MANY Bahamians awoke Saturday morning to have a quiet cup of coffee with The Tribune’s weekend publication — The Big T.
Shocked into reality by that publication’s headline: “Bahamas suing UK over slavery”, our telephone started ringing, and continued for most of the day. The first call was an angry young lawyer — Andrew Allen — who immediately put fingers to computer and sent us the article that is published today on page 6 under the heading “Our odd and dangerous relations with CARICOM.”
Although the slavery reparations debate has been going on for some time among various CARICOM members, Bahamians move about their business with little knowledge, interest in or reference to CARICOM’s affairs. Therefore, they are probably not even aware that about two years ago the twin islands of Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines went to the United Nations to put their case for reparation for all the perceived damage done to those islands by the iniquitous slave trade. They blamed the legacy left to people of African descent for their retarded development. However, even if Bahamians knew of the debate, they probably did not identify with the discussion.
“Antigua and Barbuda,” Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer told the General Assembly in 2011, “has long argued that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial violence against peoples of African descent have severely impaired our advancement as nations, communities and individuals across the economical, social and political spectra.”
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines also had his say. “Racial discrimination,” he argued, “was justified and became itself the justification for a brutal, exploitative and dehumanising system of production that was perfected during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ingrained over the course of colonial domination.”
Bahamians who were fleetingly aware of the CARICOM position, but never identified these islands with the problem, were shocked to discover that — without consultation or even information — the Bahamas was indeed suing great Britain for reparations.
When a Tribune reporter contacted Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell to try to find out how the Bahamas got drawn into this debacle without consultation, Mr Mitchell admitted that although no representative from this country was present when the decision was taken, the Bahamas was still bound by that decision. Said he: “We haven’t defined a position taken at the last CARICOM meeting. We weren’t represented there. However, whatever was the decision that came out of the last meeting, that would represent our position.”
And, if he had been there, what position would he have taken on behalf of the Bahamian people? This decision was not made in a vacuum. Mr Mitchell must have known about it – after all it has been discussed for some time among his CARICOM buddies. He should have known that a vote was imminent. Why didn’t he consult his political colleagues, or is this another deep dark secret kept by all of them, because they don’t think Bahamians are yet mature enough to deal with such weighty matters?
Slavery in Africa, absorbing the entire continent goes back almost to the beginning of time. Islamic religious law codified and justified the existence of slavery, the Bible talks of slaves as almost a matter of course.
Words are not strong enough to condemn the horrors of slavery, especially what grew into the Atlantic slave trade. However, has anyone come up with the idea of suing Africa for making the trade possible? When the European nations spread into areas that needed workers for their plantations, Africa was a ready market. The trade would not have been possible if Africans themselves did not organise slave raids to march their own kith and kin to the coast to sell them to European traders for the transatlantic crossing.
Even after the abolition of slavery, the Africans continued the illicit trade because they knew of no other industry as lucrative to take its place.
Yet it was England that made the first move to end the iniquitous trade. It was the Age of Enlightenment – an age when European interests moved from agriculture to industry. By 1833, Britain had outlawed slavery in all of its territories. It sent out the Royal Navy to enforce the law. Over the years, Britain as a nation made reparation in many ways until now — as far as the Bahamas is concerned — Bahamians can boast of 40 years of independence, 40 years of managing their own affairs. After centuries of colonial rule, education and training, many have moved from a history of slavery to a future of heads of industry and leaders of nations.
And the only true reparation that can be paid as tribute to those who really suffered the pains of slavery have been made by the achievement of their sons and daughters through the centuries.
When one thinks of all that Britain, for example, has given to help uplift our people to the level of statehood, maybe Britain should be sending us a reparation bill.
In our midst, we have Bahamians, descended from Britons who gave their lives in the fight against slavery. On the other side we also have descendents of black Bahamians who were themselves slave masters.
The Brownrigg family, for example, are descended from Capt Charles James Brownrigg of the Royal Navy, who dedicated his life to assisting in the ending of the iniquitous trade. His ship HMS London made several voyages to patrol the waters off Africa in an attempt to release the slaves. On December 3, 1881, however, Capt Brownrigg caught up with a dhow off Zanzibar captained by Hindi bin Hattam with about 100 slaves on board. Capt Brownrigg led a boarding party to release the slaves. However, he was killed in his valiant attempt. A newspaper of the time reported an eyewitness as describing Capt Brownrigg as “fighting like a lion” to the end.
Recently, Mr Mitchell gave notice that he intended to spend most of next year abroad. He gave the impression that he was going to raise investments for the Bahamas. If this is the type of investment he was suggesting, we would advise him that rather than embarrassing the Bahamas further, he should plan to stay at home and save the Treasury precious funds.
Bahamians would be better advised to get on with the future and let the dead past bury its dead.
Comments
dfitzerl 11 years ago
" . . . because they don’t think Bahamians are yet mature enough to deal with such weighty matters?" - while not condoning keeping issues from the citizenry, we were not mature enough to deal with CSME when we had the chance to do so on our own terms, now we will have to deal with it in a backhanded way through WTO. We continue to think that we can be an isolated economy in this ever flattening world. Wake up Bahamas!
TalRussell 11 years ago
I haven't got any comments as long as this Editorial written by some long-winded Editor who really believes that eventually they will see PM Christie call a ceasefire with The Tribune. But wouldn't that first call for Minister Freddy to be fired from cabinet? Well, don't hold your breathes upstairs in the Editorial department at Shirley and Deveaux Streets.
freelance 11 years ago
'When one thinks of all that Britain, for example, has given to help uplift our people to the level of statehood, maybe Britain should be sending us a reparation bill.'
This is an outrageously offensive statement, (and indeed the whole tone of this article is totally offensive to the majority of Bahamians who are of African descent.
Britain did nothing to lift us to statehood. I repeat. We owe Great Britain nothing. Before she set sail on the high seas to brutalise unsuspecting indigenous peoples the world over, African civilisations were self-sustaining entities that needed NOTHING from Britain or any other European nation. She built her palaces from the blood of our ancestors.
A little secret about the world is that the so-called 'first world' nations are constructed on the premise of inequality and exploitation. Historically, this has included slavery, servitude, colonialism etc. In other words, they MUST exploit cheap or free labour in order to sustain the high standard of living in their own countries. Dr Walter Rodney has called this the European 'underdevelopment' of Africa.
I wholeheartedly agree that the Bahamas and Caricom should request, no DEMAND, reparations from Britain, firstly because Britain got rich off of our backs (not just here in the Bahamas but all over the world). Yes, slavery happened a long time ago, but colonialism only just ended; some say it never ended. Slavery has happened and still is happening all over the world, but wherever it is, it is wrong and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
All in all, what Europe has done for the last 500 years is wrong, barbaric, and primitive. There is no delicate way to characterise what has transpired and it is beyond ignorant and cynical to deny the obvious facts of history. As a 31 year old woman, a 'new Bahamian, I still have to deal with ugly legacy of colonialism: it is disgraceful that I must drive on a road called 'Prince Charles' or look at the big Queen Victoria in front of Parliament. It is a grotesque affront; after so much suffering, the Bahamian people deserve at least to be spared the daily engagement with oppressive symbolism leftover from the colonial period. Its presence is impeding our development.
We need Europe to pay for what they have done because people like the author of this article still believe the utter and filthy fallacy that Europe has somehow 'civilised the savages'. Making them pay will help future generations to know that the European savagery displayed for centuries is unacceptable behaviour.
REPARATIONS FOR CARIBBEAN NATIONS NOW!!
truth2power 11 years ago
Dear Editor,
I experienced a range of emotions after reading your piece. At first I was livid. I read and reread sections with a fire in my gut. Then I became perplexed. How could you suggest that demanding reparations from "Africa" was a more appropriate redress to the legacies of slavery and colonialism than the current action being taken by CARICOM member states? How could any moral person observing the evidence contend that Britain should "be sending us a reparations bill"? Finally, calm set in. I knew I had to respond to this (for lack of a better phrase) heaping pile of S**T.
The version of history you narrate poses slavery as an age old problem that was finally overcome with the dawning of the "Age of Enlightenment", a time when the powerful in Europe became civilized enough to understand the barbarism of the institution of slavery. The British were the leaders of this charge and thus the most civilized and favored of empires. In fact, the good old Brits were nice enough to let some of that good old civilizationizing rub off on the otherwise backwards former slaves,"After centuries of colonial rule, education and training, many have moved from a history of slavery to a future of heads of industry and leaders of nations". We owe our nationhood to their good graces didn't ya know?!
Now I believe in love and I try always to lead with empathy. I want to understand you. Is there some secret guilt in your heart that is alleviated by this one-sided, watered down vision of world history? Maybe you take some comfort in dredging up the fossilized discourses of the days when white rule meant something. Does it make you feel more in control in a world you can barely recognize?
The reality of the situation is that people the world over are beginning to take a critical look at the way the past and the present are linked. A dwindling number of them support your conclusions. You can no longer hide your venom behind the illusion of learning and authority. I SEE YOU. You can no longer pretend to be continuing a grand civilizing mission on people like me. I REJECT YOU. In other words dear Editor, you have no clothes.
One day, far in the future, someone will come across this piece and remark on how far we have come as a nation. We will progress with civility, dignity and honesty in spite of you. Our reparations will be won.
Time alone will tell.
JohnDoe 11 years ago
Good points! Don't know what to make of this victim mentality that we continue to encourage in this country. Our answers entail us taking personal responsibility for ourselves, our children and our surroundings.
truth2power 11 years ago
@rory I suggest you take up @freelance's advice and read Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. You might learn something. People of all races are waking up. Babylon is falling. Get with the program.
truth2power 11 years ago
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freelance 11 years ago
rory. I didn't say I was suffering. Let's not mischaracterise. I think that you are missing the link between the oppressive nexus of colonial symbolism, self-hatred and crime, violence and all of the things you speak of. Can a society built on slavery, colonialism, rape, murder and all of these other other wrongs possibly be anything but barbaric and amoral? The British were immoral in colonising our ancestors; and you are comparing this to littering? Well monkey doo. What you are woefully missing is that we actually need reparations and the discussion around it, in order to verbalise some of these historically rooted sources of anger and mistrust. That is why I am so happy to see persons such as yourself spewing, er I mean expressing, your quite racially charged rhetoric. We need to get all these nanny ideologies out into the open so that they can be flushed down the toilet.
freelance 11 years ago
I would love to respond, but unfortunately, you don't matter. You are blinded by a lack of real-world experience. You know nothing except the walls of your insular world. And you are on the losing side of history. You are weak; and conquered with absolute ease. Good day.
truth2power 11 years ago
LOL get em freelance. Rory is all over this site with NOTHING to say. In the immortal words of Exuma: EMPTY BARRELS MAKE THE MOST NOISE!! ain nobody gat time for dat!
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