By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 9, 2022 — One of the truly great decisions I made during the four-score years my Lord and Savior has blessed me with on his earth was when I became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982. Having moved to this great country from The Bahamas, the country of my birth, in 1975, I now enjoy the benefits of having dual citizenship in two countries where the principles of democracy are cherished traditions.
Of course, I am as proud to be a Naturalized American as I am to be a Bahamian, whose navel-string is buried in Stanyard Creek, Andros, the largest of the Islands of the Bahamas, that extend like string of pearls from approximately 55 miles off the coast of Florida to just off the eastern coast of Cuba.
So, when my adopted country, the United States, celebrated the 246th anniversary of its attainment of independence from Great Britain on July 4, I celebrated with as much vigor as natural born Americans.
With The Bahamas set to celebrate the attainment of its independence from Great Britain tonight leading into tomorrow, July 10, I am celebrating with mixed emotions.
Having fought for majority rule during the 1960s as a Black Power Advocate, during which I was prepared to put my life on the line to remove the racist UBP as the government of The Bahamas, on July 9, 1973, as I stood among the thousands of Bahamians assembled on Clifford Park, my emotions embraced both happiness and sadness.
I was immensely happy because the country of my birth — where my navel string is buried in Stanyard Creek, Andros, the largest of the islands of The Bahamas – was severing its colonial ties to Great Britain, one of the major traffickers during slavery and was more likely than not responsible for my ancestors being chained with other slaves in the bowels of a slave ship centuries earlier after being captured in West Africa.
Indeed, Great Britain had such a pervasive involvement in the slave trade that it could once boast that the sun never sets on the British Empire.
But on the night of July 9,1973, as the country of my birth was preparing to cut its colonial ties to Great Britain, I was sad because I could not fully enjoy the celebration. Several years earlier there was venomous political split in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP),of which I was a did-hard supporter during the struggle for majority rule, and I was equally as committed member of the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) when the countdown to 12 midnight on July 9, 1973, started and British flag was lowered and the flag of the newly independent nation of The Bahamas was hoisted.
My reaction and feelings on this both joyous and somber occasion are indelibly seared in my mind: I cried uncontrollably for several minutes, as I am doing now while recalling that historic moment.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAHAMAS.
