Despite reports that the Shell Saxons Superstars filed an injunction filed against the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Neville Wisdom, and Permanent Secretary Harrison Thompson to delay the Junkanoo awards ceremony that was scheduled for Friday, The Guardian was reliably informed that the matter was “thrown out” by the presiding judge.
“I understand that the injunction was thrown out by the judge, apparently because the special committee had gotten an agreement from all the Junkanoo leaders that they will abide by whatever decision was made,” Jackson Burnside, a leader in the Junkanoo community told The Guardian on Sunday.
An independent review committee in February declared the Valley Boys the official winners of the 2004 Walton “Sax” Taylor New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade, beating the Saxons by three points. The ruling by the committee overturned January’s ruling by the National Junkanoo Committee (NJC).
At first, it was the Valley Boys, who had unofficially won the parade. But then, the NJC declared the Saxons the winners after a second tally. The move, sparking controversy in the Junkanoo community, forced Minister Wisdom to appoint a special three-member committee headed by attorney and former PLP MP Paul Adderley, assisted by Mr Ishmael Lightbourne and Dr Hervis Bain on January 17, to determine which group won the parade. The committee spent weeks combing through the score sheets, recalculating the group “A” scores before the subtraction of penalty and other points.
Based on the review, the Valley Boys were again declared the winners of the New Year’s Day parade with a score of 3,417 points, while the Saxons pulled in 3,414 points.
According to reports reaching The Guardian, before the committee began its work, it was agreed by all parties, including Junkanoo leaders, that all would abide by its ruling. However, The Guardian was told, the Saxons filed the injunction.
It is understood that Mr Wisdom and Mr Thompson, who were named as the first and second defendants respectively, made an appearance in court on Friday. They had apparently informed all Junkanoo leaders Thursday night that the award ceremony was put on hold until after the court hearing.
When contacted, Mr Thompson told The Guardian that Friday’s award ceremony had been set because it was the ministry’s understanding that the Junkanoo groups had “agreed to abide by the decision of the special committee, and that is what we were basing it on.” Further, he said, “I am advised that the court has ruled in favour of the minister and the AG. So we will proceed with the prize giving on Tuesday.”
Attempts by The Guardian to contact Valley Boys leader Winston “Gus” Cooper and Saxons Superstars leader Percy “Vola” Francis proved futile up to press time.
According to One Family Junkanoo group secretary Arlene Nash-Ferguson, the whole upheaval “sets a bad precedent and I would not like to see this become the norm. There has to be another way to sort out the problem, and I think, for the rest of this year, we need to concentrate on that, so that by the time as the new season opens, we have put a procedure in place that every Junkanoo group is comfortable with and prepared to abide by.”
She noted that many times One Family found itself at the point where the Shell Saxons Superstars are now. She said to lose was very disturbing, especially when one believed to have won the parade but the powers that be said otherwise. However, at this point, she said, it was time to move on and the Junkanoo groups had to do everything within their power to put in place a system that would work against this kind of thing re-occurring.
“The competition is really, to my mind, a very superficial part of Junkanoo. As an educator, I discovered several years ago that Junkanoo is a powerful tool to teach our young people. They are motivated by it the way very few other things motivate them. And I think as junkanooers, we really have to make every effort to put the competition in context and see that there is so much more to the power of Junkanoo,” Mrs Nash-Ferguson said.
She hoped that the Junkanoo community would put this unfortunate incident behind them and move forwards united for the good of Junkanoo. Said Mrs Nash-Ferguson: “I think it is very important at this stage for us not to take sides and for us not to condemn people. You don’t know how the pain feels until the shoe pinches you kind of thing. I think every Junkanoo group has been in that place. But now the question is: How do you resolve it? How do you come up with a system that makes people trust it, even if they do not agree with the decision, which is a very tricky thing to achieve? And I think that is going to be one of our challenges as we move forward in this campaign.”
Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
