New Providence and History

The Bahamas is a relatively young country, gaining its independence in 1973. Its length of independence is not an indication of its history. The approximately 700 islands that make up the archipelago known as the Bahamas has a diverse and unique history that is obscure in the dichotomy of colonial versus independent state. Because approximately seventy-five percent of the six million tourists who visit the Bahamas annually do so via cruise ships, many of the most historic sites are not visited by international tourists. Most tourists who visit the Bahamas do so on the island of New Providence, which contains the capital city Nassau.

The Island Caves

The Island Caves on West Bay Road were thought to have once been inhabited by Lucayan Indians prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Although the encounter between Columbus and the Indians was peaceful, subsequent meetings be the Lucayans and Europeans would not go as well. Spanish explorers sought to enslave the Lucayans and by the 1520s all had disappeared from New Providence. Today the cave is the refuge for the Buffy Flower Bat, more commonly know as fruit bats. 

Although not well known today, there is evidence of the importance of the site as a tourist destination in the past. A sign painted onto the rock at the entrance to the caves notes that Prince Alfred visited the caves in December 1861. It is reminiscent of the Victorian era tourism in New Zealand in places such as Rotorua.

The disappearance of the Lucayans, occurring well before Britain took control of the territory, virtually erased the Native American population from the history books. Renderings of the people and suppositions into their lives and beliefs dot an exhibition at the Bahamas Historical Society Museum in downtown Nassau. Yet a full understanding of the people, and sites to commemorate the culture, are elusive.

The IODE Display at the Bahamas Historical Society Museum

On the other hand, it is easy to see vestiges of the Bahamas’ colonial history around New Providence. In neighborhoods such as Fox Hill, an area settled by freed slaves in the early nineteenth century, it is common to find streets with names such as Churchill and Dunkirk. The Historical Society Museum has an excellent display of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) Bahamas, an organization that existed between 1901 and 2005 and celebrated the colonial links between the Bahamas and Great Britain. As I wandered through the exhibits in the museum I was struck by a large photograph prominently displayed on the far wall. The photograph is of twenty-seven primarily elderly white women at the “Farewell Meeting” of the IODE in 2005. More than thirty years after independence, the Bahamas was losing another link to its colonial history.    

The remnants of slave quarters at Clifton Heritage Site

A far more impressive destination is the Clifton National Heritage Site where an old eighteenth century house and slave villages have been saved from development on the southwest shore of New Providence. The historical site offers a tantalizing glimpse into a shrouded history that many would conveniently ignore. New Providence is where many of the British loyalists fled during the American Revolutionary War bringing slaves and English traditions. A little more than a generation later, many would migrate back to the American south as the British Empire took steps to end the institution of slavery. Some residents of New Providence began establishing homes in places like Florida and Georgia in order to protect their investment in the ownership of human beings and maintain the “peculiar institution” for another two generations.  

Clifton offers a unique insight into this forgotten time period and challenges many of our historical assumptions. Americans are often left with the impression that everyone in the colonies were in favor of the revolution. Many Bahamians known little of their own history prior to independence in 1973. The park, along with its natural and marine history, is a tonic to gaps in our collective knowledge.

Yet for the average tourist coming to New Providence, it is unlikely that he/she will see or know anything about this. The big cruise ships dock near the downtown section of Nassau and tourist will exit the boat right into trinkets and sanitized history. Most people do not venture more than two or three blocks from the cruise ship and if they do, most likely, their destination is a beach. Cruise ship tourism tends to reinforce our most basic understandings of how the world works and does not allow for reflective and thoughtful investigation.