, a Bahamian who not only moved to Jamaica and had a tremendous influence there but still today is credited with the political thought and ideologies which shaped that country’s rise from Colonialism to statehood.

This great Bahamian was also the key promoter and mentor of Marcus Garvey, a National Hero of Jamaica who was largely influenced to direct his United Negro Improvement Association on Dr. Love’s teachings and advice.

We present W. E. B. Dubois, one of the most celebrated Black American scholars and a leading intellectual voice for social and racial justice in his time. Dr. Dubois is a descendant of The Bahamas and hails from Long Cay.

We present the author of the American Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing “, Ambassador and Educator James Weldon Johnson, another American who descended from The Bahamas. His mother’s house still sits on Meeting (Dillet) Street.

We present Stephen Dillet, who gave to The Bahamas from his native Haiti before the Haitian Revolution and made significant contributions, even serving as the first Black elected legislator.

We present Bahamian Dr. C. R. Walker, the intellectual leader of Farm Road who boldly asked then Governor the Duke of Windsor, after the Burma Road Riot- “Are you the one we looked for or are we to look for another” as he detailed the ravages of racial and economic injustice to the Duke’s Commission.

We present A. F. Adderley, one of the first Black men in the world to graduate from Cambridge University with a degree in law and who was denied the appointment of Chief Justice because he was black but acted in the capacity on several occasions.

When the Colonial Government of The Bahamas banned the classic Sidney Poitier movie, “No Way Out” from playing at theatres it was Dr. Walker and Mr. Adderley, who protested along with the Citizens Committee. The rulers would eventually relent and the movie was shown.

The stories of these National and International Heroes are presented to give hope and restoration and guidance to a generation of younger Bahamians.

It may be that a people more in touch with their history and their past can appreciate their common goal and learn to live in harmony, peace and brotherhood.

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“We’ve Come This Far by Faith” Written by Earlin Williams, Edited by E. Luther Smith Research by Daniel Williams

The Black Bahamian Identity and Why It Remains A tightly guarded Agenda “Look Up And Move On – The World is watching” became the thematic chorus of the Bahamian People on their trek of Majority Rule achieved on January 10th 1967. Then Premier Lynden Pindling stirred his countrymen to this dynamic new focus. All around the globe oppressed people were rising up in search of their indigenous rite of passage.

The “Winds of Change” identified by Churchill after the second world war were breezing in the English held Caribbean, and Bahamians were slowly adjusting to the new climate.

Majority Rule may have been a polite way of saying that the status quo had changed.

“Say it loud. I’m Black and I’m proud”, The James Brown 1968 hit succinctly told the emerging story.

The song became the official anthem of the Black Power Movement in the United States and ignited a sense of purpose and identity in Black people in the Caribbean.

Here in our own Bahamas, school children readily and enthusiastically recited the lyrics. Radio Bahamas played it regularly. Every car had an 8 track cartridge player

with the song always on key and it was a crowd pleaser at parties.

“Say it loud. I’m Black and I’m proud,” infused the political transformation of The Bahamas. That it came along one year after Majority Rule was achieved was purely coincidental. The 300 year all-consuming psychological cloak of Colonialism, which imported its foreign identity and rules on its realm; along with the rule of a merchant minority White oligarchy could best be countered with Black pop culture.

James Brown was a much loved Black American artist emulated across The Bahamas. His frequent visits and his impromptu appearances on the Jeff Scavella “You Asked for It Show” on Radio Bahamas on Saturday nights closed the city down.

In The Bahamas as was almost universally, it was the age of the African Dashiki.

Afro picks with the symbol of the clenched Black fist carved into the handle was de riguer as it was the only way of caring for a wild head of hair commonly referred to as an Afro. The same fist raised at

the Olympic Games by Black American athletes which was so revolutionary and political costed them their medals.

Yet it still seemed like an antithesis. To be Black was to admit a handicap and then to be asked to proud about it seemed ambiguous, even cynical.

For two centuries Black people had been told that theirs was a life destined for subjugation. Up from Slavery, the Negro advanced his cause by claiming as his new personification in the term “Black”. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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unveiled his “I have a dream “Speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, the word “negro” was still the accepted identification.

When Milo Butler disrupted the proceedings of the House of Assembly while tributes

were being paid to the late North Eleuthera Member of the House of Assembly Sir George Roberts, it was to complain that “three Negro

women are locked up in jail tonight and no one gives a damn about it”.

Marcus Garvey had given some semblance of acceptance to the term “Negro” by forming the United Negro Improvement Association, still today regarded as the most powerful and lethal seed planted against racism, colonialism and imperialism in the United States and the Caribbean.

These Bahamians encountered the harsh and vicious system of “Jim Crow” and it is believed that upon their return home, considering the social balance of acceptance of the rule of the minority White Oligarchy and the absence of terror and violence to maintain control and superiority, most Black Bahamians were numbed to change.

By the early 1900s Black Bahamians were immigrating to the Southern United States for jobs in agriculture, menial labour and building of railway lines across the USA; and by the middle of the century they were moving again in large numbers on “The Contract”.

An FBI agent reported in 1921 that most of the one thousand UNIA members in Miami were Bahamians, “who bitterly resent the colour line as drawn in Florida”.

In South Florida the record shows an entirely different Bahamian. Ninety per cent

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of the membership of the United Negro Improvement Association were Bahamians.

The Men’s Chapter was strategically Bahamian and the Women’s Chapter was no different by 1925: Lilly Farrington, Vice President; Nettie Troublefire, Secretary; Emma Rolle, Asst. Secretary; Olga Minus, Treasurer; Alicia Johnson, Executive Member and the “Advisory board “consists entirely of men – All Bahamian negroes”.

“The Bahamian Black immigrants played such an active role in Florida and the women a far more active role than in their native Bahamas not only suggests that the immigrants included some of the more socially progressive

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Black Bahamians but also tells something about their roles, aspirations and appreciation of Black men and women relative to each other as well as to the dominant element in society in the USA compared with the Bahamas at the time” wrote a Bahamian scholar.

Black Bahamians were instrumental in building South Florida – Del Ray Beach, Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, Key West, and settled in Liberty City and Coconut Grove.

Bahamians would be surprised to learn that as early as 1898 Black Bahamians Immigrants in South Florida were complaining to Queen Victoria and the Colonial Secretary in The Bahamas about how they were being treated in the Deep South.

“Some of our numbers

have been lynched and others have had mock trials and been hanged or imprisoned unjustly and we live in fear of mob violence from the Southern White Element” said the urgent dispatch to the Monarch.

Then came the more troubling story of an Anglican Priest from The Bahamas who was lynched in South Florida and this story was reported in The Miami Herald in July 1921.

Archdeacon Irvin, a Bahamian clergyman, who had been ordained in Nassau, had ministered at St. Agnes Church in Coconut Grove Miami since 1915 was accused of preaching equality “to negroes”. He was seized on July 17th 1921 by eight (8) masked men; gagged, handcuffed, whipped and tarred and feathered and dumped out of a speeding car. Threatened with death if he did not leave Miami within 48 hours. He remained.

“

The Burma Road Riot of 1942 came as the cataclysmic tremor which awakened an emerging new social justice in The Bahamas

With all of the recent international notoriety around the Police incidences in Ferguson, Missouri and New York where Black young men have died as a

result of Police interaction, and Grand Juries have returned with verdicts which have led to street protests, Bahamians would be shocked to learn that in 1927 a Black Bahamian suffered a similar fate in Key West Florida.

In 1927 this Bahamian was shot by a White Florida policeman after a traffic accident. The British Government demanded compensation for the victim’s family and the issue dragged on with The Tribune reporting on the incident in its edition of July 8th 1931.

“Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and “I Can’t Breathe” would have

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met with a much different reaction in the South Florida of 1927.

Ambassador James Bryce, the British Ambassador to Washington, urged the Foreign Office in London to investigate but admitted to Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey that “coloured people are not treated with much consideration. Cases such as these are unfortunately so frequent as to exact no censure in the Southern States.”

The Scotsman Magistrate Powles in “The Land of the Pink Pearl” has detailed

frightening and vivid account of racism in The Bahamas.

Sitting as a Magistrate before World War I, he sent a White Bahamian merchant to prison for having inflicted a vicious and grievous whipping on a negro woman.

The town erupted in chaos.

How could a White Man go to jail for doing that which he had been ordained by Scripture to do: Subjugate and to punish his servants.

Powles was chased out of The Bahamas and his book, banished from distribution by the minority White Ruling Class.

The Burma Road Riot of

“

1942 came as the cataclysmic tremor which awakened an emerging new social justice in The Bahamas. Men like Charles Rodriquez, who had worked in the USA and encountered and experienced organized labour agitated for change.

The abdicated King of England the Duke of Windsor, who made no secret of his dislike and his discomfort with having been exiled here, worked an arrangement with the American Government for negro Bahamians to again travel to the USA as migrant workers on a Plan which came to be known as “The

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The abdicated King of England the Duke of Windsor, who made no secret of his dislike and his discomfort with having been exiled here

Contract”. This arrangement had less to do with the economic or social welfare of the Bahamian negro but had had more to do with the fact that young American men were at war and there was a dire shortage of labour across the economy of the United States. Although the “Contract” has been grossly misrepresented and

glorified by some, it cannot be denied that it proved a boon for The Bahamas in more ways than one with remittances coming back to families in The Bahamas and more importantly in the socialization process it did open Bahamian eyes to a wider world where despite its limitations there were was a sense of social justice.

THE FARM ROAD BOYZ-A CLASSIC BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY THE LATE MAXWELL STUBBS JP. CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE DISTINGUISHED GROUP?

“ From July 1943 to 1963 some 5,000 Black Bahamians were recruited under this plan for their labour. In New York – Apple Orchards; In Minnesota – Corn; In North Carolina- Peanuts; In Florida –Citrus, Sugar Cane and beans.

It is my considered opinion that the Bahamian Coloured people are by nature and inclination essentially employees and that they are little fitted to be independent producers. -GOVERNOR CHARLES DUNDAS The ones left in The Bahamas were the spark for the Burma Road Riot when Black Bahamians discovered that White Americans recruited by the American Pleasantville Construction Company to build the new airport were receiving almost

triple in wages for the same job description they were performing.

“The negroes are busy complaining now that the base is nearing completion and some of them are being laid off. I should not be surprised to see more trouble – but this time one is somewhat prepared and there is more fire power on the island to deal with the situation,” wrote Wallis Simpson , The Duchess of Windsor to her Aunt in Europe in September 1942 from Government House in The Bahamas.

During the unrest on Bay Street and the curfew which was imposed, Government House has ordered a regiment of Welsh soldiers in barracks in Nassau to take control of the streets. Several Bahamians were shot dead for breaking the curfew.

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It is important to also gauge that the Duke of Windsor also negotiated a somewhat comfortable work programme with the American Government “for poor White Bahamians” the same time the Blacks “were going off to pick fruit”.

In 1945 ninety one (91) poor whites were recruited from the Bahamas to work dairy farms in South Florida. They all returned at the end of year citing their discomfort with the weather, never again to be engaged. For whatever it is worth.

Now, against this back drop one has to reconcile a conclusion made by Colonial Governor Sir Charles Dundas in 1940, whom the Duke of Windsor replaced.

Wrote Dundas, “It is my considered opinion that the Bahamian Coloured people are by nature and inclination essentially employees and that they are little fitted to be independent producers… there are of course some exceptions; but as far

BANNED IN THE BAHAMAS!

Sidney Poitier in the movie ‘No Way Out’ about the first black doctor in a white hospital.

concerning the mass of the people experience of them forces me to the conclusion that they will do far better

as agricultural labourers than as producers.”

This description and generalization of Black

Bahamians was not lost on a younger Roland T. Symonette, as a Member of the House

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of Assembly. Symonette went even further in the 1930s with this harsher pronouncement:- “We have the worst class of labour in this colony it is possible to have. Our labourers are beyond anyone’s imagination. It doesn’t take much for him to live and he doesn’t want much. If his pay is 10s (shillings) a day for a week of six days and raise it to 15s (shillings) he will only work for four days. Give him longer hours in one day and increase his pay he will quit work right now. The next thing is there is very little they can do. I am not one to run down our people – I have tried in my business to help them in every way but they are impossible”.

While for many these issues may remain contentious, controversial and uncomfortable, the artists involved in the NAGB exhibition have succeeded in scaling the walls of social diversity to present to the nation without rose coloured eye glasses The Bahamas’s challenge to harmony, multiculturalism and social definition.

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E B Dubois is a descendant of The Bahamas hailing from Long Cay. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (known as W.E.B. Du Bois) was born at Church Street, on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in the United States, the son of Alfred Du Bois and Mary Silvina Burghardt Du Bois. The couple's February 5, 1867 wedding had been announced in the Berkshire Courier. Alfred Du Bois was born in San Domingo, now known as Haiti. Alfred Du Bois, himself, was descended from free people of color, and he could trace his lineage back to one Dr. James Du Bois of Poughkeepsie, New York. This physician, while in the Bahamas, had sired, by his slave mistress, three sons—including Alfred—and a daughter W.E.B. Du Bois identified himself as "mulatto," but freely attended school with whites and was enthusiastically supported in his academic studies by his white teachers. In 1885, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend Fisk University. It was there that he first encountered Jim Crow laws.

For the first time, he began analyzing the deep troubles of American racism.

that described the likelihood of one in 10 black men becoming leaders of their race.

After earning his bachelor's degree at Fisk, Du Bois entered Harvard University. He paid his way with money from summer jobs, scholarships and loans from friends. After completing his master's degree, he was selected for a study-abroad program at the University of Berlin. While a pupil in Germany, he studied with some of the most prominent social scientists of his day and was exposed to political perspectives that he touted for the remainder of his life.

While working as a professor at Atlanta University, W.E.B. Du Bois rose to national prominence when he very publicly opposed Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise," an agreement that asserted that vocational education for blacks was more valuable to them than social advantages like higher education or political office. Du Bois criticized Washington for not demanding equality for African Americans, as granted by the 14th Amendment. Du Bois fought what he believed was an inferior strategy, subsequently becoming a spokesperson for full and equal rights in every realm of a person's life.

In 1903, Du Bois published his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of 14 essays.

In the years following, he adamantly opposed the idea of biological white superiority and vocally supported women's rights. In 1909, he co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and served as editor of its monthly magazine, The Crisis.

Du Bois became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895, and went on to enroll as a doctoral student at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (now HumboldtUniversität). (He would be awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Humboldt decades later, in 1958.)

Writing and Activism Not long after, Du Bois published his landmark study—the first case study of an AfricanAmerican community— The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899), marking the beginning of his expansive writing career. In the study, he coined the phrase "the talented tenth," a term

Pan-Africanism and Death A proponent of Pan-Africanism, Du Bois helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to free African colonies from European powers.

W.E.B. Du Bois died on August 27, 1963—one day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington—at the age of 95, in Accra, Ghana, while working on an encyclopedia of the African Diaspora.

W.E.B. Du Bois

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doctor

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teacher clergyman journalist politician

B

ahamians tend to associate Jamaicans with being more aggressive and assertive and direct in their drive and focus as compared to the laid back decision making styles of Bahamian culture. However Bahamians would be surprised to learn that a Bahamian is credited with shaping the political acumen and thought process of the Jamaican drive for self determination and an offset to colonialism. Dr. Robert Love, a Bahamian not only lived and worked in Jamaica but held high office and amongst the persons he mentored is Dr. Marcus Garvey, with whom he assisted with developing the Garvey’s movement.

The new debate on reparations that is engulfing talk and discussion in former European colonies was begun by Love and Garvey.

Joseph Robert Love was born in the Bahamas on the 2nd of October, 1839. He began his career first as a teacher and then went to Florida in the United States where he took orders in the Episcopalian Church. He also studied medicine at the University of Buffalo and gained an M.D. degree. Love was a great admirer of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haiti's first patriot and he spent 10 years in Haiti (the first

black republic) and was appointed to a high executive post in the Medical Department.

There, he continued as an Anglican Clergyman and became a Rector of a church in Port au Prince.

In 1889, Love came to Jamaica where he started the influential newspaper the "Jamaica Advocate". Love soon made a name for himself as a fearless journalist. He was deeply concerned with the social conditions of black people in Jamaica. Using his paper, he tackled serious questions such as Negro education from the black man's point of view. He believed that young girls, as well as young boys should be educated up to the secondary level. One of his main themes was that a people cannot rise above the standards of its womanhood. The Advocate encouraged black people to assert their equality, educate themselves and develop self esteem and pride in their African heritage.

inferior to the white man in any way at all.

He is charged with having helped change the attitudes of white Jamaicans towards those of colour.

Love published two works, "Romanism is not Christianity" in 1892 and in 1897 "St. Peter's true position in the church, clearly traced in the Bible". He became ill in 1906 and was forced to end his short but active political career in 1910.

Robert Love died on 21, November 1914 and is buried in the Parish Church yard at Half Way Tree. Robert Love is also noted to have had a strong influence on the thinking and work of Marcus Garvey

In 1906, Love campaigned for the seat of St. Andrew in the general elections and won. He was also chairman of the St. Andrew Parochial Board, a member of the Kingston General Commissions and a Wolmer's Trustee. He was also a Justice of the Peace for Kingston.

Love did not think factors such as skin colour or status should be important when selecting a representative. It was his philosophy that the blackman should not consider himself

Joseph Robert Love (1839-1914)

C.R. Walker Speech to Burma Road Commission

Dr. C R. Walker spoke for a generation of Bahamians still unborn today when he was invited to address The Governor’s Commission inquiring into the cause of the Burma Road Riot, in which several black Bahamians were shot dead by a battalion of Welsh Soldiers stationed in Nassau after a curfew had been declared. The Burma Road Riot in 1942 was the first major protest of the Black majority against the thick lines of discrimination that operated against their advancement, since Pompey set sail from Exhume to bring his protest to Nassau about injustices towards Slaves on a plantation owner in the mid 19th century.

Dr. Walker’s speech is as relevant today as it was then and sheds an incandescent light on what it was to live in The Bahamas under colonial rule and how the abdicated King of England, here as Governor showed his arrogance, contempt and disconnect from the very people he had been destined to rule.

“Your Royal Highness, Gentlemen: The underlying causes for this social unrest are manifold. We are in the majority but we have minority problems.

We are poorly housed, poorly fed and poorly educated. Truth to tell, we are the wretched of the earth.

Many years ago, English and American missionaries walked among us intent on ‘souls to save and bodies to enslave’ until one day my brother was forced to remark, Fader, when first you come to Bahamas, you got da Bible and we got da land. Today, fader, we got da Bible and you got da land.

Land is an important factor in the production of wealth. When strangers grab the land of the natives, they are tampering not only with their economic existence but with their cultural and political lives as well. That is why ‘land snatching’ as it is practiced today is the

most concrete proof of the thorough enslavement of a people to an alien will.

companies owned or rented one or more lots of land.

For over 200 years, a locally based Governor vested with autocratic powers, directed the affairs of The Bahamas on behalf of the British Crown. He did this through a wholly appointed Executive ouncil, a wholly appointed Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, the members of which were elected once every seven years on a male franchise hemmed in by property qualifications, company and plural voting. All males were required to vote openly, or face victimization if their choice of candidates displeased their employers. More than half of the population – the women - could not vote at all. The general elections are not held on one day but are spread over a period of three weeks in order to give the monied interest an opportunity to travel from island to island and vote wherever they or their

This iniquitous electoral system secured the political and economic supremacy of the white landed gentry. They owned and managed both land and labour through numerous attorneys, priests, accountants, foremen and skilled artisans.

Next on the social pyramid were the merchants. The high prices of this middle class group played havoc with the poor on whose shoulders fell the full burden of an administrative system in whichthe rich paid no income taxes whatsoever.

Warrants for the arrest of ringleaders - would be social reformers were frequently issued

for themost trivial of offences. In this way the law was made a weapon to club the natives into submission. Since there was no Bahamian Court of Appeal from a conviction on an indictable offence, the English judges with the help of their ‘special’ (white) juries often meted out draconian sentences against the black people.

Your Royal Highness, Gentlemen, recently, my brother told me the other day that when Columbus made his historic voyage to the New World, the English simultaneously dispatched two ships from London. The name of the first ship was Law; of the second, Justice.

The ship, Law, arrived safely into port, but, Gentlemen, Justice was lost somewhere in the mid-Atlantic.

But something equally as precious as Justice was also lost and this was the real tragedy. Untold millions, uprooted from their native cultures in Africa, were

scattered as slaves in North, Central, South America, in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Diaspora, which means a scattering or dispersal of a people, originally referred to the Jewish historical experience, has never been more descriptive than when applied to the children of Africa.

We Bahamians, are the sons and grandsons, the daughters and grand daughters of those who arrived. We seek today to reclaim that which was snatched from us over 300 years ago - our dignity and self-respect as human beings.

During the interval between then and now, we have become the most brain-washed people in the world. We were made to believe that we were not fit to govern ourselves. You see, teachers and missionaries did not tell us that there was a period in ancient history when Rome was barbarous and Greece slept but Africa flourished with its own governments, economic systems, military forces, religious and social organisations. Indeed, in the very beginnings of mankind, the African nation of Egypt occupied a central role in world history.

We were taught that our ancestors contributed nothing to the advancement of civilization. Yet it was common knowledge that Africans were the first to practise agriculture - the first of the cultures – along the banks of the Niger River. Africa was the place where mankind first fashioned tools -a significant step in the evolution of civilization. Neither did they tell my people, Gentlemen, that the earliest known pottery was created in Africa more than thirty thousand years ago, during the Palaeolithic (stone) Age. It is a tragic fact that Bahamians have suffered many a serious social and psychological trauma from the decades of contempt and calumny which characterized traditional Western historical thought on the subject of Africa. Most of our fathers and mothers were compel-

led to live out their lives in submission to the dominant cultural values and attitudes of the hostile whites. They were forced to tolerate the racist ideologies of their white countrymen in order to survive. It is a psychological truism that an oppressed and rejected people soon come to see themselves through the eyes of their oppressors. As a result, the black man soon learned how to hate himself and others of his own race.

In the past, the schoolroom was not primarily an educational institution but a political one which sought only to maintain the power base of the white colonialist society.

The Emancipation Act of the United Kingdom Parliament, though designed to come into force in the Colonies on August 1, 1834, did not immediately give the slave his freedom. There was a compulsory ‘apprenticeship’ period similar in all but name to indentured labour. Now over one hundred years after the Emancipation Act, the colonial bosses offer sons of former slaves four shillings per day! O ye nominal Christians! Might not the son of an African slave ask you ‘Learned you this from your own god? Is not the labourer worthy of his hire? What dignity is there in slaving for a dollar a day? Can a man maintain his self respect when he cannot feed himself and his family?

I think not. Can a dollar a day man pay his medical expenses if he falls ill on the jobsite? I think not.

Can the poor purchase enough food to strengthen him to perform the heavy duty labour efficiently?

No, Gentlemen. No! Poor wages mean a poor community and a poor community is the breeding ground for crime and disease. Furthermore, if these labourers are not paid a decent wage, they will not have the purchasing power to buy the goods in the Bay Street stores.

Gentlemen, your own self-interest

Well you see, Ma’am, yesterday the puppies’ eyes were closed; today, their eyes are opened.

Yesterday, they were blind; today, they can see. Gentlemen, the scales have been peeled of the eyes of the labourers. They now see opportunities beyond the status quo. They have discovered new insights - new strength in unity - and no one can purchase their labour now for so cheap a price as four shillings a day. The winds of change of World War II have blown in their direction and they have inhaled the air of freedom. Once they have tasted it, they can no longer live without it.

And now I wish to conclude with a personal word to His Royal Highness, the Duke of Windsor himself.

should persuade you to give my brothers a decent wage!

Will the labourers return to their jobsite for four shillings per day?

Why should men who worked for four shillings yesterday want eight shillings today? Pray, let me tell you a story.

My eldest son’s bitch had a litter of pups.

One day a neighbour came and asked the price for one.

My son replied, ‘One shilling for each puppy.

The following day, the same lady returned with a shilling to complete the purchase. On approaching Roland, she was rebuffed. ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘the puppies are now two shillings each!’

Yesterday puppy, one shilling; today puppy, two shillings!

How come, she inquired?

Secondary high school named in his honour

Two years ago when the radio waves brought the news of Your Royal Highness’ appointment as Governor of The Bahamas, the deaf heard, and the dumb spoke, the blind saw and the crippled leapt for joy. Your reputation as a humanitarian and King had preceded you.

Surely,’ we said to ourselves, the Duke of Windsor will not allow us to continue to live amidst social inequities that sap our self respect and prevent us from attaining our full status as first class citizens.

Fifty-four Governors have preceded Your Excellency, but not one ever brought a ray of hope to the poor and oppressed.

We believe that you are not just another Governor for one class of people but the Governor for all colours and classes of people. In faith believing, I ask on behalf of all my brothers and sisters, Art thou He that cometh or look we for another?

We have gone to great pains to explain the reasons for the increase. You, yourself, have seen the mood of the workers.

With due respect, I don’t think we can get them to work without an assurance from you that something will be done to help them. Furthermore, freedom from want was one of the basic guarantees of the Atlantic Charter.

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ahamians feel a sense of honor and pride in knowing that the roots of James Weldon Johnson, one of the most prominent and influential men of the 20th century in shaping the Civil Rights movement and equality for Blacks are in The Bahamas.

James Weldon Johnson, is a descendant of The Bahamas. His mother's house still stands on Meeting (Dillet) Street in Nassau.

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920

he was the first black to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer.

He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novels, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture.

Johnson was born in 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Helen Louise Dillet, a native of Nassau, Bahamas, and James Johnson. James’ maternal great-grandmother, Hester Argo, had escaped from Saint-Domingue during the revolutionary upheaval in 1802, along with her three young children, including (James Weldon Johnson’s grandfather), Stephen Dillet (1797-1880). Although originally headed to Cuba, their boat was intercepted by privateers and they were brought to Nassau, Bahamas instead. There they permanently settled. Stephen Dillet was the first man of color to win election to the Bahamian legislature in 1833 (ref. Along this Way, James Weldon Johnson’s autobiography).

James’ brother was John Rosamond Johnson, who became a composer. The boys were first educated by their mother (a musician and a public school teacher) before attending Edwin M. Stanton School.

His mother imparted to them her great love and knowledge of English literature and the European tradition in music. At the age of 16, Johnson enrolled at

Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college, from which he graduated in 1894. In addition to his bachelor’s degree, he also completed some graduate coursework.

working as a songwriter. A cultured and well-educated New Yorker, Grace Nail Johnson later collaborated with her husband on a screenwriting project.

The achievement of his father, headwaiter at the St. James Hotel, a luxury establishment built when Jacksonville was one of Florida’s first winter havens, inspired young James to pursue a professional career. Molded by the classical education for which Atlanta University was best known, Johnson regarded his academic training as a trust. He knew he was expected to devote himself to helping black people advance. Johnson was a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

After their return to New York from Nicaragua, Johnson became increasingly involved in the Harlem Renaissance, a great flourishing of art and writing. He wrote his own poetry and supported work by others, also compiling and publishing anthologies of spirituals and poetry. Owing to his influence and his innovative poetry, Johnson became a leading voice in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Johnson and his brother Rosamond moved to New York City as young men, joining the Great Migration out of the South in the first half of the 20th century. They collaborated on songwriting and achieved some success on Broadway in the early 1900s.

Johnson served in several public capacities over the next 40 years, working in education, the diplomatic corps, and civil rights activism.

In 1904 he participated in Theodore Roosevelt’s successful presidential campaign. After becoming president, Roosevelt appointed Johnson as United States consul at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela from 1906 to 1908, and to Nicaragua from 1909 to 1913. In 1910, Johnson married Grace Nail, whom he had met in New York City several years earlier while

He became involved in civil rights activism, especially the campaign to pass federal legislation against lynching, as southern states seldom prosecuted perpetrators. Starting as a field secretary, he became one of the most successful officials in the NAACP; as executive secretary, he helped increase members and reach by organizing new chapters in the South. During this period, the NAACP was mounting frequent legal challenges to the southern states disfranchisement of African Americans at the turn of the century by such devices as poll tax, literacy tests, grandfather clauses and white primaries.

Johnson died in 1938 while vacationing in Wiscasset, Maine, when the car his wife was driving was hit by a train. His funeral in Harlem was attended by more than 2000 people.

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lfred Francis Adderley

Order of the British Empire. He also presided as

one of the most able advocates in The Caribbean.

was born in Nassau on

Acting Chief Justice that same year at the October

He held the distinction of having acted as counsel

November 16, 1891

Sessions of the Supreme Court.

for the defence in more murder cases than any

the son of Mr. Wilfred

other Bahamian lawyer of his day. He was the

Parliament and Letitia

He married Ethel Millicent Louise Lunn on

Crown prosecutor in the Oakes Murder Case in

Eliza McMinn Adderley.

April 29, 1925 and fathered two sons: Dr. Francis

which Marigny, the accused was acquitted.

He attended Boys‘ Central School and the

E. Adderley, M.D. and the Honourable Paul

Nassau Grammar School until 1908 when

L. Adderley, former Minister of Finance and

A school was named after Mr. Adderley to

he entered Denstone College, Staffordshire,

Minister of External Affairs, Education and

acknowledge his contribution to Bahamian

England. He worked in New York City for a year

Culture and Attorney General. Mr. A. F. Adderley

Society.

to help finance his education and in 1912 he

also held the Chairmanship of the Electrical

entered St. Catherine‘s College, Cambridge from

Board and the Airport‘s Board and was a member

which he received the B. A. and LL B. degrees

of the Civil Service Committee. He was chancellor

with honours. From 1915 to 1919 he worked

of the Anglican Diocese of Nassau, a member of

in the War Factory Service as Assistant Pay

the Vestry of St. Mary‘s Church and a member of

Master at White City, London. A member of the

the Board of Governors of St. John‘s College.

Middle Temple, he was called to the English Bar in 1919. He then returned to The Bahamas to

As a youth he was a keen cricketer and tennis

practice law and was called to the Bahamas Bar

player and also participated in track sports.

in August 1919.

He was responsible for the formation of the Bahamas Cricket Association and held the office

In 1923 he was elected to the House of Assembly

of President until he resigned. He was also made

for Eleuthera and in 1928 he was returned for

Honorary Life Vice-President of The Bahamas

the Western District. He served for several years

Amateur Athletic Association.

as Legal Advisor to The House under Speaker Malcolm. He was appointed to a seat on the

Throughout his public career he was a strong

Legislative Council in 1938 and to the Executive

advocate of social legislation. He served for ten

Council in 1946. At the time of his death he was

years on the Health Board and six years on the

a senior member of that body.

Board of Education.

In the King‘s Birthday Honours in 1951 he was

In his profession Mr. Adderley was regarded as

appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent

the Colony’s most outstanding trial lawyer and

Alfred Francis

Adderley

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S

tephen Dillet was born in Haiti and was brought to The Bahamas by his parents. His contribution to The Bahamas is honoured in the naming of a primary school in his honour.

Despite his lineage and his contribution to this country there is an insipid undercurrent of bias which exists between Bahamians and persons of Haitian descent.

This is exacerbated by the contagion of illegal immigration which flowed from Haiti to The Bahamas

in 1957 when Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier began his brutal dictatorship.

Thousands of Haitians fled to the USA and The Bahamas in search of economic opportunity. They were readily embraced in the agricultural islands of Abaco and Eleuthera. Today communities such as “The Mud” and “Pigeon Pease” sprung up to house these migrants.

The prejudice, however had begun many years earlier when the fear of the Haitian Revolution took root amongst the white ruling class in The Bahamas and the campaign began in earnest to halt such an occurrence here.

"When the slaves of Saint Domingue (Haiti) rose up in 1791 on a scale wholly without precedent, slave owners everywhere trembled in fear that insurrectionism of similarly apocalyptic tendency might prove contagious. Perhaps nowhere was this more keenly felt than in The Bahamas itself. For one, the sheer closeness of the madding crowd exacerbated the sense of terror. But it was not close proximity alone that accounted for the dreadful foreboding among white Bahamians," states Mr. Sean McWeeney QC, former Attorney General.

Stephen Dillet’s story is amazing in that he was able

to transcend that propaganda and achieve so many firsts in his life time.

In 1842 he purchased Balcony House along with his mother Hester Argo and his two brothers.

Son of a reputed French officer Etienne Dillet. In 1833, Stephen Diller was the first coloured person to win an election as a Representative for the town of Nassau and won seven consecutive elections. In 1851 he was appointed Post Master General. Later he would serve in the highest rank of the Police Force at that time as Inspector.

He pioneered free masonry and served in the Royal

Victoria Lodge. He was a Vestryman at Christ Church Cathederal, a successful businessman and for a time served as Coroner.

Other leading Haitians whose names are indelibly printed in the history of The Bahamas are John Goodman for whom Goodman’s Bay, is named and Peter Laroda, who also was elected to the Assembly.

His great grandson James Weldon Johnson, served as an American Diplomat under the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and as a University professor and the leading voice and face of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

RHODES SCHOLARS DR. DESIREE COX

Dr. Desiree Cox has been described by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) as a ‘Renaissance Woman’. She is a Rhodes Scholar (the first Bahamian, and first woman from the British Caribbean Region to win a Rhodes Scholarship) who is a medical doctor (MD) with a Masters and a PhD in History of Medicine and History and Philosophy of Science as well as being a visual artist, jazz-singer and writer.

Desiree has over twenty years or international experience in medicine, the creative arts and the integration of these two disciplines to produce innovative healthce.re interventions. Desire received her BSc (Hon) from McGill University in Chemistry with special interest in Quantum Chemistry.

She then went on to Oxford University as Rhodes Scholar where she was a prize-winning medical student.

After Oxford she attended Cambridge University where she received a Master of Philosophy degree (MPhil.) and PhD in History of Medicine and History and Philosophy of the Sciences. Desire has work as a doctor in the mental health profession in the UK (London), a Consultant to The Prime Minister of The Bahamas in Urban Renewal and Human Development, and Professor of Behavioral Sciences at a US Medical School.

She has published a number of academic articles as well as official government publications in history, public health and healthcare and humanities. She is also an accomplished musician, writer and visual artist.

Desiree has performed as a Jazz singer in New York, London and Nassau, Bahamas and has released two Jazz CDs. Her short-stories and poems have appeared in newspapers, Caribbean literary journals and on-line publications.

Look out for Desiree’s book, the first of her non-fiction series of books on creativity and whole-person health is due out later this year, 2010. Desiree has also been recognized internationally as an accomplished visual artist. She has had successful solo art exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Nassau (Bahamas), London (UK), New York City and elsewhere in the USA. Five of her paintings appear in the publication, International Contemporary Masters, III, a juried publication, featuring more than 230 artists from nearly 50 countries whose work is considered to be original, proficient and groundbreaking.

Dr. Desiree Cox

CHRISTIAN CAMPBELL

Freeport, Bahamas - Bahamian poet, Christian Campbell will be reading from his first collection of poetry, Running the Dusk, on Saturday the 16th April, 2011 at 6:00p.m. at the Rand Nature Centre, Settler’s Way, Freeport, Grand Bahama. Admission is free. All are welcome to attend.

Born in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Christian Campbell is a writer of Bahamian and Trinidadian heritage. He studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received a PhD at Duke University. His poetry and essays have been published widely in journals and anthologies such as Callaloo,

MYRON ROLLE

Myron Rolle (born October 30, 1986) is a Bahamian-American former football safety. He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans, who valued his athleticism and intellect, in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State.

He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University for the 2009–10 academic year in order to earn an MSc in Medical Anthropology. In 2010, he was chosen as the second-smartest athlete in sports by the Sporting News, behind baseball player Craig Breslow.

Rolle is of Bahamian descent. He was born to Beverly and Whitney Rolle of The Bahamas. His family members, including parents and three of his older brothers, Marchant, Marvis, Mordecai, McKinley (NJ) hail from Nassau, Bahamas. He is very proud of his Bahamian heritage and plans to open The Myron L. Rolle Medical Clinic and Sports Complex a free health services clinic in Steventon, Exuma, in The Bahamas.

Christian Campbell Indiana Review, New Caribbean Poetry, New Poetries IV, PN Review, Poetry London, Small Axe, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature, Wasafiri and West Branch . His work has been translated into Spanish in the anthology Poetas del Caribe Ingles . An Assistant Professor of English at the University of Toronto, he has received grants and fellowships from Cave Canem, the Arvon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center and the University of Birmingham.

He is the author of Running the Dusk, which was a finalist for the Cave Canem Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for the Best First Book in the UK and is the winner of the 2010 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. He is the second Caribbean poet to be shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize for the Best First Book and the first poet of colour to win the Aldeburgh Prize.

In Running the Dusk, Christian Campbell takes us to dusk, what the French call l’heure entre chien et loup , the hour between dog and wolf, to explore ambiguity and intersection, danger and desire, loss and possibility.

These poems of wild imagination shift shape and shift generation, remapping Caribbean, British and African American geographies: Oxford becomes Oxfraud; Shabba Ranks duets with Césaire; Sidney Poitier is reconsidered in an exam question; market women hawk poetry beside knock-off Gucci bags; elegies for ancestors are also for land and sea. Here is dancing at the crossroads between reverence and irreverence. Dusk is memory, dusk is dream, dusk is a way to re-imagine the past.

Rolle is the founder of 'Our Way to Health' – an educational childhood antiobesity program for Native Americans currently operating in the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Pueblo, Hopi and Navajo Indians. Rolle, in conjunction with Florida Secretary of Children and Family Services, George Sheldon, runs a week-long Myron Rolle Wellness and Leadership Academy for Foster Care children in the State of Florida. In 2011, Rolle, along with 2006 Rhodes Scholar Garrett Johnson, created the "Emerging Scholars Project" – a program to help underrepresented college students become viable candidates for national fellowship opportunities. Rolle has been awarded days in Tallahassee and West Palm Beach, Florida as well as Keys to the City of Lafayette, Louisiana and Sarasota, Florida. In 2011, Rolle joined the Board of Trustees at HampdenSydney College. Rolle is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity

by Earlin Williams

these murky waters in a herculean effort to begin in earnest the conversation in the open.

Have Black Bahamians made White Bahamians the reverse victims of Racism and prejudice in The Bahamas?

Have Black Bahamians been shouting for far too long about the injustices suffered over a 300 year period that they have subtly or by clever design backed White Bahamians into a corner?

Is it racist to define The Bahamas as a “Black Nation”? Is a segment of the Bahamian population unfairly hurt by this?

Has 300 years of Colonialism entrenched Class privilege in The Bahamas?

Can we have a meaningful discussion and conversation about these issues without anyone feeling the skin being grated from their backs?

Is the metaphor of a plantation society useful or useless in national debate or even relevant to life in a 21st century Bahamas?

For starters White people need to stop expecting Black people to apologize for relishing ownership and freedom.

Black people need to stop blaming other people for why they can’t get it right and avoid the comfortable escapism of connecting Slavery and Colonialism to individual failure and prolonged unhappiness.

Those with special agenda who seek to tunnel or piggy back through this important and sincere debate with the distinctly separate issue of gender equality and sexual orientation discrimination need to

sit small.

Fix the Race issue first.

Is it possible for someone to live in their own skin and be ashamed to identify who they are?

Yes some children were conditioned to think that they were neither White nor Black and being mixed means you cannot choose or pick a side.

How incredibly frightening.

On the evening of Tuesday December 16th at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas NAGB a distinguished panel ventured into

A discussion on “Whiteness Privilege and Invisibility” was led by College of the Bahamas Antroplogist Professor Nicollete Bethel, a former Director of Culture, entrepreneur and ad junct professor Joey Gaskins and Sonia Farmer, a poet and artist led the discussion with Mrs. Ann Coulson, Director of the NAGB as moderator.

Bahamian People have been hurt by the cross currents of the politics of nationhood and citizenship. White Bahamians. Black Bahamians. And those in between.

Few of us cannot relate to having a White class mate who without having a say in the matter earned the nickname “White Boy”.

Can you imagine the disgust we would have if a Black child in a classroom of White students in The Bahamas got the nick name “Black Boy”?

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We would wear out every tennis shoe in Hoffer’s marching and kicking down the door and screaming racism at the top of our lungs.

But when we reverse the table and do the same thing to White People we think its ok. It’s just cool.

Real talk. This is for Black People: Name two White Bahamians friends you sent a birthday shout out in the last five years. This is for White People: Name one Black Bahamian high school class mate you remain in close contact with?

We will never get to healing and comfort until we make the first step which is to take colour out of the construct and just see a fellow Bahamian.

Can we do this when the politics

of the era suggests that one race or ethnic group is more inclined to support a side because we have been conditioned to believe that race and ethnicity make us common adversaries or common allies?

Can we do this when Class and privilege tends to ignite upper middle class Black People to adopt the White Community as their badge of achievement as they promote a disdain for their less social mobile inner city Black first cousins?

How is it that Bahamian People can shift so easily into the Tourism gear of service to our clientele and not even grind a gear in shifting quickly back into race baiting, hate mongering, discrimination and name calling amongst their very own people?

At a function at the NGB recently I witnessed this in action. At the food assembly area, the crew was neatly placing trays of hor’oeuvres on the table for the waiters to take into the crowd where guests could help themselves. A distinguished White Bahamian and his daughter found their way to the assembly table and were busy chatting and helping themselves to treats off the trays. Up walks a Black Bahamian who decides he should help himself as well.

being ostracized in the land of the their birth and when they go abroad and they are told that they are not “White” and as Bahamians they don’t quite fit the white mould in foreign.

The other contrast was how White Bahamians in other Islands of The Bahamas and in their respective settlements viewed race and ethnic relations.

You can live on a cay in Abaco as a Black person and be outnumbered ten to one by white people.

I am yet to hear any Black Bahamian living under such a construct who has sold out and moved away to escape slurs, prejudice, taunts and indifference.

Without blinking an eye; the Black Bahamian server reprimanded the

Can you imagine how some Black Bahamians would treat a White poor

Black guest ever so politely. “Sir you have to wait until the waiters’ come around with the tray and make your selection… not here at this table.” The man looked quite disheveled as he walked away. The White man and his daughter remained at the table eating.

Were they invisible?

family having to move into Rupert Dean Lane or Milton Street?

The uniform equality emerging from the conversation at the panel discussion was the experience of White Bahamians who spoke from the heart about their inner pain of

This is where the sincere deliberation of “One Bahamas” must have its magic realism.

Can we honestly stop thinking or believing that when we say or use the term “Bahamian” it is not a synonym for Black?

Once we wrap our heads around the truth that there were Black people

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who owned slaves in The Bahamas just as well as Whites who owned slaves; we may able to read the note stuck to our foreheads that slavery did not come about because of racism but rather racism is a byproduct of slavery.

As one distinguished panelist wondered aloud, “who was Mr. Fox?” The slave owner of Fox Hill. Seems as if he may have been a Black slave owner.

Could it be that the people who inflicted that barbarous beating on slave girl Kate at Crooked Island been mixed or brown skinned Bahamians and not Whites, she asked.

Maybe we should start with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Is the forward march even possible in a 21st century driven by a Caribbean

license to seek reparations for slavery from the UK, our slave master, our colonial enforcer and our emancipator and giver of Independence?

The conversation has begun. It needs to go on for some time.

Many will discover they are angry without justification.

Others will discover they are not who they think they are.

We have to see the invisible.

Games Bahamians Played Reprinted from the work of Clara Williams

During the long summer holidays I got to babysit and keep company with my grandchildren. Among the many questions they ask me are: Which games did you all play when you were young?

Well, we played dozens of them.

Without T.V. or any other video games children and adults too made up games. Those were activities handed down through the ages and zealously maintained.

CHERRY CHASE was one of those delightful games. This is played by two opposing groups that stood a good distance off but faced each other. You had to be chosen to take part in this activity as only good runners were selected.

One person would advance to the opposing side and sort of dare them.

When chased and caught, he or she became a prisoner. Prisoners had to stand by the victor’s side to be ‘rescued’.

This was done by someone stealing up, touching their hand without getting caught by the victors.

TUG-OF-WAR was enacted by select groups who simply tried to pull each other over to their side. Some people placed bets on favourite parties.

FIVE ROCKS AND JACK STONES were quiet games played mostly by girls. The skill of this game was mostly in using a ‘tar’ (a small ball). The player would throw the stones down and

endeavour to pick each stone up while tossing the ball or ‘tar’ in the air. The victor would have to do this the most times without losing the ball.

SWINGING GAMES were also enjoyed. Sometimes swings were purchased or created by natives with good old strong rope fastened to branches of a tree.

An old Nursery rhyme goes: “It was Hide and Go Seek they were playing “Though you’d never had guessed it to be “With an old, old, old, old, old lady “And a boy who was half past three”.

This rhyme capsulates this game exactly. People of all ages played it. The young, the old, indoors and outside.

The game is self-explanatory – you hid and waited to be found. Seems as if I can still hear my brother shouting: “One, two, thre, four, five – here I come ready or not.”

MARBLE GAMES -Most boys played marble games which they seemed to enjoy a lot. Marbles were purchased but sometimes poorer parents improvised with “knickers”, the seed pods from the chestnut tree. In this game the purpose was to “shoot” marbles out of the ring or circle drawn on the ground.

MOONLIGHT babies were sometimes played during moonlight nights. Why? Because the ground was cool then, and the moonlight enabled children to remain outside long. To play this game one would have to lie on the pavement or ground with arms and legs spread.

The other players would place stones or seeds around your body as if tracing a picture. When you got up there you were on the ground. The only thing which remained was to place leaves or seeds to portray your eyes, nose and mouth. These pictures made us laugh a lot – they were so funny!

RING PLAYS were most popular, and as this is the game mostly covered by Bahamian writers I will not elaborate.

My favourite one was “Brown Girl in the Ring.”

VARIOUS CLAPPING GAMES were also played. We sang songs, clapping hands, and touching various parts of the body also. Rhythm was the main thrust here.

HOP SCOTCH was a game which I did not really understand but children seemed to enjoy hopping and jumping about on drawn squares.

SEEK OUT SIMON– Simon was played by children seated in a row.

Simon stood in front and tried to guess into whose hand was placed a tiny object. Children usually cheated by giving

Simon the wink to intimate that it was in their hand.

HOOLA HOOPS were prevalent also and children managed this exercise with much dexterity.

KITE FLYING was prevalent especially on windy days. After the session many ill-fated ones remained in the trees or on the tops of houses.

During special holidays there were arranged games. These were usually played on the parks or beaches and attracted many spectators. These games usually included many ball activities, running and skipping.

Oh how we enjoyed our childhood games- getting well needed exercise and camaraderie in such pleasant ways!

I personally think these practices far outweigh computerized games though these have their place. Many grown-ups today still enjoy games of cards, dominoes, etc.

Bahamians remember the games we played with much nostalgia and amusement but let it not forget that these frequent moments of togetherness created a bond of friendship which is so lacking in our modern society.

Oh the games people played in the good old days.’

BAHAMA MAMA “Maureen Duvalier- Long Live Our Memory of this Diva, Amazon of Vision- Our Finest Cultural Warrior. A legacy of worth, of respect, of celebration and of emulation. Go tell her fabulous story everywhere. The Nation mourns her passing. The Bahamian People are the better today because she passed our way.�

-Dr. Daniel Johnson, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.

“It is January 2nd. We are one day past the New Year’s Parade. The bleachers are still up. We are in historic Rawson Square Bay Street. This was Maureen’s stomping ground. This was where she was at her finest.

For many a year. I can tell you when I say many a year; as a little girl on the hill top, every Christmas when Sax Taylor would come rushing up West Street to take the whole neighborhood; and of course as we got to Bay Street, I could always hear reverberating in the crowd, ‘ The Boat in? The Boat in?’ And I asked as a little girl what does that mean. And they said, ‘if the boat is in it means Maureen is coming to Junkanoo.’ So before I even set eyes on her, this image in my mind of the great Maureen; the dancer whom everyone came to watch and see. And of course as we got to see her. There she was in all of her splendour. And as the years went on and I had the privilege of serving on the National Junkanoo Committee with her… we were the only two females on the NJC; and it was from Maureen I learned, first of all, that gender does not stop you from being anything that you want to be. She came along in a time when it was considered infra-dig for women to be involved in Junkanoo. And she was unafraid. She was fearless. She wanted to be who she was and from her I learned what it means to have the strength of your convictions but also to be proud to be a Bahamian and to use your many gifts and talents any way God has put them in you. And so it is with a sense of sadness but with a sense of joy that I pay tribute to her because; whether they realize it or not, every female on Bay Street- especially the choreographed girls owe her a debt of gratitude. She is our hero. She was the pioneer. She paved the way for an aspect of Junkanoo that today we take for granted and that we enjoy so much. And so it is with a full heart that I say thank you Maureen for everything that you have done for us. And I pledge to continue to be a proud Bahamian and to ensure that we carry Bahamian culture as far as we can carry it. I had the privilege on Boxing Day of bringing my four year old grand-daughter out here to rush. We start them at 4 in our family. That is when I started. And one day when she is old enough to understand she will hear that once there lived a woman named Maureen Duvalier who went against the social norms of the day to express her many gifts and talents and that we follow in her footsteps every time we dance down Bay Street.”

Maureen Duvalier

Maureen Duvalier She was the second of seven children. Before the age of 10, she was on her way to a life time career as an entertainer.

Freddie Munnings Senior, then the Conductor of the orchestra at the Silver Slipper Night Club on the corner of East Street and McCullough Corner hired Maureen to work in the club. Other jobs would follow at the Montagu Beach Hotel, the Spider Web Night Club and the British Colonial Hotel Lounge. Her natural gift with native folk songs and calypso enthralled locals and tourists.

In 2004 Her Majesty the Queen awarded her with the Member of the Excellent Order of the British Empire (Civil Division) Medal.

‘Ask me why I run Tell you why I run The woman at the door Had a dog gone shot gun That is why I run’.

P

rime Minister Perry Christie saluted Maureen Duvalier as one of the nation’s greatest Cultural Warriors and a unique model for courage, community and expression at her funeral service in St. Agnes Anglican Church, Blue

Hill Road on Sunday January 4th.

Mr. Christie’s Government in July 2014 honoured Ms. Duvalier as one of 41 National Cultural Warriors on the occasion of the country’s 41st Independence Anniversary.

Known as “Bahama Mama” and “Calypso Mama” Ms. Duvalier 88, died in hospital after a short illness in late December.

…Blazed a Trail and left indelible mark on Bahamian Culture

Maureen Duvalier, ‘Bahama

Mama’, National Cultural Warrior Rest in Peace

On Friday January 2nd scores of Bahamians led by the John and Becky Chipman family, Peter and Phyllis Garroway Transport Minister Glenys Hanna Martin, Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin and her mother former Senator Telator Strachan, Leslie O Miller MP for Tall Pines, Mr. Eddie Carter of Island Radio and

representing his father The Hon. E. Charles Carter, Percy Sweeting, President of the Bahamas Musicians and Entertainers Union, Peter and Phylis Garroway, Winston C. Rolle, Leader of the Music Makers, Chris Justilien, Leader of Colours, Arlene Nash Ferguson and her husband Silbert, Chairman of the Junkanoo Commission gathered

Ask me why I run, Tell you why I run, The woman at the door, Had a dog gone shot gun, That is why I run’.

in historic Rawson Square to honour the matriarch in a memorial service.

The service was produced by the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture and directed by Cultural Officers Henry Higgins and Dr. Anne Higgins.

Ms. Duvalier’s career as a dancer and entertainer was well chronicled in the country.

Her unique calypso voice and her popular hit, “Ask Me Why I run” had endeared her to two Bahamian generations.

It was in Junkanoo that she made another mark.

She led the first All Women’s group to Bay Street in the 1958

and the group walked away with the first prize, in an era when female participation in the parade was regarded as a taboo.

Senator Telator Strachan hailed Ms. Duvalier, her lifelong friend; for her strong Christian convictions and her courage to express who she was in dance and song and her love for her country and Bahamian Culture.

Senator Strachan was one of the 25 young girls, who performed with Ms. Duvalier in their historic all female rush out.

Entertainer Nita Ellis brought sympathies on behalf of her father Count Bernardino and celebrated Ms. Duvalier with her hit song, “ Oh The Sun, The

Sand, The Sea- These Islands”.

She also promised a remake of Ms. Duvalier’s signature song, “Ask Me Why I Run”.

Ms. Ellis called on the Government to declare Ms. Duvalier’s Burial Ground Corner home a National Museum. She said the home would be a welcome heritage site in the country’s tourism list of “must” places to visit and also be an inspiration to future Bahamian artists.

Mr. Eddie Carter, representing his father, hailed Ms. Duvalier as the Diva of Entertainers and commended her for the role she had assumed later in her life as a mentor to other artists

Ask me why I run, Tell you why I run, The woman at the door, Had a dog gone shot gun, That is why I run’.

and for her insightful views and prescriptions advanced when she appeared on the Island Radio FM’s talk shows.

(See Arlene Nash Ferguson Tribute on page 132) Accomplished Bahamian musician Mr. Justilien spoke fondly of his long association with Ms. Duvalier and the long friendship that thrived with her and his Junkanoo group, Colours.

Colours put on a 90 Junkanoo Rush Out and Dance in honour of Ms. Duvalier.

Ms. Duvalier began her career right up the street from where she was raised in the Silver Slipper Night Club along with

the later Bahamian entertainer Freddie Munnings Senior. She also headlined on The Bahama Star, a Cruise Ship which plied between South Florida and Nassau in the late 1950s.

It was the golden year of entertainment for Bahamian artists.

Nightclubs- Montagu Beach Hotel, Dirty Dicks, Ardastra Gardens, British Colonial Hotel, Yellow Bird, Lemon Tree- were everywhere with major Bahamian names headlining.

Born on 14th May 1926, Ms. Duvalier’s father Eustace was a brother of the late President for Life of Haiti Francois Duvalier.

She never married and had no children. Her early friendship

with John and the late Becky Chipman would merge into a family affair with Ms. Duvalier becoming grandmother and aunt to the entire Chipman clan.

Her career took her around the world on promotions sponsored by the Development Board and the Ministry of Tourism.

Hundreds of Bahamians lined Dowdeswell Street on Sunday evening as the funeral cortege escorted by hundreds more of Junkanoo performers rushed Ms. Duvalier to her final resting place in the Eastern Cemetery.

The funeral service and interment was conducted by Archdeacon I Ranfurly Brown.

Did y ou kno w?

Roxie Roker

Roxie Albertha Roker (August 28, 1929 – December 2, 1995) was an American actress, best known for her role as Helen Willis on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons (1975-85), half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television. Roker was born in Miami, Florida. Her mother, Bessie (née Mitchell), was from Georgia and worked as a domestic, and her father, Albert Roker, was a native of The Bahamas and a porter. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

Roker began her professional career with the Negro Ensemble Company and became a successful stage actress. She won an Obie Award in 1974 and was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal of Mattie Williams in The River Niger. She was a reporter on WNEW-TV in New York in the 1970s and hosted a public affairs show for the station known as Inside BedStuy, dealing with events in the Brooklyn neighborhood. She appeared in guest starring roles on many United States television shows from the 1970s through the 1990s, including “Stone in the River” starring Hal Miller for NBC Punky Brewster, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, A Different World, Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, 227, and Beat the Clock. She also had a small role in the television miniseries Roots and in the movie Claudine. Roker was also a children’s advocate who was cited by the city of Los Angeles for her community work. She is primarily known for her role as Helen Willis on The Jeffersons.

The Sailing Barber ...

Interview with

Amanda D. Coulson

Our Ashley Williams sat down with the New Director of The National Art Gallery Amanda D. Coulson who gave us an indepth look of the direction of The Gallery.

AW: Tell us more about yourself, how you approached your appointment and what are you hoping to achieve at NAGB in 2015?

AC: I am a Bahamian who, due to lack of opportunities in my field (art history and crucial theory), lived for most of my professional life abroad, in the U.K., Italy, Germany and the United States. I worked in art galleries, museums and was an established art critic for many years. Together with my husband, we founded 2 international art fairs—trade shows for art galleries, essentially—in Basel, Switzerland, and New York, USA, which have become among the top art appointments in the annual art calendar internationally and get 20,000-40,000 visitors each. As an art critic, curator and international fair director, my expertise ranges therefore quite broadly from the academic to the commercial market. It was with profound happiness I noted the founding of the NAGB in 2003 as it signaled that my country was serious about supporting and promoting

Bahamian art and academic research into the arts; up until then, the art scene was really driven by individual artists and by grass roots organisations.

I have to be honest and say that until Dr. Erica James, my predecessor, indicated she was leaving the position, I had not really ever seen the possibility of returning home; there had never seemed to be a place for me, which was disheartening, so I greeted my appointment with both joy but also some trepidation. Dr. James had also laid a strong foundation and would be a hard act to follow! As a young institution, however, there was still much to do, particularly with international outreach—getting Bahamian art known and appreciated outside of our own shores and supporting artists to reach a larger, global art market—but also internally, in growing appreciation for the arts and making a visit to the NAGB a normal family activity, like going to the zoo or the aquarium, not something that is only for tourists.

In 2015 we will continue with the programming to cast a wide a net as possible; we recently made EVERY single Sunday FREE for Bahamians, so there is really no excuse to NOT come to the NAGB! But our main focus is the push to raise the funds for the development of a public green space, sculpture garden

and outdoor education center on the museum’s grounds, which would be a beautiful space of respite in our city for all residents and visitors alike.

AW: Is the wider Bahamian Public in your opinion appreciative of NAGB and how are you ensuring that the widest possible community and or national involvement is achieved in keeping NAGB vibrant, stable, relevant and revolutionary?

AC: The people that know the NAGB appreciate it very much and come often; we have a really solid base of supporters and I am grateful to them.

Also, we are—at every opening, every talk, every workshop—reaching a wider audience with new faces always showing up and discovering this absolute treasure that we have here. In terms of the “larger public,” however, no; they barely know we exist let alone appreciate why we exist. However, I can understand this. Our nation is very young and the idea of “going to the museum” on your day off or with visiting guests is simply not something that most Bahamians grew up with as an option, so it is not a normalized activity or even yet a compulsory trip for school curriculums, which I feel it should be. While I do feel that the arts and art appreciation—which is extremely important in identifying and constructing a national identity—is not as widely promoted through schools as it should be, ultimately the onus is on us to communicate who we are and why the work we do is important. So part of your question is spot on: how do we maintain the vibrancy and underscore our relevance? This is slightly different to how we also continue to be revolutionary because, as we all know, the majority usually prefers the status quo, to be

confronted with security and images of what we are familiar and comfortable with, so the NAGB has to maintain a very delicate balancing act between delivering a meaningful programme that speaks to the everyday but also delivering shows that will ask audiences to re-think their inherited opinions. I think we're managing both by activating the permanent collection to stage shows like “40 Years of Bahamian Art,” offering free films and enjoyable family-friendly activities, like kids’ art workshops and Easter Egg hunts, while still using the temporary shows to show perhaps more challenging work, with supporting talks’ programmes. Our visitorship has grown from about 1800 visitors in 2010 to almost 10,000 in 2014, so I think we are on the right path!

AW: Let’s review 2014. Tell us about the old year’s Calendar of activities at NAGB as it relates to your Exhibitions and shows?

AC: 2014 was pretty amazing in my estimation, even if I am biased! The year kicked off with Kishan Munroe’s multidisciplinary project “Swan Song of the Flamingo” As the youngest artists ever to be given such a massive solo showing on the upper floors of the galleries, it was quite groundbreaking and I think reassuring for many artists that we didn't only want to show the traditional elder “masters” but were supporting the new generation.

Munroe himself pulled out all the stops: Bahamian art has almost never explored History Painting in the grand scale and he gave us a startling and moving account from our recent history with a suite a large0massive paintings about the sinking of the HMBS Flamingo. This important chapter in the formation of our cultural identity was something many Bahamians were not aware and

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we had school children, Defense Force officers, Cuban officials and diplomats, all kinds of people, coming to the gallery and leaving deeply moved.

This was followed by “The Ace of Spades,” curated by the artist John Beadle, which was a tribute to Gus Cooper, one of the founders of the Valley Boys junkanoo group and also explored the history of Junkanoo. It was the second Junkanoo-themed show that we’ve done at the NAGB since I started, which is more important than it sounds: before the Jackson Burnside memorial in 2011, Junkanoo had never been represented at the National Art Gallery and of course it brings in audiences that we might not otherwise reach, so I feel it’s of significance to acknowledge that Junkanoo is far more than the parade: it’s stagecraft, design, engineering, sculpture. Following that was the stunning “Creations Grace,” a retrospective with over 160 works by the Minnis Family of painters: patriarch Eddie, his daughters Nicole and Roshanne, and Shan’s husband, Ritchie Eyma; we spent over a year researching where the works could be found in private homes and had some of Eddie’s earliest pieces from the 60s up to today; it was a

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stunning paean to the beauty of The Bahamas and its people with the lavish Bahamian landscapes and portraits that the family is known for. Following that very traditionally beautiful show, which underscored the tranquility and peace that can be found on our country, the NAGB then did a u-turn and opened the group show of the Seventh National Exhibition: “NE7: Antillean, An Ecology,” in which we asked contemporary artists to consider issues of race, identity, economy and privilege.

This took some artists into places where they had to confront the darker moments from our past and the tense undercurrents that still exist today as a result so the result is a heavily conceptual and critical show.

Lastly, on the ground floor—which largely relies on the Permanent Collection—that is, works owned by the NAGB, and loans from the Dawn Davies Collection and the D’Aguilar Foundation—we had “40 years of Bahamian Art,” which highlighted the development of our art scene since 1973 and now, “Bahamian Domestic,” which explores important touchstones in our culture religion, home and festival.

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AW: Your Panel discussion on “Whiteness and Privilege” are almost risqué in Bahamas and while it is a necessary conversation, how would you go even further in using the NAGB to heal the pain and concerns that came out of that discussion and bring about a more concerned national perspective?

AC: Yes, that was very uncomfortable for a lot of people, myself included, but, as you said, very necessary. We also had a discussion about “Nationality and Citizenship in Artistic Practices” that also uncovered a lot of hurt.

I feel it’s very important, for each and every show, to have a series of talks that do not ONLY discuss the art in terms of “Is it good? Why is it good?,” but in terms of “What does it speak about? What is

to address those head-on, which is why I wanted to do a show about race and identity. Bahamian-ness is not only African, it is not only European, it is a blending of those things and the heritages from each of those cultures. Ultimately we are all humans first, and Bahamians second, and perhaps then thirdly we are men and women (as gender issues are also a huge concern for many right now) and only lastly white, black, or mixed.

the story the artist is trying to tell?” Even the Minnis show, which on its surface was about beauty and tranquility, was also about living with grace in impoverished circumstances and about the terrible violence we are inflicting upon our environment.

I often say the NAGB is not just a place to look at pretty pictures, it should be a creative think tank, an engine that drives inventive thinking as to how to approach our lives and our society. What can we learn from history? How do artists—the most forward-thinking people in any community—see where we are going?

How do we implement change for the better?

Going back to the NE7 talks, there are so many stereotypes in our society and, as a multiracial culture, we really need

The reason I believe so strongly in art and culture is because it has healing powers: writing and painting can be deep forms of catharsis and what more was Junkanoo, originally, than an expression of personal freedom at a time of slavery?

Art can overcome so much and needs to be used to treat the nation’s trauma.

How we can address that at the NAGB is to continue to lead in such kinds of shows accompanied by debates and discussions on these topics and bring in as wide an audience as possible. In fact, we have just signed an MOU with the College of The Bahamas and on the NE7 already we collaborated heavily with teachers from the History and Art departments to bring in students to engage with these talks and we are also currently discussing staging one of the performances from the NE7, entitled “Haitianize” in various

communities around the island.

The NAGB has to be fearless in discussing issues of the day; art is a way to address topics without using spoken language, which can often lead to misunderstandings, and so much can be said through an image, through a sculpture, that a person can take away with them, consider and reflect upon.

AW: Are you involved in any way in promoting specialized training for very young Artists who are showing the drive, skill, talent and discipline to become great Artists? We hear so much about how such schools and training were at the ready in the 1950’s thru the 1970’s and Artists such Brent Malone were the better because of it? How can NAGB

be the throttle to get the international and local assistance our young artists require?

AC: Only in terms of helping artists understand how to professionalize their output for staging shows and helping navigate how to communicate with an institution. Things like having an up-todate portfolio with proper images and

“

artists who ask how they can have a solo show at the NAGB and this shows a naivete in how a system works, after all, you don’t graduating from college in finance and expect to be the Governor of Central Bank right away; or graduate with a law degree and expect to be a judge. No, you need to follow a long career path first, and I think this is what

With regard to reaching people from all social strata to understand what we do: that starts at school and in the home.

captions, writing a proposal, sticking to deadlines, understanding branding at the museum and collaborating with the institution to allow us to do our jobs appropriately, these are all extremely important if an artist is going to further their career.

While I don’t disagree that it would be extremely useful, as a museum our first mission is to “preserve and promote”; if we are doing anything in terms of teaching, it is more about criticism, documentation and communication, which is what this mandate demands from us.

In terms of actually practicing the craft, we are not an art school and I am not sure we should be before these other things; look at National Museums around the world: they are not giving art classes, they are teaching the history of art. Also, without places to experiment and show their work, local artists are not getting the career trajectory necessary to develop; galleries, art spaces and all such sites are as important to the artists and we need more.

I am often approached by amateur

the NAGB can help with: understanding and guiding, not so much the practical side. Artists have a career path and it IS a legitimate career, not a hobby. I would also rather—for my own purposes—see the implementation of a conservation school as much as an art school, there is a lot of art that is fading, rotting, falling apart, in institutions and homes all over The Bahamas, this could be a lucrative profession for a lot of people who can draw and understand materials.

None of this is to say that IF we rebuilt the Annex and had the space for it, of IF somebody would provide us with a grant to implement such a programme, I would be against it, no, but I feel we have other issues that are appropriate for us to

address first and it is for the schools and colleges to lay the foundations for the artists to learn their craft. I have heard rumblings that C.O.B is cutting its art department; this to me is tragic and should not be allowed to happen.

How to get the local and international

support? It starts with the nation. While I do not expect the government to simply throw money at us, there needs to be an acknowledgment, that goes much farther than lip service, that the arts are a fundamental bedrock to our community.

Before we even start talking about a dedicated Ministry of Culture, what about simply making an issue of stamps with our best artists? What about insisting—as in many other countries— that 5% of any new development is given over to arts and culture (whether in space or in financing)? What about every public building having artwork in it (not borrowed from the NAGB, please, but purchased or commissioned, the Central Bank being a wonderful example of this). What about including the fine arts (not only Junkanoo) in every ad about The Bahamas that airs internationally? What about using our artists/artworks as the faces of tourism instead of athletes and magicians?

Think about it: when you get off the pane in Paris or Rome, what is top of your list: museums and art; history and architecture. We need to get serious about our culture and heritage because if we take our art community seriously so will the international community.

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Wilkie L. A. & Farnsworth P. (2005) “Sampling Many Pots: An Archaeology of memory and tradition at a Bahamian Plantation”. Gainesville Fla. University Press of Florida.

Baxter and Burton J. D. (2006) “Building meaning into the landscape: Building design and use at Polly Hill Plantation San Salvador The Bahamas”. Journal of Bahamas Historical Society 28, 56-61, & Baxter and Burton J. D. (2005) “A Preliminary report of archaeology investigation at Polly Hill San Salvador”.

Journal of Bahamas Historical Society 27, 48, 49.

Craton M. (1988-89) “Seeking a life of their own: Aspects of Slave Resistance in The Bahama Islands”.

Journal of Bahamas Historical Society 25 (1-2).

Craton M. (1983) “We Shall Not Be Moved: Pompey’s Slave Revolt in Exuma Islands Bahamas 1830”. New West Indian Guide 57 (1-2), 19-35.

Johnson W. B. (2007) “Ownership of Slaves among Free Blacks and Persons of Colour in The Bahamas. 1821-1834”. Journal of Bahamas Historical Society 24 (4-13).

Parsons E. C. (1919) “Riddles and Proverbs from The Bahama Islands”. Journal of American Folklore, 32 (125) 439-441.

Howard R. (2007) “The ‘Wild Indians’ of Andros island-Black Seminole legacy in The Bahamas”. Journal of Black Studies 37 (2), 275.

Williams Eric E. “From Columbus to Castro. The History of the Caribbean 1492 – 1969”. NY 1970, 284.

Junkanoo Literature

Junkanoo: Festival of The Bahamas. Written by E Clement Bethel and Nicolette Bethel. (London McMillan Caribbean 1991) Bahamian Junkanoo: An Act in a modern social drama.

Ph.D. Dissertation Dr. Keith Wisdom, University of Georgia Press.

Junkanoo: A booklet of the Exhibition held at National Art Gallery Jumbey Village. Written

by Arlene Nash and Sandra North.

Roots Changing. Written by Anthony Morley. Nassau Archives Jackson Burnside Book

Did y ou kno w?

ANGELIQUE SABRINA

It isn’t often that a teenage female earns the attention of her male counterpart for something other than the chase, but Bahamian bred Angelique Sabrina is the exception to the rule. Blessed with an innate ability to charm and entertain, the sixteen-year-old songstress has yet to saunter into a room.

From radio stations to television shows, studios and arenas, Angelique is the girl next door who is earning the world’s attention by simply being herself.

Its coinciding video, assisted by famed choreographer Tweet Boogie and filmed in her native Nassau, Bahamas, beckons memories of Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat,” with her uncanny style and mesmerizing dance moves, as she leads a colourful array of dancers across the beach sands and into the viewer’s living room. The ongoing storyline develops with a delicate observation of love among assorted races and ages, ultimately capped by a cozy dinner between the Bahamian.

Music Masters Celebrates the icons of Bahamian music & culture-

WE BELIEVE IN BAHAMIAN YOUTH

DARRON

T U R N Q U E S T Director of Youth p r e s e n t s

Photography: Roderick Wells & Clifton Barry | Writers: Enue Magazine Team

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THE NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY FRAMEWORK 2.1 Vision and Mission for the Youth Mission: “The national direction for youth development is to aid young people in the successful transition into adulthood” Value Statement: “We value and respect young people as major assets in the development of our nation; we recognize the importance of building strategic partnerships with the Government, private sector and community leaders. In all our interactions for youth development we demonstrate excellence, creativity and integrity” Motto: “Engaging, Enabling and Empowering Our Youth” • Engaging: That we first engage our young people through attractive and appropriate means; • Enabling: That we provide the enabling environments for our youth to succeed.

• Empowering: That we provide services and skills training to empower them , and finally; 2.2 Definition of Youth Due to the youthfulness of The Bahamas and its status as a developing-nation, there is a need for The Bahamas to begin investing strongly in its human capital, particularly its youth, if we are to competitively on the same scale as our

counterparts. The government must provide opportunities for young people –either through the MOYSC or through different programmes so that the youth become the main beneficiaries, especially when it comes to education, employment, safety and health. It also has to be stressed that youth issues are unique in The Bahamas compared to many other Caribbean and/or Commonwealth Nations because of the extensive archipelagic land-seascape that we cover. Government support and interest in young people must become a priority to be demonstrated by providing more opportunities and favourable conditions for youth development.

It is for these reasons that the policy adopts a wide definition of youth, defining youth in the country as the age group of 15 to 35 years, male and female, similar to other developing countries and small-island states. We believe that this group signifies a separate socio-ethical category of the population who are particularly vulnerable to socio-economic changes. It is further recognised that social, cultural, and economic influences construct the positive development of youth; since all persons within this age group do not represent one homogenous group, but rather a mixture of sub-groups of 15 – 25 years (primary youth) and 26 – 35 years (adult youth) to assist stakeholders in the delivery of their programmes and services. However, for statistical purposes,

the UN definition of youth (referring to ‘youth’ as people between the 15 to 29 years) will be frequently used so as to benefit from international youth designations. This policy should guide the official designation of youth for The Bahamas and recognizes that the ages of 15-35 years is the preferred age and should be used as the prevailing age 2.3 Official Statement on Youth As recognized by the National Youth Policy Consultative Team, we declare that:

“Young people are clever and competent enough to assume responsibility for their own development and to make meaningful contributions to all decisions and on all issues pertaining to them, at all levels of society. The participation of youth in the affairs of The Bahamas is an indispensable step in the promotion of national development and responsible citizenship. Their capacity to contribute needs to be ensured in the true form of their youthful expression, creativity and strength and undertaken by stakeholders to allow them to play the central role in their own development.”

2.4 Principles, Strategy and Expected Impact The National Youth Policy is designed to ensure that there is a cohesive, recognizable and manageable national response mechanism

in place to respond to the various issues and challenges impacting young people in The Bahamas. Such response efforts must be made to equally benefit males and females, the marginalized, Family Islanders, the disabled and other sub-groupings of youth, according to their unique needs. The MOY must also ensure that there is meaningful contribution and participation from youth in making decisions at all levels. For this policy to strategically achieve its expected impact, it will be governed by the following priniciples: • Recognizing that the basis of the future development of The Bahamas begins with the acknowledgement that youth are a subpopulation with their own unique challenges, circumstances, needs and dimensions that require specific assignment of social resources towards meeting those needs • Recognizing that the basis for the building of the concept of a productive Bahamian citizen must be integrated with the inclusion of young people in the centre of the political, social economic and cultural life of The Bahamas; • Recognizing that the promotion of dignity and equal treatment amongst all citizens cannot be realized until we value young people as the most treasured national asset of The Bahamas; • Recognizing that society’s tendency to underestimate the awareness of young people as participants in the governance of The Bahamas must be countered by the meaningful and consistent preparation of young people to achieve their own vision of a peaceful, fair and equal Bahamas; • Recognizing that young people have a central role to play in all social processes and institutions and that this role is critically under-represented in government bodies and local self-government units, civil society, and particularly youth-related bodies; • Recognizing the need to encourage the existence, functioning and sphere of action surrounding the associative and active life of young people, their freedom of expression, their freedom of association, and their right

•

•

to access equal opportunities at the local and national level; Recognizing that the assistance of young people is required in overcoming the inevitable challenges we face as a young, developing, small-island nation in which young people are to be respected as an integral part in the recovery and development of The Bahamas; Recognizing the importance of strengthening young people’s moral and spiritual values by first establishing national principles of respect for basic fundamental rights and freedoms, morals, spiritual values and ethical standards to be adopted by all citizens.

This policy is designed to have a targeted impact upon all youth as defined by Article 2.1 of this document, while recognizing that affirmative action approaches are necessary to harness positive impacts from the following subcategories of young people: • Marginalized Youth • Family Island Youth (Underdeveloped Communities/rural youth) • Stateless Youth • Vulnerable youth • Unemployed and Underemployed Youth • Youth in Conflict with the Law • Inner-City Youth • Youth in State Care (Wards of the State) • Out of School Youth (Dropouts, Pregnancy, Suspension, Expulsion) • Youth infected by STDs, HIV & AIDS • YOUTH with Chronic/Terminal Health Illnesses • Youth with Disabilities • Female Youth (Young Women and Girls) • College Students Home and Abroad (Ministry of Education has priority for adolescents) • Young Professionals 2.5 Policy Goals and Long-Term Objectives The foremost goal of this Youth Policy is: “To provide an appropriate framework for the Ministry of Youth, stakeholders, partners

and benefactors of youth development in The Bahamas that will coalesce efforts to improve education, health and the quality of life for young Bahamians, ensuring that investments in youth takes place at all levels of society while creating an enabling and meaningful environment for youth participation as agents of social, economic, political and cultural change at every stage of the overall development of Bahamian society.”

The Youth policy has the following long-term objectives: • Sustainable youth development for The Bahamas by mainstreaming youth matters into the various focal areas of local and national development; • Active participation of young people in the defining of Bahamian identity, Bahamian culture and Bahamian values through expression of their own creative potential; • Social development and social integration of youth through quality formal and informal education; • Economic development through increased employment, self-employment and more competitive employment opportunities for young people; • Promoting sustainable livelihoods, healthy lifestyles, ethical standards, spiritual and moral values for young people in their living, working, learning and social environments; • Legislative development and enforcement that will promote fundamental human rights, the rights of the child, and juvenile justice reform through meaningful access to justice for young people and the adoption of the concept of restorative justice for young people; • Meaningful participation and inclusion of young people at all levels, including all social and public processes of decision-making.

• A more efficient, functioning and competent Ministry of Youth through professionalized staffing and coordinated restructuring to provide relevant services/programmes that are tangibly measured, and • The development and promotion of the youth sector as a whole by the adoption

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THE NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY of best practices, the strengthening of innovative youth initiatives and the creation of new features that the sector should be integrated into the overall scheme of youth development.

PART 2: THE NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY FRAMEWORK 2.1 Vision and Mission for the Youth Mission: “The national direction for youth development is to aid young people in the successful transition into adulthood” Value Statement: “We value and respect young people as major assets in the development of our nation; we recognize the importance of building strategic partnerships with the Government, private sector and community leaders. In all our interactions for youth development we demonstrate excellence, creativity and integrity” Motto: “Engaging, Enabling and Empowering Our Youth” • Engaging: That we first engage our young people through attractive and appropriate means; • Enabling: That we provide the enabling environments for our youth to succeed.

• Empowering: That we provide services and skills training to empower them , and finally; 2.2 Definition of Youth Due to the youthfulness of The Bahamas and its status as a developing-nation, there is a need for The Bahamas to begin investing strongly in its human capital, particularly its youth, if we are to competitively on the same scale as our counterparts. The government must provide opportunities for young people –either through the MOYSC or through different programmes so that the youth become the main beneficiaries, especially when it comes to education, employment, safety and health. It also has to be stressed that youth issues are unique in The Bahamas compared to many other Caribbean and/or Commonwealth Nations because of the extensive archipelagic land-seascape that we cover. Government support and interest

in young people must become a priority to be demonstrated by providing more opportunities and favourable conditions for youth development.

It is for these reasons that the policy adopts a wide definition of youth, defining youth in the country as the age group of 15 to 35 years, male and female, similar to other developing countries and small-island states. We believe that this group signifies a separate socio-ethical category of the population who are particularly vulnerable to socio-economic changes. It is further recognised that social, cultural, and economic influences construct the positive development of youth; since all persons within this age group do not represent one homogenous group, but rather a mixture of sub-groups of 15 – 25 years (primary youth) and 26 – 35 years (adult youth) to assist stakeholders in the delivery of their programmes and services. However, for statistical purposes, the UN definition of youth (referring to ‘youth’ as people between the 15 to 29 years) will be frequently used so as to benefit from international youth designations. This policy should guide the official designation of youth for The Bahamas and recognizes that the ages of 15-35 years is the preferred age and should be used as the prevailing age 2.3 Official Statement on Youth As recognized by the National Youth Policy Consultative Team, we declare that: “Young people are clever and competent enough to assume responsibility for their own development and to make meaningful contributions to all decisions and on all issues pertaining to them, at all levels of society.

The participation of youth in the affairs of The Bahamas is an indispensable step in the promotion of national development and responsible citizenship. Their capacity to contribute needs to be ensured in the true form of their youthful expression, creativity and strength and undertaken by stakeholders to allow them to play the central role in their own development.”

2.4 Principles, Strategy and Expected Impact The National Youth Policy is designed to

ensure that there is a cohesive, recognizable and manageable national response mechanism in place to respond to the various issues and challenges impacting young people in The Bahamas. Such response efforts must be made to equally benefit males and females, the marginalized, Family Islanders, the disabled and other sub-groupings of youth, according to their unique needs. The MOY must also ensure that there is meaningful contribution and participation from youth in making decisions at all levels. For this policy to strategically achieve its expected impact, it will be governed by the following priniciples: • Recognizing that the basis of the future development of The Bahamas begins with the acknowledgement that youth are a subpopulation with their own unique challenges, circumstances, needs and dimensions that require specific assignment of social resources towards meeting those needs • Recognizing that the basis for the building of the concept of a productive Bahamian citizen must be integrated with the inclusion of young people in the centre of the political, social economic and cultural life of The Bahamas; • Recognizing that the promotion of dignity and equal treatment amongst all citizens cannot be realized until we value young people as the most treasured national asset of The Bahamas; • Recognizing that society’s tendency to underestimate the awareness of young people as participants in the governance of The Bahamas must be countered by the meaningful and consistent preparation of young people to achieve their own vision of a peaceful, fair and equal Bahamas; • Recognizing that young people have a central role to play in all social processes and institutions and that this role is critically under-represented in government bodies and local self-government units, civil society, and particularly youth-related bodies; • Recognizing the need to encourage the existence, functioning and sphere of action surrounding the associative and active life of young people, their freedom of expression,

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THE NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY

•

•

their freedom of association, and their right to access equal opportunities at the local and national level; Recognizing that the assistance of young people is required in overcoming the inevitable challenges we face as a young, developing, small-island nation in which young people are to be respected as an integral part in the recovery and development of The Bahamas; Recognizing the importance of strengthening young people’s moral and spiritual values by first establishing national principles of respect for basic fundamental rights and freedoms, morals, spiritual values and ethical standards to be adopted by all citizens.

This policy is designed to have a targeted impact upon all youth as defined by Article 2.1 of this document, while recognizing that affirmative action approaches are necessary to harness positive impacts from the following subcategories of young people: • Marginalized Youth • Family Island Youth (Underdeveloped Communities/rural youth) • Stateless Youth • Vulnerable youth • Unemployed and Underemployed Youth • Youth in Conflict with the Law • Inner-City Youth • Youth in State Care (Wards of the State) • Out of School Youth (Dropouts, Pregnancy, Suspension, Expulsion)

• • • • • •

Youth infected by STDs, HIV & AIDS YOUTH with Chronic/Terminal Health Illnesses Youth with Disabilities Female Youth (Young Women and Girls) College Students Home and Abroad (Ministry of Education has priority for adolescents) Young Professionals

2.5 Policy Goals and Long-Term Objectives The foremost goal of this Youth Policy is: “To provide an appropriate framework for the Ministry of Youth, stakeholders, partners and benefactors of youth development in The Bahamas that will coalesce efforts to improve education, health and the quality of life for young Bahamians, ensuring that investments in youth takes place at all levels of society while creating an enabling and meaningful environment for youth participation as agents of social, economic, political and cultural change at every stage of the overall development of Bahamian society.”

The Youth policy has the following long-term objectives: • Sustainable youth development for The Bahamas by mainstreaming youth matters into the various focal areas of local and national development; • Active participation of young people in the defining of Bahamian identity, Bahamian culture and Bahamian values through

• •

•

•

• •

•

expression of their own creative potential; Social development and social integration of youth through quality formal and informal education; Economic development through increased employment, self-employment and more competitive employment opportunities for young people; Promoting sustainable livelihoods, healthy lifestyles, ethical standards, spiritual and moral values for young people in their living, working, learning and social environments; Legislative development and enforcement that will promote fundamental human rights, the rights of the child, and juvenile justice reform through meaningful access to justice for young people and the adoption of the concept of restorative justice for young people; Meaningful participation and inclusion of young people at all levels, including all social and public processes of decision-making.

A more efficient, functioning and competent Ministry of Youth through professionalized staffing and coordinated restructuring to provide relevant services/programmes that are tangibly measured, and The development and promotion of the youth sector as a whole by the adoption of best practices, the strengthening of innovative youth initiatives and the creation of new features that the sector should be integrated into the overall scheme of youth development.

Queen‘s College Arts Festival Winners NASSAU, The Bahamas – Queen’s College won the grand trophy as winners of the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival. The trophy was presented at Government House in ceremonies addressed by Her Excellency, Dame Marguerite Pindling, Governor General, and by Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson.

Pictured are QC students along front row, and in second row, from left: Head of QC High School, Mrs. Shawn Turnquest; Minister Daniel Johnson; Dame Marguerite; and Principal of Queen’s College, Ms. Andrea Gibson. (BIS Photo/Letisha Henderson)

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JULIEN

BELIEVE

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Julien Believe is Julien Thompson

A If you believe . . .

lthough Bahamian-born Julien ‘Believe’ Thompson has been singing since the age of eleven years, he has been entertaining professionally since 1998 with the group EDJ. The group disbanded after a few years and in 2005 he launched his career as a solo artist.

His dream did not come to fruition without his share of rejection, but he had angels, persons who chose to believe with him and continued to push him towards success.

The Believe Project is Julien’s way of informing the youth around the Bahamas, the Caribbean and the World, that you must believe in yourself even when no one else will.

You must seek out the passion for your life and believe you can do it. No matter what, you should never give up. Young People are stars the world hasn’t met yet.

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Julien and Bunji Garlin on the video set of the remix for ‘Live and Wine’

Sometimes I feel that this is all a dream and I am going to wake up. I live my life so that I never have to wake up.

The Bahamian Entertainment Ambassador Julien had the opportunity to travel and perform throughout the Bahamas and the United States including but not limited to New York, California, Atlanta, New Jersey, Philadelphia and North Carolina.

International Performer Julien has been the opening act for major artists such as John Legend, Boys 2 Men, Baby Face, Brian McKnight, Sean Paul, Beres Hammond, Taurus Riley, Tank, Crisette Mi-

www.julienbelieve242.com chelle, Melonie Fiona and Shontell.

Major Bahamian Exposure With his innate ability to network with the best, he has been exposed to the BET Awards as well as the NAACP Awards. He has become very good friends with Mo’Nique, the Queens of Comedy comedian.

She is one of the most influential angels in the launch and stability of his career along with Suzanne Depasse. Their words to him in strategic moments have catapulted him to the place he stands today.

He has also had the opportunity to sit and learn from the likes of Lil John, Robert Carnes and Jerry Wonder.

Singer/Songwriter Julien is a singer and a songwriter.

His group EDJ has utilized this gift.

He has also been afforded studio exposure with McFadden Productions, Hush Productions, Rothweiler Stargate and recently Truth Music Productions. He has written with and for John Legend, Crisette Michelle, Shontelle,Ryan Beatty and

continues to write for Angelique Sabrina.

The Caribbean Slide Project The Caribbean Slide is a high-energy line dance song that is being taught to people of all ages throughout The Bahamas and the United States. The vision is to have people learn the dance, record themselves performing the dance, and post it to YouTube! So far we’ve gotten rave reviews from the local and tourist markets alike.

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Tia, Tamera and Tahj Mowry The twin sisters and their famed “Smart Guy” brother are the children of not only a British American father, but a Bahamian American mother. They’ve visited the Bahamas, and say that in season three of their Style Network show, “Tia & Tamera,” they plan to explore their Bahamian roots since their recent trip there was documented. During said trip, they learned that their great-grandmother left the island of Eleuthera at the age of 16, had the chance to meet long-lost cousins (some who were also twins), and more about their culture. Safe to say, they’re loving their Bahamian roots.

EMANJI CIRCUS ARTS, the "First Bahamian Circus", providing first class circus performances in lyra, silk cloth, trapeze arts, juggling, fire manipulation, stilt walking, contortion, chinese pole, trampoline, human and still object balancing, spanish web and much more.

Show Cast Members Keron Knowles - 24 yrs Shonte' Cargill - 20 yrs Creshanun McPhee - 20 yrs D'andre Brown - 20 yrs Dumeko Adderley - 20 yrs Toneko Johnson - 20 yrs Tiffell Hamilton - 20 yrs Marnarrey Lightbourn - 19 yrs Aaron Albury - 18 yrs Danya Dean - 18 yrs Danielle Whymns - 17 yrs Selina Stuart - 16 yrs Jahmai Grant - 15 yrs Ashley Gayle - 15 yrs Antonio Greenslade - 15 yrs Mechael Russell - 15 yrs Dontae Dean - 14yrs Volunteers Vernice Cargill - Russell Giovanni Wilkinson Barbara Dean Gia Davis Gilda Scavella

Our Ashley Williams sat down with husband and wife team- creators of Emanji Circus Arts AW: It such a pleasure to talk with the Power Couple of Circus Arts in the Bahamas. Tell BAAM more about who you are. How did you guys first meet, what led you to form Emanji Circus Arts, has your work and your students become your extended family?

EMANJI: We met at the National Dance School of The Bahamas 22 years ago as dance and acrobatic students of the school. After coming home from abroad in 2002 Jarvis performed on his own in various hotels and after reuniting in 2006 during a silk aerial workshop by Graciela Lije` (held at the National Dance School) and getting married in 2007 we decided to try to change the present climate of the entertainment industry.

We found that foreigners were getting all of the jobs because it was being said that there weren't any skilled persons in The Bahamas. We wanted to change this and decided to expand our reach to the youth of the nation and help build the entertainment industry so that, in our regards, it could never be said that skilled persons were not in this country. We

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created Emanji Circus Arts and the Social Circus Programme in September 2009. Our Mission Statement is to provide quality Circus Entertainment in The Bahamas by: 1. Passing on the art form to the youth through training 2. Providing excellent and wholesome entertainment that can be enjoyed by all persons from all walks of life 3. Generating more interest in circus arts and further develop the entertainment industry in The Bahamas through performances.

Goals: Emanji Circus Arts seeks to add value to the Bahamian cultural entertainment product by: • Providing opportunities for persons in the Bahamian community to experience Bahamian live entertainment at its best by mounting a minimum of two circus productions per year • Traveling and mounting productions in New Providence and the Family Islands to increase the awareness and appreciation of professional theatrical entertainment in the wider Bahamian community Emanji Circus Arts seeks to add value to the Bahamian educational product by: • Providing young persons with professional training, exposure and experience in international-standard theatrical performances • Providing an environment that fosters creative discipline, positive thinking and the development of learning skills • Providing opportunities for the correlation of the performing arts discipline to life lessons through mentorship • Stimulating youth imagination through workshops and the theatre experience • Being the cornerstone of concerted cultivation giving participants experience with leadership, the arts, self reliance, self motivation, and self management thus creating a powerful precursor to psychological inner strength • Inspiring youth to consider pursuing careers in the theatrical and cultural entertainment industries thereby enhancing the Bahamian cultural product and ultimately developing a diversified Bahamian economy.

• Emanji Circus Arts seeks to add value to the

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Bahamian tourism product by: • Providing opportunities for tourists to experience more than the traditional sun, sand and sea vacations • The Emanji Circus Arts Social Circus Training Programme currently provides training for over 30 youth between the ages of fourteen (14) to twentyfour (24). The programme is free to participants and was created to train persons in The Bahamian community to become professional artists as well as to provide a safe and engaging environment that strengthens confidence and character.

• With the mindset that any person can become at risk, regardless of background, and that the decisions to do crime is more prevalent for those between the ages of fourteen (14) and twenty-two (22), the training programme provides an alternative option to the “traditional” afterschool programme and is geared towards persons who are at least age fourteen (14) who have an interest in the performing arts. Persons are not required to have any prior knowledge or experience but must be willing to learn and work hard.

BENEFITS TO TRAINING PROGRAMME PARTICIPANTS Through the participation in the Emanji Circus Arts Social Circus Training Programme participants are helped to become contributing members of society because they are afforded the following: • Opportunities for growth and learning not found elsewhere • Positive and healthy alternatives to risky behaviours such as promiscuity, drugs, alcohol and tobacco • Less time and chances of committing or being the victim of crime • Exposure to another avenue of employment that is not typical thus increasing their chances of gaining and or creating their own employment Participants of the programme learn and develop social skills and show more self-confidence. They also exhibit more positive feelings and attitudes toward the pressures of life and are more willing to share their talents with society. To date, over 60 youth between the ages of 14 and 25 have benefited from participation in the programme.

CIRCUS PERFORMANCE CURRICULUM TAUGHT: Participants of the programme are taught the basic skills of many different performance arts.

They are taught how to safely perform the art form and eventually how to teach the craft so that it can be passed on to others.

We began with a crew of 10 in September 2009 and held our first show at the Rain Forest Theatre in March of 2010. Over the years students have come and gone but the ones who are truly artists at heart are still in the field working in the entertainment departments of some of the top hotels in the country. We not only teach circus skills but we also teach life skills.

Our students have indeed become like family to us and we are happy when they succeed, cry when they hurt and administer tough love when they need it.

AW: Describe the scope of the impact that you would say Shirley Hall Bass has on Performing Arts in this country? What about Ms. Bass’s life and legacy still drives what the Grants do?

Both of us were highly influenced by Mrs. Bass.

She took us under her wings, took us into her homes (both in Nassau and in Chicago) nurtured us, groomed us and exposed us to what true professionalism is.She taught us the discipline of the arts and that variety is key. She has impacted so many persons in this country some of whom are some of the prominent people of our society. Some do remember their experience while others have

seemed to forgotten what the arts have done for them and how the arts have helped them attain the great careers that they have now.

EMANJI: We are continuing to do what she has taught us and have pledged to pass it on to the youth we come across.

AW: Sir you came out of a Public School C H Reeves and grew up on First Street in Coconut Grove, the heart of the inner city in the early 1970s.

Were you at all afraid to be identified as a Dancer with Ms Bass’s school and did your parents or guardians think this was something that you could make a career out of or later raise a family off?

Same question for you Mrs. Grant?

EMANJI: Jarvis- Actually, I graduated in 1992, not in the 70's. NO I was not afraid to be identified as a dancer and actually was apart of the dance group "Simply Nasty" before I joined the National Dance School however, I was not supported in this at an early age and it wasn't until I got older that my mother came around and embraced me as an artist.

Dereka -My parents were very supportive especially my mother, who was a Master Music Teacher in the Government system for more than 30 years. She made sure that I was well rounded artistically as I was involved in music, dance and drama during my childhood. From the age of 3, I was enrolled in dance and music classes and throughout my school career she always encouraged my love of the arts by sacrificing for the many concerts, ,exam fees , lessons , costumes etc. She always told me the sky is not the limit and that anything positive can be achieved once

you were willing to work hard for it. Through her support and her example, I always knew and felt that I could make a living from my art.

AW: Tell us more about your College experiences and you and your wife’s journey’s abroad and your work in foreign?

EMANJI: Jarvis - I did night classes at the College of The Bahamas and attained in AA degree in Art while working at Breezes Superclubs where I was the Circus Coordinator and Trapeze Artist . I was a member of the traveling cast of the broadway hit “Bring In Da Noise Bring In Da Funk”. After Breezes I went on to become a part of Cirque de Soliel and was also apart of the travelling cast of UniverSoul Circus. I came home in 2000 and worked at Our Lucaya Resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama where I was the circus trainer. I then went out as a one man act performing and teaching circus arts in Nassau.

Dereka - In 1997 and 1998 I attained my AA degree in Music and my Diploma of Education in teaching from the College Of The Bahamas. I then went to New York to Hunter College to attain my BA in Music, Dance and Drama (triple major) and a certificate in Arts Administration from New York University. I danced on Broadway in the "Lion King", and in various dance companies such as Black Feet Dance Company and Alvin Ailey II . I moved to Chicago and attained my Master's degree in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago and a Certificate in Youth Development from

the Illinois Youth Development Department and worked for companies such as New York Offstage, The Chicago Cultural Center, Theatre Building Chicago and Music Theatre Workshop (now known as Storycatcher's Theatre). At Music Theatre Workshop I worked with "at-risk" youth to create musical productions based on their life stories. It is there, under Meade Palidofsky the director, that I really developed the skills of how to develop the youth through the arts and help them realise their potential and foster positive life skills.

of the struggle for Artists to make a decent living in this country from their craft, how can we fix this or is it worth trying to fix?

EMANJI: The only way to fix this is to instil in the minds of our upcoming artists that you never stop learning or honing your craft. There is always something to learn and training is continuos. Just because you get a job that doesn't mean that you now know everything and that there is nothing else for you to know. In order to be able to charge the big bucks you have to be worth it and to be worth it is to keep striving for perfection.

AW:How does it make you feel when you discover raw talent on the streets of Nassau and you know you will have a part in developing that person into the serious Artist they can become?

EMANJI: When we find a diamond in the rough we are indeed happy but we are aware that there are the pressures of the Bahamian life out there and do brace ourselves for disappointment. Some persons are not ready to take on the discipline that is required. We have strict rules such as you must attend school if you are of school age, no drugs or alcohol, no promiscuity within the group, you must communicate, you must appreciate the art and those not willing to follow our rules usually don't last long with our group.

AW: Is there too much mediocrity in this country when we present ourselves theatrically to the world?

Is it of any benefit to fill national events with performances from wide ranges and groups when those performances are lack lustre at best and do not meet even the basic national standards?

EMANJI: It is difficult to cast blame on those who put these events together when they are disadvantaged by the beauracracy of how the events are organised. There are persons in this country who are of world standard, however they are either never approached to perform or expected to perform for little or nothing and are not respected enough to be paid the amount they ask for. The only benefit is that the performers get to experience performing in a national event, however the entire production is disadvantaged when everyone or most of the performers are of a low standard.

AW: People tend to rush training in this country.

No one wants to endure the full length of pupilage.

It’s not uncommon for a student to find a job in a hotel or on an entertainment circuit which can pay him well but that student is not yet fully trained to international standards. Given the economic facts

AW: In the country of Sidney Poitier and Bert Williams, Maureen Duvalier, Peanuts Taylor and

Paul Meeres, Eloise Lewis, The Beginning of the End, Dr OFFFF, Theophilus Coakley, Johnnie Kemp, Hubert Farrington,, Freddie Munnings Senior- why does it appear that the entire Caribbean region has surpassed the Bahamas in the international star quality of their Performers and the ability of their artists to generate mega dollars in their industries?

EMANJI: It all boils down to Respect. There is little to no respect for the arts and culture in this country. Older generations have told their children to not pursue the arts, to go and be the lawyer or doctor or computer technician because the arts are no way of life but yet they don't realise that when they watch tv it is a musician who created the sound track for the commercial, the actor who is their favourite character of their favourite movie or tv show, the dancer who created the "hully gully". Suppose Denzell Washington's mother or father made him be a lawyer instead of supporting his acting career?

Yes there are only a few who will actually make it to the international scene but with support there will be more and more (as we are now seeing in sports) and those that don't will be home adding to the culture. Culture comes from the people and speaks of who we are. Artists should be treated like doctors and lawyers. You don't wake up in the morning knowing how to climb a silk cloth or play a trumpet at an orchestral level. Just like how doctors and lawyers went to school for years to hone their skills, artists do the same.

When you walk into a doctors office and pay what they are asking for because you know you are not

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paying for the 5 minutes they are seeing but for all of the years of training they have acquired, the same goes for a professional artist, you are not paying for the 5 minute performance, you are paying for the years of training that they endured to become the professional that you see, hear and want.

AW: There are no Cabaret or shows in your genre in this country. One would think that with the 6 million tourists we greet every year there would be a line that stretches from the Airport to Lincoln Boulevard of picketers lined up to see your shows.

Why is this not happening?

We are aware that advertising and marketing is our weak point and this is something that we are working on. With very little funds and practically no sponsorship, the little money we have gets spread thinly and the students of our programme get most of it. However, we do have dedicated audience members who come to our shows every year and they increase in number with every show.

AW: These kids involved in these training programmes have every right to expect that they will be able to make a living, a decent living here and abroad from what they are so passionate about and endure so much for their training. What more or less do you need from the Government and the Private Sector to make the Bahamian Dream a reality for your students?

Support us. Hire Emanji Circus Arts for their events. Those who have seen these young people perform can attest that they are very talented and are of a professional standard. We are also in need of a proper training facility.

AW: Tell us a little bit about your students, who they are where they come from and what do you see the world has waiting for them?

EMANJI: Our students come from all walks of life but mostly from single parent homes in the inner city of New Providence such as Englerston, Nassau Village, Pinewood Gardens, Bain Town, and off Carmichael Road. They are between the ages of 14 and 23 and attend or attended public and private schools and even home schooling.

We also have students who are currently pursuing college degrees abroad. Our students are those who are wired artistically who do not survive "Happily" in a regular work environment because all they think about is the arts.

The world has much to offer our students.

Endless opportunities and experiences once they are willing to embrace it and take advantage when they arise.

AW: I know you don’t like to talk about it but it is very clear that this operation you guys have cause you to dig deep into your pockets. Tell us the real secret of what motivates you?

The need to see the youth reach their potential and the betterment of the entertainment industry.

AW: What would you like to see happening in the primary schools for children at an early age to better condition and prepare and select or identify Bahamian artists in the rough or about to bud?

EMANJI: The support and encouragement of the arts through scheduled classes and after school programmes.

AW: When you put on your shows in this country what international standards are you meeting and can these shows go on the road to other countries?

EMANJI: We are meeting the international standards as set forth by the European and American standards and of course our shows can go out to be performed in other countries. We would also like to go to our Family Islands to show them who we are and expose the youth to circus arts.

AW: I have often heard it said that even Culture in this country operates on the old standard of “kisses

go by favors”. Do you now think that as producers it is your job to get yourselves out there and make the world sit up and pay attention to our product rather than to wait for discovery or a miracle to take you to the bright lights and the Broadway?

EMANJI: Yes it is important to put yourself out there so that you can be discovered. We do a lot of performances throughout the year for various organisations to make ourselves as visible as possible.

AW: Before we end tell us how you have been able to BAHAMIANIZE parts of your act. You have obviously done work internationally. Looking at your troupe’s repertoire in dance, limbo, fire, magic, trapeze… how you have added that distinctive Bahamian cultural favour. I know how the Irish dance and the acrobatics of the Chinese. Where is your signature Bahamian accoutrement?

EMANJI: The Bahamian accoutrement can be found in the story line of our productions. It is also found in the style of our movement and in the music which is all Bahamian made.

Youth Entrepreneurs Latess Bartlett

Latess Bartlett is an honour student the Grand Bahama Catholic High School now amalgamated as Mary Star of the Sea Academy; she currently has a 3.87 GPA, and is a culinary student in the 11th grade. She aspires to become a Master Chocolatier and is looking forward to pursuing her goal at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in Orlando, Paris or Australia.Her craze for chocolate grew from travel opportunities and viewing various confectionary shops and their delightful desserts. The Lindor chocolate commercial along with various food network shows gave her added inspiration. For her 15th birthday, Latess opted to have confectionary supplies and equipment that she could start her own business, to help with her college tuition, which she fitting named; ‘Chocolatess Island Delights’. This innovative culinary whiz kid has taken an assertive and bold initiative towards her career goal and created her very own original chocolate recipes.

Creatively integrating indigenous island flavours, her ‘Chocolatess’ products include distinctive pallet pleasing fruitiness. Many have enjoyed this ambitious young girl’s product including former Governor of the Bahamas, Sir Arthur Foulkes; Minister for Grand Bahama the Hon, Dr. Michael Darville. Additionally, Latess showcased her products at the Grand Opening of Immerse Bahamas and was recognized by Prime Minister of the Bahamas the Hon, Perry G. Christie, who was impressed with her merchandise and professionalism. The Prime Minister encouraged Latess in her entrepreneurship endeavors and complimented her as a role model for other youths. Her chocolates made their international debut as table treats at the July 2014 Manufacturers Tradeshow in California. Latess uses every opportunity to showcase her products at food shows locally and internationally.

Isaac Missick

Isaac Missick is 17 years old. Though born in Nassau, New Providence, he was raised in Grand Bahama. Isaac is an articulate, focused and determined young man. In June of 2014 he graduated from St. Georges High where he served as Deputy Head Boy, Top Debater and a recipient of the Vice Principal’s Service Award. Throughout his high school life he earned many reputable awards and secured a number of BGCSE’s and BJC’s such as the 2014 Most Distinguished Achiever in Grand Bahama, The Jr. Achievement National Speech Winner, Most Outstanding Student Christian Movement Member and the Most Outstanding Technical Cadet Student Awards. Isaac, along with a team of achievers, started a company named “Island Paradise” in January 2014. Using our very own Morton salt as a key ingredient, Island Paradise produces hand feet and bath scrubs in a variety of tropical scents. Isaac is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. He wants to marry finance, marketing and entrepreneurship to promote all things Bahamian.

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FRANKIE ZCHIVARGO YOUNG- A career that took us through the early 1970s to his 2014 release of “Oh Children of the World. Let’s find a solution”, his distinctive voice and guitar gave us “Pumpkin, Banana, Peas n’ Corn”, a classic calypso.

WELLINGTON GIBSON“Some play golf with one or two tiny balls, Dat‘s something I can’t do at all, Am in love In love with the Bahamas”. And Wellington Gibson burst on the scene in the early 1970s when calypso messaged our Visitors and sold the fun and excitement of the new country and our patriotism.

HORACE WRIGHT (d)- An Educator with a cockney baritone whose radio programme in the 1970s defined purpose, drive and pointed Bahamians towards excellence.

HEDLEY EDWARDS- Ardastra Gardens Founder (d)- Legend has it that he journeyed to

HEDLEY EDWARDS

the Bahamas from his native Trinidad, built a dream home and wonderful gardens on a hill overlooking Bozene Pond and got his heart broken when his lady love declined his marriage proposal. But Hedley Edwards put his love into his Ardastra Gardens, the country’s first zoo, where he taught Flamingos how to dance and filled Bahama parrots with nursery rhymes.

WILLIAM JOHNSON (d)Seafloor Aquarium Founder.

His family established the country’s first marine park in Chippingham. School children in the late 1960s got their first lesson on our ocean environment. A moratorium on Green Turtle and Hawksbill Turtle shell jewellery manufacturing shut down an important part of his souvenir business. Enter the Conch Shell.

His volleyball playing dolphins and hand shaking sea lions was the draw. Then came the Israeli water park Coral World, just across the street from his and the

ANTHONY “SKEEBO” ROBERTS

FATHER FRED FLEISCHER

Seafloor Aquarium sadly shut its doors. Karma was lurking and along came Atlantis and Coral World too was history.

50 productions. Can be heard on afternoon radio, using his enchanting voice to take listeners down memory lane.

CHRISTIAN CRAIGG PRATT (d)- A tragedy. Flamboyant and artsy, he left C. C. Sweeting High School in the early 1970s, settled in New York where his fashion career seems like it could take off. Then he was dead. Falling 21 floors in what was seen as a suicide… love unrequited.

CAY GOTTLIEB (d)- Hailed from Marsh Harbour Abaco.

Settled in Freeport Grand Bahama. Opened Cool 96 Radio.

A tragic ending after he gave us “Half Breed … Sweet Delight” and a number of calypso hits.

MARGIE BARR - “Made up my Mind To Go on Without you”, sang Ms. Barr and Bahamians heard our very own Gladys Knight. “Yes. Am gonna make it, Am gonna make it’ Without you.”

ABIGAIL CHARLOW- A show stopping Jazz and Blues routine endeared her to many.

ANTHONY “SKEEBO” ROBERTS- The celebrated maestro of the stage. He has appeared on stage in more than

DEACON WHYLLY (d)- The lead singer at the Le Cabaret Theatre in the days of splendor at Resorts International.

SPARKMAN FERGUSON- A celebrated Church of England organist.

FATHER FRED FLEISCHERA celebrated musician and theologian taught his craft for many years in the nation’s high schools. His influence and mentoring inspired many of today’s artists.

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W. A. G. BAIN (d)- His class room on the end of Market Street from the St. Agnes PreSchool churned out hundreds of Bahamian students.

PEPPER JOHNSON- A Diva.

She was fashion ignited on a run way.

ANDREW MCKINNEY- The Dean of Protocol who made us all proud as he took front line with the Royals and Heads of State to display our charm, hospitality, warmth and decorum.

DUNSTAN BABBS- So synonymous with the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band it was often colloquially called “Babbs and Police Band”.

TRIXIE HANNA (d)- One of the early pioneers of Beauty Culture in this country. She opened doors for a wider range of learning and training in the USA and helped gel the formation of a new organization which would be

TRIXIE HANNA

CAPTAIN FERNLEY PALMER

the forerunner to cosmetologists advancing their international exposure and skills. Her Mount Royal Avenue Saloon where she ruled the roost with a team of beauticians who inspired men and women to look and feel their best.

Trixie’s was the conversation piece around town, where customers looked forward to weekends for their makeover and the delightful conversations.

PERCY SWEETING AND HOLIDAY EXPRESS- Mr. Sweeting, The President of the Bahamas Musicians and Entertainers Union and Holiday Express hold the record as one of Nassau’s longest running bands and their popularity remains on stream.

APPLE ELLIOT BANDPreviewed in the Magic City Freeport, Grand Bahama.

ROMEO FARRINGTON- The Gentleman of the Limousine and taxi service and the original

APPLE ELLIOT BAND

promotional face and voice of Bahama Host.

ALLAN INGRAHAM (d)- Hailing from Palmetto Point Eleuthera, his Colony Taxi service dominated the Prince George Cruise Ship dock in the early 1960s. Mr. Ingraham brought signature professionalism to his transportation business. It was said that out of every ten tourists to walk off a cruise ship, Mr. Ingraham shook the hands of at least five and welcomed them to the Bahamas.

PAT GOMEZ- Former president of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union, and another distinguished Bahamian who brought a signature brand to their taxi and limousine transportation business.

JIMMY MILFORT, ECONOMY JITNEY - Hailing from Port Au Prince, Haiti, and Jack sat behind the steering wheel of Economy Jitney for more than 60 years, moving two generations of Baha-

ROMEO FARRINGTON

mians from Englerston, Centerville, Kemp Road and East Street to down town.

SEAN HANNA (d)-The energetic craftsman behind the Nassau Music Society.

HUBERT CHIPMAN- He broke off from his father, John’s junkanoo operation to co-form The Vikings in the early 1980s. Still hitting the goatskin drum with his dad in the Welcome Center.

DRANNA (d)- People came from all around the island on weekends to visit her kitchen in Bain Town where were conch fritters, potato bread and turkey drums sticks were a must have.

MENA WALLACE- Hailing from Ragged Island, her Bahamian delicacies keep tourists and locals returning for her native dishes at her down town establishment, where Bahamians are doing the cooking.

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MERVIN SWEETING

JIM RUSSELL (d)-Although closed, His “Palm Tree” hamburgers and lemon merengue pie from his Market Street business, right under the arm pit of Purity Bakery, remain legendary. His conch, grouper, chicken and mutton dishes were enjoyed from the inner city to the suites on Paradise Island.

MERVIN SWEETING- His sister Bertha’s award winning sauce not only caused her name to become the brand of the family business, but Mervin Sweeting, hailing from Deep Creek Eleuthera, is a Bahamian story of how a dream pursued can be fulfilled.

GUS CARTWRIGHT- Hailing from Long island with his mother’s recipes; his Checkers’ franchise has been feeding hungry Bahamians for over 30 years.

GEORGE SKANDALARIS- The Grand Olde Man of Bay Street. His Skans Cafeteria is as well known a Bay Street landmark for cruise ship passengers as the Hilton Hotel.

NAOMI BLATCH

Well into his late 70s, he continues to manage his operation and provide the hospitality and food which has kept his doors open for more than 45 years and brought Greek fusion to the country’s food fare.

GENE TOOTE (d)- “The Baron” or “Mazookie”, hailing from Long Cay, Mr. Toote was one of the early pioneers in the “numbers” lottery business in the country. Selftaught, he could debate any topic and his personality earned him friends across the political divide.

PERCY MUNNINGS (d)- A legend of a Bahamian, The “numbers” lottery business became his signature brand and his honesty and integrity in his business kept him el numero uno.

FEALY DEMERITTE (d)Credited with giving dignity to the poorest of Bahamians, Mr. Demeritte provided a distinguished business to the country from his Market Street operation. So respected were his

RALEIGH BUTLER

services that many Bahamians instructed before their death that they wanted Mr. Demeritte’s services.

JANE BETHEL (d)- She took over the family business, when her husband Marcus was lost in a plane incident. From her Nassau Street operation.

NAOMI BLATCH (d)- One of the country’s great Educators. The John and Blue Hill Road School is named in her honour.

RALEIGH BUTLER (d)- Mr. Butler became the name and face of the influential political Butler family in the mortuary business.

He introduced the crematorium to the country, trained a number of local morticians and provided a service so distinctive that here again; persons requested his service before their deaths.

CYNTHIA LOVE (d)- A St. Agnes Church luminary and another distinguished educator, whose students’ reach stretched

VINCENT “GEECH” FERGUSON

from Quarry Mission Road to what became known as “The Bottom” to all of Nassau Street and heading back to Blue Hill Road for over half a century.

VINCENT “GEECH” FERGUSON (d)- A professional baseball career, denied him, this distinguished Catholic Educator earned the respect of hundreds of his students at St. Augustines College, Aquinas College, and his later years entered the public school system at the A. F. Adderley School. An avid sportsmen, he encouraged strength of mind and academics in his students with athleticism.

BASIL “BAZZ JAZZ” COOPER (d)- n author and journalist, Mr. Cooper began “Speaker’s Corner” in the mid-1980s, allowing for a forum for discussion and debate and to meet the press.

CLARICE GRANGER- A work horse in the Girls Brigade movement.

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BEV SMITH

BEV SMITH- The formidable Black American Radio Talk Show Diva, who continues to promote the Bahamas on her shows and in her regular visits, has become involved in topical national issues.

TED SWEETING - Mr. Sweeting began his funeral trade in his father’s business. A Templar in the Grand lodge movement, his Blue Hill Road business is amongst the oldest in the country. Thousands of Bahamians filed passed the body of fashion designer Harl Taylor, in the Sweeting Colonial Mortuary, where the murdered young man, sat behind a desk, immersed in his design work.

J B BARRY (d)- The erstwhile “correspondent” for Radio Bahamas ZNS news hailed from North Eleuthera, and his home spun reports and inglorious mix of grammar, syntax and pronunciation got the story told but also left listeners rolling in laughter.

CYRIL ST. JOHN STEVENSON MVO (d)- A formidable Journalist

BEVERLY MONCUR

THE MOSLEYS

and Politician. Former Member of the House of Assembly and one of the original founders of the PLP. His incisive editorials in The Nassau Herald, railing against the then established White merchant oligarchy is credited with under girding the intellectual shift which dismantled that system on January 10th 1967.

TART MAN (d)- What began as a hobby turned into a business and from the corner opposite the NIB on Blue Hill Road this gentleman could not get coconut and pineapple tarts out of the oven fast enough for his faithful customers.

THE MOSELEYS (d)- The Moseley’s came here from their native Jamaica. They operated a Gas and Service Station on Boyd Road Chippingham and when Bahamians took a liking to the Jamaican patties sold on the counter at the station, Original Patties was born.

Today operated by their son in a modern bake shop on Tonique Williams Darling Highway, is a story of how success is about per-

CYRIL ST. JON STEVENSON

severance and working with stuff with which one has a familiarity and knowledge.

BEVERLY MONCUR- Hailing from Jamaica Beverly made The Bahamas her home many years ago, pulling herself up as a liquor shop manager for Audley Kemp and Sons. Struggling to find a niche for her Jamaican cuisine as she entered the business world, her Beverly’s Kitchen, Carmichael Road, has brought a Caribbean fusion to native dining.

MARJORIE CONLIFFE- Another home run business, where her baking skills brought thousands to her shop off Carmichael Road in search of wedding cakes, birthdaycakes, hot cross Easter buns and her breads.

RUDY WILLIAMS- The orchestra conductor, hailing from Spring City Abaco by way of San Salvador, Rudy‘s musical talents held sway at the Silver Slipper Night Club, right under the dilly tree at East Street and McCullough

CLARICE GRANGER

Corner. His weekend matinée close out with “When the living is easy- Stardust” made way for his replacement- the legendary Freddie Munnings Senior. Rudy moved to New York putting his music talents to work there.

RONNIE AMBRISTER - One of the great versatile crooners The Bahamas has produced. Known for his hearty laughter and his endearing stage personality, Ronnie has graced stages across this country and the USA and is particularly favoured for his range of golden oldies. A voice velvet and distinguished to belt out Gospel; Ronnie is also revered for his contribution to the BMEU and his drive to keep local talent employed and relevant DR. ESFAKIS (d)- DR. HALE (d) and DR. GERASIMOS- These medical doctors who hailed from three different countries, brought Family Medicine with a social conscience to their near down town Market Street clinics.

HOW BAHAMIANS SPEND THEIR SUNDAYS

T

Observing Sundays in Paradise

here is something inherently special about Sundays in Nassau. Something so profound, so identifiable, so surreal that it can instantly be recognized without prior knowledge of knowing what day it is. Travel to any other country and the difference becomes clear.

W

hilst in Florida, the hustle and bustle may continue as though it were any other day; in Nassau things

tend to slow down a bit. Some businesses close their doors earlier than usual while others don’t open at all. As a result the island exudes a feeling of calmness throughout.

By: Cordero Williams

The change can be felt in the atmosphere. Tranquility and serenity overtake the island, coalescing into a sweet lull. Gentle breezes slowly rock the tree branches back and forth whilst the sun shines ever so brightly above the island.

For this one day,in Nassau, everything is simply harmonic.

Bahamians have taken advantage of this fact as Sunday routines have long since become tradition. From sunrise to sunset the customary Bahamian Sunday has

revolved around reflections; usually starting by attending a church service and ending with a good nights rest.

Sunday morning worship is a staple in almost every Bahamian home; whether it be by praising God in front of the pulpit or praying with a pastor on television. Being predominantly Baptist however, and always in need of a blessing, most Bahamians find their way to church. Those who rise early usually opt for the

Sunday morning worship is a staple in almost every Bahamian home

morning service which starts at 7:30am and ends at 10:30am. The most popular service however tends to be the one which runs from 11:30am to 1:30pm. After church, some time is spent mingling with the congregation but afterwards people usually head home to start preparation for Sunday’s dinner.

Wives busy themselves in the kitchen, cooking up a storm.

Children start on chores/ homework and fathers supervise. The

entire household works together to get their respective jobs done.

By this time it is well into the evening and dinner is prepared; the aroma of Sundays dinner wafting through the air. The feast commonly known as Sunday dinner is one to behold. Succulent and mouth watering, some say its the best part of the day.

Varying from house to house some side dishes may change but the plate never truly deviates from the original, which is: peas n’ rice, baked chicken, macaroni

and potato salad. After dinner, dishes are cleaned and bathes are taken after which recreational activities can ensue.

This past-time also varies from house to house. Sunday evening drives have long been a tradition in the capitol as well as spending time with family members to hang out, catch up and reminisce. Goodman’s Bay and Junkanoo Beach are favorites for families that want to enjoy some fun in the sun, partake in long

beach walks and reflect on the week that passed. Some families choose to go to the movies, while others opt out and stay at home, choosing to grow together the old fashion way.

After the fun has been had, its once again time for bathes to be taken. As evening transforms into night, the time to rest arrives; to gather strength for another week and to prepare for the traditional Sunday once more.

Did y ou kno w?

Paul & Tanya Hanna They are the power couple of entertainment in The Bahamas. For more than 30 years Paul and Tanya have been at the top of the game in entertainment. Internationally they have opened and or appeared with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Chic Corea, Stand Getz, Jeffrey Osbourne, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Butler, Maine Nightingale, Peabo Bryson, Melba Moore, Denise Williams, The Temptations, Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval and Nancy Wilson.

Paul is considered the all-time Jazz great of The Bahamas but his range is classical, pop, R & B while Tanya has grooved into a Latin sound with a highly acclaimed Brazilian medley focus.

The Hanna’s made history when they celebrated in a Golden Anniversary Concert at Government House with a performance under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency the Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes and Lady Foulkes. Paul and Tanya’s son, Troika, also a highly acclaimed musician who resides and works in Nashville joined his parents on stage for some numbers and then the family high light was Troika’s two year old daughter, Aria, who brought the house down with her gorgeous voice.

Paul arrived on the scene a highly polished and trained artist with skills on the keyboards, the drums and the guitar. Tanya grew up in a house of musical instruments being the daughter of the late Bahamian music instructor Sidney Woods. Paul landed his first major job as an entertainer with the legendary night club businessman King Eric Gibson and from that day on he has continued to develop his skills and his range of performance.

His first album release, “Good Times Society” with its ten songs drawn from a multiple range was a local best seller and critically acclaimed for the polish and new avenues Paul took his music and his vocals. Tanya has found new interest in Health and Nutrition and in New York in November last year she began a tour of her new work, “Embracing You”, the book was launched at a reception in Nassau at Graycliff in December. The Hanna’s have shown that they are a force in Bahamian entertainment and their range is always under construction. In other words come expecting to be entertained, come expecting to hear their music soar to new heights.

Music Masters Celebrates the icons of Bahamian music & culture-

THE AMBASSADORS

Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, received HE Ambassador Ed Bethell and world travelled Bahamian Entertainers and Drum Masters, John Berkley Peanuts Taylor and John Chippie Chipman.

Peanuts and Chippie congratulated the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson on the Publishing of the BAAM Cultural Magazine.

Minister Johnson, the Executive Producer of the Magazine, indicated that the upcoming Issue, will be quite special!

It was also revealed, that considerable attention will be given to expanding the introduction of Bahamian Culture, overseas.. the Bahamas will strengthen its standing on the International Cultural Stage and Travel Markets, in collaboration with the Ministries of Tourism and Foreign Affairs.

Without giving details, Hon.Dr. Daniel Johnson,Minister of Youth,Sports and Culture, alerted those present, to his intention to put in place, Exceptional recognition, for a select number of deserving culturalists, entertainers and performers.

He indicated,that the formalities were being worked through.

HE.Ed Bethell, expressed his regards and support for the Cultural Rebirth and congratulated the Hon.Minister for his commitment and leadership in Culture.

"This Year, we will take the Bahamas Cultural Brand, to the World, like no other time before", concluded the Minister.

It is Still Better in the Bahamas!

Highlights from Minister Johnson’s Communication to Parliament on “The 2014/2015 Mid Term Budget”.

Minister Dr Daniel Johnson highlighted key areas of focus and strength in his portfolio during his contribution to the Mid Term Budget in the House of Assembly on Wednesday February 18th, 2015.

DIVISION OF YOUTH ”The focus of the Division of Youth over the last few months has been that of building and reviewing programmes that would provide the best results and respond strategically to the issues faced by our young people. In 2015 my Ministry has made it a priority a focus on youth and the provision of an enabling environment for young people to become successful and engaged citizens. This year the Ministry celebrates the passing of an important document, The National Youth Policy of The Bahamas. This document requires the Ministry to act on ma key issues and with the assistance and support of all stakeholders in government, private and civic sectors.”

Cont‘d - Highlights from Minister Johnson’s Communication to Parliament on “The 2014/2015 Mid Term Budget”.

GARY WILLIAMS JUNIOR “The story of GARY WILLIAMS Junior is one that I must share. Gary Williams Jr has been connected to our Ministry in a number of different programmes. Gary first came on the scene literally when he showcased his talents with Mrs. Terez Davis-Nixon in the Youth Development through Arts Programme and our current Afterschool Theatre Arts Programme at the Government High School. As a result of his involvement in these programmes, Gary appeared in two stage plays that required a significant amount of discipline and time management. His passion for the Arts also earned him a role in Shakespeare in Paradise. Gary successfully completed the Youth Development through the Arts Programme and moved into the Fresh Start Programme. After training to become an Apprentice Butler, Gary was placed on Job training and within two days of job training he converted his internship into a Full time Job. Gary is only one of the many success stories of the Fresh Start Programme. I take this opportunity to applaud him and the other shining stars of this programe.”

TRAINING PROVIDERS “I wish to extend our sincere thanks to the

following Training Providers that have assisted us:1. The Training Department of the Ministry of Tourism 2. Bahamas Technical &Vocational Institute 3. Unique’s Beauty School 4. Coterie of Caribbean Butlers 5. Continuing Education and Extension Services of the College of the Bahamas.

6. Full Scope Mixology Training 7. Community Cadet Barbering 8. Synergy Bahamas 9. Cyber Technology “This Programme has set the standard of employment readiness programmes in the country.

I am resolved that the doors opened by this programme for our participants, coupled with the overwhelming success of this programme in the Island of Grand Bahama, proves the strength of my Division to provide relevant and revolutionary programming with significant impact.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE ARTS & YOUTH IN ACTION “Under the direction of Mrs. Terez DavisNixon, my Ministry has been focusing on an

afterschool programme that provides a perfect marriage between culture and youth. The cast of thirty five young people have made a significant impact on over 2000 youth through the stage play production “THIEF OF LOVE” which addresses youth and immigration. We thank Ring Play Productions for their ongoing support and the staff of the Dundas who played a major role in the success of these productions.

I am also pleased to report that due to the overwhelming success of this stage play, the Ministry is currently securing funding to restage the play. I am also excited to report that Mrs. Davis-Nixon has taken on another project called, “Youth in Action” that provides young talented artists the opportunity to showcase their talent in a coffee house setting. The last event took place in partnership with Starbucks as a corporate support and we wish to thank the Harbour Bay Location as well as Mrs. Inga Bowleg for their partnership with our Ministry.”

JOB CORPS “Mr. Speaker in an effort to reduce youth unemployment, my Ministry conducted research

along with bilateral discussions on the use of “best practices” in neighboring countries to address the priority issue of youth unemployment. Emerging from the discussions is a viable option that may best address the Bahamas’s challenge through the introduction of a hybrid version of the United States Jobs Corps Programme; a programme which has existed for more than five decades in that country. This Programme is intended to directly compliment the efforts of our Fresh Start Programme.”

NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS “The Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture in collaboration with the Ministry of Education

will reintroduce the National High School Championships to the nation. The event is scheduled to be held in the National Stadium from March 4-6th 2015. This event will bring together both public and private schools for intense c competition similar to what our neighbors to the south have established. Sixty schools have already indicated their intent to be

there to participate.”

NATIONAL DANCE SCHOOL “The National Dance School of The Bahamas continues to excel in al styles of dance and drumming and students are now performing at professional levels in both areas. With the continued growth of enrollment, the Dance School has outgrown its present facility and is in disparate need of a new one. The present number of students is now at 603 and the staff is doing an excellent job in their instruction and development of our young people in these areas of the arts. The School has as its mission to train and develop professional dancers and drummers and to date there are three (3) dancers and six (6) drummers

from the school studying their respective arts in colleges abroad. The annual ‘Drumming and Dance Concert’ which show cases what the students have learnt over the school year 2014/2015, is promised to be a thrilling experience of our talents young people and will be held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts from April 16th -18th 2015.”

INVOLVEMENT OF THE YOUTH “A Memo of Understanding has been signed between the College of the Bahamas to encourage more classes in history, art social studies, literature and journalism to be taught at the NAGB or with its involvement through the using the collection as a teaching aid and encouraging students to consider the myriad of art careers beyond the practical: art historian, critic, cursor, registrar, technician, fabricator etc. The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) has also agreed to assist COB in the planning and development of an Arts Centre Building and museum for the campus and in planning the curriculum for a full Bachelor’s Degree in Art History and Curatorial Studies in preparation of University status”.

FAMILY ISLAND OUTREACH “In order to ensure that the ‘N” in NAGB stands for ‘National” and not “Nassau”, the institution has taken as active role as possible with the limited travel funds available in engaging the Family Islands: Education Officers have been sent to both Long Island and Grand Bahama to engage and judge local art competitions; in Eleuthera small shows have travelled to the Haynes Library in Governor’s Harbour and the NAGB is currently in conversations with theTarpum Bay Arts Centre to bring shows and educational programmes to Eleuthera, including a summer programme for COB students to spend several weeks assisting in their summer programme.

Director Amanda Coulson travelled to Grand Bahama to give art lectures in preparation for the upcoming BGCSE exams and plans are underway, in collaboration with the Port Authority to bring NAGB exhibitions to Freeport in the projected Museum of Grand Bahama, where a space for the NAGB has been negotiated as part of a private development. A full range of art catalogues published by the NAGB is also being donated to all island libraries.”

Did y ou kno w?

Al Roker

Everyone’s favorite weatherman…or at least, the only weatherman a majority of people know by name, is actually the son of a Jamaican mother and a Bahamian father. In case you were wondering, Al Roker is the cousin of Roxie Roker, Lenny Kravitz’s late mother. Anywho, Roker reps the Bahamas pretty hard too, as he took the Food Network along with him to the Bahamas to film “Al Roker’s Bahamian Reunion Special.” In the special, he went back to learn more about his grandparents, and to also fish for…fish in Nassau and Exuma. He even had a cookbook that offered up a recipe for the much loved Bahamian dessert, guava duff.

NASSAU, The Bahamas – Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie and Mrs. Christie, centre, were among the many guests who enjoyed the Bahamas Heart Foundation Ball on Saturday at Melia Nassau Beach Resort. This year, the Golden Heart Award was presented to A. Bismark Coakley, MBE, pictured right as he accepted the award for his consistent humanitarian work, particularly with physically challenged children. (BIS Photo/Peter Ramsay)

Inspection of the Guard in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba – Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie, right, and President of the Republic of Cuba Raul Castro had diplomatic discussions this morning and immediately afterwards inspected the Guard of Honour at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana. Present at the Inspection of the Guard were members of the Bahamas delegation: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration the Hon. Frederick Mitchell; Minister of Financial Services the Hon. Ryan Pinder; Minister of Investments in the Office of the Prime Minister the Hon. Khaalis Rolle; and Bahamas Ambassador to Cuba Her Excellency Alma Adams. The Prime Minister traveled to Cuba on Sunday to attend the 18th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community. (BIS Photo/Peter L. Ramsay)

Prime Minister Meets Bahamian Students in Beijing

BEIJING, China – Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, first row, centre, met Bahamian students in Beijing Thursday evening. Also shown are: fourth right, front row, Minister of Transport and Aviation the Hon. Glenys Hanna Martin; fourth left, front row, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister Sir Baltron Bethel; and sixth right, second row, Charge d’Affaires at the Bahamas Embassy in Beijing Sheila Carey. (BIS Photo/Peter Ramsay)

Building a Culture Industry in The Bahamas

“The Culture Industry in the United States employs 1.3 per cent of their population and generates nearly $30 billion in revenue’ the recent designation by UNESCO of Nassau as a “Creative City” is the first step for The Bahamas to build such a revenue but more can be done by developing arts programming (visual, theatrical, musical) to encourage the Visitor to stay longer and explore more of our unique heritage”.

-Dr. Daniel Johnson Minister of Youth Sports and Culture.