The government may integrate the concept of Jumbey Villiage into the Urban Renewal Programme as a posthumous tribute to cultural icon Edmund Moxey.

Prime Minister Perry Christie made the announcement while paying tribute to Mr. Moxey during a state recognised funeral service held at the Most Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Friday.

“Indeed, the biggest tribute we could ever pay to Ed Moxey and the pioneering work he did in this area of cultural development would be to explore in earnest the feasibility of integrating the Jumbey Village concept into the Urban Renewal Programme,” said Mr. Christie.

“That would be the finest and most useful thing we could ever do to not only celebrate but to perpetuate the cultural legacy and the community upliftment vision of Edmund Spencer Moxey.”

He added that long before the idea of urban renewal was tossed around, Mr. Moxey was an advocate for community development.
“For better or for ill, priorities were ordered differently back then and, frankly, Ed was something of a lone ranger around the proverbial table of national decision-making,” he said.

“Culture was for many a dispensable side-line to national development. It was not a big thing. But for Ed it was the heart and soul of the Bahamian people. He was absolutely convinced that it was the key to the re-building of broken communities and broken lives. And he was equally convinced that it was only through cultural development that we could spiritually re-connect with our African roots, something that he saw as essential to the emerging sense of national identity and our own individual appreciation of who and what we are. Community development and uplift through the medium of culture, backed up by the robust intervention of the state to remediate poverty and sub-standard living conditions in the inner city. That was Ed’s vision; that is what he wanted; that is what he fought for. He was indeed a man ahead of his times.”

Mr. Moxey got his start in frontline politics as one of 18 Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) members elected to the House of Assembly in the 1967 general election as the Member Of Parliament for the Coconut Grove constituency.

One of Mr. Moxey’s former constituents, Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis, remembered Mr. Moxey as one of the most outstanding, if not the best Member of Parliament one could have ever seen; a man who believed in democracy, honesty, transparency, and most of all, integrity.

Upon assuming office in 2002, the prime minister hired Mr. Moxey as a consultant in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.

Three weeks ago, the government saw fit to honour Mr. Moxey as one of 41 cultural warriors as part of this year’s independence celebrations.