Black Power in Bermuda CONTEMPORARY BLACK HISTORY Manning Marable (Columbia University) and Peniel Joseph (Tufts University) Series Editors This series features cutting-edge scholarship in Contemporary Black History, underlining the importance of the study of history as a form of public advocacy and political activism. It focuses on postwar African-American history, from 1945 to the early 1990s, but it also includes international black history, bringing in high-quality interdisciplinary scholarship from around the globe. It is the series editors’ firm belief that outstanding critical research can also be accessible and well written. To this end, books in the series incorporate dif- ferent methodologies that lend themselves to narrative richness, such as oral history and ethnography, and combine disciplines such as African American Studies, Political Science, Sociology, Ethnic and Women’s Studies, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice. Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Biko Lives!: The Contested Legacies of Steve Biko Edited by Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander, and Nigel C. Gibson Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement: “Another Side of the Story” By Robbie Lieberman and Clarence Lang Africana Cultures and Policy Studies: Scholarship and the Transformation of Public Policy Edited by Zachery Williams Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton By Duchess Harris Mau Mau in Harlem?: The U.S. and the Liberation of Kenya By Gerald Horne Black Power in Bermuda: The Struggle for Decolonization By Quito Swan Neighborhood Rebels: Black Power at the Local Level Edited by Peniel E. Joseph (forthcoming) Black Power Principals By Matthew Whitaker (forthcoming) Black Power in Bermuda The Struggle for Decolonization Quito Swan BLACK POWER IN BERMUDA Copyright © Quito Swan, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61906-7 All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-10958-2 ISBN 978-0-230-10218-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230102187 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Swan, Quito. Black power in Bermuda : the struggle for decolonization / Quito Swan. p. cm.—(Contemporary Black history) Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “A transnational, Pan-African youth movement, Black power in Bermuda sought freedom for Blacks from the island’s White oligarchy and independence from British colonialism. It was spearheaded by activists such as Pauulu Kamarakafego and the Black Beret Cadre. The Cadre maintained relationships with revolutionary organizations across the African diaspora, such as the Black Panthers. Emerging in the late 1960s, the movement witnessed the assassinations of Bermuda’s British chief of police and governor (1972–1973). Swan carefully details the island’s colonial government’s attempts to destroy the movement through military tactics, extensive propaganda, and the implementation of token social concessions”—Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-0-230-10958-2 (hbk) 1. Black power—Bermuda Islands—History—20th century. 2. Blacks—Civil rights—Bermuda Islands—History—20th century. 3. Civil rights movements—Bermuda Islands—History—20th century. 4. Youth movements—Bermuda Islands—History—20th century. 5. Black Beret Cadre (Paget, Bermuda Islands)—History. 6. Political activists—Bermuda Islands—Biography. 7. Bermuda Islands—Race relations—History—20th century. 8. Decolonization—Bermuda Islands—History—20th century. 9. Bermuda Islands—History— Autonomy and independence movements. 10. Bermuda Islands—Politics and government—20th century. I. Title. F1640.B55S93 2010 323.097299—dc22 2009034119 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Pauulu, Habib, Akinwunmi, Ifasadun, Ayah, and the beautyful ones unborn This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures, Maps, and Tables ix Preface xi List of Abbreviations xv Introduction The Truth is an Offense: Black Power in a British Colony 1 1 Negroes Dressed in Insolence: Boycotts, Black Muslims, and Racial Uprisings 11 2 Another Unknown Soldier: Pauulu 35 3 A Bermuda Triangle of Imperialism 53 4 Blueprint for Freedom: Bermuda’s Black Power Conference of 1969 77 5 Wake the Town and Tell the People: The Black Beret Cadre Emerges 95 6 The Empire Strikes Back: The Government’s War against the Berets 113 7 We Don’t Need No Water: The Cadre Burns the Union Jack 137 8 Robin Hood was Black in My Hood: “Erskine” Buck Burrows and the Assassinations (1972–77) 163 Conclusion Babylon Give Them a Ride: Blackness in Contemporary Bermuda 183 Notes 197 Bibliography 225 Index 233 This page intentionally left blank Figures, Maps, and Tables Figures 0.1 Flag of Bermuda xvii 0.2 Black Berets, 1972 (L-R, Dennis Burrows, John (Dionne) Bassett, Philip Perinchief, Jennifer Smith, Calvin Shabazz) xviii 0.3 Black Berets with Free Panther Sign (L-R, Jerome Perinchief, Eliyahtsoor Ben Aaharon, Cal Shabazz) xviii 0.4 Pauulu’s brother, Pauula, his grandfather, and friend (courtesy of Rronniba Kamarakafego) xix 0.5 Pauulu Kamarakafego at the University of Columbia, 1954 (courtesy of Rronniba Kamarakafego) xx 0.6 Pauulu Kamarakafego in Liberia, 1960 (courtesy of Rronniba Kamarakafego) xxi C.1 Tea & Crackers 189 Maps 0.1 Bermuda xvi 0.2 Map of Bermuda xvi 0.3 Bermuda and the Americas xvii Tables 1.1 Number of resident Blacks and Whites in Bermuda, 1834–1970 17 4.1 Black Power organizations in Eastern Caribbean, latter half of 1969–70 90 5.1 Political movements/leaders studied by the Cadre 108 C.1 British overseas territories decolonized since 1970 188 C.2 Occupational distribution of employment and average income by race, 2006–2007 191 This page intentionally left blank Preface critical theme afflicting the African Diaspora seems to be the A notion of “invisibility.” In other words, having become conceptually marginalized within their own nation-states, many African-descended populations often only become visible to one another by chance; when such communities actively seek to connect with and draw attention to one another; or when issues affecting them develop into “crises” that threaten the interests of globalization and lead to sound bites about these struggles in the international media. A sample roll call of the latter could read as such: Afro-Colombians facing genocide and forced land removal; Blacks in Martinique and Guadeloupe uprising against socioeconomic oppression and French colonialism; Darfur; the African Muslim com- munity in France; Somalian “pirates”; Afro-Brazilians in urban favelas; the crisis in the Congo; Haiti; and Afro-Venezuelan social movements. The island of Bermuda knows this story all too well. She remains a British colony, and primarily leaps into the minds of the external world through advertisements for tourism or calls by U.S. President Barack Obama to address the island’s status as a U.S. tax haven. This is unsurprising, for even within Bermuda colonial education has historically served to intellectually erase the voice of Black dissent and disconnect the experiences of Blacks in Bermuda from the wider Black world. The has unfortunately resulted in a certain level of historical amnesia among many Bermudians who are astonished to learn that Blacks have historically resisted colonial rule, slav- ery, discrimination, and racism and often contextualized these struggles in a larger phenomenon of global Black self-determination. As would happen across the Diaspora, Bermuda’s establishment has marginalized those who wrote about Black struggle. Hence, the documen- tation of history (through many cultural mediums) has necessarily served as more than an intellectual exercise. As such, Bermuda’s Black historian has often had to live the life of an activist scholar and intellectual maroon. However, the recognition of such writers came from their community; their works were known by those who sought to know and not by those who should know—namely, Black Bermudians who have benefited from xii PREFACE the struggle of their ancestors—simply because it is their birthright. As such, it is important to recognize that the written works of those such as Nellie Musson, Cyril Packwood, Pauulu Kamarakafego, Ira Philip, Eva Hodgson, and Dale Butler—and freedom fighters of Bermuda, the wider African Diaspora, and indigenous world—have laid the foundation via which this story of Black Power in Bermuda could be written. Medaase. Writing this book has been a journey with a number of spiritual, finan- cial, intellectual, and physical crossroads. At each one, however, I have been blessed with inspiration and guidance from a myriad of sources too numerous to mention. To my parents, Sinclair and Lorraine Swan, I cannot ask for any more than the unconditional love and support that you have given. Nique, Tamisheka, and Kashima—the world’s greatest siblings— thanks to you, your