This evening, we begin our observances and yes even celebrations to mark the 175th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Bahamas.

It is the central point and focus of any representative for Fox Hill.

I have certainly seen it as my central cultural mission as the representative Fox Hill, that of protecting the heritage of the village of Fox Hill and its traditions.

In the House of Assembly, just before the recess very year, I announce to the Assembly and to the rest of The Bahamas that we will begin the Fox Hill Festival.  Then there follows a succession of announcements by other Members of Parliament about what will happen on this holiday weekend.

But with due respect to those Members and their constituents and with due respect to all other communities, there is no other community that observes what we observe and for so long.  The observances for Emancipation Day date back to the time of emancipation itself. There is a written record that dates back to at least the 1880s marking Fox Hill day observances.

It is my understanding that the modern version of this was started when Lionel Davis was the representative for this community.

It has been carried on by all of his successors who include Frank Edgecombe, George Mackey, Juanianne Dorsett and now me.

The work of the Festival is not that of the Members of Parliament however, it has been headed by civic men and women of the Fox Hill Community who gather together in a Committee each year and give generously of their time and effort to ensure that this festival is successful.

It is the work of the Ministers of religion who organize the ecumenical service each year and the children who participate with their parents in plaiting the maypole and the young men who climb the greasy pole.

It is a season of entertainment and in these modern times, it lasts over two weeks.  It is in my view the Premier Festival of the summer in this country.  And it is unique in that it is the closest thing that we have to national observances for emancipation day.

The community welcomes each year the national leaders including the Governor General, the Minister of Culture, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and hundreds of Bahamians and visiting friends.  We must not forget the reason for the season: that of the freedom of our forefathers from slavery.

It is said in another context: the price of Freedom is eternal vigilance.

I read to day another quote, which I share with you: “free will is a gift with a price tag, and whatever you choose to do you’re going to pay, but how much you’re going to pay is really dependent on you.”

Each year, the price of our freedom is more dear.  But each generation must be taught that we must be prepared to pay any price and bear any burden to remain free.

This year, the Committee was faced with unprecedented cutbacks in funding and the fact that we are in the middle of a national economic recession.  They have had to do much with little.

Even traditional benefactors have not been able to give what they have in the past.  I give you an example.  Each year, we have come to except the support of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation.  They provide the lighting for nighttime Junkanoo and for planting the greasy pole and greasing the greasy pole.  But this year, in an effort to stem the tide of losses, they have eliminated as much overtime as possible so that it was no longer possible for the supply of labour to put up the poles as it is traditionally on a Sunday and then grease the pole.  At first, it looked as though we would have to look to a private firm.

But thankfully, there is cultural memory at BEC and the General Manager was able to provide assistance, working within the rules and their resources and the generous support of a constituent of Fox Hill who works at BEC who has agreed to contribute his labour on Sunday, the pole will be up and greased.

The pastors would say “Aint God a good God.”

I want to thank the General Manager of the Corporation Kevin Basden, for his assistance and to Dilith Nairn and Clinton Whylly for their generous giving of their time and support.

Just think if those men were no longer around in BEC and the cultural memory of the importance of emancipation had been lost, then they could have said too bad to this community.   This is what I mean by the need for the community to continue to tell the story, lest we forget and the younger generation of leaders at BEC do not know or may not care.

And that too is the story of the specific reason that we gather here this evening, to honour our fallen comrade Charles Johnson.  What can we say about Charles but we miss him. We honour him this evening by naming this Festival in his honour. I have told the story before but permit me one more excess.  The last conversation I had with him before he died, he was sitting in the Community Centre discussing who we would name the Festival after.  He said that we had always named the Festival after a former Member of Parliament of a former Chairman.  Little did we know that when we postponed the decision that night, the next time the Committee met it would be to name the Festival after him who left us all too soon.

We say to his widow, his boys and his daughters, thank you to them for him.  We loved him and in his death, we honour him, just as we depended upon him implicitly when he was alive. In his death, we carry on.

Again, it is the story of cultural memory, if Charles Johnson had not been able to teach others what to do and how he did it, we would have lost all of that memory.  Because he taught others, we are able be here together again this evening.

And the story is even more acute when you realize that in the past year we have lost two other former Chairman William Rahming and Eric Wilmott.  We honour all of them this evening.

But this year’s Festival is Charles Johnson's Festival.  It is the Festival of the Fox Hill people and it is a tribute to Pompey and all the other slaves who made us free.

Let us remember them this evening and over the next week and the ensuing year.

My congratulations to the acting chairman Maurice Tynes and all his team who I ask to stand tonight.

God bless you all and happy Festival time!