COMMENTARY: BY OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thanks to the excellent diplomatic representation of The Bahamas by the Hon. Michael C. Fountain, Bahamas Honorary Consul to Chicago, the anniversary of The Bahamas’ attainment of independence from Great Britain over the past several years has received strong support from Bahamians in the diaspora in Midwest area of the United States.
In addition to the annual picnic that had always been used by Bahamians living in the Chicago area as a reason to “get together” to celebrate the independence of their home country, Honorary Consul Fountain also generally arranged some ancillary activities involving some of Chicago’s dignitaries and powerbrokers.
But the picnic has always been the core aspect of the independence celebrations, and all reports indicate that this year it was a huge success – an assessment strongly supported by a collage of photos posted by The Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its Facebook page.
The photos were accompanied by the following caption: “The Hon. Michael C. Fountain, Bahamas Honorary Consul to Chicago, joined local and visiting Bahamians at the annual Bahamas Association Independence Picnic at Foster Beach on Saturday, July 13, 2019, celebrating the 46th anniversary of The Bahamas’ attainment of independence from Great Britain. The Bahamas Consulate Chicago helped sponsor the picnic, which is always held the second Saturday in July and has been a cornerstone event for Bahamians in the diaspora and around the Chicago area for decades.”
The fact that the picnic has been “a cornerstone event for Bahamians in the diaspora and around the Chicago area for decades” is due in no small measure to the efforts of a Wayne “Saldo” Saunders, Danny Colemore and Kendall Major – three Bahamians living in the Chicago area in the early 1980s who spearheaded the formation of the Bahamas Association in Chicago.
Wayne “Saldo” Saunders is the eldest son of my first cousin, Agnes Elliott — one of the seven grandchildren, myself included — who grew up with our grandparents, Ben and Mabel Elliott, at Stanyard Creek, Andros. Wayne’s father, the late Kenneth Saunders, was the son Stanyard Creek’s no-nonsense law-enforcement official as the settlement’s lone policeman.
My cousin Agnes has been blessed with long life and still lives in Fresh Creek, Andros. As I have mentioned on many occasions in previous articles, we are a very closely-knit family, and Agnes and I keep in touch occasionally, but I had not seen Wayne in many years, even before he moved to Chicago in 1980. About three years ago, however, Wayne visited me in Washington, D.C. and we had a wonderful time “catching up” with what we had been doing over the years and other “family business.” So I already knew about Wayne’s involvement in the formation of The Bahamas Association in Chicago.
Wayne moved to Chicago in June of 1980 and in 1983 he joined the Army, where he was a Combat Engineer with the 317 Engineers Battalion in Frankfurt, Germany. After leaving the Army in 1985, for 33 years he worked in Medical Collections and is now retired and making his living as a Lyft driver, which he informed me in an email he really likes doing because “I’m loving meeting lots of interesting people.”
As Wayne recalls, shortly after he arrived in Chicago, he “started asking around” if there was a Bahamas Association in Chicago.
“I was told by Danny Colemore, a friend that I work with at the old Emerald Beach Hotel in Nassau, to check with the Bahamas Tourist Office,” Wayne recalls. “Went I went to the Tourist Office, I met Kendall Major and asked him if there was a list of the Bahamians living in Chicago. They provided me with some names, and essentially that is how the Bahamas Association got started. Along with Kendall, Danny and myself, Emerson Fritz, Christopher Roberts, Perry Pearce and Donna Johnson, who did the cooking, were original members. We started out small, and later when Brenda Roker came to the Tourist Office, she registered the association with the government in Springfield, Illinois.”
Further crediting Ms. Major for helping to make the association official, Wayne added: “We grew from there and here I am all these years later still doing all I can to help my fellow Bahamians in any way I can. I’m not rich, but I try my best to help.”
Surely, the government should continue to offer whatever support it can to organizations like the Bahamas Association in Chicago, not only because they unite Bahamians living abroad socially, but also because as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, Bahamians in the Diaspora have the potential to be very effective “living advertisements” to encourage potential visitors to choose The Bahamas as their vacation destination.
