ST. CROIX — Governor Albert Bryan Jr. said his decision not to wear the governor’s symbol of office, or chain of office, during his final State of the Territory Address on Monday was a conscious and symbolic choice tied to identity, history, and Virgin Islanders’ ancestral roots in West Africa.
Bryan said his decision came as the territory hosted a West Africa summit last week, with visitors from several African nations touring the territory.
“This week, we have Ghana, West Africa summit in the Virgin Islands,” he said on Wednesday. “We have a bunch of guests, like 30 people from West Africa — Nigeria, Ghana — showing them the Virgin Islands.”
The governor said the symbolism of the symbol of office does not fully reflect the history of Virgin Islanders.
“We have a chain of office that we wear that has seven flags on it, and it don’t have Africa on it,” Bryan said. “Virgin Islanders are under this fog that we from Denmark. We credit all these places for developing us as a people, and do not recognize that we come from mainly West Africa.”
The governor’s symbol of office is described in the Virgin Islands Code as a chain of ribbon and metal with seven gold circular shields that are each embossed with the flag or standard of each nation that has held sovereignty over the people of the Virgin Islands.
Seven nations have had some claim or control over St. Croix from 1493 to present. They are, in order, Spain, Great Britain, The Netherlands, France, the Knights of Malta, Denmark, and the United States of America.
Departing from the VI Code though, the symbol of office also has an eighth flag on it that features black, red, and white horizontal stripes from top to bottom that are supposed to represent Germany, according to a hand-drawn diagram.
Sean Krigger, director of the State Historic Preservation Office within the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, while discussing the significance of having the German flag on the symbol of office, noted that Brandenburg African Company had a joint venture with the king of Denmark that resulted in the company developing a major slave and commerce trading establishment on St. Thomas.
Denmark, which established its control over St. Thomas in 1672, allowed the Brandenburg African Company to lease a section of the island, including warehouse and trading facilities near what is now Charlotte Amalie, to support the company’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade by linking its forts on the West African coast with Caribbean markets. The Brandenburg African Company was backed by Brandenburg-Prussia, a German state in early modern Europe that existed roughly from the 1600s to 1701. Brandenburg-Prussia was the political foundation of what later became the Kingdom of Prussia and, eventually, modern Germany.
While the flag of Imperial Germany from 1871 to 1918 did have black, red, and white horizontal stripes, the order from top to bottom was black, white, and red. Germany replaced the white stripe with gold in 1919, after the country’s defeat in World War I.
The symbol of office, as described in the VI Code, was designed to be worn over the shoulder. The shields culminate in a large “VI” on a golden plate, having at its base three pearls symbolizing the three major islands of the Virgin Islands and the date of the inauguration of the first elected governor of the Virgin Islands, according to the law.
The inauguration of the territory’s first elected governor, Melvin Evans, was held on January 4, 1971. The reverse side of the golden plate on the symbol of office is engraved with the words, “First Elected Governor,” followed by his name, “Melvin H. Evans.”
The symbol of office shall be presented to the governor at the time of his inauguration, according to the law. During his term of office, the governor shall be the custodian of the symbol of office. He may wear the symbol on such ceremonial occasions, both within and without the Virgin Islands, as he deems appropriate. At least two days prior to the inauguration of each new governor, the incumbent governor shall return the symbol of office to the Senate president.
Rufus Vanderpool and Geraldo Guirty proposed a symbol to be made of ribbon and metal. Enid Baa was the researcher. Phillip Corneiro designed the symbol of office, which was executed by artist Janet Re.
Enrique “Rico” Corneiro, a relative of Phillip Corneiro and a Virgin Islands historian and author, pointed out that every governor since Evans has worn the symbol of office.
“It was something that was instilled as a sense of pride to show who we are and what we are in our history and our culture over all the different countries that have had a presence on our island,” he said.
Bryan said he is not calling for the elimination of the chain of office but believes it should better reflect the people of the territory.
“We are the descendants of African tribes who were kidnapped and enslaved and brought to this place by those same seven flags that are around that, so I decided this year I’m not wearing it,” he said.
Enrique Corneiro said some Virgin Islanders feel that flags representing the territory’s indigenous people and the 1733 Slave Insurrection on St. John should be included on the symbol of office along with the eight flags presently on it.
Bryan said his decision not to wear the symbol of office was intentional and made with the expectation that it would generate discussion.
“I made a conscious decision, and I knew people would talk about it and create these types of conversations to recognize that we have to solidify our relationship with West Africa,” he said.
Former Senator Usie Richards, while discussing the governor’s final State of the Territory Address as a panelist featured during WTJX’s live coverage of the speech, touched on the absence of the symbol of office. Richards noted the governor recently visited West Africa, and that a West African delegation sat in the audience during the State of the Territory Address.
“I think he would be truly embarrassed to sit in front of his invited guests wearing the vestige and the bastion of years of colonialism around his neck,” Richards said.
Richards said Bryan does not have to satisfy and meet the expectations of others in the past. He said governors wearing what he calls the “chain of colonialism” is a slap in the face of the people of the Virgin Islands.
Bryan said he wore the symbol of office for seven years and noted that he is not the first governor to choose not to wear it.
“Governor [John] de Jongh didn’t wear it one year,” he said. “I specifically remember him not wearing it one year because it was such a tough year I think.”
