Meta Davis CumberbatchMBE was a Trinidad-born pianist, composer, poet, playwright and cultural activist, who spent the majority of her life in The Bahamas, where she became known as the "Mother of the Arts". At the 2014 Independence anniversary celebrations in Nassau she was honoured as a Bahamian "Cultural Warrior".
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. After attending Trinity Girls School and Bishop Anstey High School in Port of Spain, 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. However, from medical studies Meta 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, as well as throughout Europe and the Caribbean. In 1923, she married fellow Trinidadian Dr Roland Cumberbatch, and after he accepted a post through the Colonial Medical Service in 1926 the couple settled in The Bahamas, helping to build the country and becoming part of the black professional opposition to racism. According to her grandson Dr Peter Maynard, author of the 2010 biography Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts": "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." She taught piano drama and dance, and encouraged and promoted indigenous crafts using local materials. 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. 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. In the 1966 New Year Honours she was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire "for public services in the Bahamas", and the award was presented by Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Caribbean in February that year. She died at home in the Bahamas on 29 December 1978, aged 78.
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. Her work is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
