By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 4, 2021 — My condolences to Glenys Hanna-Martin, Member of Parliament for Englerston, and the entire Hanna Family on the death of the Hon. Arthur D. Hanna, who made tremendous contributions to the development of The Bahamas, politically and otherwise.
Mr. Hanna – or A.D., as I often informally referred to him — and I were more than political colleagues during the struggle for majority rule; he was also a close and dear friend. We had some great discussions over the years and his unyielding commitment to a Bahamianization policy solidly cemented our friendship ideologically.
Former Prime Minister Perry G. Christie, under whose administration Mr. Hanna was appointed Governor General, said it best in his condolences tribute when he noted: “Arthur Hanna was the single most influential figure in the conceptualization, articulation, and execution of the policy of Bahamianization with which his name became synonymous. He was a nationalist of unsurpassed conviction and integrity.
“For him there was never any compromising of his principles or political ideology. He was a purist. He was unalterably convinced that The Bahamas was for Bahamians and that together we had to build a new nation ‘with our own hands’, to use the phrase that he himself often used.”
Mr. Christie continued: “This he saw as the fundamental imperative facing us as we emerged from colonialism and its attendant psychological bondage into a new age of national sovereignty with the full flowering of freedom and responsibility for the management of our own destiny. That, for A.D Hanna, was what Bahamianization was all about.”
A I noted in an article announcing his death in my online publication BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, “It is extremely hard to accurately put in perspective Mr. Hanna’s historical contributions to the development of The Bahamas…” Suffice it to say, HE WAS A TRULY GREAT BAHAMIAN.
May his soul rest in peace.
