Despite the scorching heat, with the temperature reaching 95 degrees, a Bahamian junkanoo group thrilled thousands of spectators with a riveting performance during the Caribbean Carnival parade here in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.
Participating in the annual event for the first time, the Bahamians were clearly the favourite of the crowd among the 25 groups that paraded down historic Georgia Avenue, from the very start of the parade at a park on Georgia and Missouri Avenue in upper northwest Washington and throughout the two-and-a-
half mile route to Banneker Park opposite Howard University.
A contingent of 25 junkanooers from Nassau ﾗ including Saxon Superstars’ leader Percy “Vola” Francis and Quinten “Barrabas” Woodside ﾗjoined members of The Bahamas Junkanoo Group of Metro D.C. (BJAM-DC) in giving the large crowd that lined the parade route an exciting demonstration of The Bahamas’ premier cultural expression.
BJAM-DC includes a mix of students and Bahamians residing in the Washington area. It is co-chaired by Khandra Sears, a Ph. d. student at the University of Maryland, and Felicity Burrows, an environmental scientist at the National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science.
Bahamas Ambassador to the United States Joshua Sears, blowing a whistle, was visibly pleased by the reception the Bahamians received as he danced in the front line of the group to the pulsating rhythm of the goat-skin drums, horns and cowbells.
“This is a wonderful experience,” he said later, at a party he hosted at the Bahamas Embassy following the parade for the Bahamian group and the scores of Bahamians who came from across the United States for the event.
“A point that I make as often as I can is that we have this unique cultural experience which is a powerful marketing tool that we as a country really ought to take more advantage of,” Mr. Sears said. “In the metro area we have many airlines connecting this gateway to The Bahamas. We have baseball here, we have basketball here, and we ought to use these sports to market our country more efficiently.”
Saxon’s leader Vola Francis, who was a particular favourite of the crowd, expressed a similar point of view.
“This was fantastic,” Mr. Francis said. “We have a lot of things that we can say is unique to The Bahamas, but the foremost cultural expression is junkanoo. That’s the drawing card. It should be high on the list as a promotional tool for The Bahamas.”
For Lisa Hall Hawk, a Bahamian who now resides in Philadelphia, Pennsyl-vania, the participation of The Bahamas in the Caribbean Carnival was “something that I simply could not miss.”
“I heard about it and I had to come,” said Mrs. Hawk, who has been living in the United States for 30 years and is a supervisor with U.S. Immigration in Philadelphia.
“Oh, my God, this felt so good,” she said. “I was home (Nassau) for Christmas, but the bad weather forced postponement of junkanoo and I missed it. But this made up for it. This was really great.”
Sisters Sharon DeCosta of North Carolina and Patrice DeCosta-Welt of San Diego, California, said they planned to make the trip to Washington three months ago after finding out that a Bahamian junkanoo group would be participating.
“We decided that this was something that we couldn’t miss,” said Patrice, who recently published a book of poems and used the occasion of the ambassador’s after-parade party to autograph a copy for him and several other individuals.
Co-chairman of BJAM-DC, Miss Sears, who is the daughter of Ambassador Sears, was very pleased with the large number of Bahamians who came from out of town for the parade.
“We started planning this a year ago, and we did not think it would be this big when we started,” she said. “The response was tremendous. Bahamians came from New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and North Carolina.”
Referring to the parade, she said it was “very long and very hot, but it was worth it.”
“It was very exciting and everyone enjoyed it,” Miss Sears added. “We plan to make this an annual thing.”
Source: Frepport News
