Photo: Activist Nadia Cattouse in UK standing up for Belize (then British Honduras)
by William Ysaguirre and Charles Gladden
LONDON, England, Tues. Oct. 29, 2024
Belizean singer, actress, activist and songwriter, Nadia Cattouse was just four days shy of her 100th birthday when she passed away at her home in London on Tuesday, October 29.
Born the eldest daughter of former PUP Deputy Leader and former Deputy Premier of Belize, Albert Cattouse, Sr. and Kathleen Fairweather on November 2, 1924, Nadia was gifted with many talents, and is best remembered for her distinctive, mellifluous voice and the songs she recorded early in her career: “Long Time Boy I Never See You”, “Yellow Bird”, “Brown Girl in a Ring” and “Hattie”.
When World War II broke out in Europe, Nadia Cattouse was only 17 going on 18 when she volunteered to do her patriotic duty for King and country by travelling to the U.K. to serve as a signals operator, for which she received training in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1943. She also was trained as physical training instructor with the Auxillary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army. She made the most of her time in Scotland to also become a qualified teacher by attending the teacher training college in Glasgow, which she put to good use when she returned home to British Honduras after the war. She became the principal of a mission school in Gallon Jug in the Orange Walk District. She also taught infant education at Belize’s Teachers’ Training College, even giving summer courses.
Nadia felt a need to further her education at the London School of Economics, where she studied Social Sciences in 1951, while working as an actress and singer to pay for her studies. She made her television debut in 1954, appearing in many British television programmes including Angels, Play for Today, Crown Court, Within These Walls, Dixon of Dock Green and Johnny Jarvis. She later appeared in two prize-winning television productions, Freedom Road: Songs of Negro Protest in 1964, and There I Go. She also had a part as “Felicity” in Jean Genet’s stage production, The Blacks.
Her singing career took off with performances at Les Cousins folk and blues club in Greek Street, London, in the 1960s, and she also appeared on television shows such as the BBC’s Sing Along and Hootenanny. On the folk scene, she was a contemporary of Julie Felix and Fairport Convention, and the Melody Maker magazine described her as “one of the giants of the folk-song revival in Britain”.
She went on to record the Songs of Grief & Glory album with Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor in 1967. She also produced the Earth Mother album in 1970, which was partly recorded at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. Her song “Long Time Boy” was also featured in the compilation album, Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up in 2005, and her version of “B.C. People” and “All Around My Grandmother’s Floor” were on the 1972 album, Club Folk 2.
Nadia never forgot her Belizean roots, and became a sort of unofficial ambassador for other Belizeans visiting the U.K. She also served as a liaison welcoming committee to meet West Indian immigrants on their arrival in the U.K and to help them get settled in. Her patriotic fervor spurred her to book George Price and her father on the same flight as the British governor and his delegation, for their journey home to a hero’s welcome following talks in London in 1957 about constitutional reform in British Honduras, which were part of their effort to secure self-government and independence.
The British had invited Price and some Cabinet members including Albert Cattouse, Denbigh Jeffries and Henry Thomas Anthony Bowman to the London talks, which fell apart when the British discovered that Price had held secret meetings with the Guatemalan Ambassador, Jorge Garcia-Granados. Price and his delegation were scheduled to return home by sea some weeks after the Governor’s delegation returned home by airplane, which would have allowed them to tell their version of events first, with their spin which would have cast Price in a bad light, as the word was already leaked that Price was supposedly selling out the country to Guatemala “lock, stock and barrel”.
But Nadia’s intervention prevented this. According to reports, when his plane arrived at the airport in Belize, the governor at first thought that the large crowd of citizens at the airport was there to greet him, because he was unaware that Price and his associates were on the same flight. The enthusiastic crowd of PUP supporters reportedly waved flags and posters declaring, “Contact or no contact; PUP All The Way!”, or something like that, knocking the wind out of the governor’s sails. When Price disembarked from the plane, he was loudly cheered and given a hero’s welcome by hundreds of his loyal supporters.
It was noted that Nadia did not mention this incident in her interview with PBS back in 2003, which may be a measure of her humility, because the impact of her decisive and timely action, which may have significantly affected the course of our country’s history, was certainly not lost on her.
On her passing, Nadia’s son, Mike Lindup, spoke to Krem Radio and reflected on the early years of growing up with his mother.
He recalled, “From when I was young, she would be singing around the house. We had a parrot brought by a friend of hers from Belize in the early ’60s, and that became our family pet. Mom tried to teach it to sing ‘Cry Every Mountain’ from Sound of Music, and Polly didn’t quite get it right, but would interact with the family.
“While I was young, my dad was still living with the family – he is the composer – music was organically existed. People would drop by the house, either musicians rehearsing with Mom for her concerts or friends of hers. There would be Belizean politicians who would drop by. A lot of 10th of September parties when I was young and all those 10th of September records.
“I would often be taken by Mom to her concerts, and when she was acting, sometimes to her play performances. So, I kind of grew up with mom doing this and, in a way, I knew not every parent did that, but it was normal,” he added.
Because of his mother’s musical influence, Lindup ventured into music himself as a career, and is in a popular English jazz-funk band called Level 42 as the keyboard player.
“I got into music quite young, knocking about the piano, and we’d have family songs on the holidays. We’d be driving to Scotland in our little car doing three-part harmonies, and it seems natural,” he said. “Mom would give words of encouragement, but also caution because she wanted to protect me; but luckily we made it. She would come along and support the concert and stuff, and make her comments and critics as a sensitive musician,” Lindup mentioned.
Sadly, four days before her 100th birthday Nadia Cattouse passed away in London, and Lindup highlighted that his family has received tons of love from Belizeans who learned of the passing of his mother.
“We received so many condolences and communications from the relatives and the Belizean diaspora that knew Mom, and it was incredible how well she was regarded and respected to this day. It means a lot to us, and it’s a great legacy that Mom has left,” he mentioned.