People have a way of forgetting things they once knew and understood. And for sure, there are times when people will pretend that they have forgotten certain things and certain realities.
Truth is also that there are times in life when people are truly and sincerely ignorant; when because of a lack of memory and knowledge, they just do not know what is going on.
This and more like this is quite evident in today’s Bahamas.
Some Bahamians have simply forgotten who they are and they came to be in today’s Bahamas. In this regard, we are amused to no end when we hear some Bahamians talk about how they are ‘indigenous’ to the Bahamas. They are -of course- nothing of the sort since they are neither Arawak nor Carib!
And then we have those Bahamians who know what time it is and refuse to share their knowledge with their misinformed and ignorant brothers and sisters. This explains -in part at least- why certain aspects of public policy are today so dreadfully mixed up.
Street level vernacular speaks to policies and people who are as mixed up as conch salad and cornflakes. This and more speaks to the need for Bahamians to become better acquainted with who they are and with the forces that have conspired to bring them to these islands.
And of course, there is a pressing need for Bahamians to rid themselves of one of their most abiding conceits. Here the reference is to what seems a view that some how Bahamians deserve to be treated differently and deferentially by the United States of America.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Some of the facts are clear enough. Highest on the list would be the fact that we are also a Caribbean people. And for sure, high on the list would be the fact that the Bahamian people are themselves little more than a mix of all the peoples who have decided to plant roots in these islands.
That mix would include Haitians, Cubans, Mexicans, African slaves brought into the Bahamas from Georgia and the Carolinas, the Loyalists and their property and any number of other people from practically every where in the world.
Quite evidently, it is this wonderful mix of peoples that makes us strong as a nation. And it is this mix that has conspired to create in this Commonwealth of The Bahamas a great little nation.
In the ultimate analysis, all Bahamians lose when they lose sight of the vital importance of the mix.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
