The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Junkanoo is a centuries-old part of our Bahamian tradition and a direct link to our African heritage that was brought here by enslaved Africans where it fell on fertile ground and has flourished. Three days ago, the streets of Fox Hill reverberated with the sights and sounds of Junkanoo for Emancipation Day celebrations. We proudly claim Junkanoo as ours, The Bahamas being one of the places in this part of the world where this festival is still seriously and consistently celebrated with complete vigour and appreciation!

Having stated the obvious facts above, I would like to invite you to take a short journey with me to try to make sense of the next set of foolishness that has greeted me this blessed morning!

In December of 2023, The Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training along with The Bahamas National Commission for UNESCO, announced with much fanfare, The Bahamas’ “significant cultural achievement” of having successfully registered Junkanoo to be inscribed on the Representative List for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), a 2003 UNESCO Convention. This decision was made during the Eighteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the ICH Convention that was held in Botswana, Africa.

For the past several months on social media, mention has been made of an upcoming International Junkanoo Festival and Exhibition of Tourism and Culture being apparently held on September 4-8 in Toronto, Canada (it had originally been slated for April or May 2024). a video of an official launch of the event in Jamaica was sent to me today and was the trigger for this letter. In this particular video, there is no mention whatsoever of The Bahamas, although an earlier look at the website did list a Bahamian’s name that is no longer there.

In 2018, Creative Nassau, one of the first Cities in the Caribbean to be designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, applied to UNESCO for Bahamian Strawcraft to be inscribed on the ICH Register, but we were unfortunately not successful. That year, Jamaica received the ICH inscription for Reggae Music.

In light of the above mere days since we celebrated Emancipation Day, I ask: “make it make sense”! There is utter and disgraceful folly happening in the above sequence of events.

So who is in charge, who is checking, who is protecting, and who is safeguarding our culture and our heritage?

My late husband, Jackson Burnside III, admonished many years ago in one of his letters to the press that we need to “own our own, otherwise someone else outside will claim it.”

Silence equals consent. Speak up, Bahamas!

PAM BURNSIDE

New Providence 

August 8 2024.