By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 27, 2019 — Although the central focus of the second annual BACK TO ANGOLA FESTIVAL 2019 held July 19 – 21 on the grounds of the Curry Museums in Bradenton, Florida, was the strong historical ties between Florida’s Manatee County and The Bahamas, another aspect of the festival that further underscores just how close those historical ties are is the fact the idea for the festival was conceived by Daphney Towns, a Bahamian living in the Florida diaspora.
It was not by accident that Mrs. Towns developed a special interest in assuring that the rich history of the connection between Manatee and the settlement of Red Bays, Bahamas, received wider recognition in both the United States and The Bahamas. She undoubtedly was motivated by the fact that she is a Bahamian with deep ancestral roots in Stanyard Creek, Andros, which also happens to be the settlement in which I was born.
When I was a young boy growing up at Andros in the 1940s and early 1950s, Stanyard Creek was deservedly referred to as the Garden of Andros, with a tranquil creek separating the West and East ridges. During high tide, as a young boy I was able to “throw my line out” from a cove known as “Pa Ben’s Landing” and catch broad shads, pogeys, snappers and other species of fish. The cove got its name because it was where a narrow track road through the property of my grandparents, Ben and Mabel Elliott, ended at the creek.
In my communications with Daphney Towns last year when I was preparing an article for the first Back to Angola Festival, I not only found out about her Stanyard Creek roots, but also that we are related. Although she was born and grew up in Nassau, during the summer Daphney would visit her grandmother, Lunette Riley, in Stanyard Creek, whose “house was right next to the school house,” Daphney recalls.
“I am related to Dickie Boy from the Western Ridge, and my mother was Margie Riley, your cousin Netta Riley’s daughter,” Daphney informed me.
The “Dickie Boy” she is referring to is Richard “Dickie Boy” Riley, whose family homestead was adjacent to the estate of my grandparents. Dickie Boy learned his trade as a carpenter from my father, Samuel Brown, who was considered to be one of the best carpenters in Andros during his era. In fact, in later years when I visited Stanyard Creek and spent time at a guest house and restaurant and bar that Dickie Boy had constructed on property next to where my father had built our family home, Dickie Boy would regale me with stories about what a great carpenter my father was.
Daphney moved to Bradenton, Florida, in the winter of 1992 to attend Gospel Crusade Christian Retreat School of Ministry in Bradenton. She met and married her first husband, the late Johnny Barnes, and she subsequently started Oaktree Community Outreach Inc., a non- profit organization. Eight years ago, she married her current husband Joseph Towns of Coleman, Florida.
“My husband and I were first introduced to the Manatee Mineral Springs by attending a prayer walk with Michell Tellone Skorski and her husband John Skorski and their team,” Daphney recalls. “We went there for a time of prayer and repentance. It was a great time of repentance, prayer, praise, worship and declaration on Sunday, April 23, 2017.”
That introduction led to them finding out about the connection between Manatee and Red Bays. Although Stanyard Creek is located in Central Andros and Red Bays is the most northern settlement of Andros, once she became aware of the history of how Red Bays was first populated, it did not take long for Daphney to decide to popularize the history of how some 200 years ago when “people who had struggled for freedom in Florida were threatened with renewed enslavement” after Florida became a U.S. territory, as freelance writer Karen Willey noted in an article she wrote on the second annual Back to Angola festival.
“Some freedom seekers escaped Manatee and found haven in the Bahamas,” Willey wrote. “Excavations recently revealed traces of Angola, an early 19th century Maroon community on the Manatee River, which was destroyed during a violent raid in 1821. This discovery led to the site becoming the latest ‘stop’ on the National Underground Railroad. Angola is an important chapter in Florida’s history of peoples of African heritage.”
With the support of co-organizer Trudy Williams of Reflections of Manatee, Daphney was able to describe the second annual Back To Angola Festival 2019 as “an amazing weekend.”
On her Facebook page she posted a video with the following caption: “In this video some of the descendants from Red Bays Andros, known as the home of the Seminole Indians, and Standard Creek, Andros, known as the Garden of Andros, are demonstrating their skills at basket weaving, wood carving, garment making and singing. I am grateful to run my leg in this relay. Even the rain did not stop us on the last day.”
Daphney expressed special thanks to the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation (MOTA) for its sponsorship of the group that came from The Bahamas — four persons from Red Bays and two from Nassau — with travel, lodging and per-diem as well as to the Florida Humanities Council, which gave a $5,000 grant to assist with the Festival.
