The Tribune

By NOELLE NICOLLS

Tribune Features Editor

nnicolls@tribunemedia.net

THERE are some people in life whose characters are so large that a certain amount of distance is required to fully comprehend their grandeur. If as the sun, whose magnificence can only be appreciated from 93 million miles away, to truly fathom these living legends requires mental or physical space.

Some people have the capacity to comprehend the greatness of living legends by simply seeing the big picture, the historical context, the destiny of the individual; with that mental space the light of the individual comes into clear view. For most, however, death is the instrument required to put greatness into perspective; after all there is no greater separation than the finality of death.

Cultural icon Jackson Burnside is one such person. After Friday night’s screening of the documentary “Jackson Burnside: Native Son” at the Bahamas International Film Festival, there was an overwhelming power in the room that left most speechless: it was the now uncontained ancestral spirit of Jackson. All who never knew its power before could not escape its impact now.

There was a young man in attendance who after watching the documentary said in lament: “I did not get to know a great man.”

I had the great fortune of knowing Jackson Burnside when he was alive. And on the heels of the documentary that recorded his life and legacy, I await the imminent release of a biography from another legend, a living legend, who I also have the great fortune of knowing.

“A Girl Called Nettie: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love” is the hot-off-the-press biography of Bahamian icon Netica “Nettie” Symonette, published by Dunham Books. The memoir is not a tell all, for Nettie will tell you, there is much more she has to say, but it is an intimate account of her personal life and experiences over the past seven decades, breaking barriers and “chaping” new trails.

Nettie is an historian, artist, cultural activist and entrepreneur. Over her lifetime, she has been honoured with many awards, including the Order of Merit, Order of British Empire, numerous Cacique Awards, and the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s first Hotelier of the Year Award.

In 1976 she was crowned the Most Outstanding Woman in Business and in 2002 she was named a living legend by the local branch of Zonta International. She is a lifetime director of the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board and the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association. While she currently owns and operates her two hotel brands, Nettie’s Different of Nassau and Casuarinas, she is primarily invested in her writing, art and other creative and cultural pursuits.

Nettie is a natural born storyteller. As a child, she would sit at the feet of the elders in her native Eleuthera and listen to their stories; it was the only time she and her ten siblings were permitted to stay out late. Otherwise, curfew was sunset. She captures this spirit in her memoir, which reads like old-time story time.

With vivid recollection, Nettie manages to reflect with dignity on her life of triumph and trial, even as she expresses her honest and sometimes unflattering feelings about people and events. In doing so, she broaches often unspoken subjects that are all too familiar to many: domestic violence, alcoholism, racism, sexism and back stabbing.

There is an entire chapter on her father, Bradfield Thomas Symonette, who she describes at one point as a “cruel and strict man”. He was a complex character: a man who was feared by his family and loved by his community. He was a musical genius who taught many in the community to play instruments; none of his children were so lucky. He was an industrious man, the highest paid contractor in Eleuthera. He was perceived as one of the “finest and most respected men in the (Rock Sound) settlement,” hailing from a family of affluence.

Nettie’s paternal grandfather Thomas Adonus “Papa Doney” Symonette was a hugely successful farmer and business man. He was referred to as “the Mayor of Eleuthera.” Story goes, Papa Doney developed a relationship with a family to secure the best wife for his son Bradfield. So said so done: Clara Viola “Mama” Edwards, Nettie’s mother, was forced into an arranged marriage to a man she would “loathe and despise for the rest of her life.” Mama was of “high yellow” complexion and discriminated against people of darker complexion. The lack of love in the relationship greatly affected Nettie and her siblings throughout their life, said Nettie.

The memoir is dedicated to the memory of Mrs Symonette and Bishop Leonard Hagarty, who was a dear friend. Nettie shared a close relationship with her Mama, from whom she learned to knead bread and sew flour bag clothes, along with many other skills and virtues. Her mother and father taught her the meaning of hard work. At eight years old, Nettie worked in the family shop with her mother. Mrs Symonette trusted Nettie in the family shop more than her other children, for she believed Nettie to be honest.

“She thought they would steal the coppers and pennies. Years later I told her, while I didn’t steal your copper and pennies I did steal your brown sugar,” said Nettie. She would sneak out brown sugar in large match boxes and eat it down by the Gully.

Stories from her childhood precede the reflections on Nettie’s life in the tourism industry. Nettie addresses many questions that have followed her in the past; and shares with an insider’s eye, her many experiences.

Some have asked the question, what happened to Nettie’s thriving eco-tourism and heritage resort Different of Abaco, described as “a little piece of heaven” and the best kept secret by Caribbean Travel and Life magazine. When Nettie left Abaco around 2006 for a two day visit with family - an overnight bag in hand - she had no idea she would not return to continue her reign at Different of Abaco. Her memoir reveals new details about the events that led to new life in Nassau, a trying period in Nettie’s life when she refused to open her doors to business for two years.

It was during this time that she discovered gifts of writing and painting, personal talents she never realized existed.

That she rose from humble beginnings to become a Bahamian icon is an understatement. Because the road Nettie has walked, while so neatly described as humble, was anything but neat. It was coarse and rugged and turbulent at times.

At 16 years old, Nettie was the symbolic man of her house. She had been forced to leave the Government High School, where she studied in Nassau, when her father refused to continue paying the fees.

Molly Albury, from the Board of Education arranged for temporary employment at Mortimer Candy Kitchen until a teaching position became available at Western Junior School. After living with a friend and two close relatives, Nettie rented a small wooden house on East Street, where she took care of her mother and most of her younger siblings.

Mrs Symonette eventually ran away from her husband in Eleuthera with her youngest son, a nine-month old suckling baby. She collected her other children later, after receiving an urgent telegram from her sister-in-law.

It contained an impassioned warning, advising Mama that she better come immediately for her children.

Nettie said she, her seven siblings and her mother slept like sardines on the floor of the house for many nights, before she could afford to buy “a broke down bed” to bring some relief. The mattress had to be stuffed with grass for cushioning.

Bishop Hagarty, who knew Nettie as a child of six years old, had offered to arrange tuition for Nettie’s schooling at Xaviers College, but she declined the offer, opting to work and take care of her family. Bishop Hagarty blessed Nettie for her sacrifice, and from that day forward Nettie said “windows and doors opened” for her. She knew she was truly blessed.

To this day, Nettie has no high school diploma or college degree to speak of, although she has accumulated a number of professional certificates. She rose above all odds to the pinnacle of a profession that was the exact antithesis to everything she represented. In a time of racial prejudice and entrenched patriarchy, a girl name Nettie worked her way through the tourism industry, commanding the respect of her peers, the love of her guests, and the admiration of her people.

In 1970, when Nettie was an assistant general manager at the Beach Inn Hotel, she was recommended for a promotion by general manager John Kernan.

He was moving to the newly opened Britannia Beach Hotel. Nettie was called into a meeting by executive vice president Fred Schock concerning the recommendation.

She was duly informed by Mr Schock: “There is no doubt in any of our minds that you are the best and most capable person to fill that position. Even though I like and respect you as a person, I hate to say this, Nettie, but I could never see you in that position as I am prejudiced against women.”

In true Nettie style, she responded: “Thank you for your honesty, Mr Schock. I will sit at this table today and accept what you have said. Who knows, next year I might still be inclined to sit at this same table and listen to you tell me the same thing. However, I will be a son-of-a-bitch if I allow you to tell me this a third time.”

“If it is a man you need to run the hotel, I have no difficulty with that because this is your hotel. If you must give me a man to be my boss, at least give me a man I can look up to,” she said. The man who was to be promoted had been locked out of the hotel by the former owner, accused of “acts of dishonesty”.

Nettie proceeded to say: “I put you on notice, Sir. Effective immediately, I will be looking for another job, but I will not quit my present job until I find the job of my choice.”

In the memoir, Nettie says “not one man around that table” uttered a word.

Eight years after women’s suffrage and three years before independence, the island gyal Nettie, the courageous, audacious, self-assured Bahamian woman, spoke her truth, took her stand and claimed her space. Several years later, Mr Schock offered his apology to Nettie. She respected him for having the guts to admit his prejudice and for saying “I am sorry”.

In the preface to the memoir, Bahamian historian Gail Saunders said in tribute that Nettie’s “remarkable creativity in business art, and heritage cannot be questioned. She is indeed a visionary genius as this book confirms.” It is hard to argue with Dr Saunders’ assertion.

It is unquestionable that Nettie’s life story is one for the history books.

As a black Bahamian woman, she broke barriers and created new possibilities for all who followed. She overcame obstacles that would break the spirit of the strongest man. Her direct, no nonsense tongue and sometimes stubborn style has certainly garnered her a fair share of detractors, but none could silence Nettie or stop her flow. Through it all, Nettie remained forever grounded in tradition and culture. She shared her gifts along the way and sacrificed much for her love of country.

Her memoir is the biography of a Bahamian heroine: full of natural flair, grit and charm. As Sir Sean Connery says on the book cover: “It is without question the most moving and intriguing story of a life fully lived and still going…”.