The Tribune

By SIMON

Many Bahamians of older generations bemoan the collapse of the Reinhard Hotel, located Over-the-Hill in New Providence. Many younger people, who know nothing of its provenance and value, saw it as another old building in need of repair or demolition.

The collapse of the storied structure was another example of an indifference by many to the need to preserve heritage sites as a critical component of national development and an appreciation of whence we came.

The waebsite DifferenceBetween.net notes the distinction many social scientists make regarding the concepts of culture and heritage: “The two concepts may sound very similar to some people as they often mean the same thing, but they are different concepts used in a different context. Heritage relates to inheritance, meaning passing of the beliefs, objects and culture from one generation to the next, like a tradition.

“Culture is the way of life, knowledge, ideas, customs, laws, and habits of a group of people or society….

“Culture is the practice of everyday life of a particular group of people, the characteristics that define them – characteristics such as language, behavior, religion, cuisine, music and arts, social habits, beliefs, values and anything that portray their way of life.”

Arlene Nash Ferguson translates this more succinctly and brilliantly: “Culture is erryting we do erryday!”

Sir Sidney Poiter, among others, often noted there are elements of one’s culture that were positive and good. There are other elements which may be negative and destructive, and should be avoided.

The preservation of historic sites and the promotion of various aspects of Bahamian heritage requires an understanding of the role these play in fostering national memory, identity and survival.

This understanding evades many decision-makers, many of whom have little appreciation for the complexity and myriad forms of Bahamian heritage including the built heritage.

An egregious example of the lack of understanding of our heritage was the adoption of a so-called Bahamas Carnival.

It is not surprising, though depressing and disappointing, that the prime minister most associated with Junkanoo, failed to grasp its uniqueness. He giddily embarked on creating a Carnival extravaganza, which made a mockery of Bahamian heritage.

No other country in the world has preserved or developed Junkanoo as has The Bahamas. It is associated with no other country as much as ours, done with operatic brilliance, artistic refinement, dramatic force and discipline.

The Trinidadian Carnival artist and impresario Peter Minshall visited The Bahamas on several occasions and enthused about the unique qualities of Bahamian Junkanoo, including the creation, design process and production of costumes, and the amount of work done by hand. He has spoken of the magic of Junkanoo.

Minshall helped “design the opening awards ceremonies for the 1987 Pan American Games, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the 1994 Football World Cup and the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics”.

This cosmopolitan, foreign-born observer has a deeper appreciation for the craft, artistry and brilliance of Junkanoo than many Bahamians, including many in the political directorate. Sadly, over the years a number of people deemed Junkanoo as too native and too black.

The ignorance of one’s broader national heritage is akin to each generation of a family forgetting their ancestry and history, with all of its resilience, triumphs, scars and brokenness.

The search for a family, group or national heritage may be painful, heartbreaking. It can also be exciting and challenging.

Asked whether the Reinhard Hotel is located in Bain Town or Grants Town, Nash Ferguson, with her usual care and attention to detail and accuracy, suggested that it is technically in historic Bain Town if Baillou Hill Road is the line of demarcation, as the building is west of this major thoroughfare.

For those who lived in the area, the hotel straddled both towns. Like many other elements of history, even the name of the thoroughfare is wonderfully debatable. Nash Ferguson recalls looking south from Government House, regally perched on Mount Fitzwilliam, and seeing the Blue Hills.

Was “Blue” the original name of the street? Was it later conflated with the name “Baillou”? Such debates are like a delightful history puzzle, with the search for the answers part of a journey of understanding and recollection.

While they were distinct communities in various ways, there was all manner of fluidity between Bain Town and Grants Town, especially in modern times. The town was laid out by Mr JJ Burnside during the administration of Governor Sir Lewis Grant, after whom it was named.

Bain Town was “originally a part of a one hundred and forty acre land grant to one Susannah Witherspoon. In the late 1840s it was sold to a black Bahamian businessman, Charles H Bain, who divided the land into allotments and sold them at moderate prices to African people”. He sold the allotments to both liberated Africans and former slaves.

Charles H Bain was a product of mixed racial heritage, and a business success. He bridged racial and class divides as his father was European and his mother was of African heritage.

Bain was an example of the many black Bahamians who overcame the burden of discrimination through the sheer force of character and ability.

In its earliest days, Bain Town was its own distinct village. A small section of Bain Town was called “Conta Butta”.

According to some oral history, up until the mid-twentieth century, the name came from a unique local dialect pronunciation of the settlement’s original name, which may have been Congo Borough. Borough is the term for a geographic area, such as the Borough of Manhattan or Staten Island.

Much of this history is essential because it leads and in significant ways manifested in the Reinhard Hotel, which was more than just a building. It was a gathering place and social venue for black Bahamians and others in a segregated colony.

It was venue for freedom and enjoyment. Its four stories suggested greater possibilities and blue-sky imagination for those who literally and figuratively resided in smaller dwellings and mindsets.

Its preservation as a landmark should have been a reminder to successive generations as a testament to the African peoples who overcame slavery and colonialism. The Hotel and other structures exemplified black enterprise and excellence.

On the excellent website, Ramble Bahamas, Jessica Dawson and Dr Tracey Thompson remind us: “Initially designed and constructed by Dr Claudius Roland Walker and Mrs. Mabel Walker in the 1930s, the hotel furnished the stage for everything from social soirees to local business operation to pivotal moments in Bahamian political history.

“Perhaps the paramount year in the hotel’s history was 1967, when the space served as headquarters to the Progressive Liberal Party during the landmark 1967 elections that led to Majority Rule…

“Other businesses that operated on the premises included a hardware store, a restaurant, a pharmacy, and The Voice. A newspaper, The Voice, served to educate Bahamians about their rights and held true to the core belief of its editor, Dr Walker, that education offered the key to political and economic independence.”

What a powerful history. A hotel and business site built by a black Bahamian man and woman served and as the headquarters for the Second Emancipation of the mass of Bahamians.

The collapse of this monument to liberation is a sad and painful structural metaphor, in both senses of the term, of how we are failing miserably to preserve critical memory, history and heritage, into which many poured their familial and cultural lifeblood.

The Reinhard Hotel collapsed because of our indifference. We could have saved it. For future generations of Bahamians and visitors, the narrator of a heritage tour of the area will point to an empty space and remark, “That is where the Reinhard Hotel once stood.” That empty space now leaves many Bahamians empty.

What else is collapsing around us and will descend into rubble and debris, and leave us even more desolate as we grieve the loss of the many tangible and intangible architecture, foundations and building stones of our heritage that are irreplaceable?