GUEST COMMENTARY: BY ERICA MOIAH JAMES
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This brilliant essay by Erica Moiah James on the remarkable career of Jeanne I. Thompson was originally posted on Facebook on May 10, 2021. It was reposted today (July 21)by my journalistic colleague Michael Symonette, and I absolutely had to share it with readers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.)
NASSAU, Bahamas –Despite their key role in the independence and suffrage movement, growing up in The Bahamas in the late seventies and eighties, there were a precious few woman in the public sphere that could be seen as role models. As a kid who read newspapers, Dame Doris Johnson, Judy Munroe and especially Jeanne Thompson grabbed my attention and kept it.
I couldn’t explain back then but now to me it seemed as if she always recognized the power of her voice. During a long career, she has honed it in the fields of law, journalism, theatre and even for a moment politics. She would probably shudder at the thought, but as a tween I wondered whether she could become Prime Minister. Eugenia Charles was serving at the time as Prime Minister of Dominica, why not Thompson in The Bahamas? What flowed from Thompson’s mouth in the public sphere made a lot of sense to me. Alas I was not of voting age.
Thompson is second daughter of the late Ellison Thompson and Sybil Thompson (nee Isaacs). She attended the famed Government High School and graduated from the Wolmer’s Girls School in Kingston, Jamaica, the second oldest school in the Caribbean and one of the most prestigious schools in Jamaica. It was not widespread, but certainly not unusual (well into the seventies) for black Bahamians to go to other Caribbean countries for a portion of their schooling.
This was sometimes because of family ties to other islands, but also because it was widely believed that the education system in The Bahamas available to blacks at the time was not as strong as those found in places like Jamaica and Barbados. I do not know the reasons for Thompson’s sojourn, but suffice it to say the experience fully prepared her to enter university. After earning her degree, she became a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in November 1964. She then became the second woman called to The Bahamas Bar in January 1965. Patricia Cole Cozzi was the first (1953).
Thompson began the practice of law in the Chambers of Dupuch & Turnquest (Hon. Eugene Dupuch C.B.E and Q.C. and Sir Orville Turnquest Q.C.). Dupuch had become well known for his willingness to serve as law tutor for young lawyers and those aspiring to the field. Besides Thompson, Veronica Turnquest Grant, Brent Symonette, Vincent Peet, the late Keith Duncombe and Brave Davis, the current Prime Minister of The Bahamas, all benefited from Dupuch’s mentorship.
Thompson would later practice in the chambers of Sir Kendal Isaacs Q.C., rising to partner in the firm of Isaacs, Johnson & Thompson. She left to head her own practice in 1981, which thrived until she joined the Supreme Court Bench in 2002.
While in retrospect this seems like a smooth ride, Thompson’s achievements in the field of law are interwoven with her profound love of and lasting impact on the arts. By her own admission, she began writing plays at the age of eight. After practicing law for several years, Thompson took a break and for five years in the seventies worked primarily as a journalist and playwright.
On May 13, 1970 a radio serial soap she and Mrs. Sonia Mills co-authored debuted on Bahamian radio. Called the “The Fergusons of Farm Road,” the program had been developed at the request of the Ministry of Tourism, whIch wanted a show aimed at encouraging Bahamians to improve their attitudes towards tourists. Rather than simply fulfilling this official goal, the soap became an example of the creative power of Bahamian culture. For the first time Bahamians could listen to the radio and hear themselves telling their story, in their language, from their perspective in an expressive form.
The Fergusons was so popular that its initial three-month run was extended to five years. All of the main characters worked in the tourism industry. Ezekiel Ferguson, whose family provided the soap’s focus, was a Baptist minister and taxi driver, his wife “Mina” a straw vendor. They had four children, three boys and a daughter named Blossom. Their neighbor Ms. Lye, a street vendor, added the spice.
While I have no memory of the program (and the audiotapes have been lost), Eddie Minnis’s first hit song was based on the Ferguson’s neighbor “Miss Lye,” and I do remember that song. It’s lyrics may give us a sense of the show’s internal rhythm and humor: “She big and fat with cord tie roun’ her picky head (hee hee); Believe you me she gat ohgliness gone to bed; Down Farm Road with she hitch up skirt; Causin’ people trouble, always spreadin’ dirt; Miss Lye. Oh Miss Lye. Why you carry on so? Put mouth on people, how you gossip so? Where you does get this sweet news you hear? Obeah! Obeah! Obeah!”
As the main character’s name Ezekiel suggests, humor and the vernacular were tied to biblical values in the show’s plotlines- thus weaving this soap into multiple aspects of Bahamian expressive culture. The launch of the program coincided with a high period in Bahamian gospel music that saw the emergence of groups such as “The Redemption Gospel Singers,” “The Cooling Waters,” “The Andros Mighty Clouds of Joy” and the “Region Bells.” The Region Bell’s song “Dry Bones” starred the prophet Ezekiel and is arguably one of the most popular gospel songs in Bahamian history spreading throughout the archipelago through live performance and its regular play on popular radio programs such as the late Rev. JJ Stubbs’ ‘Gospel Hour’. Bahamians were ready to hear the character’s message.
After “The Fergusons of Farm Road” ceased production, Thompson went on the write another radio soap opera “Sam Finley’s Sandcastle”, also for the Ministry of Tourism. While these shows provided an arena for Bahamian actors to showcase their talents, Thompson remained deeply committed to the stage. She is the author of several plays, including “Vicious Circle,” “Bread, Oil and Standard,” “Father’s Day,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” ’The Prodigal’s Brother,” and “Among the Dancing Dead.” She has also been active on the stage, appearing in productions such as “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl,” “The Amen Corner,” “Miss Reardon Drinks a Little” and “You Can Lead a Horse to Water.”
The latter play, written by the late Winston Saunders, was based on an actual case Saunders and Thompson worked on together as young attorneys, which resulted in the execution of a young man for matricide. The impact of the experience was so great that both Saunders and Thompson went on to write plays inspired by the case. While Thompson has critiqued her own effort “Vicious Circle” as too heavy handed, Saunders’s version is widely regarded by Thompson and others as one of the greatest Bahamian plays ever written.
Jeanne Thompson retired as a Justice of The Bahamas Supreme Court in March 2007 and for a time continued to lecture at the Eugene Dupuch Law School and consult at Halsbury Chambers. In 2019 she published three of her plays in a compilation entitled “Bahamian Tapestry” with Guanima Press that included “Vicious Circle,” “Fathers Day” and “Columbus Landing”. In retirement I would like to think that she wakes up each day and does whatever she likes.
