An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Adding to her ti­tle as the Caribbean Queen of So­ca, the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ Cave Hill Cam­pus, Bar­ba­dos, has con­ferred so­ca artiste Al­i­son Hinds-Wal­cott with a Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt), hon­oris causa.

On Sat­ur­day, de­spite the is­land be­ing un­der a flash flood­ing warn­ing, the UWI was able to host both the morn­ing and evening grad­u­at­ing class of 2023, where Hinds-Wal­cott was con­ferred with her hon­orary de­gree.

As the artiste ac­cept­ed her let­ters in front of those gath­ered, she said the mo­ment was both a cul­mi­na­tion of a life­long jour­ney, marked by count­less hours of ded­i­ca­tion, hard work, and a re­lent­less pur­suit of ex­cel­lence and de­sire to make a pos­i­tive im­pact on the world.

“Square One’s suc­cess as a band was the re­sult of be­ing pas­sion­ate about pas­sion. I am here to­day re­ceiv­ing this ac­co­lade be­cause I was pas­sion­ate about my pas­sion for mu­sic. Pas­sion was the dri­ving force that led me to spend count­less hours prac­tic­ing, and to face the chal­lenges that came with a mu­sic ca­reer,” Hinds-Wal­cott said.

“It’s the pas­sion that made me will­ing to en­dure the late nights, the self-doubt, long re­hearsals, sound checks, and the sac­ri­fices that come with the ter­ri­to­ry.”

In giv­ing an in­sight in­to her life grow­ing up in Britain, she said the melodies, har­monies, rhythms – they all spoke to her in a way that noth­ing else could and T&T ca­lyp­son­ian Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters’ song War­rior had res­onat­ed with her at a ten­der age.

“My par­ents sep­a­rat­ed, and my moth­er and I moved to Bar­ba­dos. The move to Bar­ba­dos al­lowed me to leave be­hind the painful mem­o­ries of dis­crim­i­na­tion and prej­u­dice and em­bark on a new jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery, uni­ty and growth, but still, I car­ried the spir­it of fear and the bur­den of doubt. I was in­tro­vert­ed and shy and the weight of dis­crim­i­na­tion erod­ed my con­fi­dence and self-worth,” Hinds-Wal­cott re­called.

This, the artiste said, was a jour­ney that took her well in­to her ado­les­cent years.

De­spite those hur­dles, Hinds-Wal­cott said the pas­sion for mu­sic re­mained and she want­ed to pur­sue it as more than a lis­ten­ing leisure.

“As fate would have it, I met Young Blood. Fol­low the rhythm of life’s op­por­tu­ni­ties, even if they seem un­fa­mil­iar or chal­leng­ing at first. Some op­por­tu­ni­ties may be high notes that soar with ex­cite­ment, while oth­ers may be low, ground­ing you with in­valu­able lessons,” she added.

Hinds-Wal­cott has joined the ranks of so­ca and ca­lyp­so leg­ends Robert “Lord Nel­son” Nel­son (2022), David Rud­der (2015) and the late Win­ston “Mighty Shad­ow” Bai­ley (2018), who re­ceived hon­orary doc­tor­ate from The UWI.

Trinidad and To­ba­go-born singer and ac­tress Heather Headley is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive an hon­orary doc­tor­ate this week at The UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus’ grad­u­a­tion cer­e­monies.