NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) – Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis Friday instructed that the Bahamian flag be flown at half-mast as he led the nation in paying respect to the iconic actor, activist, director and ambassador, Sir Sidney Poitier, who died at the age of 94.

No cause of death has yet been disclosed, but Davis told a news conference that “Sir Sidney’s light will continue to shine brightly for generations to come” as he acknowledged that the world would mourn the passing of the son of the soil, who moved from picking tomatoes on Cat Island to captivate a global audience.

Davis, who extended “our deepest condolences to his family,” said even as The Bahamas mourns his passing “we celebrate the life of a great Bahamian, a cultural icon, an actor and film director, an entrepreneur, civil and human rights activist and latterly a diplomat.

“We admire the man not because of his colossus achievements, but also because of who he was. His strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted and the way he plotted and navigated his life’s journey.

“The boy who moved from the tomato farm of Cat Island to become a waiter in the United States. A young man who not only taught himself to read and write, who made the expression of words and thoughts and feelings central to his career,” Davis said, recalling his “rage against racial injustice through quiet dignity.

“Our country is in mourning,” Davis said, praising Sir Sidney for living up to the hallmark of the national anthem in which “we remind ourselves to see how the world marks the manner of our bearing.

“Sir Sidney’s bearing upon the world shines as among the best of us,” he added.

Deputy Prime Minister, Chester Cooper, in paying tribute to “an icon; a hero, a mentor, a fighter, a national treasure,” said he “was conflicted with great sadness and a sense of celebration when I learned of the passing of Sir Sidney Poitier.

“Sadness that he would no longer be here to tell him how much he means to us, but celebration that he did so much to show the world that those from the humblest beginnings can change the world and that we gave him his flowers while he was with us.

“He will be missed sorely, but his is a legacy that will never be forgotten. We loved him and he knew that. Rest In Peace and Rise In Glory, Sir Sidney. Your work on this earthly realm is done. We know you are among the angels. Your rest is well deserved,” Cooper wrote on his Facebook page.

Sir Sidney was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for his role in Lilies of the Field in 1964. He was the first Black actor nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for the 1958 movie “The Defiant Ones,” and over the years, he has earned numerous honours and awards in a career spanning several decades.

Some of his other most memorable roles include ‘Blackboard Jungle’ as Gregory Miller, a student at an interracial inner-city school; ‘Guess who’s coming to Dinner’, a daring indictment to racism as it presented a positive depiction of an interracial couple at a time when interracial marriage remained illegal in numerous states; and ‘To Sit, With Love’, an out of work engineer who takes on a job teaching an all-white class of students in the slums of London’s East End.

Sir Sidney was born on February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. He was born prematurely while his parents were visiting Miami, but as soon as he was strong enough, Poitier left the United States with his parents for The Bahamas, where he spent his early years on his father’s farm on Cat Island.