This is a richly contextualised and reflective biography of an important Caribbean woman. Dr Hilda Bynoe was appointed in 1968, as one of the very first local governors in the Caribbean in the years just before formal independence, and the first woman, and black woman, to be appointed a governor anywhere in the Commonwealth. All previous governors had been white, male and British.

The circumstances of her governorship in Grenada placed her at the heart of local, regional and international change, and later of conflict. Her appointment was recommended by the Premier Eric Gairy, whose genuine concern to advance women politically was not matched by his commitment to the democratic rights of opposition parties. And though Hilda Bynoe, known in her main career as a caring and socially-engaged doctor, was generally a popular figure, her inevitable but coincidental connection with the Gairy government and its repressive treatment of the radical New Jewel opposition, made her the target of opposition criticism. As a result, she chose to resign.

This is the bare bones of the Governor s story, but Merle Collins probes beyond it for its antecedents and its meaning in a broader Caribbean context.

By Merle Collins