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This dissertation looks at the historical and social construction of Black Bermudian identities, and how identities have been shaped in contemporary Bermuda by its education system. I grapple with, and attempt to make sense of the complexities, messiness, ambiguity, disappointments, and painful reality of Black Bermudians’ identity and cultural dynamics. It is necessary to have a total understanding of identity and its connections not only to enslavement and colonization but also the rest of the Caribbean and Africa. The present understanding creates an amputated sense of self. Through the use of three concepts: Afrocentricity, Anti-colonialism and creolization, this dissertation seeks to reunify Bermuda with the rest of the Caribbean and Africa by moving Bermuda from the peripheral of international discourses to the larger and broader discussions on African-diasporic identity. It is through the synthesis of these theories that Black Bermudian identities and how Black Bermudians self-identify are understood through their various forms of resistance to dominant narratives. The dissertation also proposes a re-examination of the role of schooling and education—through teaching curriculum, texts and pedagogical practices—in producing a particular narrative of Black identity and the implications of such knowledge in constructing Blackness in Bermuda. The dissertation note that dominant forms of knowledge and epistemological orientation can shape the way Black Bermudians tend to understand themselves in relations to their history, culture, values, worldviews, and identity. Consequently, a fragmented self or what Frantz Fanon refers to as "amputation" is produced within Bermudian classrooms. The dissertation concluded with four key steps that are essential for Black Bermudians to re-engage through counter-hegemonic knowledge that is rooted in Anti-colonial, Creolization, and Afrocentric discourses and theories.

This dissertation looks at the historical and social construction of Black Bermudian identities, and how identities have been shaped in contemporary Bermuda by its education system. I grapple with, and attempt to make sense of the complexities, messiness, ambiguity, disappointments, and painful reality of Black Bermudians’ identity and cultural dynamics. It is necessary to have a total understanding of identity and its connections not only to enslavement and colonization but also the rest of the Caribbean and Africa. The present understanding creates an amputated sense of self. Through the use of three concepts: Afrocentricity, Anti-colonialism and creolization, this dissertation seeks to reunify Bermuda with the rest of the Caribbean and Africa by moving Bermuda from the peripheral of international discourses to the larger and broader discussions on African-diasporic identity. It is through the synthesis of these theories that Black Bermudian identities and how Black Bermudians self-identify are understood through their various forms of resistance to dominant narratives. The dissertation also proposes a re-examination of the role of schooling and education—through teaching curriculum, texts and pedagogical practices—in producing a particular narrative of Black identity and the implications of such knowledge in constructing Blackness in Bermuda. The dissertation note that dominant forms of knowledge and epistemological orientation can shape the way Black Bermudians tend to understand themselves in relations to their history, culture, values, worldviews, and identity. Consequently, a fragmented self or what Frantz Fanon refers to as "amputation" is produced within Bermudian classrooms. The dissertation concluded with four key steps that are essential for Black Bermudians to re-engage through counter-hegemonic knowledge that is rooted in Anti-colonial, Creolization, and Afrocentric discourses and theories.

Harrington Sound, located in east central Bermuda, is almost entirely enclosed by land except for a 26.4 m wide channel called Flatts Inlet. This limited connection to the open ocean restricts Harrington Sound’s tides, resulting in a near 3 hour delay and dampening the tidal range to 35% of those on the coast. By comparing the tidal amplitude and surface area of Harrington Sound, tidal exchange can be determined. Past research has shown Flatts Inlet only supplies the Sound with about half of its tidal water. The remaining tidal exchange enters and leaves the Sound either via groundwater influx through pores in the rock or through the traversable passageways of limestone cave systems in the land that encloses the Sound. The aim of this study was to model hydrodynamic tidal flux and current through marine caves into Harrington Sound. One of the goals of Bermuda’s cave habitat protection plan is to track tidal circulation of water through these cave systems. Information on such cave water transport would facilitate future pollution and nutrient exchange studies. This research was initiated during a six week trip to Bermuda by Jonathan Stoffer as he obtained tidal and water quality data from caves along the perimeter of Harrington Sound. Additional flow data was collected with instruments placed by local cave divers. A YSI 600XLM water quality sonde, Norteck Vector Current Meter, and an in-situ level Aqua TROLL were used to monitor tidal amplitude, periodicity, current velocity, and water quality in cave pools and submerged passages. Profiles of the top 1-2 meters of water at each pool were taken at 56 sites. Tidal gauges were placed in 27 major cave pools surrounding Harrington Sound, as well as Harrington Sound itself, for 48 hours, to monitor tidal propagation through the island. The vector current meter was placed for six weeks to measure water flow in and out of Harrington Sound in six cave passageways known to have high flow rates. The resulting data have been compared to atmospheric data obtained from the Bermuda Weather Service and analyzed using Microsoft Excel, MATLAB and ArcGIS. The final goal of this project was to create a hydrological model able to predict flow rate and water depth in Bermudian caves with water depth data from the ocean and Harrington Sound. In constructing a water budget for Harrington Sound, I was able to account for 72.3% of all tidal inflow and 43.3% of all tidal outflow from the Sound as passing through either Flatt’s Inlet or one of the six tested caves. In creating my tidal models, I was able to achieve an averaged sum of squared deviation (SSD) normalized against count ranging from 5.1x10^-4 to 8.4x10^-4 m^2. The flow model achieved a SSD of 3.8x10^-3 m^2. My data also suggest that exchange between Harrington Sound and other inland waters, through cave systems, does exist.

Two previously uncharacterized plant rhabdoviruses, infecting Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers) and soybean (Glycine max) respectively, have been found in South Africa. To determine the morphology and virion size of these viruses, embedded ultra-thin sections of infected plant samples were observed under a transmission electron microscope. The virion distribution within the cell, the bulletshaped morphology and the virion sizes indicated that both these viruses might belong to the Rhabdoviridae family. Degenerate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers were designed by alignment of the polymerase gene sequences of several plant rhabdoviruses in order to identify conserved regions. Standard PCR and sequencing protocols were used to determine a partial polymerase gene sequence of the viruses that was then compared to the most closely related sequences available on Genbank. The analysis indicated that the Cynodon rhabdovirus was most closely related to known nucleorhabdoviruses; and the rhabdovirus-infecting soybean (Soybean blotching mosaic virus proposed name) was closely related to other known cytorhabdoviruses. These results indicate that both the viruses are new members to the Nucleo- and Cytorhabdovirus genera, respectively. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Microbiology and Plant Pathology / unrestricted

This is a study of the perceptions, philosophies, purpose, and effectiveness of public education in Bermuda. It includes a purposeful sample of Bermuda leaders in education, government, business, and public life. I prepared a series of questions that I used as an interview guide to obtain the opinions of participants in the study. Most participants did not provide specific information about the official philosophy, major purposes, or specific educational outcomes of the public education system since its restructuring began in 1987. Many indicated their frustration about the lack of such basic data as enrollment, graduation, and dropout rates. Nearly all interviewees (except those staff members from the Ministry of Education) agreed that the effectiveness of public schools has declined dramatically in recent years. Other findings include: Leadership in the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education has been bureaucratic and incompetent; Governmental funding of public schools has been very high, but much money has been wasted; Some public middle and secondary school principals have performed poorly, at least partly because of inadequate leadership and communication from the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education; Major problems exist regarding curriculum misalignment, teachers’ qualifications and performance, services of school counselors, lack of parental involvement in the schools, and classification and instruction of students with cognitive, physical, and emotional disabilities; and Major changes are needed to overcome existing problems, including dismissal of the least effective individuals in the Department of Education and in individual schools.