By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 10, 2023 – Earlier this year, I fully intended to visit Nassau for the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations, but I had to cancel my plans to do so because of a serious mobility problem as a result of repercussions from two hip-replacement operations (2012 and 2013) that got progressively worse over the past several months. However, thanks to ZNS, I was able to watch the spectacular celebratory events on Clifford Park Sunday night on Facebook.
I have some bittersweet memories of Monday night, July 9, 1973, when the British Union Jack was lowered for the last time just before midnight and the black, aquamarine and gold flag of The Bahamas was raised, officially designating The Bahamas as an independent nation.
I was among the crowd at Clifford Park when this historical event unfolded, but had the political landscape in the country changed so drastically after a split developed in the Progressive Liberal Party three years earlier, undoubtedly my involvement in the celebrations would have officially been more noteworthy.
Having been actively involved in the struggle for majority rule during the 1960s, I had a close political relationship with the late Sir Lynden Pindling, the leader of the PLP and the first Prime Minister of The Bahamas
Indeed, as an employee of Bahamian Times, the PLP’s newspaper, I made significant journalistic contributions to the PLP’s historic victory in the January 10, 1967 general elections, which established the first Black majority rule government in The Bahamas, and Sir Lynden arranged for me to go to London for one-year advanced training in journalism on the staff of the London Evening Standard, ostensibly to become editor of The Bahamian Times when I returned to The Bahamas.
But during my stay in London, a major political rift developed within the PLP, eventually resulting in eight elected members of the PLP, who became known as the DISSIDENT EIGHT, moving a vote of no confidence motion in the leadership of Sir Lynden the House of Assembly in 1970.
Members of the DISSIDENT EIGHT were Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, Arthur A. Foulkes, Warren Levarity, Jimmy Shepherd, Maurice Moore, Dr. Curtis McMillan, Dr. Elwood Donaldson and George Thompson. They subsequently left the PLP and joined forces with moderate members of disbanded former United Bahamian Party (UBP) and formed the Free National Movement in late 1971 after a series of meetings held at the Fox Hill estate of the late Jimmy Shepherd, which became the FNM’s headquarters.
Having been a member of the PLP from 1960 during the struggle for Majority Rule, it was a foregone conclusion that I would also leave the party along with the Dissident Eight after my journalistic mentor Arthur A. Foulkes decided to become a member of the Dissident Eight.
I have told the story on numerous occasions about how I met Arthur A. Foulkes for the first time when I joined the staff of The Tribune in May of 1960 and he was the newspaper’s News Editor. Mr. Foulkes took a special interest in my development as a journalist from day one, and along with the late Sir Etienne Dupuch, the then Publisher and Editor of The Tribune, they established a solid foundation for whatever journalistic skills I possess today.
Beyond my professional development, Arthur A. Foulkes also gave me some very beneficial and sage advice during my involvement in the Black Power Movement in the 1960s that in retrospect I am convinced prevented me from making some life-changing mistakes that could have quite possibly resulted in me having a prison record as part of my personal-life resume.
So, when I returned from London in November of 1969 and Foulkes had just been fired by Sir Lynden a couple months earlier as Minister of Tourism, although Sir Lynden had arranged for me to go to London, there was no question as to whom I would be “loyal”.
I was appointed Editor of Bahamian Times, but my tenure in that position was not very long after I was fired by Sir Lynden for writing an editorial supporting the Dissident Eight. Subsequently, when the FNM was established, I became the founding editor of The Torch of Freedom, the FNM’s newspaper.
For a confluence of reasons, including overt political victimization, in 1975 I relocated to Washington, D.C., and became a citizen of the United States in 1982, later joining the staff of The Washington Informer, an award-winning Black-owned newspaper here in D.C. However, I returned to The Bahamas “permanently” in 1996.
After tenures as editor of both The Freeport News and The Nassau Guardian, at different times, I returned to D.C. in a diplomatic capacity in 2012 as Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at the Embassy of The Bahamas in Washington, D.C., a position I held for four-plus years before the change of government after the FNM won the May 10, 2017, general election and my diplomatic status was subsequently rescinded.
I have taken this mental stroll down memory lane because as I watched Sunday night’s 50th independence anniversary celebrations at Clifford Park, I was consumed by national pride, in much the same way I was on Monday night, July 9, 1973, when the British Union Jack was lowered for the last time. I could not help but wonder how different the 50 years since then would have been for the country as a whole if there had not been a split in the PLP in the early 1970s.
Regrettably, the newly established FNM, led by Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, was opposed to The Bahamas becoming an independent country in 1973, a decision that I never understood. However, I concluded that the vast majority of the DISSIDENT EIGHT were indeed in full support of the country cutting its navel-string from Mother England and the anti-independence movement in the party was influenced by the former members of the UBP who were members of the FNM.
However, for me personally, it was one of the proudest moments of my life. As editor of Torch of Freedom, I attended a function at Government House as a member of the Press Corps and got the opportunity to meet the Prince of Wales, who represented his mother Queen Elizabeth II. As an avowed supporter of the British Monarchy, this was indeed a proud occasion for me.
HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY BAHAMAS!
KING CHARLES III CONGRATULATES THE BAHAMAS: King Charles III warmly reflects on his family’s visits to our country and congratulates The Bahamas on 50 years of Independence.
https://www.facebook.com/opmbs/videos/1639675896554975
