WHEN the many friends and acquaintances in Bermuda first heard that Dr. Roiyah Saltus, PhD, was engaged to be married to a Welshman, the first question that flushed through their insular minds, which they dared not ask, pertained to ethnicity. The answer to the question is that she’s now the wife of one of the tallest and most handsome of men, born and bred in Cardiff. And he’s unmistakably black with ancestors deeply rooted in the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

Roiyah is the daughter of well-known educator Solange Saltus and the late Hastings Saltus. His lively promotion of the performing arts merited him a posthumous life-time achievement award from the Bermuda Government. And Roiyah was the one who ventured from the UK to receive his accolade.

Her husband is Anthony (Tony) Joseph Hendrickson. He is a community development manager in the Cardiff County Council, and is engrossed in black and other ethnic minority issues being addressed by the Council. His work involves the diversity training and cultural efficiency of staff in his department.

More than 150 guests from as far away as London, Liverpool, Washington, DC, and of course Bermuda journeyed to Cardiff. They took part in what was a two-day event embracing a mixture of Celtic, Bermudian and Afro-American-Caribbean traditions, with plenty of good fellowship, food and music to boot.

Yours truly, Ira Philip, was among the guests. Others included her mother Solange, sister Julia Saltus; her aunt Pamela Clark; childhood friend Samantha Branch of Somerset; fellow traveller Kiyah Angelia Jones, formerly of Khyber Pass, Warwick. Kiyah and Roiyah were together for four years in Dimona, Israel when Roiyah studied at the School of Prophets Institute in Jerusalem.

Also from Bermuda was Douglas (Zephaniah) Durrant; and among a host of family and colleagues travelling from London were former radio and television personality Ann Daniels and retired teacher Jean Fisher. From Washington, DC came Denise Wright.K>e<$> have always thought there was something intriguing about Roiyah. She is one of those effervescent personalities whom one is unlikely to forget once having met her. And not surprisingly, she seems to have made more than an ordinary impact in the social and cultural circles of her newly- adopted home. Roiyah was a blushingly beautiful bride in her full-length gown of white silk with delicate Italian lace over the shoulders, and a slight train. Her headpiece was a blue and ivory turban. She carried a cascade bouquet of deep blue dendrobium orchids.

Tony and Roiyah were joined in a double ceremony, exchanging vows in a mid-afternoon solemnisation at the Cardiff Registry Office, presided over by the city’s registrar.

Later that evening, they “jumped the broom”, as they put it, “in the spirit of our ancestors” and the love that was in their hearts. The honour of officiating at that event fell to Mr. Philip and the groom’s uncle.

Traditionally in Bermuda, a reception follows the exchange of vows. In Wales two big receptions attended this wedding. There was a pre-wedding dinner at the Bayside Brasserie. Dozens of guests feasted on Welsh delicacies, West Indian dishes and Bermuda fish chowder prepared to perfection by the cooks at the Brasserie to a recipe from Outerbridge’s Cook Book. There was also a farina pie baked by Samantha Branch. Desserts included Bermuda lemon cake baked by Mrs. Barbara Smith of Somerset and flown to Wales.

The really big event was the next night when all 150 guests were hosted by the newlyweds at the waterside Cardiff County Hall, from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. the following day. Before the feasting began, the guests stood reverentially in a semi-circle for the jumping the broom ritual.

The bride’s mother, Mrs. Saltus, explained to the gathering the symbolic and spiritual importance of the custom that was steeped in English and Welsh folklore as much as in the heritage of enslaved Africans in Bermuda, the Americas and other parts of the Diaspora.

It signalled, she said, a ‘leap’ into a new life as husband and wife. And although wedding brooms were often associated with the slavery period when slaves were deprived of blessings of both the church and law so far as their marriages were concerned, brooms have been coveted wedding gifts for centuries in Ireland, China, Japan, Europe and Asia.

Roiyah and Tony took their jump flawlessly, and later motored to London for their honeyn.

Photos<$>: Dr. Saltus is seen close up (top right) with her new Welsh husband Tony. Following their exchange of vows in Cardiff on June 8, they posed with family andiends (top) who journeyed to Wales from Bermuda and elsewhere. There was a similar gathering<-><$>the night before at a wedding dinner. (Photos courtesy of Anton Attard of Cardiff).

Above centre, Roiyah and Tony are seen making their flawless ‘jump the broom’ ritual symbolising the start of homemaking for the newlywed couple.

The bride was educated at Purvis Primary School, Southampton Glebe School, the Berkeley Institute, Mount St. Agnes Academy and Bermuda College.

While living four years in Dimona, Israel, she studied at the School of Prophets Institute in Jerusalem. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Sociology from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1993; and the following year a Master of Arts Degree in Women’s Studies from Lancaster University.

The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred on Roiyah by the University of Essex on April 13, 2000. Funding for her studies came through private and Bermuda Government awards and loans.

A Commonwealth Scholarship funded much of her doctoral studies, and she says the Bermuda Historical Society facilitated completion of her thesis. It was itled Colonial Bermuda: Hierarchies of Differences; Articulations of Power<$>.

The thesis analysed three significant periods in Bermuda’s history, slavery through to Emancipation in 1834; the Women’s Suffrage campaign from 1923 to1944; and the ending of white minority rule, racial segregation and the property-based franchise period of 1959-1968.