SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER, 2017 – UWI TODAY
9
THE UWI ST. AUGUSTINE
HONOR A R Y GR A DUAT ES 2 017
Mr Andrew Marcano,
“Lord Superior”
Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt)
Originally from Rio Claro,
Mr. Andrew
Marcano made his calypso debut at the
Victory tent in Port of Spain. As the “Boy
Wonder” he shared the stage with some of
the biggest names in the business: Spoiler,
Spitfire, Cypher, Pretender, Lord Blakie and
LordMelody. The year was 1954 and he was
just 16 years old – the youngest calypsonian
to perform locally. He was an advocate for
calypso through action and in song. At the
age of 19 he helped to organize a boycott of
the 1957 Calypso King Competition. His
calypso Brass Crown outlined the main
points of contention: the racial and class
discrimination that saw the Calypso King
receive just $40, while the Jaycees (Junior
Chamber) Carnival Queen winner received
significantly more. The following year, the
Calypso King’s prize was $1,000.
Lord Superior was the first calypsonian
to protest against the practice of radio
stations and the society of refraining from
playing and singing calypso during the
Lenten season.
In 2004, Lord Superior was honored
by UNESCO for his 50 years in calypso
and the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians
Organization’s (TUCO) counted himamong
the Top 50 Calypsonians of all time. In 2012
he was honoured by the National Carnival
Commission (NCC) and by the Trinidad
and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters
Association’s for his role in the liberalization
of local broadcasting in Trinidad and
Tobago. He was awarded the Hummingbird
Medal (Silver) in 2015.
Mr. Winsford“Joker”Devine,
Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt)
Mr. Devine grew up in Morne Diablo
in
South Trinidad where he played the steelpan
with his cousin’s band and learned the basics
of reading and writing music notation.
Apart from that however, he is a self-
taught musician. He attended the Morne
Diablo R.C. School, then the San Fernando
Technical College. In his mid-twenties he
moved to Port of Spain where he continued
to play pan and began to write songs.
Mr. Devine would write his songs and
pass them to artistes who came to him if he
thought it was a good fit. He read widely
from different genres and has always had a
keen interest in current affairs: class issues,
environmental destruction, history, culture,
and politics.
He gave himself the sobriquet “Joker”
because he originally intended to sing
his songs himself. He recorded a few; the
prophetic Progress, was originally written
for himself but eventually he passed it on
to King Austin and the rest is history. That
masterpiece continues to resonate with
audiences decades later and was hailed
by the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’
Organisation (TUCO) as the song of the
last millennium.
Although ill health preventsMr. Devine
fromwriting as much as he used to, in 2016
he shared his talents with young songwriters
as part of the Culture Division’s Mentoring
by the Masters programme. He received the
HummingbirdMedal (Silver) in 1998 for his
contributions to music and the arts.
Ms. Hazel Brown
Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD)
Ms. Brown’s activism began in Diego
Martin
in the late 1960s, when she formed
a neighbourhood group. Curiosity led her to
join the Housewives Association of Trinidad
and Tobago (HATT), which educated
consumers and advocated for their rights.
She became a founding member of the
Telephone Users Group, which represented
consumers at the hearings for telephone
rates in 1971. She took part in similar
hearings on electricity rates, bringing about
changes to the rate structures for both
utilities.
Ms Brown was a founding member of
the Network of NGOs of Trinidad &Tobago
for the Advancement of Women. The
Network was created in 1985 to coordinate
a national position for the End of Decade
Conference in Nairobi. Thirty years later,
the Network represents more than 100
non-profit groups focused on women’s and
family issues.
She is a former Secretary General of
the Commonwealth Women’s Network.
She co-founded TIBS – The Informative
Breastfeeding Society. Her own health
challenges led her to form a network of
medical, immigration and other officials to
help cancer patients in Guyana have access
to care in Trinidad. She spearheaded the
rejuvenation of the East-Side Plaza in Port
of Spain, which provides entrepreneurship
opportunities for lower-income women.
Her publications include A Study of
Diabetes and Hypertension in Women 25
years and over in Trinidad and Tobago
and she co-authored the Role of Working
Women in Early Childhood Education in
Trinidad and Tobago.
Professor Emeritus
Clem Seecharan
Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt)
Born at PalmyraVillage, Berbice, Guyana,
Professor Seecharan attended the Sheet
Anchor Anglican School, the Berbice
Educational Institute, and Queen’s College.
He received his BA (Social Anthropology)
and MA (Social Anthropology/History)
from McMaster University in Canada,
and then taught Caribbean Studies at the
University of Guyana. He attained his
PhD at the University of Warwick, where
he was the first doctoral graduate of the
Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies.
He was the Head of Caribbean Studies at
LondonMetropolitan University from1993
to 2012 and also lectured on the History of
West Indies Cricket. In 2003 he was awarded
a Certificate of Distinction by the Guyana
High Commission (London). In 2002, he
was awarded a Professorship in History at
the LondonMetropolitan University, where
he is now Emeritus Professor of History.
Professor Seecharan’s publications
include ‘Tiger in the Stars’: The Anatomy of
Indian Achievement in British Guiana, 1919-
29; Bechu: ‘Bound Coolie’ Radical in British
Guiana, 1894-1901; Muscular Learning:
Cricket and Education in the Making of
the British West Indies at the End of the
19 th Century; From Ranji to Rohan: Cricket
and Indian Identity in Colonial Guyana,
1890s-1960s; Mother India’s Shadow over El
Dorado: Indo-Guyanese Politics and Identity,
1890s-1930s; Finding Myself: Essays on Race,
Politics and Culture.
His Sweetening ‘Bitter Sugar’:
Jock Campbell, the Booker Reformer in
British Guiana, 1934-66, was awarded
the prestigious Elsa Goveia Prize by the
Association of Caribbean Historians in
2005.
