The Governor's Story ― The Authorised Biography of Dame Hilda Bynoe

One of the very first local governors in the Caribbean in the years before independence, and the first woman—and black woman, at that—to be appointed governor anywhere in the Commonwealth, Dr. Hilda Bynoe’s appointment placed her at the heart of local, regional, and international change, and later of conflict. This biography, the only authorized account of Bynoe’s life, probes beyond the governor’s story for its antecedents and its meaning in a broader Caribbean context. Based on interviews with Bynoe herself, Merle Collins—a native Grenadian who was involved in the events that ultimately led to the governor’s resignation, due to the latter’s ties to Premier Eric Gairy and his repression of political opposition—explores the meaning of ancestry, family, the small nation state and regional identities, intra- and extra-Caribbean migration, class, and race in the formation of Dr. Bynoe’s conception of her role. In doing so, Collins provides an insightful portrayal, not only of an exceptional woman, but also of the emergence of an aspiring working class into a new Caribbean middle class. This biography, which ably blends local knowledge, empathetic identification, narrative skills, and analytical questioning, serves as an important record of the political history of Grenada.

Merle Collins is a professor of comparative literature and English at the University of Maryland. She is the author of the poetry collections Because the Dawn Breaks and Rotten Pomerack, the novels Angel and The Colour of Forgetting, and the short story collection Rain Darling. Her critical works have appeared in From My Guy to Sci-Fi: Genre and Women's Writing in the Postmodern World and Slavery and Abolition. Her literary work has appeared in Penguin Modern Poets Volume 8 and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories.