Twice a week, the Bahamas’ national flag carrier Bahamasair takes off from the Lynden Pindling International Airport for a round trip flight to Havana, Cuba. Onboard the usually full 50-seater airplane is a hodge-podge of Latin American nationals from south of the equator, distinctively American Cuban natives using the Bahamas as a transshipment point and Bahamians, predominantly men.
There is something about Cuba, the island nation known for its politics and culture, that allows Bahamasair to be sustained by this band of merry men and to a lesser extent women.
For the Latin Americans seeking job opportunities, the relationship with their Spanish speaking brothers is no mystery, neither is the relationship with Cuban-Americans, desperate for ways to supply friends and family with imported goods. But what of the Bahamians?
The Bahamas has had long standing relations with Cuba from even before 1974 when diplomatic relations were formally established. Over the years, the two countries have built agreements and accords to deepen respect, understanding and mutual benefit.
But far from being about politics, private Bahamian citizens have gone about formalising personal relationships with the island and its people outside the walls of the negotiating room. Up until recently, most of these relationships were maintained on the down low.
On a recent trip, I met a man who said he had been to Cuba 11 times already for the year. I met another man who said he travels to Cuba at least twice a month. Some of these were business men, but invariably their trips were not just about business. So what is the down low about Cuba — the island’s precious secrets that some Bahamians claim to know?
Bahamians who travelled to Cuba at the beginning of November for the annual international trade show in Havana, will tell you it is all about business. From the size and scope of the trade show, they are to be believed.
A Bahamian business man, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, said he was at the trade show negotiating a deal with a Cuban manufacturer to import a new product to the Bahamas.
In the area of manufacturing, he said Cuba has far lower price points than the US market with equal and sometimes superior quality, whether in agriculture, biotechnology, construction or anything in between.
The site of the trade show could very well constitute a large hotel property in the Bahamas. Companies from all across the world were housed in large country pavilions: China, Korea, Britain, Switzerland, Panama, France, Canada, Chile, Russia and everywhere in between, including the Caribbean.
“What I see here is the world coming to a place that has been closed for a long time. Cuba is perhaps one of the only countries in the world that has been closed for so long that everyone is intrigued by it. The world is drawn to it because they believe there is something here they have missed or they don’t have. And now there is a global development going on in Cuba. Where have you ever seen Europe collide with Western countries and Caribbean countries in one arena?” asked Lindberg Smith, president of Blue Caribbean Shipping.
“We have missed the point, because even America is here. The question then is, where are we, and we are their closest neighbour? That is a question I would like to ask. When do we see what we need to see as a small country with so much potential? This place has so much to teach us about how to enhance life and family,” said Mr Smith, whose shipping company recently started scheduled ocean cargo services between the Bahamas and Cuba.
It is Bahamian entrepreneurs, not consumers, who will need to drive the change for deeper trade relations with Cuba, said one participant in the trade fair. He believes overcoming the obstacle of transshipment will open new doors, as it did with Panama.
When Copa Airlines started direct flights between Panama and the Bahamas several months ago, it capitalized on an existing market as well as it helped to grow the market, said the Bahamian businessman.
From its inception, Copa Airlines has been operating booked flights on a consistent basis. In October, three months ahead of schedule, the airline increased its load capacity for the Panama City to Nassau route. So was it the demand that created the opportunity or was it the opportunity that created the demand? I suppose an economist would have to weigh in on that question.
Either way, Bahamians have the same level of expectation from the opening up of ocean transport between the Bahamas and Cuba. A former stumbling block that even former Ambassador Louis Joseph Ponce said was the major obstacle to increased trade between the two countries.
Even Cuban-Americans in the US profit from doing business on the down low with Cuba. There is a lucrative trade in baggage pounds between the US and Cuba. As one Cuban-American told me, she travels from Miami to Havana ever three months to visit her sick father and uncle. She sells space in her suitcases to other Cuban Americans by the pound. Every trip, she has 60 pounds of luggage at her disposal, not including food items, which she claims are not included in the weight count.
There are even companies in the US that act as cargo brokers for Cuban-Americans seeking ways to send goods to Cuba. These brokerage companies collect items from Cuban-Americans at a collection centre in the US. They then cover the cost of a ticket for a Cuban-American travelling to Cuba.
Each passenger is assigned a certain number of goods to transport on behalf of the brokerage company. In Cuba, the company has representatives at the airport to greet the passengers, collect the goods and distribute them in Cuba. According to some, this occurs, on a much smaller scale in the Bahamas.
Even with its promise of business opportunity, business is certainly not the only thing about Cuba that has captivated Bahamians. Without a doubt, Cuban women have been a source of attraction for Bahamian men.
Perhaps there is no one flavour or style that keeps Bahamian men hooked, but there is certainly a spirit. And there is no better way to see this spirit expressed than through the music and dance of the Cuban people, women and men alike. I am often willing to bet that men from Trinidad and Tobago can out-wine anyone in the world, but Cuban men, I believe warrant my equal attention.
As for the women, visit any Cuban club, day or night, and observe the local women with an open eye – the spirit is unmistakable. It is an unrestrained, expressive, rhythmic, joyous spirit that is socially oriented and completely enthralled with itself; charming enough to captivate the gaze of any man or woman. Add a sexual overtone to that mix and you can begin to understand the allure.
Cuban people, so a Cuban source has advised me, are sexually uninhibited people. They approach sexuality in a manner that is open and raw. Dinner table conversation, for example, could easily consist of sexual details from the intimate life of a house guest.
One Cuban man said it takes about 20 minutes to know whether or not a Cuban woman will have sex with a man who approaches her, because she will make it plainly obvious from the onset whether she is in or out for the long ride. There is no need to court her for weeks and months to gain her trust and admiration before making a sexual advance. If this is indeed true, it would seem convenient for a Bahamian man, escaping life in the Bahamas for a weekend tryst in Cuba.
Favour
Working in the favour of Bahamian men is their reputation amongst the women of being wealthy. This is the case in Cuba, as in many other Caribbean territories. When outside of the Bahamas, Bahamian men have a tendency to flaunt themselves as money men. Even in the case of a man with limited means, the purchasing power of the dollar carries him a long way in countries with devalued currencies.
Given all of the dynamics, it was no surprise to meet on my last trip, a man who lived the life of a married man in the Bahamas and another life in Cuba; or another man whose last trip to Cuba for business failed to carry him in the vicinity of his one year daughter for a Cuban woman from a previous trip.
And what of Cuba’s spirituality? That too is something Bahamians have discovered about the former Spanish colony whose entire population in the 1800s consisted primarily of people of African descent. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian group in Cuba, with 60 per cent of the population belonging to that church. However, an even greater portion of the population upholds traditional African spiritual traditions.
According to 2009 US government statistics, as much as 80 per cent of the population “consults with practitioners of religions with West African roots, such as the form of Santeria derived from ethnic Yorubas (Regla de Ocha) and the form of Santeria with origins in the Congo River basin (Regla de Palo), for assistance with specific immediate problems such as bearing children, curing illness, or ensuring safe passage.”
In its 2009 report on “International Religious Freedom”, the US State Department documented the millions of Cubans who practise with ancestral veneration and mystical communication with spiritual forces in nature.
Interesting to note, in Nigeria – the historical home of many spiritual practices in Cuba – a mere 10 per cent minority of the population still adheres to indigenous practices. In Nigeria, some estimates place the figure as low as 1.4 per cent. On the higher scale, Nigeria’s statistical average equates to about 15 million people, but as a percentage of population, Cuba with its 11 million people, has retained a larger share of its African spiritual heritage.
What this has to do with the Bahamas is that some Bahamians, albeit on the down low, have sought refuge in Cuba for their soul searching desires for traditional African spirituality. And through the process of migration, some Cuban nationals now residing in the Bahamas have brought with them their nature-based spirituality harking back to the ways of ancient Africa.
In Cuba, African spirituality for the most part is an accepted way of life. Ceremonies, unless purposefully secret, are not hidden from the public eye for fear of ridicule or condemnation. In the Bahamas, where there is very little religious freedom to speak of outside the dictates of Christianity, there is no refuge for Bahamians interested in indigenous spirituality. With the level of intolerance that characterizes Bahamian society, there is hardly even any intellectual capacity to discuss the matter of indigenous religions.
So for now, Bahamians who opt to consult with traditional practitioners, or take up the cultural lifestyle themselves, find access to precious secrets in Cuba.
This picture of Cuba painted by Bahamians who keep it on the down low has not even taken into consideration the views of those Bahamians who see Cuba as a vacation paradise, a cultural mecca or a preferred place for medical treatment. And it is a very different picture from the Communist Cuba depicted by the United States of America or the Cuban-Americans who find refuge there.
Fortunately, Bahamians can travel unrestricted to Cuba and go see for themselves. What some may find is that what happens on the down low is truly the beauty of Cuba.
First Published On: Monday, November 21, 2011 in the Tribune newspaper.