Tulani Bulford Shares Life Story At Gathering
Tulani Bulford, a 35-year-old entrepreneur with a passion for his community, was one of the Bermuda residents sharing aspects of their life story at the Community Gathering on the eve of Nelson Mandela Day on July 17th at the Student Hall of Bermuda College.
The event, a collaboration of ADHT, the College, Chewstick Foundation, and Imagine Bermuda, was celebratory in nature, with music, spoken word, and networking, in addition to the story-sharing.
Imagine Bermuda’s Glenn Fubler said, “For more than a decade, Tulani has been ‘walking the talk’ that speaks to Mandela’s legacy. He has been able to establish his own small business; Trident Solutions, involved in the telecommunications sector.
“While this is an example of his sense of independence, his long-term concern for those on the margins of our society, speaks to his healthy social awareness.
“Tulani credits his consciousness on the input he had from both his family and some of the teachers who provided him guidance; both at Sandy’s Sec. and the Bermuda College. He is especially grateful for his opportunity to live for a period – during his late teens – with his activist great-uncle who had immigrated to Paris, decades ago.
“In his early 20s, Tulani worked as a security guard at Dellwood Middle School. He used that opportunity to attempt to provide guidance to some of those young people that seemed to be ‘off track’. Tulani was gratified that he was able to assist some of them; leveraging his study of martial arts.
“It was at this time that he, along with some friends, organized a community group that they called Organized Chaos, which held rap sessions for young people at Dellwood on Friday evenings.
“Some seven years ago, during emergence of the cycle of violence in the island, I met Tulani at one of the community collaborations organized by Imagine Bermuda. We worked on a few projects together, which were geared to strengthen the fabric of our society.
“Our mutual trust grew to a stage at which Tulani approached me about organizing some mediation to help resolve disputes between the gangs. While I was experienced with mediation for labour disputes, I shared with Tulani my view that we would need some guidance from a person with experience in that regard.
“That episode demonstrated Tulani’s passion. On Friday, July 10, at a meeting at the Bermuda College, he reported that he had just come from Westgate, where he was making some technical adjustments to equipment he had installed at that facility.
“Tulani expressed how his he was so pleasantly surprised to have encountered one of his mentees from Dellwood who had been serving a long sentence.
“This inmate was one of the former students who often got involved in anti-social activity. Tulani was well aware of the challenged circumstances in his younger life. Some five months ago, he had met this mentee while working at Westgate and attempted to renew his old relationship by offering to bring in some books for him to read; but was rebuffed at that time.
“However, last week Tulani saw the garden that this inmate had created by himself. When they talked, it was obvious to Tulani that this inmate had made a major shift.
“Tulani pointed out that this particular inmate exemplifies Mandela’s legacy. In fact, while the inmate was proudly showing the work he had achieved with his garden, another inmate that he also knew was literally laying off, doing nothing. It was evident that one had found their freedom within themselves, while the other was waiting for someone else to offer it to them.
“Tulani is aware that this shift is a long road for this inmate and won’t be a smooth one. However, he has pledged to assist where he can as this inmate walks this path of personal transformation that will benefit all of us who share this island.”
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