The Lion of King Street - A Portrait of Service

Memoir honours Jamaican icon – Sameer Younis

A remarkable life of service, resilience, and dedication to Jamaica’s development comes alive in The Lion of King Street – Sameer Younis: A Portrait of Service, the highly anticipated memoir of the late Jamaican businessman and visionary, Sameer Younis, OJ, CD, JP. Written by long-time associate and public relations expert Elaine Commissiong, the book is set to be launched in early December, celebrating Younis’ enduring impact on Jamaica’s retail and manufacturing industries, his relentless advocacy for the disadvantaged and the revitalisation of the inner-city communities in Kingston and St Andrew.

Sameer Younis, founder of the Fabrics de Younis chain of stores, became a household name for more than 50 years as a leading force in Jamaica’s business sector. As chairman of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce’s (JCC) Civic Affairs Committee, and later as JCC president, Younis launched a series of transformative initiatives aimed at achieving economic stability, security, and personal and environmental improvement.

He made his mark with the launch of the ‘Clean as a Whistle’ campaign, with the slogan ‘The City’s beauty is our duty’, in downtown Kingston in the early 1980s. He and his team of dedicated committee members undertook what was then viewed as the impossible task of cleaning up the city’s streets of pervasive garbage, while at the same time removing the hundreds of vendors on the street and ensuring that they were enabled to pursue their own business activities.

DEDICATED ENTREPRENEUR, MENTOR

His earnest compassion, consistent effort and focused dedication to the community then and in subsequent years, led to the establishment of other community-based initiatives. These included the ‘Helping Hand’s Campaign, focusing on the care of the indigent and the many persons with which he and his committee members had come in contact during their bid to clean up Kingston’s streets. He urged others to support this campaign through the slogan; ‘Show you care, Reach out and share!”

His sustained committed care for others ultimately inspired the establishment of the JCC ‘Sameer Younis Foundation’, which continues his legacy of seeking to empower young Jamaicans through vocational training and entrepreneurship programmes.

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Commissiong, who worked closely with Younis over the decades, of these and other campaigns, captures his journey through exclusive interviews conducted in the writing of his memoirs before his passing, also benefitting from the fact of first-hand knowledge.

“This book is dedicated to the people of Jamaica, in particular the disenfranchised, whose voice within society has become muffled by poverty or social position,” she writes. “Sameer Younis saw his business as a means to empower others and inspire growth within his community.”

The foreword, written by P.J. Patterson, who was prime minister for many of the years spanning Younis’ community activities, highlights Younis’ unparalleled contributions to Jamaican society.

Patterson reflects on Younis as “a passionate advocate for fair trade and social justice”, noting that his unique leadership as “the only person to have headed both the JCC and the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA)”and underscored his commitment to unifying Jamaica’s commercial and manufacturing sectors.

At Younis’ passing in 2019, Prime Minister Andrew Holness noted: “He worked tirelessly in the private sector to help build a better Jamaica, indeed, as an entrepreneur for more than 50 years!”

TIRELESS CAMPAIGNER

In 2013, Younis’ contributions to Jamaica were formally recognised when he was awarded the Order of Jamaica, one of the nation’s highest honours, by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen. Praising his contributions to Jamaica’s development, Sir Patrick remarked on the event of Younis’ passing; “Through your business endeavours and support for worthy, charitable causes, you demonstrated a strong determination to contribute to nation-building.”

Milton J. Samuda, former JCC president, and Metry Seaga, then JMA president, described him not only as a transformative figure in Jamaica’s business landscape but also even more outstandingly, a stalwart advocate for inner-city youth.

“Sammy”, as he was affectionately called, will be remembered not only as a past president of both JCC and JMA, they agreed, but also as “a tireless campaigner” for improving the lot of young Jamaicans from inner-city communities through the JCC’s Inner-city Development and Employment Agency through which disadvantaged youth were not only provided with tertiary level education (with the assistance of the then IMP, now the University College of the Caribbean) but also worked steadfastly to provide employment for its graduates.

Brook Sampson, a graduate of Younis’ Inner-city Training Programmes, reflected during Younis’ Service of Thanksgiving,”He taught me strategies of negotiation and economic sustainability. His lessons continue to shape my life.”

The book will be available at major bookstores across Jamaica and online through Amazon following its December release.