“Brilliant minds all, they stood resolute with their backs to the turbulent Caribbean Sea and faces fixed on the future . . . .” – Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, principal, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, speaking recently at the campus’ 50th anniversary launch.
Heartiest congratulations to the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. As a proud product of this institution, I have chosen to dedicate this week’s column to the beacon on the hill overlooking much of what we have become as a people.
One year after completing my professional qualification at Erdiston Teachers’ College in 1978, I literally ran up the hill to obtain a university degree as more and more people entering the service were doing so with enhanced qualifications.
I graduated from this august institution with a Bachelor’s degree in English, literature and linguistics with education, with upper second class honours. In 1991, I returned to the university to pursue training in the certificate in educational management and administration. I also began an M.Phil degree in literature.
During my tenure as an undergraduate, life on campus was vibrant and it afforded my colleagues and I the opportunity not only to get a university education, but to mull over issues affecting the regional and local society at a time when much socially, politically and economically was being birthed.
Indeed, I walked that compound with many of the current local and regional political and civil society leaders. I recall the tall, lanky image of the late Prime Minister David Thompson and that of current St Lucian Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony bestriding that campus like the proverbial colossuses that they and many others later became.
I recalled being part of what was called “People’s Square” just in front of the Arts Lecture Theatre looking east of what was the Foreign Language Department and west toward the frog pond. Before and after lectures we often paused to engage not always in puerile discussions about grades or lectures but, more importantly, about the issues of the day. For example, the Grenada situation, which eventually saw the execution of Maurice Bishop and end of the revolution which curtailed his experiment with leftist ideologies. We recalled only too well when Dr Ralph Gonsalves was declared persona non grata by the late Prime Minister J.M.G.M. “Tom” Adams.
Discussion and debates on the “People’s Square” were often so heated and vibrant that a number of us were hauled before the principal and threatened with expulsion if we did not temper and tone down the “vibrancy” of our engagement.
I have fond memories of sitting at the feet of many of the institution’s Gamaliels. Historian Professor Woodville Marshall, whose intellect remains sharp and insightful. The late Dr Richard Allsopp, who was driven by a passion to complete his Caribbean lexicography project and whose scintillating lectures about African residue in the Caribbean language experience are legendary.
Dr Phillips, the little, soft-spoken lecturer in history entering with his slippers and lecturing in his idiosyncratic but effective style. The current principal, Sir Hilary, was very much at that time being mentored by Sir Keith Hunte and Professor Marshall. The late Kathleen Drayton, Dr Mark McWatt, Dr Peter Roberts and his junior at the time, Tony Lewis, were some of the voices of substance and important individuals during my tenure on the hill.
But beyond these memories, the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill has fired the main cylinders of national and regional development these past 50 years and has been undoubtedly an indispensable agent of the transformative power of education. Without free access to education at this level, our societies and peoples across this region would have had little option but to remain in the backwaters of ignorance and servitude.
I endorse the sentiments of Sir Hilary that without the “vibrancy of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, Barbados will not prosper and without its financial empowerment, Barbados will be diminished”. The “progressive consciousness” of which he spoke and the “grand imaginings” conceived and concretized by UWI are part and parcel of who we are as a people and as societies.
Within and without the hallowed halls and seats of leadership, both in the private and public sectors, in the professions, in commerce, in the clergy and in virtually every artery, muscle and vein across this country and region are proud products of the great institution on the hill.
In conclusion, while we are in celebratory mode, we must be reminded that this region is an archipelago of economies and societies that are still young. The mission is not yet fully accomplished. The battle against poverty and the fight to “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery” are not yet won.
We cannot allow local, regional or global distractions to snatch the baton from our grasp. We must vigorously guard against new forms of colonialism, whether technologically or philosophical driven, or whether under the guise of globalization. Proud though we are, celebratory though we should be, the Barbadian model of tertiary education still faces one of its fiercest battles, that of sustainability. It is this inescapable notion that poses the greatest threat to half of a century of success “on the hill”.
• Matthew Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum on Education, and a social commentator. Email [email protected]
