photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Paying homage to the historic bell at the University of the West Indies Sculpture Park are (from left) UWI Chancellor Sir George Alleyne; Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur; Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning; Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson; principal of the UWI Mona campus Prof. Kenneth Hall, and UWI Vice Chancellor E. Nigel Harris. The ceremony was held on October 1.
Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
To the passer-by, a bunch of well-dressed people standing in wet grass looking at a bell doesn't make sense.But this is no ordinary bell; not when it holds so much of the history of the Caribbean's premier learning institution. The bell of which we speak, belonged to the Sacred Heart Church which University of the West Indies (UWI) students know now as the Old Library.
The bell served the students of Gibraltar Hall, informing them about meal times and other events. This was, of course, long, long before the UWI as we know it had even reached its infant stage. Gibraltar Hall was located over a stretch of land that included the Old Library and the credit union.
But before we get too deep into this history lesson, the occasion for this wet get-together was the opening of the Sculpture Park on the Mona campus, where the bell shall forever reside. The park is located to the right of Irvine Hall on a brick-layered piece of land. The bell, now cracked after years of existence, is encased in steel circles in the form of a planet.
Three heads of state who are graduates of the university, Barbados' Owen Arthur; Trinidad and Tobago's Patrick Manning and Jamaica's P.J. Patterson, were all present. Prime Minister Manning 'handed over' the bell to Prime Minister Patterson; both ringing the bell for the first time in years.
coveted prize
The bell's history continued. When Chancellor Hall was built and the students had to relocate, they pushed for the bell to come with them, and so it did. Over the years, the bell became ingrained in the psyche of the students and was competed for by the halls of residence as a prized trophy. Current High Commissioner of St. Kitts and Nevis, Cedric Harper, kept the bell for years.
The ceremony over, distinguished guests moved back to the more shady Visitors' Lodge. The PMs' reflected on their time at
the UWI and the atmosphere was one of
nostalgia.
