Ms Gumbs, Ras Bucket, Ms Pam Webster and Empress Authentic 
Roots Binghi
Members of the very active Rastafarian Community in Anguilla joined their brethren in other parts of the region in observing African Liberation Day on Monday, May 25.
Beating drums, they traveled from the residence of the late George (Judge) Gumbs in The Valley Bottom, which they previously intended to use as a commune, to their new-found Tamarind Tree site just east of the Anguilla Tourist Board Building.
Among those present at the event was the Leader of the Opposition in the recently-dissolved Anguilla House of Assembly, Ms. Palmavon Webster. “I identify with the African Liberation Movement and the work that the African Union is progressing,” she told The Anguillian newspaper. “I believe that there are a lot of lessons for us, and I value the work that has been done in the Caribbean by people like Stokley Carmichael. I admired that Mia Motley [the Barbadian Prime Minister] has demonstrated her commitment to the unification of African people everywhere, and so I think it is a wonderful objective. I think there is a lot of opportunities looking towards Africa, and I know that in Anguilla the Rastafarian Movement has persevered with their objective of being part of that unification process. That is why I am here in solidarity with them.”
Empress Authentic, originally a native of Montserrat, also spoke highly about the work of the Rastafarians in Anguilla, and how she is assisting them to realise one of their main projects on the island – the building of a temple: “African Liberation Day is usually celebrated all over the world. First of all it is celebrated in the African States that were emancipated, and also by black people everywhere. I would say that as a people we are liberated – but still waiting to be free because we are still enslaved in so many ways beginning with mental slavery. So any opportunity we have to gather together, and to try to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, it is a welcomed opportunity.
“Today, we are paying tribute to our ancestors who paved the way for us – and for their shoulders on which we stand. We are here in unity on the Rural Grounds of the Royal Organisation of Anguilla’s Rastafari – and we are here as an African people celebrating the freedom of the African States.”
Empress Authentic, spoke about herself and work in Anguilla. “I was born in Montserrat. My mother is from there and my father is from Barbuda. But, as we all know, I just happened to be born in Montserrat but I am African because we all came from Africa. If they didn’t bring us here, I would have been born back home [in Africa]. Actually, I have a poem speaking to that later [in the programme].
“I left Montserrat in the 1980s and was in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, for a few years. I got married to an Anguillian, Mark Harrigan, and then we moved to the United States. We were between New York and Florida for about twenty-five years. I have been a conscious person from my youth and so anything that is culturally oriented, I embrace it. I, just as my name says, I am Empress Authentic. I just keep it real.”
Asked about the project she is working on in Anguilla, the Rastafarian spokesperson replied: “The project is to organise Rastafari as a professional organization – to get the members in Anguilla to be registered as a non-profit organisation and to secure a space. We already had Irie Acres, but it wasn’t running the way it should because Rastafarian Movement is about love and unity. I came to organise and centralise Rastafari in Anguilla. Since, then, we secured this piece of land under the tamarind tree. This is where we hold or Sabbatical meetings every Saturday, beat our drums and do our readings etc.
“We are now getting ready to start our go-funding account because we are actually going to be building our tabernacle right over here. Bankie Banks is in charge of the Tabernacle Fund.”
Meanwhile, Ras Bucket [Trevor Davis], an avid member of the Anguilla Rastafarian Committee, was grateful to his brethren and other persons who turned out to celebrate African Liberation Day. Besides his Rastafarian culture, Ras Bucket is a former Anguillian international sprinter and serves as a Physical Education Teacher.
