July 10th, 2021 marked the 48th anniversary of The Bahamas as an independent state. Having been born in 1942, I spent 31 years of my life as a British Subject in Colonial Bahamas under British rule. From this perspective. I have observed the evolution of The Bahamas from a colony to an independent state. I have often made the remark that I  have lived in two Bahamas'. 

The second half of the 20 century has been the most transformational period since the arrival of the Loyalists and their slaves in the 18th century. The Loyalists brought a new agricultural technology as well as their slaves changed the demographic composition of the then colony of The Bahamas. It was the Loyalists who made Africans the dominant ethnic group. It is this factor that would reset The Bahamas.

 Some historians break Emancipation into two phases - (a)  1834 when former slaves were apprenticed to their former masters and (b)1838 when the apprenticeship phase ended. Emancipation ushered in the colonial period when Africans became British Subjects. This period would last until 1973 when The Bahamas became an independent state. As a slave, the Africans had no rights and was chattel. As a British Subject, he suffered racial discrimination and was relegated to the second-class citizenry. The Africans in The Bahamas would spend about 360 years between slavery and colonialism. 

There is a view that there was such an emotion as British benevolence. Every aspect of the advancement to equality had to be earned. It was in the interest of the slavemaster to keep the African as slaves; it was in the interest of the colonial master to retain the African as a subject. In both circumstances, subjugation and exploitation enabled the masters to dominate every aspect of life during slavery and colonialism for it was the master who established the status quo.

The trek to Emancipation was in two stages. Firstly there was the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in 1807 by the British. This came as a result of the Haitian Revolution in 1804. The European powers were cognizant of the events in Haiti and feared that they would be duplicated throughout the American slave colonies. In response, they had to stem the tide of African arrivals in the New World, specifically in the Caribbean where  Africans were in the majority. The Haitian Revolution was one of several revolutions in the region as slaves rebelled in Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, and The Bahamas. Slaves sent a message which was heard throughout the Slave World and  Emancipation was the outcome.

After Emancipation, Europeans controlled the reigns of government. As democratic states, the right to vote was the change agent in British colonies, so Africans had to fight and agitate for that right. In The Bahamas, the white political power structure employed various methods of voter suppression to prevent Africans from gaining access to the ballot box. The legal impediments were employed and it took decades to reform the system through constitutional advance and other legal actions through the Colonial Office. Some of the impediments were as follows: 

• gender mandate as universal adult suffrage did not  come until the '50s when women were allowed to vote;
• property ownership was a  qualification as one had to own property in the constituency in which one resided to be eligible to vote;
• there was no general election as elections were held on different dates and one could vote where one owned property;
• age requirement of 21 years;
• open voting as the secret ballot came later;
• multiple representatives for a constituency as the single representative constituency came in conjunction with electoral reform
• gerrymandering gave the white minority an advantage as more seats were allocated in the Family(Out )Islands than in the urban center of New Providence.  

This background in conjunction with the political mobilization of the people, political change came to The Bahamas and was manifested as Majority Rule when the majority ethnic group was able to elect a government that reflected the demography of The Bahamas. The march to Majority Rule was described as the Quiet Revolution because it all took place at the ballot box.

The flip side of this story has two aspects. Firstly, most Bahamians who were born after Independence do not know this story. Many of them believe that The Bahamas was always as it is today. Some are totally unaware of the struggles their forefathers had to undergo to achieve independence and elevate themselves from British subjects to citizen.

There is also a lack of appreciation of the fact that the political change took place quietly, without violence and bloodshed. It was peaceful and through the democratic process. It is this aspect that is not understood by the present generation, hence citizenship has been taken for granted. The spirit of entitlement prevails.

Secondly, one of the responsibilities of nationhood is the naturalization process in which those who were not born in the country could obtain citizenship. In some countries, the process entails knowing the country's history. In The Bahamas, the awarding of citizenship is too casual and many use it as a  tool of convenience to remain in the country for economic, financial, or employment reasons. This has diminished the value of citizenship.

Nation-building is an ongoing process in which citizenship determines the kind of country one becomes. The citizen is the foundation of the state.