Every year on July 10th, successive governments facilitate events and activities for Bahamians to participate in to demonstrate thier solidarity and proclaim that they are proud to be Bahamian. Unlike other Caribbean countries that have supported local scholars and philosophers in the intense and sustained critical study necessary to understand their national identity, collectively, we seem comfortable avoiding the importance of this philosophical question. So much so, that the philosophy major at the University of The Bahamas has been defunct since 2014.
Instead of creating Bahamians who can think critically through and solve complex issues we face in an increasingly changing world, our attention here in The Bahamas is focused on promoting and funneling Bahamians into Tourism, an industry where Bahamians are exploited for cheap labour as maids, butlers, servants, bellmen, and other entry-level positions. And yet, after 100+ years of Tourism in The Bahamas (1920s) and 50+ years of Independence, no Bahamian has owned a major hotel chain like Bahamar or Atlantis.
Our lack of comprehension about our national identity becomes apparent the moment one asks the average Bahamian: What does it mean to be Bahamian? Usually, we respond to this question through difference and negation, highlighting our cultural practices, like Junkanoo, Conch Salad, or Bahamian Dialect, as markers of our Bahamian identity. In other words, a Bahamian is someone who is a lover of, watches, or participates in Junkanoo, enjoys the delicacy of conch salad and speaks Bahamian Creole English. But what about those Bahamians who don't readily enjoy, participate in, or challenge those cultural practices. Are they not Bahamian? What about those Bahamians who live abroad and don't have access to conch, Junkanooo, or our language? Do they cease to be Bahamian ? What about those Bahamians who are refugees and undocumented but have matriculated and only know this place as their home?
The point is our concept of "Bahamian" is at best narrow, ambiguous, and confusing, so much so that there is no clarity about what it actually is or means. As a matter of fact, Bahamian anthropologist, Nicolette Bethel, declares that Bahamian identity is "a slippery fish to catch."
It is from this slippery social. position and out of the poverty, exploitation, and ambiguity experienced daily that the impetus of this conversation arises. In one of their forthcoming essays, Natino tackles and discusses many of the taboo or unacknowledged social issues in the Bahamas for the sole purpose of healing and moving the country forward. This haunted conversation with Natino Thompson & Erin Greene uses that essay as a jump-off point to have this very needed conversation.
Natino claims that despite Bahamian identity being a slippery fish to catch, they have caught the fish. This conversation and forthcoming book are both proof of their apprehension of such a slippery fish.
