As the Valley Boys dispute continues to cause uncertainty about the upcoming Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades, the legality of whether the position taken by the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence (JCNP) has been questioned.

ZNS News spoke with Junkanoo Historian, Arlene Nash Ferguson and noted Attorney Ramona Farquharson about the issue on Tuesday.  Nash Ferguson said, “I do not think that the Junkanoo community is going to revert to somebody else telling them what to do.  What the JCNP has the authority to do is to not show up and they are the parade.”

Nash Ferguson said splits in the Valley Boys have happened over and over again. “My understanding is that the difference this time is that the group that broke away, for want of a better way to put it, that they have laid claim to the name.”

Attorney Ramona Farquharson gave her take on an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General that the ruling of the JCNP allowing the faction of the Valley Boys led by Trevor Davis, the Valley Boys: The Way Forward to participate in the parades as a fun group could impact the ongoing legal proceedings between them and the World Famous Valley Boys, led by Brian Adderley.

Farquharson said, “they were able to obtain a certain level of funding once the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture gave them that permission then they have a legitimate expectation to be allowed to participate.  If you now take that right or that privilege away from them they can very well now have a claim.”

The JCNP had threatened to cancel the parades on Monday after the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture released a statement of December 8th recognizing the registration and certification of the faction of the Valley Boys: The Way Forward.