The Editor,
In part one of my letter to the editor entitled “Serious Financial Concerns About Junkanoo Questions Go Unanswered” I promised that I would follow up my letter with part two which would address the possible political connections regarding the mad dash to attach names to both of our national major Junkanoo parades.
The Hon. Neville Wisdom in a press conference held on Friday October 18th at his East Hill Street Office made this announcement and confirmed that a decision was reached to name the forth coming Boxing Day and New Year’s day parades after two well deserving Bahamians.
The Boxing Day parade would be named after Tyrone “Dr. Offff” Fitzgerald and the New Year’s Day parade would be named after former Valley Boy and now Roots founder Paul Knowles.
Minister Wisdom stated during a press conference that graced the front page of the Saturday, October 19th, 2002 edition of the Nassau Guardian, that “as of this year and those to follow, all parades will be named in honour of persons who have made tremendous contributions to the art of Junkanoo”.
This decision from first glance has the appearance of national good but after careful thought and consideration of what Junkanoo means to thousands of Bahamians, it should be clear that no individual or group should be “attached” to any of the now five Junkanoo parades.
During my appearance on Junkanoo Talks a few weeks ago, the Minister confirmed that the naming would take place as planned and when questioned as to why this decision and these two individuals, the Minister indicated that both persons were selected by the revamped National Junkanoo Committee (NJC).
As I indicated in my first letter on this topic, a private meeting with representatives from all major and smaller Junkanoo groups is not the wider consultation that was promised during the recent election campaign.
Junkanoo belongs to all Bahamians, regardless if they are black, white, PLP, FNM, CDR’s etc. Junkanoo should be treated as a national treasure and not as a political toy.
When haste decisions concerning Junkanoo have been thrushed down our throats at the pace they have been coming in the past few weeks, one has to ponder if the Minister has another agenda other than the national good at heart?
The fact remains that the general populace was not consulted about naming our Junkanoo after anyone. There was no early mention of the desire to so, no polls conducted in the newspaper, on radio or other wise.
The bottom line is that nothing was done to gain the perspective from the wider community before making such an important decision.
It is because of the manner in which this and the other decisions were made concerning the ill thought out Junior Junkanoo move and the hosting of the two so called float parades that one could conclude that politics and not nation building is behind the moves.
These decisions have the smell of politics for several other reasons, one being the fact that at a concert to honour Tyrone “Dr.Offff” Fitzgerald several months back the Prime Minister took the microphone and publicly proclaimed that in addition to the tributes and honours being bestowed upon Mr. Fitzgerald, that there was more to come.
One has to wonder if this Junkanoo naming is what the PM meant by “more to come”.
Interesting enough only a short time after this announcement by the PM that Mr. Wisdom went full blast with his Junkanoo tagging proclamation. The PM also made it no secret that Dr. Offff is a boyhood friend and I think it is also interesting that Mr. Paul Knowles and Mr. Christie are both from the Valley even though Mr. Knowles now leads The Roots Junkanoo group.
The nation knows that Mr. Christie is a Valley Boy, so much so that he even waived attending an important meeting of world leaders at the United Nations a few months back to attend this year’s Valley Ball where he was being honoured, I guess he felt the ball was a more important global event. So lets break it down, Dr.Offff is the PM’s boyhood friend and Mr. Knowles is the PM’s Valley Boy friend, hmmmmm.
Now to these so called float parades, which if you can call a few church based marching bands and a few lead costumes backed by a mini rush out a float parade then I guessed your not well traveled.
Mr. Wisdom announced at the above mentioned press conference that the two planned float parades will be named after Valley Boys CEO Winston “Gus” Cooper and Mr. Saxon Superstar himself Percy “Vola” Francis, again two well deserving Bahamians.
This move is rather interesting in that one would have thought if there was to be any naming of the major parades on Bay Street they would have been named after Gus and Vola first since most Bahamians including children would more quickly associate Junkanoo with these two men than the ones first in line to receive the branded honours.
However, let it be stated clearly that even if Gus and Vola were tapped to get the Bay Street honours I would still maintain my position that no name or personality should be attached to Junkanoo.
This is no way to suggest that these four men are not deserving of some honor but this is not the route in which to ensure that at least two of them get their roses while still with us.
I am sure through� wider consultation� that many ideas of how to best honour these and other unsung heroes of this great art form could have been suggested but we never got a chance to have our say.
This was confirmed as a mistake or an oversight by Minister Wisdom himself who “promptly” called into the Theresa Moxey Ingraham hosted “Issues of the Day” show a few weeks back when informed the topic was Junkanoo.
During the interview with the Minister, Mrs. Moxey-Ingraham asked the jack pot question on live radio as to why there was no “wider consultation” before all the new decisions were made and if there would be before an official announcement was made.
The Minister quickly responded that he would attempt to host some type of forum in which to garner the nation’s opinions and thoughts “before” his already planned press conference that coming week to unveil his much to do about nothing plans to “rescue Junkanoo.”
Well that interview happened on a Friday and the Minister’s conference was hosted the following Friday and as you guessed no promised consultation platform was hosted, another bogus pledge.
A caller into this same show suggested that the Minister is acting as a one-man decision-making machine and by the looks of things I could not agree more.
A private meeting with the voiceless members of the National Junkanoo Committee and Junkanoo Leaders is not and I repeat not wider consultation.
The fact remains that the Minister and whom ever made this decision to “brand” Junkanoo by attaching names to the parade annually did so by their own standards and not by the country’s.
Well there is yet another problem with this idea of branding. Junkanoo is already branded, and the parade is already named after someone, the salve John Canoe from which we get the name Junkanoo.
So how in the world can you double brand or double name a parade. That’s like the NBA saying that the annual basketball finals would now be called the Michael Jordan Charles Barkley Championship Games or the Jamaican government renaming the Norman Manley airport, the PJ Patterson Norman Manley Airport.
Also you would probably never see our Caricom neighbours like Trinidad naming their Carnival after one of their Soca kings or Barbados attaching a name to its annual Crop Over festival.
Since Junkanoo is already named after someone, why in the world are we trying to tamper with our cultural history and roots.
Oh but I forgot that Mr. Wisdom and the PM had no problem committing historical assassination when they agreed as a cabinet to rename Discovery Day to National Heroes Day, another national event violated without wider consultation.
Mr. Wisdom and Mr. Christie obviously don’t care about the opinions of Junkanoo lovers and consumers because if they did they would cease this bogus political attempt to reward their friends before time elapse.
If they felt that these men should be honoured they should perhaps name some cultural building after them or even name the major cash prizes after them during next year’s Junkanoo awards ceremony.
A lot of people are quietly questioning why this rush to name our parades so soon after coming to office, one again has to wonder if the Minister does not have some selfish and political agenda at stake.
Junkanoo belongs to all Bahamians and at no time should we seek to inject any type of division into the parades. Junkanoo is one of the only time Bahamians get together, putting behind political or religious differences and pull for the group of their choice. It’s the only time of the year where the young, old and even the disabled come together under a banner of unity and nationalism to celebrate our most treasured art form.
We risk crushing all of this by seeking to ensure that only certain individuals are considered over others.
Even if the Minister seeks to balance the scale by annually rotating the honorees, the next concern that will spring to life will be who should or is deserving of being first.
Some can argue that a longer living icon like John “Chippie” Chipman should have been at the head of class. Some could even argue that both Mr. Francis and Mr. Cooper should have been this year’s Bay Street Kings considering their pop like association with modern day Junkanoo.
Again this is not to suggest that neither Mr. Fitzgerald or Mr. Knowles are not equally deserving as Mr. Chipman, Francis or Cooper but all these worthy gentlemen should have been spared this type of private and public reasoning.
If the reasons for these urgent name tagging was cultural and not political, then a transparent process to arrive at the present conclusion should have been undertaken.
Also the facts that politicians are caught up in the decision mix and not the wider community leaves the whole process smelling like political patronage than national recognition. National treasures like Junkanoo should be protected by the constitution to discourage easy access by meddling politicians.
Perhaps the Minister and the PM have no political agenda concerning this move, however that remains to be seen. Perhaps both men really sincerely feel that Bahamians like these four men should be honored for their contributions on a national level year after year.
To this I would agree but naming Junkanoo is not the way. With this said I will wait to see if both leaders do the right thing and postpone this move and gather the wider consultation as they promised.
I would like to end by offering a word of advice to both men “A good man always keeps his word”.
Peace and blessings
Yours, etc.,
Kevin Harris
