Remarks by
Hon. Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill
Minister of Foreign Affairs &
The Public Service

Monday 12^th March 2007

Dame Doris Johnson High School
Commonwealth Day

It is as usual an honour to be back here today to make this brief intervention.

When I was last here I spoke a bit about the struggle of Dame Doris Johnson for equality for women in our country. I said then that before 1962, more than half of the population of The Bahamas could not have a say in the running of their country because they were born female. Within our lifetime that changed as a result in part of women like Dame Doris Johnson after whom this school is named.

I want to continue now where I left off.

First I want to say that this is geared particularly to those of you who will have the opportunity to register and vote in the next general election for the party of your choice. I want you to know what a privilege you have, and I want you to remember how hard won the struggle to get the right to vote was. Remember if you do not use it, you can lose it.

Remember women, females just got the right to vote within the lifetimes of your grandmothers and some of your teachers here today. So in many cases when your grandmothers and some of your teachers were born, when I was born women did not have the right to vote.

Several generations before that neither men nor women who were African or black could vote in The Bahamas. They were part of what was known then as the British Empire and throughout the British Empire slavery was the order of the day. That meant that people like and you and me were destined to be owned by other people; bought and sold like chattel.

To bring it home graphically to you, imagine your favourite teacher in this school today, or even you being put on an auction block and bought and sold like an animal. Yet until 1834, that was what the situation was throughout the British Empire.

That British Empire collapsed in the face of the struggles of women like Doris Johnson, men like Lynden Pindling, Kwami Nkrumah, Norman Manley and Mahatma Gandhi. It was replaced by the Commonwealth and today the Commonwealth’s values replace the old racism and discrimination of the empire with respect for the rule of law, self determination and equality for all peoples regardless of race, creed or colour.

Today, I want you to remember this. It is said that the two great philosophical questions are these: the existence of God and how he created the world; and secondly how did man come to be here.

In connection with the last question, it is very important that you know your history otherwise you put yourself in danger of repeating it. You must know who your grandmother and grandfather were, who their parents were if you can find out, and you must know what they did to get you here.

For example, did you know that in the predecessor to the Commonwealth, the British Empire, in The Bahamas, prior to 1925 there were no high schools for people like you and me? This was in the life time of your great grandmothers and fathers. The first public high school in The Bahamas came in 1925 the Government High School and it was not free. Up to 1967, you had to pay to go to the only government secondary school and it could only take 20 pupils each year. Dr. Gail Saunders writes that in 1925 when the school was started for every one high school place available in The Bahamas there were 67 primary school children waiting to get that place. That remained the case until 1967 when the Government changed and created a situation where secondary education was made available for all and free of charge. Doris Johnson fought the British Empire for that for you. So when you see this school today, do not take it for granted; take care of it.

Do you know that before 1967 in the old British Empire, that the only churches that could be heard on ZNS radio on the Sunday morning religious broadcast were the Anglicans, the Roman Catholics, the Methodists and the Presbyterians? It rotated amongst them. From 1967 onwards, any church could have their religious services aired on radio and today on television. Those are the values of the Commonwealth that we uphold today.

On 31st March 2007, we in Fox Hill will mark African Heritage Day, observing the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in the old British Empire.  I make the point that we are not celebrating this anniversary; we are observing or marking the occasion.

The fact is that slavery was wrong, morally wrong.  There is a requirement for an apology by all those who were officially involved in slavery even centuries after the fact, in the same way that the German government has had to make amends for their conduct during the Second World War toward Jews.

Millions of African peoples perished in the middle passage; the numbers exceed those who died in the Holocaust.  Their names are not known and never will be.  They must not be forgotten.

I made the point about observances because there are many in the country who want to pretend that this never happened, and that we ought to in some kind of 21st century love fest forget about the past as if it did not exist.  We cannot do that.  Our history is our history; and we ought to be sure that the young know their history.  We must also tell them, though, that history should not be used as an excuse for their failings but rather as a source of inspiration for their success.

On 25th March 1807, the British Parliament passed an Act that would forbid the transportation of slaves from Africa to the new world.  It came into effect in 1808 and once it did, the British Navy had the responsibility of enforcing it.  This meant that vessels of countries that still carried slaves were subject to seizure and forfeiture by the navy on the high seas.

Amongst those countries where slavery had not yet been abolished was the United States of America who did not abolish slavery until 1865 and in Brazil where slavery continued until 1888.  Slavery itself was not abolished in the British Empire of which The Bahamas was a part until the year 1834.

We in Fox Hill have organized a whole set of observances around that event since the time it took place in 1834, perhaps the only  place in The Bahamas to do so on a wide scale.  This year, I would like you all to come to Fox Hill to join us for the observances.

Fox Hill owes its beginnings to some extent to the settlement of freed Africans who were set down by the British in what was then called New Guinea or the Creek Village, later named Fox Hill and then Sandilands Village.

Here is what Michael Craton writes in his History of The Bahamas:

Dr. Gail Saunders writes in her book Slavery In The Bahamas:

When I attended the celebrations for the 137th anniversary of St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Fox Hill, the history there says that their congregation formed out of Mt. Carey Baptist Church and arose in part because of differences between the Congos and Yorubas.

The Yorubas came from West Africa and the Congos came from the Congo.  Most British slaves came from West Africa and the Portuguese took their slaves from what is now the Congo and were transporting them to Brazil.

It is said that after the abolition of the slave trade a slaver carrying Congo slaves was captured by the British and set down in Fox Hill.  They were looked down on by the Yorubas because the Congos could not speak proper English, having come later to The Bahamas and the English language.  When the split took place over some doctrinal matters, the Congos moved to found St. Paul’s.

Language is very interesting because as you know we have all been stripped of our African languages.  I recall how the people of Barbados who migrated to Panama at the turn of the 20th century and stayed in Panama, even though they were born and raised in Panama and have not been to Barbados in their lives still speak English with a Barbadian accent, 100 years or more after the fact.

You can tell then that language is a difficult thing to erase and yet you see how slavery was so dehumanizing that it wiped out all traces of the original languages that came with our forefathers.

So I hope you see how the modern history of The Bahamas is influenced by what happened 200 years ago.  We are still struggling with the meaning of this for our people, their self esteem, and their right to exist as human beings within their own skin and not suffer because of it.  It is important that our children continue to know the story and continue to tell the story.

This year on 5th March, Ghana celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Independence gained in 1957. That started a march to independence throughout Africa and ultimately here to the Caribbean where we gained our independence in 1973. We became full members of the Commonwealth in 1973.

Our independence was won by Bahamian patriots who fought for freedom. Other Commonwealth citizens, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Turks and Caicos Islanders, Barbadians, Canadians all fought to give you the independence you have today. In 1969, two years after majority rule in the life time of your mothers and fathers, 18 year olds got the vote for the first time.

There is a saying if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Use it, don’t lose it.

On this Commonwealth Day, on this day when we reaffirm the values of freedom which your mother and fathers fought so hard to provide for you, let us remember: dare to struggle, dare to win. Forward ever! Backward never!

Thank you and God bless you all!