Andros Island is the “sleeping giant” of The Bahamas

The Islands of the Bahamas - Andros

By Philip C. Galanis

“…Love, peace and unity, all over Andros land, Oh my Andros, she big, she big, she big…”
– Androsian musician, Elon Moxey

 

Bahamians love summer. School is out, the kids are home, beaches are crowded, and our culturally casual pace of life slows to a more sedate saunter, often as much for the heat that exceeds 90 degrees as for the humidity that sometimes exceeds 90 percent. The perennial, though futile, effort to stay cool, especially at night when BEC (the Bahamas Electricity Corporation) fails us, is aided by evening showers that both refresh and reset the temperature to a more bearable level.

Summer also marks the travel period, with many Bahamians travelling to the United States and Canada, although more recently more Bahamians have opted to travel to the Family Islands. Therefore, over the next few weeks, we will devote this column to a series on domestic tourism as we Consider this… what is the lure for Bahamians to explore our Family Islands? This week, we will explore the island of Andros, the largest of the major 26 inhabited Bahamian islands that is often referred to as “the Big Yard”.

Geography

Andros Island has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. It is the sixth largest Caribbean Island after Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Andros is approximately 2,300 square miles in area – roughly 104 miles long and 40 miles wide at its widest point - with a population of approximately 7,400 inhabitants based on the 2010 census. While it is considered a single island, Andros consists of hundreds of small islets and cays connected by mangrove estuaries and tidal swamplands as well as three major islands: North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros.

History

Approximately 40,000 Lucayans, a subgroup of the Taíno people, were here when the Europeans first landed. The Spanish valued the Lucayans’ free-diving skills in fishing for conch, therefore they enslaved the natives and transported them to Cubagua to work as pearl divers. The Lucayans suffered high mortality due to infectious diseases carried by the Spanish, diseases for which the Lucayans had no immunity.

After the Lucayans became extinct, there were no known permanent settlements in The Bahamas — including Andros island — for approximately 130 years. However, during the late 1600s and early 1700s, pirates and buccaneers frequented Andros island. Morgan's Bluff and Morgan's Cave on North Andros are named after the famous privateer-pirate, Henry Morgan.

Loyalists fleeing the United States during and after the American Revolution settled on various Bahama Islands including Andros, bringing their slaves with them and, by 1788, Andros reported 22 white heads of families, with a total of 132 slaves who cultivated the land.

After the United States acquired Florida in 1821, Seminoles and black American slaves escaped and sailed to the west coast of Andros where they established the settlement of Red Bays. Hundreds more of these “Black Seminoles” joined them in 1823, with more arriving in later years. While sometimes called "Black Indians", the descendants of Black Seminoles identified as Bahamians, while acknowledging their connections to the American South.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Greek spongers immigrated to Andros for the rich sponge fishing on the Great Bahama Bank off Andros' west coast. For many years, Andros sponging was The Bahamas' largest industry until the industry was wiped out by the Red Tide algae in the 1930s.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, the Owens Lumber company, a US-owned company, deforested much of the indigenous pineyards that grew on North Andros. As a result of poor planning for sustainable harvests, the island today has overcrowded forests of mainly young trees.

Economy

Tourism is Andros island's largest industry, and the largest private employer. Andros is marketed as the least-explored island in the chain. From Nicholls Town in the north to Little Creek in the south are 35–40 hotels, resorts, guest houses and lodges with a total of approximately 400 rooms.

Small Hope Bay Lodge, near Fresh Creek, the first dive-dedicated resort in the world, was founded by Dick Birch, a Canadian immigrant. It continues to operate, owned and managed by Dick Birch's children.

Andros is known as the bonefish capital of the world because it is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of fishable flats. Other varieties of fishing are available on Andros and there is an abundance of snapper and grouper.

Tourists are primarily scuba divers, attracted to the barrier reef, the third largest in the world, the Tongue of the Ocean, and Andros’ world-famous blue holes. Also vacationing in Andros are bone-fishing anglers, and those looking for relaxation at a destination that, while off the beaten path, has easy air connections.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure in Andros is like many of the islands of The Bahamas. The public utilities are generally of average quality and in urgent need of upgrading. The roads, especially the main highway that connects North Andros to the south with its many cavernous pot-holes, are poorly maintained and extremely difficult to navigate.

Andros has four airports with paved runways: San Andros Airport at Nicholls Town, Andros Town International Airport located at Fresh Creek, the Clarence A. Bain Airport at Mangrove Cay and Congo Town Airport in South Andros.

Andros is connected to Nassau by Sea-Link ferry, which runs daily, and is also accessible by mailboat from Nassau and for inter-island travel with stops at numerous Andros settlements. There is no public transport on Andros Island, but a private shuttle bus service on North Andros connects Nicholls Town with Behring Point. Taxi and rental car service are available at all four airports.

Recent developments

The Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) is the most recent development on North Andros.

BAMSI is expected to establish and operate a state-of-the-art comprehensive commercial teaching farm, which will include crop and livestock enterprises, production of fresh fruits, condiments, fish, meat and value-added processed items, primarily for the domestic Bahamian market.

The Institute intends to demonstrate that the production of farm and fish products is financially and commercially self-sustainable, and once BAMSI is fully operational, it should significantly reduce the nation’s billion-dollar food import bill.

Future prospects

Given Andros’ proximity to Nassau (only 30 miles away), its gargantuan land mass, its abundant fresh water supply, its multifaceted natural resources and inviting landscape, although there is an urgent need to upgrade the airports, docks and roads, the island’s future prospects are enormously positive.

However, unless the prohibitive cost of travelling to Andros, as well as the other Family Islands, is creatively and comprehensively addressed, the average Bahamian will consider vacationing in the United States before his own country because the airfares are the same and, in some instances, less expensive.

Additionally, the cost of accommodations and transportation once on the island are very high, given the amenities offered. When a family travels to a Family Island now, since the family members who used to live there and offer housing are for the most part no longer there, they must consider lodging cost as well as the cost of other activities. A vacationing Bahamian family needs to be able to find things to do, tours to take and other ways to spend their time.

We have seen the wonderful Androsian events like Crab Fest, homecomings and regattas which draw large crowds. The same wonderfully creative Family Islanders responsible for those activities should also turn their attention to more regular events aimed at tourists, domestic and foreign.

We should approach the challenge of Family Island tourism fully cognizant that the Family Islands are in direct competition for the vacationing dollar with North America, where not only do many Bahamian travelers feel that they can get more bang for their buck, but where there is a plethora of activities for young and old alike.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly Andros is the “sleeping giant” of The Bahamas. Once it is seriously encouraged to stir from its slumber, through public/private partnerships, Andros will become a more significant contributor to the nation’s GDP, growth and development.

• Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

August 11, 2014

thenassauguardian

Randol Fawkes' Appeal to The United Nations for Independence of The Bahama Islands

RANDOL FAWKES’ APPEAL TO THE UNITED NATIONS ON BAHAMAS NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE

MR CHAIRMAN,

 

DISTINGUISHED REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COMMITTEE ON COLONIALISM

I am here today to secure the encouragement and the concrete assistance of the United Nations in the efforts of the people of the Bahama Islands to prepare themselves for independence.

In this we seek your expert advice and technical assistance in the promotion of the political, economic, and social advancement of The Bahamas that would make a transition from colonialism to freedom less painful than it otherwise would be.

It is our conviction that eternal colonialism in the Bahamas prevents the development of international and economic cooperation, impedes the social, economic and cultural development, and violates the spirit and letter of the Charter of the United Nations.  We therefore hope that the United Nations will recognize the indisputable right of The Bahamas to complete freedom and will help us to achieve and exercise our sovereignty and the intergrity of our national territory.  In faith believing, I relate the following:

On September 1966, your petitioner requested a select committee to take into consideration the advisability of inviting the government of the United Kingdom to convene a constitutional conference with a view to establishing the independence of the Bahama Islands.

Before the speaker could reach the item on the agenda calling for the appointment of select committees, The Premier, Sir Roland Symonette read the following prepared communication:  “I wish to make the following communication to the House in view of the public interest that has been aroused on the question of a constitutional conference on independence.  This is a statement that I would have given to the House on Thursday the 25^th August if the motion on the agenda for the appointment of a select committee on the subject had been proceeded with on that day:

As a result of the 1963 Constitutional Conference, the Bahamian Islands now enjoy a constitution which gives the people, through their representatives, virtually full control of their internal governmental affairs.

It has been suggested that because some other countries - perhaps less able to accept full autonomy – have become or are becoming independent, The Bahamas should do the same.  The government regards this attitude as misconceived.  Independence could be requested, and would no doubt be granted, and this government would be glad to manage the external affairs of the country but the facts must be looked squarely in the face.

Complete independence would impose on our country the financial burden of responsibility for security, defence and external affairs.  This burden is at present largely borne by Her Majesty’s government, at small cost within the framework of Britain’s defense and diplomatic commitments, but it would be extremely expensive, both in money and in manpower for The Bahamas government to take on the task of establishing embassies and high commissions abroad, and of raising and the equipping its own armed forces.  Considerable government funds would have to be diverted for these purposes which, in the view of this government, would be much better spent on the progress and development of the Bahama Islands for the good of all the inhabitants.  For these reasons the government cannot support proposals for a constitutional conference at the present time.”

In due course, the motion was put but was lost by a vote of thirteen to seven.   Both Progressive Liberal Bahamian Party and the National Democratic Party supported the motion, but the United Bahamian Party not only denied the courtesy of a select committee, but no member of the party participated in the debate.

Now if we were to examine the statement of the Premier, we will find that his argument against independence is facetious.  The premier stated that The Bahamas could not take on the expense of establishing embassies and high commissions abroad, but Gentlemen The Bahamas government is now maintaining very highly paid administrative offices in major cities of the world.  Some of them in London, Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, St. Louis, Washington, and even in Bonn, Germany.

In many of these offices, Bahamian personal is either nil or negligible.  So the excuse that we cannot maintain an embassy is tenuous indeed.

According to the United Kingdom, we are not Africans, yet “Bahamians” is not a legal term under the constitution, and no one can say with any degree of truth that we are British.  As a people we are without history, without culture, and without a national identity.  We study British history, British culture, and even British weather, but about ourselves, we have no past – and in colonialism, no future.

Because of the colonial status, the value of the Bahamian dollar is questionable.  Should the British pound be devalued, it would have serious consequences on the economy of The Bahamas.

Because of our colonial status, Bahamians pay a penalty in the form of high custom duty for trading with countries other than the British Commonwealth.  Our economy is tied to the Western Hemisphere.  Indeed everything we eat and wear comes from the Caribbean, North or South America.

It has been suggested that The Bahamas has a democratic constitution based on municipal suffrage – one man, one vote.  Because members in the House of Assembly are not paid, only the rich are financially able to represent their districts – hence membership in the present assembly is composed mainly of the merchants and professional class, but the labouring class has only very limited representation.  In the past 200 years, only on two or three occasions have the Out Islands been able to have representation by a person who resides in the Out Islands.

This situation is aggravated by the fact that there is no local government of the Out Islands.  These areas are governed only by an appointed commissioner, but there are other elected bodies to assist in the administration.  Without more education and greater participation in government, the people will not be prepared to master the responsibilities of independence.

We therefore, request that the United Nations take swift action to influence Britain to set a time-table for the eventual independence of the Bahamas and; in the meantime a commission of United Nations experts should be appointed to make a survey of the political, economic and social conditions of The Bahamas with a view to introducing adequate measures that would prepare the Bahamian people to master their own responsibilities.

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