Three native Virgin Islanders – a scholar, a judge, and a family man and landscaper known for his civic pride and devotion to the Muslim faith – were honored by the V.I. Legislature in formal resolutions this week.
Judge Patricia Steele recently retired after her third six-year term as Family Court Judge for the District of St. Croix.
Born on St. Croix, Steele received her law degree from Howard University in 1980, and has worked in an array of legal and governmental positions in the territory in the ensuing years. She joined the bench as Judge of the Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands in 1994, under Gov. Alexander Farrelly, and was since appointed to two additional terms.
Dale "Bakimba" Rogers of St. Thomas was at one time a local member of the Black Panthers, according to the resolution. He later joined the Muslim faith and became one of the founders of the Masjid Muhammad, the first incorporated masjid (a house of prayer) in the Virgin Islands.
He spent years beautifying St. Thomas as a professional landscaper and gardener, until a car accident left him comatose for three months. After many months, he was eventually able to walk and help himself, and began sweeping as a way to exercise and strengthen himself.
For the next 20 years, he could be seen regularly out and about picking up litter and sweeping up around St. Thomas. He traveled every Sunday to Coki Point Beach where he built sand figures of Mecca landmarks.
The resolution named the V.I. Waste Management Authority’s summer youth employment after Rogers.
Yosef ben-Jochannan was a cultural anthropologist from Frederiksted. Born in 1918, Jochannan began his education on St. Croix and later traveled to Puerto Rico, Cuba and Spain, earning a bachelor’s in civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, a master’s in architectural engineering and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Havana, Cuba. He also obtained a Ph.D. in Moorish history from the University of Barcelona and honorary doctorates in law, applied engineering and social sciences. He was appointed chair of UNESCO’s African Studies Committee from 1945 to 1970 and also served as an advisor to Malcolm X, according to the resolution.
Jochannan was an adjunct professor for many years at Cornell University and also taught at Marymount College, Malcolm-King College in Harlem, and taught at the Newark campus of Rutgers in New Jersey, and City College in New York.
He conducted extensive research all over the world into the history of African people including archaeological excavations in Egypt. Jochannan also founded the Alkebu-lan Foundation, Inc., and Alkebu-lan Books and Educational Material Associated, a publisher of pamphlets, manuscripts, scholarly papers and books.
A prolific author focused on African people and their cultures, Jochannan’s books include “Black Man of the Nile and His Family,” “Africa: Mother of Western Civilization,” “African Origins of the Major Western Religions,” as well as others.
