By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 25, 2023 – With activities leading up to The Bahamas’ 50th Anniversary of Independence on July 10, 2023 already underway, it is not a coincidence that invitations have been sent out by the University of The Bahamas for “A Conversation with Sir Franklyn Wilson, KCMG,” on the “occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Sunshine Boys” at the Keva M. Bethel Building on February 7, 2023. The event is being held under the patronage of His Excellency Governor General the Hon. Cornelius A. Smith
Sir Franklyn is the chairman of Sunshine Holdings Limited (SHL), one of the oldest and largest conglomerates in The Bahamas, as was one the principals involved in the remarkable success of the Sunshine Boys.
It is a success story that clearly could be the basis of an epic Hollywood movie, with a prologue that could be appropriately based on the struggle for majority rule in The Bahamas in the 1960s that spawned a coterie of well-educated young Black men, several of whom not only became political activists but also combined their skills to collectively pursue economic achievements as The Sunshine Boys.
Included in this group was Franklyn Wilson, who was a 21-year-old business and commerce student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won the January 10, 1967 general election, establishing for the first time a Black majority rule government in The Bahamas.
After graduating from Dalhousie in 1968, Wilson became one of the most promising young politicians in the country. He ran as a PLP candidate for Grants Town 1972 and became one of the youngest persons to have ever been elected to the House of Assembly when the PLP won 29 of the 38 seats in the House.
For whatever reason, Wilson did not seek reelection in the general elections held on July 19, 1977, which the PLP again won by a landslide, capturing 30 of the 38 seats.
Having decided to put politics on the “backburner”, Wilson concentrated on moving forward with his professional development, for which he had received a first-class education at Dalhousie. He joined forces with a group of young entrepreneurs and established Sunshine Holdings Ltd. on February 7, 1973. Their first venture was Sunshine Theatres Ltd., a movie theatre on Baillou Hill Road, just south of St. Barnabas Anglican Church.
“The initial vision was to prove that Bahamians of humble origins could co-operate to own and manage large businesses,” according to a document I found during my research for this article.
“Sunshine Holdings Ltd. itself was incorporated on November 17, 1975, to be the corporate vehicle to concretize the commitment to diversification,” the document notes, adding that Media outlets “called these founders ‘The Sunshine Boys’ and did so in a way which invoked racial and other comparisons with The Bay Street Boys, who had a long history of being the pillars of the overall economy.”
Describing the “Social Context of The Initial Mission,” the document states: “When the founding investors began, there was only one company which was highly as visible after having been started with a comparative socially focused vision – namely, the People’s Penny Savings Bank, with the vision to inculcate the practice of increased personal savings.”
The document adds: “By 1972, it was apparent that after about two decades of success, the forward advance of the Bank had stalled. Admiration for the enterprise, plus the collegiality which led to the formation of The Bank, and being aware of the prospect of a demise thereof, helped to cultivate among the founders of Sunshine Holdings a passionate commitment to survival.”
Clearly, “A Conversation with Sir Franklyn Wilson, KCMG” on Tuesday, February 7, will be very interesting.
