How Bahamians Benefited from Majority Rule

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

All of Bahamian society benefitted in one way or another from the historic event that took place on January 10, 1967, a day that now wears the rather inelegant appellation of Majority Rule Day.

Popular movements for freedom and justice can be suppressed and sometimes even crushed. But, more often than not, attempts at suppression lead only to more radical - and sometimes violent -resurgence. There are vivid examples of this right now on the world stage.

What is disturbing is that so many world leaders seem not to understand this or else they are recklessly willing to play the odds.

The architects of the progressive movement in the Bahamas in the Sixties often told the uncompromising old guard that the country would be better off if the old guard dealt with them rather than face a more radicalized generation later on.

After all, most of the majority rule architects were committed to orderly non-violent change and had already moderated their political philosophy away from the far left thinking which dominated insurgent movements around the world.

The movement's commitment to peaceful change was not dictated by the asinine interpretation put on it by the old guard's political consultant Pete Knaur.

Mr. Knaur said in a supposedly secret report to his masters that Bahamian blacks would never engage in any kind of political action that would incur the disapproval of "the white man".

The truth is that the more influential leaders of the movement had arrived at that position by a careful appraisal of the peculiar circumstances of the Bahamas - including its long-established parliamentary tradition - and a comparison of violent and nonviolent movements around the world.

An interesting event in this process was a lecture and debate on the morality of armed resistance to injustice sponsored by the NCPA at St. Augustine's Monastery. The lecturer was Professor Greenwood of Catholic University in Washington.

There were also discussions with American civil rights leader Martin Luther King and his associates, the first of which was at the Bay Street offices of Bahamian real estate agent Basil Sands.

In November 1962 PLP Leader Sir Lynden Pindling and his like-minded colleagues resisted demands for a violent response to the disappointing results of that year's election.

To the everlasting credit of the movement and despite the unfair electoral system, the change was achieved without insurrection and bloodshed. All Bahamians benefitted and continue to benefit from that magnificent legacy.

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At the time some whites were fearful and some blacks were also nervous about the prospects of the new regime. A few well-off whites left the country only to return later to continue making money.

But the new government quickly demonstrated that blacks could govern just as well as whites, and then went on to show that blacks could govern just as badly too.

In one particular aspect some whites had suffered more than blacks from racism. Many generations of isolation in segregated communities had devastating genetic consequences, some of which are still in evidence today.

Also, many whites had suffered from poverty and domination by the mercantile oligarchy. Not all had the freedom to compete as they wished.

One enterprising white Bahamian felt the heavy hand of the oligarchy when he attempted to break into the lucrative and tightly-controlled liquor business. Nevertheless, he succeeded brilliantly. Now all were able to compete without permission from, and fear of, the oligarchy.

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Those who benefitted most were without question the black majority. After all, they had suffered the most.

Black Bahamians are a part of what is called the African diaspora. But what happened to black Africans in the Middle Passage and their subsequent centuries-long enslavement in the Americas could hardly be called a diaspora in the true sense of the word.

It was not a scattering among other peoples but a herding into a kind of slavery that was unprecedented in human history. Not only were these Africans brutalized and callously exploited generation after generation, they were also abruptly cut off from their roots -- their culture, languages and societal structures.

Moreover, millions were deceived into believing that they were a people without a history, and were also brain-washed into thinking that they were an inferior race. This was to justify their enslavement and, later on, segregation and discrimination.

These powerfully negative influences did not end with the abolition of slavery but had to be exorcised step by painful step in the face of determined resistance at every step. Even so, significant residuals still remain.

The idea that these uprooted and abused people could ever govern themselves was regarded by the white overlords as preposterous. When the Caribbean nation of Haiti valiantly seized its freedom on the battlefield it was mercilessly punished by the white nations of the West.

So the first °V and decidedly most important °V benefit to black Bahamians was psychological. They would no longer have to bear the shame and embarrassment of having to live each day with alleged proof of the false assumption of inferiority.

Some people still do not understand the full import of this and seem to think that this powerful psychological element in Bahamian politics can be obliterated with a few strokes of the pen. It cannot. It will remain a consideration until it is fully examined and forthrightly dealt with. Then and only then will it be laid to rest.
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Black Bahamians also benefitted economically with the dismantling of the oligarchic system which severely restricted them from participating fully in the economic life of the country.

Incidentally, it is not true that the entrepreneurial spirit among Bahamian blacks is weak. That was not the case before 1967 and is not today.

The entrepreneurial spirit was always vibrant Over-the-Hill and in other black communities. The evidence of this is abundant: from the ladies selling guineps and yellow corn grits on the side of the road to hundreds of middle-sized and relatively large black enterprises.

Blacks had their own restaurants, grocery shops, butcher shops, guest houses, small hotels and private clubs like the fabled Weary Willie°¶s on Blue Hill Road, as well as movie houses. Eustace Duvalier had the first movie house, on Blue Hill Road.

They developed a world-class straw-work industry, not to mention world-class night clubs like the Spider Web, off Bay Street; the Silver Slipper, the Zanzibar, the Cat and Fiddle, Chez Paul Meeres and the Drumbeat, all Over-the-Hill; Big Binah°¶s in Gambier, and the Jungle Club in Fox Hill.

Audley Kemp managed to break into the wholesale liquor business on East Street and Milo Butler went up against the closed shop of white importers and commission agents to build what was to become a commercial empire.

I am sure readers will remind me of many more examples of pre-1967 successful black entrepreneurialism. In fact, long before the brash and aggressive onslaught beginning in 1949 and led by Stafford Sands, there were in the City black businessmen including C. C. Smith, A. J. Kemp and W. P. Adderley.

Also in the City were high-class sartorial lounges catering to wealthy winter visitors and the local upper classes, black and white. These were operated by blacks like Arthur Lunn, R. M. Bailey and Robert Bingham.

Instead of encouraging black businesses, Sir Stafford and his group set out to turn back gains made by blacks, except for a few who collaborated with the oligarchy or who seemed no threat to their commercial and political interests.

A tightly-controlled system of licensing and an unfriendly banking establishment made it extremely difficult for blacks to start up and grow businesses.

Majority rule, while not overcoming all the obstacles to black entrepreneurs, certainly made it possible for many to take advantage of opportunities previously denied them.

Blacks benefitted in many other important ways including education and social development.