ARLENE NASH FERGUSON
Maureen Duvalier, a Bahamian cultural icon, died on Friday at Princess Margaret Hospital at 88. Her funeral is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on January 4 at St. Agnes Anglican Church. The following is a tribute to Duvalier by Junkanoo icon Arlene Nash Ferguson.
It was an unusual circumstance: the Boxing Day Parade on New Year's Day, and the New Year's parade on January 7.
But it was not this situation that made the New Year's parade of 2005 an incredible experience for me. The greatest moment came as I approached Rawson Square - it was there that the little girl in me finally saw an old dream come true.
Christmas time on the Hilltop in the 1950s was magic - a glorious whirlwind of school plays, Santa's gifts, and shiny black shoes under the tree for church. And once Christmas day welcomed the night, a new excitement set in.
As Sax Taylor and his Punch Bowl sounded the first drum of a uniquely Bahamian Christmas, the neighborhood poured into the street to join the rush to Bay St.
And amidst the music and cries of sheer glee, a question began to reverberate through the crowd. It sprang from the lips of Henny and Omie, the two older girls rushing on the side of me, and was picked up from one street corner to the next until everyone was asking the same question with an almost trembling anticipation: "The boat in?"
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"If the boat in, Maureen will be at Junkanoo," they answered excitedly. And that was how I first heard the name of Maureen Duvalier.
By the time I saw her on Bay, she was already a legend in my mind, simply because of the almost reverent tones in which her name was spoken on the Hilltop. And she did not disappoint.
Maureen came down the street leading her girls, and I was mesmerized by knee-high black boots and short yellow satin skirts that touched the road when the girls got down on their knees and leaned back until their shoulders touched the ground.
It was the stuff of which memories are made, and the memories stayed with me, like a bouquet of roses, safely tucked in the greenhouse of my heart. I had seen the great Maureen on Bay. Wouldn't that be something to rush with her!
The years came and went, and some 30 years later, it was my pleasure to be appointed to the National Junkanoo Committee, which had only two female members - Maureen and me.
I exclaimed with delight when I heard the name, and told her of my admiration that went back many years.
We became friends, and I was enthralled by her spirit, her vitality, and her passion for Junkanoo - the compulsion that caused her one year to have the captain of the ship she was working on, tie a rope around her waist so that she could jump from the boat to the dock to catch the Junkanoo parade.
This I understood perfectly - we were kindred spirits. And through the years my love for her remained. We chose her as one of the honorees for the first Junkanoo Achievement Awards at the People's Rush in 2003, and a new generation of little girls saw the legend dancing in Rawson Square that wonderful Independence morning.
And then came this year, when a grateful nation said thanks in a bigger way by naming the New Year's parade in honor of the great Maureen Duvalier.
Bay Street rang with music and laughter, the undeniable sounds of Junkanoo, a glorious tribute to one of our greats.
We approached Rawson Square, and suddenly, she was in front of me - the great Maureen, on Bay with me, taking my hand, and dancing me into the Square. It was an indescribable moment. I could not speak, and as is her custom when performing, neither did she. The moment danced, imprinted itself on my heart forever, and then we had to move on.
I could not believe that after all these years, my dream came true, and I had danced on Bay with the great Maureen Duvalier. I learnt a valuable life lesson in that magic moment: it is never too late for your boat to come in.
Congratulations and thanks for the memories, Maureen Duvalier.
o The EduCorner is produced by Educulture Bahamas Ltd, 31 West St. at Petticoat Lane. Please address comments to Educulture@coralwave.com or 328-DRUM.
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