I & I Shot the Sheriff

Abstract

This chapter explores Black Power in Bermuda, focusing in particular on the activism of Roosevelt Brown (Pauulu Kamarakafego); the Black Power conference held in Bermuda in 1969; the formation and activities of the Black Beret Cadre; and the assassinations of Bermuda's Police Commissioner and Governor in 1972 and 1973 respectively. It argues that in the context of Bermuda, Black Power was an anticolonial revolutionary youth movement that aimed to dismantle British colonialism and the latter's support of the island's white oligarchy. The chapter pays particular attention to the suppression of Black Power in Bermuda via collaborative international networks of intelligence and repression. It suggests that explanations of the suppression of Black Power should be internationalized to include examination of other agencies beyond the US-based Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO).