Silbert Ferguson, chairman of the Junkanoo Committee of New Providence, speaking yesterday as the organisation promotes the inaugural Shack of Fame Awards event. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff
TWO of the three men to hold the title of Prime Minister of The Bahamas are due to be enshrined in the Junkanoo “Shack of Fame”, a creation by the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence (JCNP) to “immortalise” Bahamians whose contributions to the genre have been deemed outstanding.
Prime Minister Perry Christie and his predecessor, Sir Lynden Pindling (posthumously), headline the list of seven to be inducted into the Shack of Fame for the first time on October 7, having satisfied the JCNP’s requirements of no less than 50 years of exemplary involvement in Junkanoo and are also “outstanding Bahamians in their own right”.
Other inductees include Percy “Vola” Francis, John “Chippie” Chipman and Arthur Gibson, the first chairman of the JCNP, as well as Maureen Duvalier and Winston Gus Cooper (posthumously).
The inauguration of the JCNP Shack of Fame will take place at Government House on the Friday before National Heroes Day. At that time, the seven inductees will receive “gold jackets” and have busts of themselves unveiled, which will be created by noted Bahamian artist John Beadle.
According to JCNP Chairman Silbert Ferguson, the JCNP Shack of Fame induction ceremony will take place annually.
“There are just thousands of Bahamians who have made all of this so possible for us,” JCNP Chairman Silbert Ferguson said on Friday. “Junkanoo is our gift and when Christmas arrives we are so interested in opening our gifts, and once the gift of Junkanoo is opened we are able to look inside we see all the beauty. And that is ‘the shack’ we’re talking about.
“And so for those persons who shoulders we stand on, who we start to immortalise, to remember, we just want our nation and persons who will be visiting our nation to basically start to read into the deep and rich history of our most beloved Junkanoo.”
According to Ivoine Ingraham, chairman of the Events Committee, the JCNP plans to add to the significance of the enshrinement of the seven inductees by including an inscription beneath the busts, which will outline that person’s history and involvement in Junkanoo.
“This is going to be history that people gonna be able to look at and go back to, because I’m sure most of the names other than the names that politically associated you’d probably recognise,” he said. “But there are some names you probably have never seen, never heard, because the people are unsung. And so the unsung heroes we’re trying to celebrate.
“Since time immemorial Junkanoo was considered for the people ‘over the hill’, the crazy people, the people who really didn’t have much, who wasn’t connected with anyone. And Junkanoo has emerged since then, and people who may not be recognised for anything else in their lives, who have put in countless hours to help produce these costumes, who you never know about, never hear about, never see, it’s time we speak to that. It’s time we say thank you to them or show them our appreciation.”
Mr Ferguson said for now, the JCNP plans to keep the busts in the corporation’s Norfolk House office on Frederick Street until it locates a suitable venue to display them to the public.
Denzel Rolle, JCNP Treasurer, said the JCNP has already identified a good location.
“The space we want is our spot that we had on Prince George Dock, where you have a lot of cruise passenger traffic, and we want our spot,” he said. “One thing I often say to people, ‘when someone gives you something, you’re not supposed to take it back’.
“You know we have a thing for that in The Bahamas, hog style. We want our spot. And I think its a prime location. It’s good to get persons in and out in a nice way, and I’m putting it out there, we would like to have our spot on Prince George Dock.”
By Nico Scavella, Tribune Staff Reporter
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