THERE is no better group of women in our society to highlight the racial and class divide in the Bahamas than straw vendors in the downtown straw market. Every time there is a flare up over the straw market, I observe with great interest the way in which people express their views about vendors. The typical debate reveals an undercurrent of classism and race consciousness …
In 1492: Who discovered whom?
October 12 is upon us once again and naturally the country is geared up for its national day off. In whose name have we been granted the honour of rest: none other than the honourable international terrorist Christopher Columbus. Unfortunately I cannot rest or tire from speaking out about our national commemoration of Discovery Day because to this day, the …
In Defence of Culture
MORE than ten years ago I took a Latin-American comparative film class at the University of the West Indies, Mona and my professor shared a perspective on culture that sticks with me to this day. He asked the class one simple question. Who is an American? Naturally, the class bellowed out the only seemingly intelligent answer: Someone who is a …
What a morning
Dear Steele, It was around this time two years ago, on a Friday. I sat at the dinner table by Aunt Ruth in a sober mood. Breakfast was being served. You had slipped virtually out of consciousness that week and not even the pleasure of your beet juice could you feel. The day before was onerous. Those eyes, your eyes, …
Books: no subsitute for teachers.
Seminars: no substitute for the communal pot. The call of the ancestors has awakened African people across the globe, but for many of us, the only or most accessible means of quenching our thirst for knowledge-of-our-way is books, workshops and websites. I don’t mean to dismiss the teachers who use those methods of healing and transmitting knowledge, but we must …