Fairfield House News #5: April 2024
The sad loss of Ras Bandele, first Friend of Fairfield House; Sam Garrett performs unplugged; new team, check-in arrangements and management structure
RIP Ras Bandele Selassie, Rastafari priest and founding Friend of Fairfield House
We’re lost for words in how to report the death of Ras Bandele Selassie, Rastafari priest for the south west of England, community leader and founding friend of Fairfield House.
Pauline Swaby writes:
Ras Bandele was a man that was respected and loved as a son in the Bemsca family. He may be an Elder to many in your eyes, and of age, but he was still a youngster to those who were members of Bath ethnic minority senior citizens association. And he held that, in the way he came to the Elders, the way he greeted the Elders and the most important part of it: bringing the Elders and the Rastafari together. And then, somehow, we had a joined-up family,across all celebrations, joined up and respectful of each other.”
Shawn Sobers writes:
Ras Bandele was the cornerstone of Fairfield House. He was the heartbeat of the Rastafari faith and he was the voice of the Community and of the people. He was someone that you would look up to for advice, for guidance. He was the voice of reason and he was also the voice of caring and compassion. He was a calm presence with a sharp intellect and always had a refreshing insight and perspectives on any concerns you took to him. Ras Bandele was there from the beginning, when Pauline Swaby Wallace first visited the house. And he was there towards the end of his life. He will be missed by all members of the community, all members of the House family, Bemsca, by the Rastafari community and local residents. His was a visible presence and his spirit will live on.
Ras Bandele leads Rastafari worship at Fairfield House
Sam Garrett gives a special unplugged personal appearance
The singer-songwriter Sam Garrett gave a powerful and highly emotional acoustic performance to 70 devoted fans and lucky volunteers at Fairfield House in April. His sellout unplugged personal appearance, part of a worldwide tour, was his fundraising gift to Fairfield House in support of the work to preserve the living legacy of HIM Haile Selassie I in the City of Bath.
“We are so thankful for this kindness and the love shown by everyone at the event,” said operations manager Ras Benji, a long-time friend. “The music flowing through the Emperor’s home on Friday evening echoed His Majesty's words, honouring Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India in 1965”’In the mystic traditions of the different religions we have a remarkable unity of the spirit.’”
Sam was supported in great style by Fairfield’s resident poet Ras Talking Tekla.
New: easy check-in for Fairfield’s frequent fliers
Fairfield House has completed the successful first trial of its easy check-in system for staff and frequent visitors. It's part of a much wider approach to proving Fairfield House's social impact with quantified evidence, and to managing the life of the house in a more structured way.
High tech made simple: Fairfield regulars can now touch in with a sign-in card. Ask for yours.
Instead of signing in a book each time (a nice ritual, but people often forget), regular users of Fairfield House - Bemsca members including the Mah Jong group or Townswomens' Guild, or our most frequent volunteers - will now be able to just touch in with a sign-in card. It's like a library or membership card, with a cheap programmable bit of tech called an NFC sticker. A special app written by Rocketmakers can register the card with your name and basic details. You can then sign in just by touching your card to the NFC-enabled Android phone in the hall.
Thanks to our supporting partners Rocketmakers. We’re very blessed that the project is now being led by our latest specialist volunteer Daniel Finnigan (see Meet the team).
Fairfield to welcome south-west and Wales Universities
In June Fairfield House will host the first full meeting of the SW and Wales Africa Research Network. Conceived by Bath Spa and Exeter Universities, it brings together Africa research specialists of all disciplines from across all the region’s Universities.
Fairfield House is the only founding non-academic member, and the network chose Fairfield House as the ideal venue for its first full meeting. Bath Spa University was Fairfield House’s first institutional partner and a cornerstone in its transition to a serious heritage institution.
“Working with Universities is crucial for Fairfield House. We want to do more,” said chair of Trustees William Heath. “It brings academic rigour and valuable resources to our work to protect and celebrate HIM’s legacy.”
Meet the team - Daniel Finnigan
Daniel Finnigan is helping Fairfield House with its FOOTPRINT project, the ambitious plan to provide evidence of how many people use Fairfield House and how much it means to them.
Daniel joining Ethiopians for the Race to Adwa march earlier this year.
Daniel lives in Bath with his wife Lavanya and two daughters, Iri and Agni. He was raised a Buddhist, and sees all spirituality as coming from the same source. He trained in Anthropology before going into Market Research and Digital Transformation. Daniel and Lavanya have been volunteering with Bemsca for some time.
“I’m helping out with a few things at Fairfield House, because it feels like a home from home,” Daniel said.
New management structure, new volunteers
The workload at Fairfield House is getting more intense and so we’ve reorganised into more of a structure. The CIC Board still takes overall responsibility and works in close partnership with B&NES Council. Reporting to the CIC Board are new groups:
Building maintenance group led by Ras Cos working with B&NES’ project manager Rebecca Hales. This group covers all matters building-related, from day to day maintenance through getting the building legally compliant to contemporary standards (which is some way off) through to eventually restoring it to heritage standards and fully developing it to maximum community benefit.
Business development group, with our consultant Jennifer Marzullo (whose services are provided courtesy the National Trust) supporting William Heath, Ras Benji and Karen Crawford. The group has to plan how to get Fairfield House from the £70k/year turnover business it is today to something like a £300k/year business if we’re to run the building and support the team needed.
Jess Kellard, whose services are also provided courtesy of our friends at the National Trust, leads on the major grant applications which will be a lifeline for developing Fairfield House team capacity and getting the house itself into a state where the CIC can responsibly take it on.
Daniel Finnegan (see Meet the team) is leading on the project to formalise how we measure our social impact. Everyone involved in the life of Fairfield House knows how important it is. But we have to prove that impact to B&NES Council if we’re to get a lease concession, and to grant issuing bodies. That means being able to say how many people visit, from what communities and age groups, from how far away and - hardest of all - what Fairfield House means to them. This work has been generously supported by Rocketmakers.
And about those volunteers…
We’re really grateful to all the volunteers and organisations who support Fairfield House. That includes in the garden, in the kitchen, helping on Sundays and at other events with the shop, museum and tours. We’ve had volunteers lending highly specialist skills such as building trades, marketing, research, and tech.
The quality and dedication of Fairfield House volunteers would be the envy of many heritage institutions. Ras Benji remains our hard working operations manager, also volunteering at weekends for historic tours and community work.
Upcoming events
Fri 19 Apr What we learned in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Jamaica (talks, food)
Sat 27 Apr HIM community table tennis tournament
Sun 5 May Benjamin Zephaniah tribute (Ethiopia Liberation day)
Sat/Sun 18/19 May Newbridge Arts trail
Fri 7 June Black leadership event: HIM and Garvey (with Steven Golding)
Mon 17 June Hayward Gallery opening with sculptures of HIM and Garvey
Sat 20 July HIM Haile Selassie I Legacy day
Tues 23 July HIM’s birthday Rastafari celebration
Fri 18 Oct Solomon and Sheba opera at National Trust Assembly Rooms
Sat 19 Oct Freedom in the City, NT Assembly Rooms Bath
w/b 21 Oct celebrating HIM’s hon doctorate at Oxford
Note: Many of these events are open to sponsorship. Fairfield House reaches over 100,000 people per month across our social media platforms. Contact us for details.