#BTEditorial – Honouring the greatness among us

Amid all the gloom and unease, it was a most pleasant and gratifying moment to view the hundreds of students from the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies, accepting their academic awards during the second successive virtual graduation ceremony.

It was another example of how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered our lives in a way we had never expected and certainly not for such an extended period. Medical experts are now predicting that this pandemic could be with us well into 2023, and this could become normal existence for us.

During the virtual graduation ceremony over the weekend, we were able to stay from the comfort of our homes and celebrate with more than 1 000 graduates from the various faculties. Though they were unable to share the occasion as a group in the traditional ways because of limits placed on gatherings during the pandemic, friends and families found distinctive and intimate ways to honour loved ones.

This year’s graduation was unique for it also featured the first cohort of students who graduated from the Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts. Whether it was coincidental or planned, the first graduates from this faculty which was formed just one year ago, had the distinct honour of sharing the occasion with three iconic cultural figures who were conferred with honorary degrees.

Grammy Award-winning musician and producer, Nicholas Brancker was conferred with the Doctor of Letters, while the world-famous West Indies opening pair of Sir Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge and batting partner Desmond Haynes, both received Doctor of Laws.

These three exemplified some of the best this island has produced, and their honours were worthy and timely. In a 2017 article published in the Wisden, the bible of cricketing information, writer Ed Kemp said of these sons of the soil: “Some names are near inseparable in the brains of cricket lovers.”

He added: “But none more, surely, than those of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, who also go down as part of the most iconic of all cricket dynasties – the West Indies side of the late Seventies and Eighties – and more broadly, as jewels in the embarrassment of sporting riches to have been uncovered on the island of Barbados.”

At a time when mediocracy can sometimes steal the limelight from authentic achievement, Sir Cuthbert and Haynes are representative of the gold standard and are another reason for Barbadians to be proud of its products.

Brancker, whose talent has been sought after by some of the world’s most famous musicians and entertainers, is often admired for his treatment of Caribbean expression. He has never viewed music from this region as limited or less than any expression from other corners of the world.

But Brancker, who spoke on behalf of the honourees, reflected on the challenging period in which young people currently exist, and boldly went where many are afraid to go.

“The world is full of challenges and possibilities, but it is also in a state of flux. People are questioning expertise, they are not showing patience with the development of skills, they are expecting immediate results from everything – these things do not augur well for our development,” he told the graduating class.

In a speech that was expertly crafted, Brancker added: “My dream for my West Indies is that it will be a place from which people come who function within a system that has been set up largely not to accommodate them, but to find ways to make that system bend to suit them, so that they and those coming behind them have a chance. Make sure all of our lives at the end are just as worthy of acclaim and accolades as when we started.”

The occasion was not lost on him that he was being honoured alongside two of the world’s greatest batsmen, who came from the backgrounds that could not define them and their greatness.

“The honour is particularly great for me because of the two gentlemen I am being honoured with. What struck me about our cricketers was that they were excelling in an environment not necessarily created for them. I watched my West Indies team function in the environment of a cricket field that was respectful of the system they were set up to function in, but I also saw them bring their own personality, character, and discipline into that system to the point where the system changed to suit them.”

His was a speech that captured the mood of the times but offered us something to reflect on how strong a people we are and our ability to overcome obstacles, but great patience will be required.