By OSWALD T. BROWN
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an updated version of an article published in BAHAMAS CHRONICLE on Thanksgiving Day last year.)
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 25, 2021 — Over the years, with The Bahamas being so close to the United States, Bahamians have celebrated Thanksgiving as if it were as much a Bahamian holiday as it is an American holiday. Indeed, the Bahamian island of Bimini is just 50 miles away from the U.S. mainland and Grand Bahama is only 56 miles away. As a result, Bahamians are accustomed to doing most of their shopping in Florida.
What’s more, there is no escaping the fact that Bahamians and South Floridians share a rich history, as noted by Felicity Darville in her FACE TO FACE column in one of The Bahamas’ leading newspapers, The Tribune, on September 20, 2019.
I am blessed to be a citizen of both The Bahamas and the United States, having been a naturalized citizen of the United States from September 17, 1981, after relocating to the U.S. in December of 1974 because of what I now generally refer to as “affairs of the heart.”
I met a wonderful American lady, Camille Brannum, who was at the time a teacher in Brooklyn, New York, while she was on vacation in Nassau in the summer of 1971.
We were married in June of 1973. Two weeks after she moved to Nassau, Camille, who had a Master’s Degree from Howard University, joined the staff of C.C. Sweeting High School as an English teacher, after meeting the then Minister of Education Livingstone Coakley at a reception friends of mine held for us at the Eagle Rock, a popular restaurant and bar that was “home way from home” for us.
For various reasons, Camille did not like living in The Bahamas, so we relocated to Washington, D.C. I initially moved to Miami in December of 1974 and then to D.C. in January of 1975. Because she was employed by the Ministry of Education, Camille joined me in D.C.in June of 1975.
Thanks to my good friend and journalistic colleague Cordell Thompson, who was living in New York and working for Jet Magazine when Camille and I got married, a photo of us cutting our wedding cake was published in Jet.
Unfortunately, the marriage fell apart and we were divorced in 1978. I would have returned to The Bahamas at that time, but I had a very good job with the Publications Division of the Institute for Services to Education (ISE), which was established by the late President Lynden Johnson ostensibly to upgrade the standard of education in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs.)
When the Ronald Reagan administration stopped funding for ISE in 1981, I applied for citizenship, hoping to get a job with the Department of Education. However, in 1982 I joined the staff of the Washington Informer, an award-winning Black-owned newspaper as News Editor, a position I held for more than 12 years before returning to The Bahamas.
Over the years, I have always enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving, and for several years back in the 1980s, I would drive to Philadelphia to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with boyhood friend, the late Oswald “Big O” Fowler, and his wife Edith. Their daughter Alicia, who is my goddaughter, and I are now Facebook friends.
This Thanksgiving Day has certain challenges for me personally, but I have put those “challenges” in storage for the entire weekend and enjoy it to the fullest.
When I saw the HAPPY THANKSGIVING GREETING FROM THE BAHAMAS that was posted by my Facebook friend Barbara Wilson, I decided to rerun the excellent column written by Felicity Darville to provide n historical context for those Bahamians who question why Bahamians celebrate Thanksgiving with as much exuberance as Americans do. Here is Felicity Darville’s column in its entirety:
FACE TO FACE: BAHAMIANS WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE VALUABLE CONTRIBUTONS TO THE U.S. – IF GIVEN THE CHANCE
By FELICITY DARVILLE
THERE was a time when tens of thousands of Bahamians migrated to the United States of America. It was 1943, and World War II was still raging. Many Americans were drafted to serve in the armed forces. Others left the farms to work in more profitable war industries. This resulted in a shortage of labour in every sector of the economy, including agriculture. Food security was vital to win the war, and so there was an urgent need for people to work on farms throughout the United States.
The British West Indies Labour Program allowed an estimated 30,000 Bahamian men and women to temporarily migrate to the United States between 1943 and 1965. For 23 years, The Bahamas and the US had a mutually beneficial arrangement. Bahamians were paid; a portion of their earnings was placed in savings and a portion went home to loved ones. They started out picking oranges in Florida, but eventually the programme grew to include picking beans in Maryland, working on farms in New Jersey or working in packing and processing plants in New York, and so on.
Most Bahamians returned home and were able to start businesses from their savings and be in a better financial position. Others came home to a myriad of family issues which resulted because of their absence. Some Bahamians were regularised and stayed in the US, becoming upstanding members of society. All in all, “the Contract” or “the Project” resulted in Bahamians making a positive impact in all of the states where they were sent to work. Even today, you can find Bahamians who are contributing greatly to the communities in which they live throughout the United States. Tracy L Thompson, oral historian, documents much of this and points out that great nation builders came home from the contract, like Sir Clifford Darling and Amos Ferguson. See the full Tribune column by Felicity Ingraham at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2019/sep/19/face-face/
