Unknown Author
April 14, 2026
A Short Biography of Farley Chavez Augustine
There is a moment in the life of certain men that defines everything that follows. For Farley Chavez Augustine, that moment came when he was still a young man — standing before then Chief Secretary Orville London after receiving an award, looking the most powerful man in Tobago square in the eye and saying, with absolute composure:
“Mr Chief Sec, you don’t need to be afraid now — but in a few more years you will have to be afraid, because I coming for your job.”
London smiled. The audience clapped, charmed by what most assumed was the harmless ambition of a bright young man who did not yet know how the world worked.
He knew exactly how the world worked. He was simply telling it what was coming.
Roots in Speyside
Farley Chavez Augustine was born in 1985 and raised in Speyside — a small, close-knit fishing village on the northeastern tip of Tobago, as far from the corridors of power as geography allows. It is a place of extraordinary natural beauty and equally extraordinary human resilience, the kind of community that produces people who understand from childhood that nothing is given and everything is earned.
Every single day before he left for school, his father Farley Augustine Snr would tell him the same thing: “Junior, when you leave home, remember what you going for.” That speaks to purpose. It is the kind of instruction that either fades or takes root permanently. In Farley Jr., it took root.
His education began at the Speyside Early Childhood Centre and Speyside Anglican School, before he earned his place at Bishop’s High School (PDP) — entering in September 1996 as the only student from his village to pass Common Entrance that year. (Bishopstobago100) He was eleven years old, alone in a new school, and already carrying his community on his back.
The Making of a Mind
After Bishop’s High, Augustine went on to study Linguistics and International Relations at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, where he was active in student politics and served on the Executive of the Mona Guild of Students in 2008/2009. (PDP)
The combination of disciplines was not accidental. Linguistics — the study of how language shapes thought and power. International Relations — the study of how nations negotiate their place in the world. For a young man from a small island fighting for its own autonomy, these were not abstract academic choices. They were tools.
He returned to Tobago to teach, spending seven years in the classroom, believing firmly that the nation’s youth are one of its most precious resources. While at Speyside High School as a teacher, he developed a programme to help transition students into university, having noticed that many of his students came from families where no one had ever attended. (PDP) He was, in other words, trying to produce more versions of himself — young people from small places who dared to dream beyond their postcode.
He was also instrumental in forming the Speyside Steel Sensations, the alumni outfit of the Speyside High Steel Orchestra, and fought hard for contracted teachers — advocating for their regularization and better pay. (TV6TNT) Outside school he wrote opinion editorials for the Tobago News and hosted a talk show on Tobago Channel 5. He remained Vice President of the Sidey’s Football Club and a longstanding member of the Speyside village council. (PDP) He never left his people, even as his ambitions grew larger than the village.
The Political Man
When he returned to Tobago after university, he felt the island was changing and crying out for something different. Multiple parties came calling — the PNM, Tobago Forwards, even Orville London himself called — but Augustine chose the newly formed Progressive Democratic Patriots. (Trinidad Express) The PDP was fresh, untested, and hungry. It matched his energy exactly.
He became the Area Representative for Parlatuvier/L’Anse Fourmi/Speyside (Tobagolegislature) — his own corner of Tobago, the place that shaped him — winning his seat in 2017. The PNM, which had ruled the Tobago House of Assembly without interruption since 2001, took notice. After his 2017 victory, he continued to teach, but was told by authorities that he could not, given his political ties. He describes this as victimisation. (Trinidad Express) The establishment was making it clear that it was paying attention. He took that as confirmation he was doing something right.
The Historic 2021 Campaign
The year 2021 delivered one of the most dramatic chapters in Tobago’s modern political history. In January, the THA elections produced a historic 6-6 deadlock between the PNM and the PDP — the first electoral tie in the Assembly’s history, triggering a constitutional crisis. (Wikipedia) Neither side could form a government. Tobago was suspended in political limbo.
A snap election was called for December. As a tactical change from the January elections, Watson Duke — the PDP’s political leader — took a reserved approach, with Farley Augustine pushed to the frontline as the undisputed face of the party. (Wikipedia)
He gave the best speech of the campaign — a vision of Tobago-powered tourism, a decentralised and accountable administration, energising the private sector, agro-processing, zero tolerance for political corruption, and a path for Tobago’s self-development to contribute to Trinidad’s economy. He spoke without notes. He spoke from the heart. (Newsday)
The result was nothing short of seismic. The PDP won 14 of 15 seats, ending 21 consecutive years of PNM control of the THA. (Wikipedia) The man who had told Orville London he was coming for the job walked into the Assembly Chamber as its rightful master.
On December 9, 2021, Farley Chavez Augustine was sworn in as the 5th Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly. (Psatrinbagott)
Chief Secretary, His Own Man
In office, Augustine moved quickly to place Tobago’s autonomy at the centre of his agenda — carrying forward the unfinished work of ANR Robinson’s constitutional vision. He led Tobago delegations to London’s World Travel Market and to New York for engagements including Tobago-specific outreach (Tha) , projecting the island on the world stage with a confidence that felt new.
In 2023, following a conflict with PDP leader Watson Duke, Augustine formed his own party — the Tobago People’s Party — to which most members of the Assembly defected. (Wikipedia) It was a bold, risky move that spoke to something fundamental in his character: loyalty to Tobago first, loyalty to party second. He was not prepared to let any internal political arrangement compromise the work.
He describes himself simply on social media as: “Born of Speyside seas. Steward of Tobago’s dream. Advocate for Autonomy.” (Instagram) Few political bios anywhere in the world say so much in so few words.
A Final Word
There is a particular kind of promise that children make which adults learn to dismiss. Farley Augustine made one such promise to one of the most powerful men in Tobago and then spent the better part of a decade quietly, methodically, relentlessly keeping it.
He did not inherit power. He did not buy it. He taught children. He built community. He studied language and nations. He chose the harder road when easier ones were offered. And then, when the moment came, he walked onto a platform in Tobago, spoke without notes, and persuaded his people that it was finally time for something new.
His father told the world he had given Tobago a gem of the Caribbean. (Newsday) Farley Augustine, for his part, seems more interested in polishing the island itself — making Tobago the gem, and himself merely its faithful steward.
The boy from Speyside kept his word. In politics, in the Caribbean, in 2021 — that alone is remarkable enough to remember.