Celebrating Bermuda’s National Heroes
Bermuda is celebrating National Heroes Day today [June 18], honouring those who have made “significant positive contributions to the growth and development of society,” with Bermuda’s National Heroes including Dame Lois Browne-Evans, Dr. E.F. Gordon, Dr. Pauulu Kamarakafego, Sir Henry Tucker, Mary Prince, Gladys Morrell, Sir E.T. Richards, and Sir John Swan.
The Department of Community & Cultural Affairs released a number of posters highlighting the Heroes, which you can find below.
Dame Lois Browne- Evans [1927–2007]
Dr. Pauulu Kamarakafego [1932–2007]
Mary Prince [Born circa 1788]
Sir Henry Tucker [1903–1986]
Dr. Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon [1895–1955]
Gladys Morrell [1888–1969]
Sir Edward Trenton Richards [1908–1991]
These names are an example of great Bermudians .There are many others , who in the future should be honored also . It is only by us working together can we move Bermuda forward .
My Bermuda Heroes are the ones that dedicated their life to fight for Equal Rights and Justice and spoke Truth to Power instead of siding with those who usurped their power and using the excuse that we joined them to make a change inside out.
We continue to sell ourselves as a People for economic and social status to be excepted by the entity who gave our ancestors HELL
PATHETIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As expected. Yawn. Nobody cares oj
Really? but i bet you voted PLP… the only govt in the world to OVERTURN EQUAL RIGHTS for a people. hypocrite. all you want to do is blame everything on others.. well i got news for you it’s over. get on board with the rest of us moving forward or get left behind mate.
“My Bermuda Heroes are the ones that dedicated their life to fight for Equal Rights and Justice”
You mean you support the plp who are actively removing rights from some bermudians, and despite the courts ruling against their bigotry, they’re still going to push for removal of rights from some bermudians.
You’re head must be exploding while you try to justify your discrimination, bigotry, homophobia
no hero for 2018!!!!!! WHAT’S WRONG PEOPLE????
Many countries do not induct a new hero every year.
Clearly Govt didn’t like or care about the nominations submitted. Maybe next year.
We personally nominated Quinton Edness who spent his life dedicated to making Bermuda a better place for all. It’s hard to believe the Dept of Cultural Affairs couldn’t find one person to name as 2018 Hero. I’m sure most people will agree that Quinton will always be a Hero to Bermuda .
EXCELLENT BERNEWS
It’s Sad the National Hero’s Day ( have no Bermuda Hero’s dead or living?). Shame on organizers who only see this as another day of tourist reveller, nakedness, drinking fun and money making. Long gone are the days of knowing OUR History (the good and bad) that made Bermuda
BHW is a business, not a non-profit or a govt organisation. Put your displeasure at the feet of govt for not organizing prominent activities to honour the country’s national heroes.
Some uncomfortable questions really need to be asked:
1) How do we account for Jack Tucker’s ‘heroism’ in the face of the ‘threat [to the white racist domination orchestrated by the 40 Thieves, of which he was the putative head]‘ posed by the CUAS?
2) How is it that Mazumbo, Pauulu and the Dame were all active and determined in their opposition to the wiliest of the wily, white supremacist oligarchs, the venerable Sir Henry?
3) Did Jack undercut the CUAS for the ‘greater good’ of the island’s Black majority, because he felt, in his heart of hearts, that the expansion of democratic practice to include them might somehow be injurious to them?
Methinks a leisurely stroll through some recent Bermuda history might be illuminating…..
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In August 1960, when he began his campaign (with the backing of former Howard Academy students), the only people who had the right to vote were landholders who were twenty-one years of age or older and whose property was valued at sixty pounds.
In addition, if the landholders owned land in other parishes, they would also be able to cast votes in those parishes. As a result, a landowner who held property in all nine parishes could conceivably cast thirty-six votes.
This stipulation cut a significant portion of the Black community – many of whom did not own property – out of the democratic process and heavily favoured wealthy landholders who owned land throughout the island. The vast majority of these wealthy landowners were White. This undemocratic process was known as ‘plural voting’ and had been the norm in Bermudian politics for a very long time.
Thus, despite being the numerical minority, landowning White Bermudians of voting age were able to exercise enormous influence over the make-up and legislative decision-making of the House of Assembly.
Although Lois was well aware of the unjust nature of plural voting, she doubted that Black Bermudians would organize themselves to fight against it. She had also planned a trip to Nigeria to witness the independence celebrations slated for October 1st 1960. She told Roosevelt that nothing would keep her from being present as Nigeria triumphantly claimed the right to determine its own future.
Despite her doubts, Lois agreed to speak at several gatherings. She addressed enthusiastic audiences in St. David’s before travelling to Africa.
By the time she returned three months later, the movement had grown. Huge crowds came out to hear speakers like Arnold Francis and Mansfield Brock explain what was meant by universal adult suffrage and shred arguments made by those who wanted to see plural voting remain in place.
The oligarchy was deeply troubled. It seemed as if Black Bermudians had finally realized that, once they embraced unity as a political strategy, power was theirs to claim. Clearly, something had to be done.
Widely considered to be the most powerful man in Bermuda at the time, Sir Henry (Jack) Tucker decided to take action. In Roosevelt’s absence, he called a meeting of some of the more conservative members of the CUAS.
During the ensuing discussion, Sir Henry promised them that if they called off any further public gatherings, he would personally move the motion for universal adult suffrage when Parliament met later that year.
The conservatives readily agreed, called off further CUAS information-sharing sessions and eagerly awaited the reconvening of Parliament. But Lois was not so sure, choosing instead to believe that universal adult suffrage was a reality only after it passed in the House.
As he had promised, Sir Henry stood up and moved that there should be universal adult suffrage for voters aged twenty-one and older. Immediately after he returned to his seat, another parliamentarian, Mr. Hereward Watlington, stood up and amended the motion to raise the voting age to twenty-five.
Then another parliamentarian added a further amendment that would award landowners who owned property anywhere else in the island an extra (or ‘plus’) vote in their constituency.
And, just like that, Front Street brilliantly out-manoeuvred the CUAS.
Despite all of the consciousness-raising that had gone into making the island’s Black majority aware of the real importance of the vote, the movement was undone by the strategic counterattack of the wily Jack Tucker.
The CUAS conservatives were shocked that Sir Henry had betrayed their trust, but Lois was disgusted by their naiveté. She felt that they were foolish to expect that the representatives of the people who had run roughshod over the rights of Black Bermudians for so many years would suddenly become advocates for the very people whom they had so willingly abused and neglected.
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excerpt taken from “Dame Lois: The People’s Advocate”
And now the PLP are taking Bermuda down the toilet , so your point is ?
25-11
Yup OJ just said it……..again. Thats all they have. A score. Lmao. U really cant make this stuff. Then again if u tried to ask them any intelligent question, theyd just repeat the score over and over, as usual. Lmao. Kinda like, no no no because they knew an intelligent reasoning was abt to come outta fahys mouth.