Vincentian academic and community leader Sherill-Ann Mason-Haywood has urged her compatriots to do more for nation-building.
“This year’s Independence theme, ‘Celebrating Our Identity, Celebrating Our Future,’ urges us to do more than remember; it calls us to renew — drawing on the strength of Chatoyer and the Garifuna people to shape a future together,” said Mason-Haywood during the keynote address at the Gala Luncheon and Scholarship Awards marking St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ 46th Independence Anniversary.
“We are Vincentians, and we must rise to this occasion,” added Mason-Haywood at the event organized by the Brooklyn-based Vincentian umbrella group in the US, Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organizations, U.S.A, Inc. (COSAGO), in conjunction with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Consulate General to the US.
“But independence is not nostalgia; it is an assignment,” Mason-Haywood continued. “Celebrating our future means ensuring the next generation stands taller than we did.”
Mason-Haywood said COSAGO’s new scholarship, named in honor of its late president Dr. Errol G. King and member Dollis Forbes, is “part of that assignment.”
“It is an investment in young Vincentians, who will study, lead and create in ways that uplift us all,” she said, congratulating the inaugural recipients, Laniya Simmons and Sarai McIntosh, “who are now trailblazers and in whom we have faith that their journeys to become agents of change in their chosen fields of endeavor will be realized.
“Maybe one of these recipients will become the next great surgeon, the next musical icon, or the next voice for our people,” Mason-Haywood added. “And, when they do, it will be because people like us in this room today believed that our country’s best days are still ahead of us. We are Vincentians, and we must rise to this occasion.”
As St. Vincent and the Grenadines marks another year of independence, Mason-Haywood urged her compatriots to “remember that freedom was hard-won through courage, vision, and the defiance of Chief Joseph Chatoyer and the Garifuna defenders who refused to bow.”
“Their struggle was not only to resist domination and colonial rule, but to defend what it meant to be a free people on Hairouna (St. Vincent and the Grenadines),” she said. “It was about defining our sovereignty, self-determination, and shaping a nation in our own image, just as our Garifuna brothers and sisters in Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua still do.
“Today, we must continue to defend our sovereignty and culture with no less urgency,” continued Mason-Haywood, stating that one of the most important elements of this fight is “to shape the minds of our young people, to prepare their hearts to love, and to free their imagination.”
She said Chatoyer’s spirit must live on in the ways Vincentians educate their children and young people.
“The future of our nation will not be secured by tradition alone, but by daring to teach differently and to think radically about how we learn, create and lead,” she said. “When we center our youth and embrace a radical approach to education, we open the doors of innovation, transformation and empowerment.
“You see, when we dare to rethink education, when we teach our youth not to just follow but to lead, we unlock a power that changes nations,” added Mason-Haywood, pointing to Jonelle “Jay Hova” Goodluck, who was once a DJ at Woodland on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and has taken “Brunch and Soca” from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the world stage.
“In him, I see an example of what it means to think boldly and to act courageously,” she continued. “Our Vincentian young people are ready to make a bold statement that St. Vincent and the Grenadines is ready to make a stamp on the global scene in a BIG way.”
She said that is what Vincentian 800-meter Olympian Shafiqua Maloney did, “when she ran into the history books becoming the first Vincentian athlete to reach the finals at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games – a feat that came almost 30 years after our very own DJ, EzSounds, became the first Vincentian to become a World University Games Champion.
“Our young people are ready,” Mason-Haywood said. “The question is: are we ready to give them the opportunity and support they need to shine?”
She encouraged Vincentians to turn the energy of their independence anniversary into new initiatives such as an innovation fund or mentorship network to spark the next wave of excellence.
“Chatoyer’s spirit challenges us to think boldly, creatively and courageously,” Mason-Haywood said. “Independence gave us freedom; the Diaspora gives that freedom endurance. As we gather here, we are proving that national pride does not fade with distance, but it multiplies.
“Every act of giving, every scholarship, every cultural event is a way of keeping our flag flying high,” she added. “Together, we keep St. Vincent and the Grenadines alive in the hearts of people across the world. That is how we preserve our history, and that is how we shape our future.
“As we celebrate this year’s Independence, may we remember that our identity gives us roots, but our future gives us wings,” Mason-Haywood continued. “And together, by love for our people, our country, and our shared story of resilience and promise, we, as Vincentians, will rise to this occasion.
