Honorary Graduand Ms Rachel Manley has lauded The UWI, which is this year celebrating its 75^th anniversary, for fostering and nurturing regional integration over the decades.

"In these insecure times in our world where truth lies precariously in the balance, this institution has survived [as] a landmark on the minds of all who learned here, guiding us with the certainty of who we are, and the truth of what we know,” Manley said, adding that The UWI “is a compass for us not to lose our way".  She was speaking last Friday shortly after she was conferred with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) at The UWI annual graduation ceremony for students in the faculties of Humanities and Education, and Science and Technology.

Manley got her first real taste of regional integration when she enroled in a Bachelor of Arts degree programme at The UWI, Mona Campus. “When I first arrived here at The UWI in 1966, I felt like I entered Norman Manley’s head, his heart and soul. It was as though I became an actor in my grandfather’s dream of a regional Caribbean Federation,” she remarked. 

 At Mona, Manley interacted with fellow Caribbean students from places with names she thought were exotic when her grandfather had highlighted them on hurricane maps when she was a child.  They came from islands such as “Grenada, Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Monserrat, St Vincent, St Lucia, St Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, and little Barbuda”. She noted that they all spoke the common inherited British English, but each islander had their own dialect, accent, inflection and individual interpretation.

For Manley, The UWI became the place where Caribbean scholars came to work, play, embrace cultures, forge lasting friendships, and develop common goals. "Here at UWI, Calypso met ska, doubles met flying fish, Barbadians dated Jamaicans, Trinidadians and Antiguans and, so, many partnerships created inseparable physical and emotional bonds in their Caribbean children who could claim either island as home,” Manley said.      

Commenting of the recognition from her alma mater, the poet, writer and teacher said: "Remembering my beloved grandparents [Norman and Edna Manley] and my parents [Michael Manley and Jacqueline Kamelard Gill] who believed in me, I accept this high honour with joy, appreciation, and, frankly, astonishment.” 

“I wish my alma mater God's blessings as she continues to inspire all those who pass through her vibrant halls, reflecting what is richest and most powerful about us all – that we are islands in one extraordinary family,” Manley added.

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