TO THE LATE
WINSTON VERNON SAUNDERS CMG
MEMORIAL SERVICE
CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
NASSAU, BAHAMAS
December 8th, 2006

There is a poem by one of the great English poets of the modern era, Stephen Spender, that seems especially apt for this occasion because it speaks so powerfully and profoundly of those great spirits like Winston Vernon Saunders, “who from the womb remembered the soul’s history through corridors of light where the hours are suns endless and singing……and whose lovely ambition was that their lips, still touched with fire, should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song”.

That poem speaks so well of Winston Saunders and the golden thread that ran throughout his life.

Remembering our soul’s history, he took our nation on a journey through “corridors of light” into new realms of self-discovery; new realms in which we came to understand ourselves and celebrate ourselves as we never had before.

He spent a lifetime telling of the spirit that moves us, that animates us, and that ultimately defines as a unique cultural entity among the peoples of the world.

And he did so with a passion, dedication and talent that established him firmly as the pre-eminent figure in Bahamian cultural development in the post Independence era.

Enlarging upon the foundational work of cultural pioneers like Meta Davis Cumberbatch and, even more especially, E. Clement Bethel, Winston was destined to lead the way for decades in giving cultural expression to the soul of the Bahamian people in so many different ways.

Of particular note, Winston was unquestionably the leader of the performing arts, most notably as the longtime chairman and driving force behind the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts.

The Dundas is still our nation’s leading showcase for dramatic exposition.

Long before his death, then, Winston had become, by common acclaim, the czar of Bahamian culture.

It was a status that would be secured by official recognition when he was awarded the highest honour ever bestowed by the state upon a person for cultural contributions.

Winston was made a Companion of the Most Excellent Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG).

His pre-eminent position would be further recognized by his appointment as Chairman of the Cultural Development Commission to which he would give so unstintingly of himself in what sadly would turn out to be the closing chapter of his life.

I will return to his contributions in that regard in just a moment…but first I need to speak to the awesome talents that made Winston the great cultural tour de force that he was.
 
It was the diversity of Winston’s talent that was so dazzling.  It was simply amazing.

In the best tradition of the Renaissance Man, he was versed and trained in a veritable panoply of the arts: he could sing; he could dance; he could act; he could write; he could direct; he could play musical instruments; and he had an unerring eye for art.  He was a playwright, a composer, an actor, a director, a producer, a singer, a dancer, a poet, a narrator, and an administrator of the performing arts.  He excelled in all of these roles.

In the sphere of the arts, Winston Saunders was the complete man or, as some like to say nowadays, the total package.

Let me pause here to recognize the fact that it was Winston’s good fortune in life to have as his wife and soul-mate and best friend, Dr. Gail Saunders.  Fortunately for all of us, Gail allowed Winston the space to develop his talents in a way that would so immeasurably enrich the cultural life of our nation.

In addition to developing her own excellent body of work as our nation’s leading historian, she provided a home and an environment of love and support that enabled Winston to flourish as a creative spirit.

For that, Gail, and for so much more, I want to publicly thank you.  I know what a great void Winston’s passing has created for you but be assured that all of us stand with you and Winston’s entire family in this sad hour.

It is a time of great loss not only for you but for all of us.

In The Bahamas, it is the theatre that represents the primary forum for the expression of the thoughts and feelings, the dreams and nightmares, the disappointments and hopes that swirl around in the Bahamian psyche.  It is the theatre that represents these elements that are so central to who we are as a people.  And the writer who led the Bahamian theatre was Winston Vernon Saunders.

Winston’s plays speak to the changing Bahamas. His play, Them, for example, is a brilliant study of race, politics and family relations in the wake of the emergence of Majority Rule in 1967.

The four plays that together comprise The Nehemiah Chronicles take on aspects of Bahamian life in the 1980s.

They focus, with brilliant insight, on Bahamian cultural institutions and practices like lodges, funerals, and traditional music; …political and social issues like national service, the drug scourge, and crime; …the changing roles of men and women in Bahamian society; …the impact of race on the whole architecture of social and economic relations; …and the competitive tensions between development and tradition.

Winston’s play, You Can Lead A Horse To Water, is arguably the greatest play in all of Bahamian history.  Indeed this was the play that was chosen for CARIFESTA in Trinidad and Tobago just a few months ago to expose Caribbean audiences to the depth and complexity of Bahamian theatre.

Winston’s play, Horse, written between 1981 and 1983, is based on the true story of a boy accused of murdering his mother.

At a deeper level, however, it serves as a study of inner-city Bahamian society that still resonates today.

Indeed it should be required viewing for all of us who are interested in Urban Renewal.

Winston Saunders, above all else, was a writer and it was of his creative output as a writer that he was most proud.

Everything else that he accomplished in his life came from that foundation.  His success as a lawyer and as a jurist rested upon his appreciation and understanding of the power of words.

His excellence as an actor derived from his comprehension of the way in which words reveal character, and his ability to embody the characters he played –
He was Pa Ben, Peter, Midge, Charlie, Maphusa – all of these characters were crystallized out of Winston’s ability to marry his understanding of the power of words with the enormous compassion he felt for people.

It was this mixture that enabled him to create authentic and compelling characters that have become a permanent part of Bahamian lore.

As a writer, Winston understood only too well what it was that we lack in our nation.  He expounded it thus:
“In our rush to build a nation, we have neglected to create a society.  And without a society, we are unable to dream.

“Our dreams may begin, but without nourishment, without channels for their expression, they are frustrated, and in the words of Langston Hughes, they ‘dry up like raisins in the sun’.”

In developing that thesis, Winston was also at pains to argue that it is the arts – not just Junkanoo and the other festival arts which are essentially celebratory –
…but also the more contemplative arts like music and literature and drama and art, which provoke not only emotional responses but make us think and enable us to DREAM.

These are the arts that we have neglected most.

Winston’s lifetime mission, then, was to provide for the institutionalization of those neglected arts in our society.

In so doing, he believed, we would provide our children and our children’s children with the ability to not only dream but also a guarantee that their dreams would not destroyed by anybody else.

It should have come as no surprise, then, that when the time came to appoint a Cultural Commission to oversee the institutionalization of the neglected arts and to forge a national consensus on how best to move our nation’s cultural development forward, that Winston V. Saunders would be the man chosen by my Government as the full-time Chairman of this new body.

It was the easiest of choices because it was a role for which Winston was born.
It was the role, moreover, that he had already been performing unofficially for so many years.

It was to prove in many ways the crowning success of Winston’s life because in a few short years he and his Commission, under the co-chairmanship of Charles Carter, would succeed in developing a blueprint for the future development of Bahamian culture.

This was especially so in relation to the neglected arts and in relation to the development of a national honours system, the legislation for which will very shortly be brought to fruition.

In his role as the full-time chairman of the Cultural Commission, Winston was able to set the agenda for future action on so many vitally important aspects of our culture and national way of life.

Just a few days ago I had occasion to reflect that if you ever had a question about life in The Bahamas, how we do it, what we do, when we do it, invariably the first person you would call was Winston.

Somehow Winston always knew the answer.

He possessed a vast, almost encyclopaedic command of Bahamian cultural history.  Winston was always the man to call.

Prime Ministers Pindling and Ingraham knew that as well in their own time at the nation’s helm.

They knew that Winston was the man to call when it came to better understanding the nuances and subtleties of Bahamian culture.

I have often said that until the lions have their authors, the tale of the hunt will always be told by the hunter.

Well, Winston pointed us in the right direction.
He was a lion in his time who made it his mission to tell the tale of the hunt from his own perspective as a lion.   And because he did, and because he did it so well, our country is all the richer for it.

We are all joined today in a communion of grief over the passing of one who helped shape our lives in such profoundly important ways.

Our nation’s sense of loss is palpable.

The void created by Winston’s passing is simply enormous.  He was a cultural giant, a cultural icon.  He was one of a kind.  And he has gone all too soon.

I end as I began.  The poem by Stephen Spender with which I commenced this eulogy ends with these words:

May the soul of this outstanding son of the soil, this cultural tour de force, this wonderful, compassionate, amazingly gifted human being, rest in peace.