The Tribune

NOELLE NICOLLS

Tribune Features Editor

nnicolls@tribunemedia.net

THE highly anticipated memoir of cultural icon Netica “Nettie” Symonette have hit book stores in the Bahamas.

“A Girl Called Nettie: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love”, is an intimate account of Ms Symonette’s personal life over the past seven decades, breaking barriers and blazing trails.

“For many years, a countless number of people at home and abroad have encouraged and insisted I write the book because they felt I had so much to share with others.

“They feared that all of this knowledge and wisdom would be interred with me, and they felt I needed to leave it as a part of my legacy,” said Ms Symonette, a former hotelier of the year.

Ms Symonette is an historian, artist, cultural activist and entrepreneur. She has dedicated most of her life to telling the Bahamian story and encouraging Bahamians to value their heritage and culture.

She continues to this day, hoping that Bahamians will one day “wake up and realise the importance of their heritage and culture.”

“In the memoir, I tell my story in the hopes that others will take heart when times are difficult, trust their dreams and perhaps in some small way be inspired to keep moving forward,” said Ms Symonette.

Of all the encounters and experiences that made their way into “A Girl Called Nettie” there is one story that moves Ms Symonette the most. She moved to Nassau at a young age, having grown up in Eleuthera with her 10 siblings. As a 16-year-old student at the Government High School, she was forced to leave and make a life on her own.

“I remember the day when I received the telegram from my mother that daddy would no longer pay for me to continue my high school education. I walked out of my form room and collected my books, not saying anything to anyone, clutching my books across my chest, walking into a world unknown.

“That was the most touching memory to me. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” said Ms Symonette.

“Something happens to me every time I reach that point in the book. That is the point I cry,” she said.

Since her childhood days, Ms Symonette has gone on to inspire a countless number of people – inside the Bahamas and across the world – with her trailblazing accomplishments in tourism and culture.

Over her lifetime, she has been honoured with many awards, including the Order of Merit, Order of British Empire, the Golden Helmsman International Award, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award, the Dollars and Sense International Award for Top Women in Business, numerous Cacique Awards, and the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s first Hotelier of the Year Award.

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.

“A Girl Called Nettie” is currently available at Buy the Book, Chapter One Bookstore, Doongalik Studios Art Gallery and Logos Bookstore. They are also available online in e-book format. For the release of the book, Ms Symonette has planned a series of book signings.

The first book signing is tonight, 6pm, at Buy the Book, where Ms Symonette will be joined with long time friend Paul Berry, a Washington-based television personality and journalist, who is one of the many characters featured in “A Girl Called Nettie”.

“Nettie is an historic figure as far as I am concerned. She is a courageous woman who understands, appreciates and loves the history of her country. In an age of accelerated everything, Nettie dares to say to people, slow down and remember what it was like. She teaches not only our children but the rest of the world that the Bahamas has a history, a character, a nature, and I think it is fascinating,” said Mr Berry, a nationally syndicated radio show host.

“It is a throwback to be here after more than 20 years to see that Nettie is still being Nettie. That she has the courage to be herself in a world that is changing so fast. We should all celebrate with her – the book, the memories – and recognise she is still going. She is still preaching and she is still living what she believes. That to me is the most important thing. That is being real and Nettie is a real person,” said Mr Berry.