Meta Davis Cumberbatch

Meta Davis Cumberbatch MBE (4 May 1900 – 29 December 1978)[1] was a Trinidad-born pianist, composer, poet, playwright and cultural activist, who spent the majority of her life in The Bahamas, where she used her talents to enhance the country's cultural development,[2] becoming known as the "Mother of the Arts".[3] At the 2014 Independence anniversary celebrations in Nassau she was honoured as a Bahamian "Cultural Warrior".[4]

Meta Davis Cumberbatch
Born
Meta Davis

(1900-05-04)4 May 1900
San Fernando, Trinidad
Died29 December 1978(1978-12-29) (aged 78)
The Bahamas
EducationTrinity Girls School; Bishop Anstey High School
Alma materRoyal Academy of Music
OccupationPianist, composer, poet, playwright and cultural activist

Biography

Meta Davis was born in San Fernando, Trinidad, on 4 May 1900, to James Augustus Davis and Ruth O'Neill Davis, who were both originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.[5] Meta's musical talent manifested itself early and she could pick out a tune on the piano before she could write her own name.[6] After attending Trinity Girls School and Bishop Anstey High School in Port of Spain,[7] Meta and her younger sisters Beryl and Kathleen were sent by their parents to England in 1919 with the intention that they study medicine at Bristol University.[8][9] However, as Meta said in a 1972 interview, her ambitions lay elsewhere: "I couldn't even stand the sight of blood.... I begged my father not to send me because everyone knew me as 'Meta the Musician', and I loved music."[6] She nevertheless did spend a short time at the university, though often so engrossed at the piano that she forgot to attend lectures.[6] So from medical studies she transferred to the Royal Academy of Music, where she trained as a concert pianist, and would eventually win acclaim playing on the stages of Wigmore Hall, London, and Carnegie Hall in New York,[10] as well as throughout Europe and the Caribbean.[11]

In 1923, she married fellow Trinidadian Dr Roland Cumberbatch,[12] and after he accepted a post through the Colonial Medical Service in 1926 the couple evventually settled in The Bahamas,[13] helping to build the country and becoming part of the black professional opposition to racism.[14] According to her grandson Dr Peter Maynard, author of the biography Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts" (2010): "There were so many artistic and cultural forms that were not being widely expressed. ...She saw her purpose as developing the arts in the Bahamas."[9]

She taught piano, drama and dance (her protégés included Winston Saunders, Hubert Farrington, and Clement Bethel),[15][16] and encouraged and promoted indigenous crafts using local materials.[3] In the early 1960s, she originated and ran an annual national Festival of Arts and Crafts, as well as initiating the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts.[3][9][17][18][19] In addition to composing music, she wrote poetry, plays and essays – collected in Complete Works of Meta Davis Cumberbatch: Poems, Plays, Music and Essays, edited by Peter Maynard – and also helped to form the Council of Women and supported the women's suffrage movement.[20]

In the 1966 New Year Honours she was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for public services in the Bahamas",[21] and the award was presented by Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Caribbean in February that year.[22]

She died at home in the Bahamas on 29 December 1978, aged 78.[23]

Legacy

In 2014, at the 41st Independence anniversary celebrations under the theme "Celebrating our Culture: A Commitment to Peace", Meta Davis Cumberbatch was one of 41 "Cultural Warriors" honoured by the Bahamian government for dedicating their lives to cultural development.[24][25][26]

Her work is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[27][28]

Further reading
  • Complete Works of Meta Davis Cumberbatch: Poems, Plays, Music and Essays, edited by Peter D. Maynard, with a foreword by Nicolette Bethel, Rakuten Kobo, 2010, ISBN 9789769526204.
  • Peter D. Maynard, Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts" (Foreword by Nicki Kelly), Rakuten Kobo, 2010, ISBN 9789769526211.

References
  1. Peter D. Maynard, Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts", 2010, pp. 146, 153.
  2. "Tributes pour in following the passing of Zoe, Lady Maynard this morning…". Bahamas Press. 10 December 2018.
  3. "Meta Davis Cumberbatch – Pioneer of The Arts", Our Culture Warriors.
  4. "Great Cultural Icons to be Celebrated at the 41st Independence!", Bahamas Press, 2 July 2014.
  5. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), pp. 150, 153, 159.
  6. "Meta Davis, artist of Bahamas", The New Courier, 18 March 1972, p. 13.
  7. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), p. 155.
  8. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), p. 160.
  9. Jeffarah Gibson, "Meta-Davis Cumberbatch's Legacy Lives On", Tribune 242, 18 June 2013.
  10. Synopsis, Complete Works of Meta Davis Cumberbatch, by Peter Maynard.
  11. "A History of The Performing Arts in The Bahamas", Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, The Government of the Bahamas.
  12. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), p. 163.
  13. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), p. 167.
  14. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), pp. 42–43, 181.
  15. Craton and Saunders (2000), p. 479.
  16. "Who We Are – Our Founder – Edward Clement Bethel". The Nassau Music Society. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  17. "A mutually beneficial performance", National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, 5 September 2015.
  18. Alan West Durán, African Caribbeans: A Reference Guide, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, p. 23.
  19. Michael Craton and Gail Saunders, Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People – Volume Two: From the Ending of Slavery to the Twenty-First Century, University of Georgia Press, 2000, p. 476.
  20. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), p. 205.
  21. '"M.B.E.", Supplement to The London Gazette, 1 January 1966, p. 25.
  22. "Queen Elizabeth to make award to Bahamian Artist", Jet, 10 February 1966, p. 4.
  23. Maynard, Great Awakening (2010), p. 146.
  24. Pam Burnside, "Jackson Burnside to Also Be Honoured For His Contribution To Junkanoo In The Visual Arts", Creative Nassau, 5 July 2014.
  25. Jones Bahamas, "41 Cultural Warriors Honoured", The Bahama Journal, 9 July 2014.
  26. "41 Bahamian Cultural Legends Honoured", Bahamas National.
  27. Paul Burke, "New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent edited by Margaret Busby", NB, 28 March 2019.
  28. Selwyn R. Cudjoe, "New Daughters of Africa", trinicenter.com, 8 April 2019.
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