By FELICITY DARVILLE

The 50th Independence anniversary of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is a great opportunity to start from scratch and define our national identity and culture, according to a giant in the Bahamian music industry, Fred Ferguson.

He believes that by properly defining who we are and creating policies that support what we do and the way we do it as Bahamians, we can set the country’s path on a forward trajectory for the next 50 years.

Among his suggestions - creating a separate Ministry of Culture that would serve as an umbrella ministry to advise other ministries and create a cultural policy to guide decisions and spur an educational curriculum for future generations.

“We are 50 years in,” he said, “And I think we should make year 50, year one.”

“We have some strides. but we made some major errors as well. Let’s clearly define who we are. Let’s start over. We need to find ourselves.”

Fred said that culture, when taken at its deepest definition, is everything that people do regularly in a specific geographic location - from the way they build their roads and homes, to the way they cook and come together - and everything in between.

The 40-year music industry veteran gave an example of how useful a Ministry of Culture could be: “The fact that we are surrounded by water, Bahamians should have access to all beaches. No one should be allowed to build on the beach. These are the things that can be determined as clear cultural policies, defined by the Ministry of Culture and carried out by other ministries.”

Bahamians, he said, do not exhibit the level of cultural pride that they should have; and that, in part, is due to insufficient education in schools’ curriculums. Not enough is being taught about Bahamian history in the schools, and Bahamian music such as Junkanoo and Rake ‘n Scrape are not being taught on the level that they should be. Therefore, he said the young people cannot be held to blame, because they are only exhibiting what they know.

Fred produced the spectacular 49th Independence Anniversary celebrations last year, and he will serve as the official producer once again for the Golden Jubilee. He is honoured by the task, and will use it once again as an opportunity to help tell the Bahamian story, educate and entertain people, igniting a greater sense of national pride.

He recently produced the cultural concert for Jubilee Day, one of the exciting days on the Road to 50 production. National Independence Secretariat Chair Leslia Miller-Brice is leading a team that has already successfully pulled off a number of major events on the Road to 50, including Sunday’s National Ecumenical Service at Evangelistic Temple, New Providence, and the launch of the Golden Jubilee Flag Relay in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera.

Fred took to the basement of The Tribune newspaper, searching as far back as 1958, perusing old newspapers and digging up critical information to tell the story of greats like Sir Lynden Pindling and Sir Randol Fawkes, whose decision to join the Progressive Liberal Party and reject an offer from the United Bahamian Party led to the ushering in of Majority Rule.

He brought the stories of the nation’s forefathers to life in drama, dance and song, much to the delight of the hundreds gathered for the first-ever Jubilee Day. Bahamians, he said, must be presented with this kind of information in a way that inspires them so that they feel proud to be Bahamian.

“A Jamaican could live in this country since he/ she was a child and they would die sounding Jamaican,” Fred said.

“We had Carnival over the weekend,” he pointed out.

“It was the complete opposite of everything we stand for as a nation and what we are trying to develop as a nation. I wrote a song called Junkanoo is My Carnival sung by Sonovia Pierre. I imagine that we should put the same energy (that people put into a copy of other countries’ carnivals) into our own carnival.”

“It’s not difficult to fix. The rules are the same around the world. Carnival happens at the end of a season. Junkanoo happens at the end of what was our work season (when we were slaves). It gave us a reason to celebrate. Junkanoo is first a celebration; it’s more than a competition.”

“Other countries have their Carnival fetes... we could have our Junkanoo party shacks! They have competitions and bring out new music every year. They bring out hundreds of songs. The music is played throughout the year, and the people drive what becomes the most popular songs. They are played all over the radio. At the end of that season is Carnival, and they choose their Carnival king and queen. In the same way, we could have our Junkanoo King and Queen.”

“We quickly migrate to what everyone else is doing,” Fred continued.

“Our young people know more soca songs than our songs. When I went to Trinidad Carnival, I was able to buy a costume, join a band and participate. But as Bahamians, we can’t join a band unless we know someone or we find a band that hasn’t met their quota for the parade on Bay Street as yet. As a tourist, it’s hard to get a ticket to even sit on the bleachers and watch.”

Fred suggested that if new music is introduced by talented Bahamian artists in January, they could be played all year long on the radio, and by public choice, the most popular ones would become the hit songs for Junkanoo for that year. This would allay the current situation where Junkanoo bands performing in the annual parades play secular music and other kinds of music to satisfy the crowd.

“The Boxing Day and New Years’ Parades could be the culmination of these song competitions,” said Fred, who served as the first creative consultant for the Ministry of Tourism, where he created the Junkanoo in June song competition which was a part of the Junkanoo in June Festival.

Trinidad has Savannah, and Bahamas has Rawson Square, he said, explaining that it could be the focal point of the competition, but not the whole parade. Trinidad takes its Carnival masquerade through Savannah and back into town amongst the people.

“We could start from the eastern side of Bay street and parade to Rawson Square,” he explained.

“Then once the judging is over in the square, the parade continues west and people could join in at a point, such as the British Colonial Hilton Hotel. Then Bahamians and tourists alike could parade in the streets all the way to Clifford Park, which is large enough to host the larger party and the end of the Junkanoo parade.”

“We have become stuck in old thinking and we have allowed it to become like politics. As Bahamians, we talk about three things all year long - religion, Junkanoo and politics.”

On the topic of Bahamian music, Fred also shared some insight.he and other advocates have been calling for Bahamian music to be defined as Goombay. This music would include genres like Juanknoo and Rake ‘n Scrape. In Jamaica, for example, Reggae music encompasses several genres such as Ska, Dancehall and what is known as “culture” music. He wants to see Bahamian music have the same kind of worldwide appeal as other countries. In order to do that, he said education is vital; because the only way for Bahamian artists to come away from talking about the same kinds of topics is for new artists to be presented with the wealth of information of their country’s history.

Born in Chester’s, Acklins, to parents Admiral and Delores Ferguson, Fred was raised in a home where there was always music and in a community where almost everyone sang - especially in the churches. The Fergusons were educators, and like many back in the day, they were assigned to other islands to teach students. Because of this, Fred spent some of his youth in Long Island, where he graduated from NGM Major as its first head boy.

As a child, Fred taught himself different instruments that were around his home or within the community. After leaving high school, he honed his skills by performing with many local bands in Nassau and the Family Islands.

In 1982, he got an invitation to join his favorite local band High Voltage, which was led by Isaiah Taylor. He spent 16 years as the music director of the band, which eventually became Baha Men. After leaving Baha Men, he continued to contribute to the industry as a producer and songwriter and later as band leader of the band Tingum Dem.

Fred’s producing and writing skills afforded him the opportunity to write and produce songs for many of the popular artists, including Ronnie Butler, Sweet Emily, Sonovia Pierre, Alia Coley, Eddie Minnis, Marvin Henfield, Baha Men, The Cooling Waters, Vision, Geno D, and many more. A popular song he co-wrote with Herschell Small and produced, Here We Go Again, sold over 500.000 copies worldwide.

His self-produced project entitled Fresh Paint, which is a collection of Bahamian songs done instrumentally, continues to be a one-of-a-kind and popular project on all of the local radio stations and parties. For Shakespeare In Paradise, Fred arranged and produced the music for the Eddie Minnis’ Musical Der Real Ting and continues to work on other major projects including a tribute to the late Ronnie Butler. He currently lives and works between the USA and The Bahamas.

As an avid fan of Bahamian folk guitarist Joseph Spence, along with film Producer Kevin Taylor, he produced a video biography project on Joseph Spence, which has received tremendous acclaim both locally and internationally. He also served as the Producer for the Memorial Tribute to Sir Sidney Poitier. He is committed to the development and preservation of the local sounds of rake ‘n scrape and Junkanoo and sees the sky as the limit for ‘tings’ Bahamian.