CHRISTIAN CAMPBELL

Another in the Black History Month series by Ricardo P. Deveaux

My twenty sixth in the Black History Month Series is Dr. Christian Campbell, an internationally acclaimed Trinidadian-Bahamian poet, Rhodes Scholar, cultural critic and professor.

Dr. Christian Campbell is an internationally acclaimed Trinidadian-Bahamian poet, scholar, cultural critic and professor. He attended Queen’s College Secondary School and graduated as a top student at age fifteen. He attended Macalester College on a number of scholarships including the DeWitt Wallace Scholarship and received top awards for creative and critical writing as well as the Presidential Leadership Award for the most outstanding seniors. He was accepted to pursue doctoral work in literature and graduated from Macalester College at age nineteen, entering the PhD Program in English at Duke University on the Organization of American States Fellowship and other fellowships. After completing PhD coursework at Duke, Campbell won the 2002 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholarship and studied at Balliol College, University of Oxford. At Oxford he founded an international writer’s collective and continued to make a name for himself in the literary world by publishing his work in journals on both sides of the Atlantic.
As an editor and journalist, he made an impact on urgent conversations about the arts, politics, pop culture and youth culture, and conducted a number of landmark interviews with artists and public figures as diverse as Sir Sidney Poitier, the late Rex Nettleford and Buju Banton. In 2003 Campbell was awarded the Minister’s Cup for the most outstanding young Bahamian from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and was honoured at the 30th Anniversary of Bahamian Independence. He received his PhD from Duke in 2007.
Campbell’s widely acclaimed first book, Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree Press, 2010), was a finalist for the Forward Poetry Prize for the Best First Collection (UK) and won the 2010 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize (UK) among other awards. Deemed “one to watch” by The Guardian (UK), he is the second Caribbean poet to be shortlisted for the Forward Prize and the first poet of colour to win the Aldeburgh Prize, the oldest prize for a first book of poetry in the UK. Running the Dusk was also named one of the best books of 2010 by the Caribbean Review of Books, Horizon Review and Poetry International. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa calls Running the Dusk “the gutsy work of a long-distance runner who possesses the wit and endurance, the staying power of authentic genius.”
A former CARIFTA swimmer, Campbell is an avid fan of both swimming and track and field. He gives readings, lectures and workshops throughout North America, the UK and the Caribbean. In 2012 Campbell delivered the fifteenth annual Derek Walcott Lecture for Nobel Laureate Week in St. Lucia (the youngest chosen) and also represented The Bahamas at Poetry Parnassus, the international poetry festival at the Cultural Olympiad of the recent Olympic Games. He is currently a professor of English at the University of Toronto.
A pleasure to present this Black History Month Series.

Ricardo P. Deveaux

TIMOTHY GIBSON ~ THE AUTHOR OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM

Ricardo P. Deveaux's Black History Month Spotlight: Timothy Gibson

My tenth in the Black History Month Series is Mr. Timothy Gibson - Educator, National Hero and Composer of The Bahamian National.
Timothy Gibson composer, lyricist and educator was born in Savannah Sound, Eleuthera on April 12, 1903. He received his early education in Savannah Sound, Eleuthera and worked as a Monitor from the age of 11. At the same age he went to Arthur's Town, Cat Island, to join his brother, C. I. Gibson who was a head teacher and was given a job as monitor. He kept this post until he was 17.
When his brother was transferred to Buckley's, Long Island he went with him and again worked as a monitor for one year. The following year he received a job as head teacher in Scrubb Hill, Long Island. He later came to Nassau as a student-in training at the Boys Central School which was then located in Nassau Court.
He was later transferred to the Sandilands School as acting head teacher for eight months and then to the school in George Town, Exuma, where he stayed for seven years, returning to Nassau for a refresher course at the Eastern Senior School.
Following this he was transferred to Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera, as head teacher and remained there for seven years before coming to Nassau where he took up the post as teacher at the Western Junior School, then located on Hospital Lane.
When the new school was built on Market Street, he moved there. He left the classroom when he was given a job as supervisor of music for Government Schools. His time then was divided between the junior and senior schools where he taught music theory and singing.
In 1961 he was made Assistant Inspector of Schools for music. He worked with the Family Island Schools and also the Bahamas Teacher's College as well as with schools in New Providence.
For many years he did the adjudication for the Family Island Schools during the Annual Music Festival. Many of the songs he wrote were used in these festivals.
Mr. Gibson received most of his music training from his brother C. I. Gibson who taught him how to read music and play the organ. Apart from his brother's training, he studied music theory at Trinity College London, and attended Seminars in Delaware. He was a choral conductor accredited by the University Conservatory of Chicago through a Correspondence Course.
His song-writing career began with "Nassau Calling" in 1938. He wrote other songs such as "Sailor Prince", for the visit of Prince Philip, "Your Majesty", for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II, and "Hail Princess Britannia", for the visit of Princess Margaret. This title has since been changed to "Beautiful Bahamaland". He also wrote the National Anthem of the Bahamas "March On Bahama Land".
The Government of The Bahamas honoured this veteran educator by naming a school after him. Mr. Gibson was married to the former Miss Rosena Hilton. He died in January 2nd, 1978 at the age of 74.

Words of the National Anthem

March On Bahamaland

Lift up your head to the rising sun, Bahamaland,
March on to glory, your bright banners waving high,
See how the world marks the manner of your bearing ;
Pledge to excel thro' love and unity.

Pressing onward, march together, to a common loftier goal ;
Steady sunward tho' the weather hide the wide and treacherous shoal.
Lift up your head to the rising sun, Bahamaland,
'til the road you've trod lead unto your God, March on Bahamaland.

Prepared by:
Ricardo P. Deveaux
Nassau, Bahamas

Source of Information: Department of Archives