The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IN a recent conversation with a well-known Bahamian cultural icon, among the various points reviewed was the traditional West African game of Wari (Warri, Oware, Awale) --- once played in over-the-hill areas by Bahamian men.

Although this strategic game may have become extinct today, like any number of other once-practiced traditional Bahamian activities, (with likely roots in Africa) it is worth noting somewhere among the pages in our literary narratives, even if we cannot still see the game played here ... anywhere. That famous African saying "Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter," is certainly applicable here.

No matter how you look at it, the 20th century brought incredible changes to these 700 islands, rocks and cays of The Bahamas. And, although significant changes occurred all over the globe in that last century, just limiting our focus on The Bahamas and Bahamians would give us volumes of happenings to peruse.

Just in the area of cultural distinctiveness, there is much that can be cataloged. Everything from children's ring-play, "shooting marbles", rounders (with tennis or sponge balls and sticks), skipping in tandem, plus hand-clapping games were once desired entertainment, as well as tutorials for teaching valuable life lessons. Those were the good ol' days before modernity erased from our collective psyche much of our traditional Bahamian cultural connections to our African ancestry.

Back to that traditional West African game of Wari, which was often played under the shade of big trees or on porches in Bain and Grant's Town --- from personal observations --- along Hospital Lane, West Street, Augusta Street, and the many networks of cross streets or alleys, it is doubtful that any present-day players may still be found. Equally significant, is the chance of locating one of those wooden, groove-out boards on which the seeds of haul back plants were strategically moved about. Gone and forgotten might be an apt epitaph for Wari and other traditional African relics which connected kith and kin across that expanse of the Middle Passage in the Atlantic --- even if only subconsciously, spiritually.

How can we now, in this second decade of the 21st century, try to find something that we do not so much as acknowledge that we've lost? That might only represent a drop in the overflowing bucket of traditional Bahamian cultural practices which are highly unlikely to reappear on the scene here again. Call to mind, if you belong to the generations who knew about the many nightclubs which were sprinkled across strips over-the-hill, those good times. Gone, but not forgotten! For younger generations, who never knew or were told, few remnants remain today of that glorious history. Even some of us who were too young to enter such exciting establishments, the sweet rhythms and sounds of the live bands emanating across the otherwise still of the nights serenaded our souls.

Those were also the days when "buying Bahamian" was not merely a motivational incentive, but a necessary reality.

None of us can live in the past or bring it back. Changes are inevitable. And, changes can be both good and bad. When we look at our history, in whatever measure is taken, is our story worth celebrating or instead ignoring/lamenting? In pressing forward, upward, onward together, ought we retrieve those gems of our traditional culture, or simply let them remain lost to history?

When contemporary Bahamians are reluctant to tell their own stories, how can it be expected that the history of our parents, grandparents, and those African ancestors stand a chance of being referenced, recorded and passed along to posterity? While the indelible imprints of some traditional African cultures may remain latent in our Bahamas today, centuries of colonial glazes seem to have formed a high level of opacity overlaying any consciousness of our essential identity. Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, our true history is not lost. Could the revival of Wari be one key for opening the door of so much lost to history?

MB

Nassau