The Tribune

By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett

Last week was historical in the Bahamas. Parliament voted on creating a more equitable Constitution that allows women and men to pass on their citizenship equally.

It creates equity where we have had serious obstacles to women’s full participation in the country’s democracy. This vote coincided with the visit by renowned American scholar and speaker Dr Johnnetta B Cole who presented at a few engagements on the value of equality and art.

She spoke eloquently and powerfully about the trauma of exclusion, racism and discrimination, and encouragingly about moving forward to embrace our fullest selves. She shared herstory in the southern United States that many Bahamians are all too familiar with, but somehow seem to forget and/or distance themselves from. It was in the 1960s when racial segregation was outlawed in both the US and the Bahamas, though the attitudes may still remain the strides towards equality have been tremendous.

Dr Cole was passionate, fearless and respectful as she talked about her philosophy and the future for this country. What we as humans and Bahamians must remember is to oppress anyone, according to Dr Cole, is to oppress ourselves.

French Caribbean thinker Aimé Césaire writes about this theme in “Discourse on Colonialism”, and it retains its currency today.

The vote in favour of all four bills in Parliament last week was a huge step in the right direction. Sadly, the post-vote discussion has been disturbing. We must really understand that to have men and women on a more equitable footing, where they can be paid the same for the same work and where women and men can pass on their citizenship to their children in the same ways, is empowering to our country and ourselves.

When we move in a position of empowering people, others do not lose anything, they in fact gain.

Césaire emphasised the importance of freeing oneself from oppressive situations and relationships, and thereby liberating self. He condemned the system of colonialism, racism and discrimination that had operated to keep so many people down. Bahamians argue that we are down but not out, yet many of us use our energy to discriminate against others, but we hate it being done to us.

In this instance, no one is taking away anything from anyone. There is a great deal of rabble rousing going on. There is a great deal of concern in some quarters about losing one’s position as head of household. There is scaremongering that this will make men eunuchs. How does keeping one’s wife in an equal position make one weak? Is it that those men wish to control their women? Is it that they think women are inferior to men? That is a different kind of problem. These bills are about allowing women and men to have similar rights with regard to citizenship.

Slavery and inequality

When the Emancipation proclamation was made most enslaved peoples celebrated their freedom. We have benefited from this freedom, why do we now wish for others to continue to live otherwise?

Dr Cole highlighted the need for women to be equally respected, treated and regarded as men are in society because, as she stated, using an African proverb, they hold up half the sky. We cannot hold up the sky on our own, nor would we want to. When we work together we all succeed.

This brings to mind a comment made on a radio show last week as well where the host talked about misogyny and one of the men on the show called her out on it.

He argued that misogyny was a strong word and there was little of it here. In fact, he thought that most men were not misogynistic. If that were the case why do we have one of the highest rates of sexual violence and intimate partner violence in the region?

This country has sadly become an even more misogynistic society than it once was. It may have seen women as having to be subservient, but it did not kill them because of insecurity and jealousy.

Perhaps if we listen to our words, look at our actions and face our truer thoughts, we may begin to see how unequal our society really is. Many men complain about women having equal rights to pass on their citizenship because, according to them, women are inferior. They seem to remain locked in an Old Testament way of thinking that is totally outdated and that many enslavers used to justify slavery.

Many are the documents that show how happy the slaves were in slavery and how well adjusted to it. In fact, some went as far as to say that enslaved Africans benefited from slavery because they were too inferior to think for themselves, and so by the virtue of slavery did not have to fight to succeed because their masters organised life around them and so protected them.

Obviously enslaved Africans were not seen as humans. There may still be those who believe this philosophy, but nowadays these kinds of sentiments are freely espoused about women.

Why would we wish to copy such bigoted treatment and attitudes? Why would sectors of the country wish to subjugate one group of people whom they claim to love?

In Césaire’s thesis, this kind of attitude dehumanises those who oppress; it uncivilises us as much as it oppresses women or it did to enslaved Africans. Sadly, when some of the protestors who are against gender equality spoke out last Wednesday and Thursday, their position showed an alarmingly inhumane underbelly in Bahamian society.

They wished to use their relative power or privilege to keep others down and ensure their will remains law. They insisted that as heads of households, no one in their homes would be voting for empowered women.

This says, “I welcome any man to come in and rape my daughter because I do not care about women.” However, were it expressed in those words, every man would be up in arms because they love their daughters and their wives. We are devoted to our daughters. We educate them more than we educate our sons, we speak highly of them, yet we do not think of them as equal. Why not? How can a father wish to see his daughter treated as less than human?

Why should his daughter have fewer rights than his son? Many women share in this thinking. Patriarchy is a powerful system that takes hold of women and convinces them that they are not equal to men. Many have been the female voices that shared this thought.

Who or what made it law that all blacks were not human, but were mere chattels? Obviously powerful whites did, and that was only a particular group of whites who benefited directly and indirectly from that inequality. We cannot, though, nor would we wish to think that all whites are racist, because they most certainly are not. So while some men are misogynistic, most men are not, they just jump on the bandwagon because they think it makes them look good to their boys.

The God we so often evoke created us with free wills and with the ability to reason. Many people boast that this separates us from animals. Such ways of speaking about and treating any one because they look different from us are not godly, neither do they show the progress made from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The same God that underscores equality, love, humanity and respect, would certainly not wish us to use our little bit of privilege to dehumanise others, especially those we claim to love.

We must understand that dehumanising others destroys us. Let us take some very simple yet wonderful ideas from Dr Cole’s words and treat one another with love and respect. We lose nothing by doing so: we in fact gain through encouraging women’s equality.

In the 21st century Bahamas where anger, crime and violence are at an all time high and women are abused regularly, let us take steps to listen to wisdom speakers and not fear and hate mongers.

Let us bring in the positive change we need that is similar to what was demonstrated during emancipation, and again when the colour bar was officially broken down, and again when majority rule displaced oppression. We now have the opportunity to make this country even better. We can use Césaire’s thesis that by dehumanising another through our anti-female words and actions we are destroying ourselves. To be Christian is to be kind and to love. Dr Cole spoke of love without using that word; let us love and not be cowered by fear so we can march on to a common loftier goal.

• bethellbennett@gmail.com