by Sir Arthur Foulkes
A quite remarkable Bahamian life came to an end recently. Kayla Lockhart Edwards sang her way with joy, performed the closing notes with grace, and orchestrated her going home with style. Throughout the entire performance she brought much enjoyment to the nation, made us feel good about ourselves and taught us some valuable lessons.
Mrs. Edwards finally succumbed after a protracted but spirited battle with cancer. Although she received a Silver Jubilee Award in 1998, she was inadequately recognized for the outstanding services she rendered to her country.
Prime Minster Perry Christie alluded to this in his remarks at her going home celebration when he acknowledged that we have not yet got it right when it comes to recognizing outstanding Bahamians during their lifetime.
One reason for that is, of course, that we sometimes allow petty politics to interfere with our best judgment. One of those listening to Mr. Christie was Edmund Moxey, another Bahamian cultural giant and brother of Mrs. Edwards.
Nearly four decades ago Mr. Moxey had the brilliant idea of creating a comprehensive national cultural village Over-the-Hill. It would have been a permanent exhibition of Bahamian culture in all its aspects and a centre for the development of Bahamian arts and crafts.
One can only imagine the positive impact Jumbey Village might have had on succeeding generations of Bahamians -- and the nation as a whole -- in terms of cultural advancement, personal development, national pride and economic opportunities.
The project was actually started, but petty politics got in the way and it was aborted. Now, as the Bahamas struggles against a sea of negative cultural influences and so many of our young people are adrift, the deferral of Mr. Moxey’s dream is to be especially lamented. It was a colossal mistake.
The prodigious contribution of Mrs. Edwards to our cultural development was widely, if not officially, recognized in her lifetime. She was, artistically speaking, first and foremost a songbird, and all her other cultural pursuits sprang from the love of that musical expression.
Hers was the voice that taught a fledgling nation how to sing its new national anthem, an anthem written by the talented Bahamian teacher and composer Timothy Gibson more than three decades ago.
For the celebration of our transition from colony to sovereign nation in 1973, she was also musical producer and co-director of the Independence Cultural Pageant, and Cultural Affairs Assistant to our first Director of Culture, E. Clement Bethel, yet another superbly talented Bahamian.
But there was more, a great deal more. Mrs. Edwards organized many cultural events at home and led or participated in many Bahamian cultural expeditions abroad. She was writer, composer, producer, organizer, actor and teacher. Her passion in all these things was the pursuit of perfection.
Happily, just weeks before she passed, Mrs. Edwards was made aware of the love and gratitude felt by so many as she was honoured by her colleagues in the performing arts community with a wonderful variety show at the Theatre for the Performing Arts.
The cultural tributes continued at a memorial event and at her going home celebration at the Diplomat Centre on Carmichael Road. All of these were attended by impressive cross-sections of the community.
Now, both Prime Minster Christie and Leader of the Opposition Hubert Ingraham are in agreement that her life and work should be suitably memorialized.
Why such an outpouring? Mrs. Edwards was not only multi-talented, vivacious and beautiful; she was also generous with her art, in her commitment to developing the talents of others, and in her direct service to the nation.
“Kayla loved her country and all its people,” said Mr. Christie. “She was proud of its heritage and cultural traditions. She believed in her country and celebrated it in drama, poetry and in song, and she didn’t do it alone either.
“She brought thousands along with her whether as actors, or dancers, choir members or musicians, or as one of the many who can trace their appreciation of the arts to the enthusiastic example of Kayla Lockhart Edwards.”
Mr. Ingraham noted that Mrs. Edwards understood what culture was all about and its importance in the process of nation-building:
“Her approach to culture and cultural expression was holistic, inclusive. She understood that if we are to remain a great people and if we are to achieve our full potential, then we must consciously develop and nurture all that is good in our Bahamian culture, and try to weed out all that is negative.”
Mrs. Edwards did indeed believe in her country and in her people. More than that, her life was a reminder of the fact that as a small country we have been blessed with a succession of talented people.
We need to remember this from time to time even as we carry on the necessary debate about our failures and weaknesses. To tell a child constantly that he or she is no good runs the risk of producing a maladjusted adult.
The same can be true of a nation. In the case of the Bahamas there are still remnants of the bar syndrome (that if it comes from across the bar it must necessarily be better than the home-grown product), and no shortage of those willing to exploit it for their own purposes.
Many nations that have become great have also been successful at projecting aspirations as qualities already attained, and by not only remembering their great ones but making myths and legends of them.
This is not so easy in today’s world where instant mass communications facilitate the work of a multitude of gleeful iconoclasts. But we can still do much more to celebrate and commemorate great Bahamians living and dead, and the name of Kayla Lockhart Edwards is on an illuminated list of Bahamians who have achieved world-class standards at home and abroad.
In the performing arts alone, this little country has produced treasures like vaudevillian Bert Williams; cabaret dancers Paul Meeres, Naomi Taylor and Abby LaFleur; opera singer Randolph Symonette; actors Sidney Poitier, Calvin Lockhart and Cedric Scott; musicians Peanuts Taylor, Joe Spence, George Symonette and Freddie Munnings.
These are obviously only representative of older generations. The country can be proud that the tradition continues today with an abundant crop of fine younger performers, many of whom have had their talents honed and nurtured by Mrs. Edwards.
The same level of Bahamian achievement is apparent in the world of sports where persons like Sir Durward Knowles, Tommy Robinson and Andre Rodgers blazed a trail in international competition for hundreds more to follow, and they are following in grand style.
Bahamians have excelled in world class terms in many other areas as well, including academia. A few years ago a Bahamian living and working in the United States proposed the idea of compiling a register of Bahamians serving in top positions in the US.
It was not so much to encourage them to come home but that the Bahamas Government and local institutions could access their specialized knowledge, experience and goodwill from time to time on a consultative basis.
It was recognizing and developing the rich human potential of a remarkably gifted little nation that Kayla Edwards was about.
But there was yet another side to this remarkable lady, a dimension shaped by her deep spirituality. With all the things she had to do in an all too short lifetime, Kayla Lockhart Edwards was also a devoted wife and mother and a loyal friend to many who were fortunate enough to share her space.
Farewell Kayla. I shall miss you and your lovely voice and prolific talent. You were truly a national treasure. I remember the days we parcticed on andros avenue and the times you perform together. I remember you and Carlton Wright and your great performance at Government High (now college of the Bahamas) This was long before you placed your stamp on the Bahamas. These and others are memories I will treasure for the rest of my life. Your friend Alfred.
Posted by: Alfred Sturrup | January 03, 2007 at 12:03 PM