The Bahamas

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Commonwealth of The Bahamas
Motto: Forward Upward Onward Together
Anthem: March On, Bahamaland
Royal anthem: God Save the Queen
Location of the Bahamas
Capital
and largest city
Nassau
Official languagesEnglish
GovernmentConstitutional monarchy
Independence
• Water (%)
28%
Population
• 2005 estimate
301,7901 (168th)
• 1990 census
254,685
GDP (PPP)2005 estimate
• Total
5729 (147)
• Per capita
17,865 (41)
HDI (2003)0.832
very high (50th)
CurrencyBahamian dollar (BSD)
Time zoneUTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)
UTC−4 (EDT)
Calling code1-242
ISO 3166 codeBS
Internet TLD.bs
1 Estimates for this country take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is an independent English-speaking nation in the West Indies. An archipelago of 700 islands and cays (which are small islands), the Bahamas is located in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Florida in the United States, north of Cuba and the Caribbean, and northwest of the British dependency of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

History

Main article: History of the Bahamas

Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the New World in 1492 is believed to have been on the island of San Salvador (also called Watling's Island), in the southeastern Bahamas. He encountered Taino (also known as Lucayan) Amerindians and exchanged gifts with them.

Taino Indians from both northwestern Hispaniola and northeastern Cuba moved into the southern Bahamas about the 7th century AD and became the Lucayans. They appear to have settled the entire archipelago by the 12th century AD. There may have been as many as 40,000 Lucayans living in the Bahamas when Columbus arrived.

The Bahamian Lucayans were deported to Hispaniola as slaves, and within two decades Taino societies ceased to exist as a separate population due to forced labour, warfare, disease, emigration and outmarriage.

Some say the name 'Bahamas' derives from the Spanish for "shallow sea", baja mar. Others trace it to the Lucayan word for Grand Bahama Island, ba-ha-ma ("large upper middle land").

After the Lucayans were destroyed, the Bahamian islands were deserted until the arrival of English settlers from Bermuda in 1650. Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers, these people established settlements on the island now called Eleuthera (from the Greek word for freedom).

The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718 but remained sparsely settled until the newly independent United States expelled thousands of American Tories and their slaves. Many of these British Loyalists were given compensatory land grants in Canada and the Bahamas. Some 8,000 loyalists and their slaves moved to the Bahamas in the late 1700s from New York, Florida and the Carolinas.

The British granted the islands internal self-government in 1964 and, in 1973, Bahamians achieved full independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Since the 1950s, the Bahamian economy has prospered based on the twin pillars of tourism and financial services. Despite this however the country still faces significant challenges in areas such education, healthcare, correctional facilites and violent crime and illegal immigration. The urban renewal project has been launched in recent years to help impoverished urban areas in social decline in the main islands. Today, the country enjoys the third highest per capita income in the western hemisphere.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the Bahamas

The Bahamas is an archipelago of some 700 islands and cays covering over 100,000 mi² (260,000 km²) of the Atlantic Ocean between Florida and Hispaniola. The archipelago has a total land area of 5,382 square miles (13,939 km²)—about 20% larger than Jamaica—and a population of some 310,000 concentrated on the islands of New Providence and Grand Bahama.

Map of the Bahamas

The largest island is Andros Island. The Biminis are just 50 miles (80 km) east of Florida. The island of Grand Bahama is home to the second largest city in the country, Freeport. The island of Abaco is to its east. The most southeastern island is Inagua. Other notable islands include Eleuthera, Cat Island, San Salvador, Acklins, Crooked Island, Exuma and Mayaguana. Nassau is the capital and largest city, located on New Providence. The islands have a subtropical climate, moderated by the Gulf Stream.

In the southeast, the Caicos Islands and the Turks islands, and three more extensive submarine features called Mouchoir Bank, Silver Bank, and Navidad Bank, are geographically a continuation of the Bahamas, but not part of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Politics

Error: no page names specified (help). Politics of the Bahamas takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. The Bahamas is an independent country and Commonwealth Realm. It is a parliamentary democracy whose political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. The party system is dominated by the liberal Progressive Liberal Party and the conservative Free National Movement. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement, and association. The Bahamas is a member of the eastern Caribbean court system. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Jurisprudence is based on English common law.

Districts

Main article: Districts of the Bahamas

The districts of the Bahamas provide a system of local government everywhere in the Bahamas except New Providence, whose affairs are handled directly by the central government. The current system dates from 1996 when 23 districts were defined—a further 8 were added in 1999. Gained suffrage in 2000; with 140,000 registered voters.

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Bahamas

The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism alone accounts for more than 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs almost half of the archipelago's labour force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences have led to solid GDP growth in recent years.

Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the United States, the source of the majority of tourist visitors.

Not everyone has benefitted from the prosperity of recent years and Unemployment remains at 10%. The poverty rate of 9% however, is low compared to other Caribbean countries.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the Bahamas

Most of the Bahamian population is black at about 85%. The next largest population group are whites at 12%. Other minorities include Asians and Hispanics at 3%. Many Bahamian whites are concentrated on Abaco Island, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, Long Island, and the Montagu Bay district of New Providence (just to the east of Nassau). There is also a significant number of non-citizen white expatriates from the United States and Europe.

The official language is English, spoken by nearly all inhabitants, though many speak a patois form of it. A considerable number of immigrants also speak Haitian Creole, Spanish and Portuguese.

A "heavily religious" country, there are more places of worship per person in the Bahamas than any other nation in the world. Christianity is the main religion on the islands, with Baptist forming the largest denomination (about one third), followed by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.

A few people, especially in the southern and eastern islands, practice Obeah, a spiritistic religion similar to Voodoo. While well-known throughout the Bahamas, obeah is shunned by many people. Voodoo is practiced, but almost exclusively by large numbers of immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

Sports & Culture

See also: Culture of the Bahamas

Bahamian culture is a hybrid of African, European and indigenous forms. Perhaps its most famous export is a rhythmic form of music called junkanoo. Music is an important form of expression in The Bahamas. Aside from the Junkanoo, there are various other indigenous forms of music such, as rake and scrape and calypso, and a unique form of hymnal, known internationally through the music of Joseph Spence, now deceased. Marching bands are also an important part of life. They play at funerals (when the community will march with the casket of the deceased from church to graveyard), at weddings, and the brass section is one of the most important contingents of the Junkanoo.

In the "family islands", crafts such as hand-made silver-top palm baskets are woven. Some of these baskets can hold water. This material, commonly called "straw" is also plaited into hats and bags, today mainly to sell to tourists.

Regatta is an important event, each "family island" having their own. A sail boat race on old fashioned sloops takes place, as well as a festival. Some settlements have festivals associated with the traditional crop or food of that area,such as "pineapple fest" in Gregory Town, Eleuthera and "crab fest" in Andros. Other significant traditions include story telling and the practice of Obeah.

Cricket is the National Sport of The Bahamas. Other sports include Track and Field, soccer, basketball, netball, and various other American and British sports.

The Bahamas has sent athletes to several Summer Olympic Games. The best performance for this nation is a gold medal individual performance by Tonique Williams-Darling in the Womens' 400m event held in Athens, Greece 2004.

She has also won a gold medal in the 400 meters at 2005 World Championships in Athletics.

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, despite being the favourite, she was unexpectedly beaten both in her semi-final and the final by Christine Ohuruogu of England, claiming silver instead.

The Bahamas has also won a Womens' 4x100m silver and gold medal at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 games respectively. The team of Savatheda Fynes, Eldece Clark-Lewis, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, and Pauline Davis-Thompson took home the medals.

Ferguson also silver medalled in the 200m event in 2000, and captured bronze in the same event in 2004.

The Bahamas has also won other medals in other events as well, including the team of Christopher Brown, Avard Moncur, Nathaniel McKinney, and Andrae Williams, who claimed silver in the Men's 4x400m event at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, 2005.

Rick Fox, a famous basketball player, was born to a Bahamian parent.


Other Bahamian-born Faces


Climate

The climate of the Bahamas is subtropical to tropical, and is moderated significantly by the waters of the Gulf Stream, particularly in winter. Conversely, this often proves very dangerous in the summer and autumn, when hurricanes pass near or through the islands. Hurricane Andrew hit the northern islands in 1992, and Hurricane Floyd hit most of the islands in 1999. Hurricane Frances of 2004 was expected to be the worst ever for the islands. Also in 2004, the northern Bahamas were hit by a less potent Hurricane Jeanne. In 2005 the northern islands were once again struck this time by Hurricane Wilma. Tidal surges and high winds destroyed homes, schools, floated graves and made roughly 1,000 people homeless.

See also

References

General history

  • Cash Philip et al. (Don Maples, Alison Packer). The Making of the Bahamas: A History for Schools. London: Collins, 1978.
  • Albury, Paul. The Story of The Bahamas. London: MacMillan Caribbean, 1975.
  • Miller, Hubert W. The Colonization of the Bahamas, 1647–1670, The William and Mary Quarterly 2 no.1 (Jan 1945): 33–46.
  • Craton, Michael. A History of the Bahamas. London: Collins, 1962.
  • Craton, Michael and Saunders, Gail. Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.

Economic history

  • Johnson, Howard. The Bahamas in Slavery and Freedom. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishing, 1991.
  • Johnson, Howard. The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783–1933. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996.
  • Storr, Virgil H. Enterprising Slaves and Master Pirates: Understanding Economic Life in the Bahamas. New York: Peter Lang, 2004.

Social history

  • Johnson, Wittington B. Race Relations in the Bahamas, 1784–1834: The Nonviolent Transformation from a Slave to a Free Society. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 2000.
  • Shirley, Paul. "Tek Force Wid Force," History Today 54, no. 41 (April 2004): 30–35.
  • Sanders, Gail. The Social Life in the Bahamas 1880s–1920s. Nassau: Media Publishing, 1996.
  • Sanders, Gail. Bahamas Society After Emancipation. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishing, 1990.
  • Sanders, Kaci was the first ever to see the Bahamas, yet no one has heard from her ever again after her trip there. They believe that she is on the island haunting any one that touches the land!

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