Gombey Festival Honouree, 2023 honouree, to be honoured in 2024
Robert Wilson was born during what is lovingly dubbed “Gombey month”, on January 3, 1980. His two older sisters and older brother danced with the Pickles Spence Carnival Gombeys, so it was natural that even as a babe-in-arms, he was taken to follow the Gombyes. When he heard his neighbours, Warner’s Gombeys, start their drums, he’d cry until someone took him out to join the crowd until finally at the age of two, he joined them as a tiny warrior. Back then, the hat was bigger than Robert, but he has certainly grown into his position in the Gombey community with over 40 years of experience.
“Allan Warner was married to my sister, so I grew up like a son to him. He was fun but strict, it was a family vibe and he made sure I always did what I had to do. He was a very orderly person, but loving. I am almost a copy of how he was,” Robert reflected, “I came up under Gombey elders and greats that were important for my understanding of the history of the Gombeys, including Willis Steede Sr., Andre Simons, David ‘Tootsie’ Darrell, and Jimmy Furbert – he was a drummer and great with Gombey history.”
Robert began as a dancer, and had suits made by Alan Warner, sister Diana Clark, or his cousin Kathy Steede. “I had suits with hatchets, bows, and one that had an enslaved person with shackles,” said Robert. “It was important to have meaning in ever regalia, and to show every Gombey tool, graduating from cape to cape.”
His favourite suit, however, is a work-in-progress by Delores Binns and dedicated to the memory of his mother. “She loved Gombeys before I was even born; her influence led me to perform. She had enjoyed and wanted one last hurrah with a little Gombey! I was 23 when she passed,” Robert reflected.
After losing his mother just before the Boxing Day holiday in 2003, Robert knew that he had to keep her spirit alive through her favourite holiday and the traditions she loved so dearly. His father passed two weeks later in January 2004, and he credits the Gombeys with keeping him focused through such as difficult time. “I had other people younger than me looking up to me for guidance. That’s what my mama did for the neightbourhood, and I continued on her legacy and applied it to the generations behind me,” he said.
His community work extends beyond Gombeys, as he is actively involved in coaching youth football, previously at Young Men’s Social Club and now at North Village.
About 10 years ago, Robert transitioned from dancing to drumming. “I just had to get my hands moving in the same way my feet used to move,” he said. “I had to respect the drums. It’s not easy as you think it would be.”
When he was dancing regularly, his signature move was a three-and-a-half spin and a four-way split, but nowadays you are more likely to see him doing a split while playing his snare drum, “It’s not intentional that I dance while I drum, it’s just that I can. I like to push myself. I don’t do it to show off or show up someone else.”
Robert is a co-founder of Gombey Evolution Troupe, which was created in 2015. “As a collective, we wanted to step out of the shadow and try to do it on our won. We were younger and wanted see if we could take what we learned and try our own thing,” he said.
While Robert is very humble, it is evident that his leadership has been successful for the Gombey Evolution Troupe.
Reflecting on the highlights of his Gombey career that includes travel across the USA, Switzerland, Germany, Barbados, St. Kitts, Bahamas, and Barbados, he spotlighted the 2001 Smithsonian exhibition in Washington D.C. with the Department of Culture: “It was the first time we had two groups overseas to display a Gombey dance-off between Warner’s and Place’s for an international audience. It had never been done before; normally it would be just one group,” he recalled.
“I also really enjoyed Carifesta in 2017 in Barbados with captains from every troupe, it showed us all that no matter what group you come from, we are all on the same page for the culture.”
Robert has been integral in the formation of the Bermuda Gombey Council and he emphasized how important it is for the culture. “This is a collective group of men from various parts of Bermuda, all trying to push Gombey culture together,” he said. “My role is to back the other captains: we are all saying the same thing, more or less, we just may come across slightly differently.”
Robert notes that Gombeys have changed over the past 40 years: becoming a little less strict, involving more women, and blending dance steps together to choreograph new routines. “Everything else is still Gombeys. Before it was just the same thing in every troupe, not it is differentiated and inventive between the groups. It’s fresh without losing the history or meaning,” Robert observed. “I am a traditionalist but I don’t mind things being updated, it keeps the boys interested.”
Robert doesn’t see himself slowing down in Gomebys any time soon: the children wouldn’t let him. And he’s happy for it, because he is able to see his young men grow from junior warriors to junior captains, growing into men outside of Gombeys, too. “All those children are my children,” Robert declared.
His love for Gombeys is clear – whether he straps on a drum, starts to dance, or is mentoring the youth, Robert lives for continuing the Gombey culture in his own laid-back, unassuming, encouraging, and kind manner: “I am always getting children coming to me from other groups asking questions about Gombeys. I’m just happy to see Gombey culture flourish: it doesn’t matter to me who’s dancing, who’s drumming. I never grew up with that mentality. At the end of the day, we are all doing the same thing. We are all doing the thing we love.”
