We Mourn the Passing of Searchlight!

It was 31 years ago when a ‘dream’ by Bassy Alexander, Renwick Rose, Oscar Allen and Adrian Fraser became a reality.

The SEARCHLIGHT newspaper was born on April 7, 1995, and revealed to the public the following day, April 8. Others joined the ranks including Norma Keizer who acted as a Mother Figure guiding us along. Today, September 25,2026 the paper has reached the end of the line and will be no more. On its 20th anniversary in 2015 I had made the point that “the landscape had changed drastically with a revolution in communications that has presented additional challenges to the newspaper business.” Today eleven years later the revolution is taking its toll. In a recent exchange with Trinidad journalist Tony Fraser, he noted that there were a few newspaper closures in Trinidad, a feature of the new age of technology. He suspected that those that will survive are the ones which are linked to corporations. Searchlight is a victim of this new communications technology and different space. Advertisements which had kept the business alive have found a cheaper and more convenient platform through Social Media to advertise their goods, some businesses even having there own advertising section equipped to sell its products without a third party.

Additionally, the reading public has noticeably declined or have switched to the more glossy online platforms. These platforms are able to deal with news/activities immediately after they happen.

This is a reality not only in SVG but is a pattern everywhere. Traditional newspapers that have the resources have been able to combine print and online. The Searchlight’s initial production spoke of a new ERA when it hoped to lift the standard of journalism. My column in that first issue was captioned “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” a pun after confronting the huge Boulders at the ‘Baths’ in Virgin Gorda of the BVI that were an attraction to tourists. I was on a visit as part of a team of UWI ‘Resident Tutors” to Tortola. We took the ferry to Virgin Gorda and were met first by A Vincentian, our tour guide by the name of Simon Woodley. Simon’s slogan was, “Have no Fear, Simon is here”. I was struck then by the number of Vincentians who were living in Virgin Gorda and Tortola.

What was my role in that new Searchlight entity? I was primarily to be one of its weekly columnists but found myself in the first months, doing the work of news reporter, photographer, delivery boy and at times editorials. Those were busy times. This was not my first encounter with the print media.

I had before this served as a columnist with the NEWS newspaper. But long before that, as a sixth form student I sent occasional letters to the Vincentian newspaper. While at University in Barbados I wrote in the student paper, pieces being critical of those students who were arguing that there should be no Independence under Premier Eric Gairy.

As a post- graduate student at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada, I made it my business to respond to the strong support given to the Apartheid regime in South Africa by one of my English Professors. Incidentally, his office was next door to one I shared with a Nigerian Student Tunde Adeleke. Furthermore, I had to attend one of his classes. I had to ensure that I was one of those at the top of his class. When England invaded the Falklands, I let my opposition be known using the London Free Press.

Being a columnist at the NEWS and SEARCHLIGHT was a different kettle of a fish. It demanded weekly articles. In fact, I am now writing my final article which should have been sent since yesterday. It demanded discipline. On several occasions my column differed from the position taken by the editor. But it was my position and I stood by it. What confronted me as I began my task as a journalist was to have an idea of who my readers were likely to be and to write with them in mind. I often misfired on this because some of the people who occasionally met me to question something I wrote, or to seek an explanation for something I wrote were not the kind of readers I had in mind. My work within the NGO Community, working with a diverse set of people, with different educational levels prepared me for this. There were only a few occasions on which I did not write my column. One was during a period of hospitalisation in Barbados, and the other over some issue with which I disagreed.

I should have mentioned before that during the period leading up to Independence I wrote a few letters to the VINCENTIAN newspaper, often disagreeing with the position taken by the then editor Mrs Peacock.

One of my angriest responses again through the Vincentian was responding to Cecil McIntosh of Bequia. To him “Carnival is low breed culture”. Carnival is a time when people “wind and wriggle their waists and bottoms in a variety of vulgar contortions in response to the jungle rhythm of the West India calypso a travesty of real music”. He despised the fact that Vincentians, once they attained the age of 21, were allowed to vote. He suggested that in such a case he should be allowed two votes! Cecil was clearly out of touch with the ‘modern’ world, which was then not so modern. I did not allow him to get away with those.

The Searchlight lasted 31 years. Things will go on. It has, hopefully made an impact. Many persons have passed through its doors and are better for it!

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian