Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
INDEPENDENCE 'SOON COME'
The decision to promote tourism coincided with the arrival of the jet age and the Cuban Re-
volution in 1959. During the 1950s, Havana was the mecca for American tourists. When
Fidel Castro spun Cuba into Soviet orbit in 1961, the subsequent US embargo forced revel-
ers to seek their pleasures elsewhere, and Nassau became the new hot spot.
The Bahamas was redefined as a corporate tax haven, aided by statutes modeled on
Switzerland's secrecy laws. Tourism and finance bloomed.
The most famous example of a foreigner's view of the Bahamas is
Out Is-
land Doctor
by Evans Cottman, a Yankee teacher who fell for the
Crooked and Acklin Islands in the 1940s.
The upturn in fortunes coincided with (and perhaps helped spark) the evolution of party
politics and festering ethnic tensions, as the white elite and a growing black middle class
reaped profits from the boom.
Only a small number of black representatives (mostly wealthy black businessmen) sat
in the assembly, which remained dominated by the Bay Street Boys, descendants of the
white Loyalists, and British appointees. Middle-class blacks' aspirations for representation
coalesced with the pent-up frustrations of their brethren who remained impoverished.
Most Historic Hotels
» Graycliff Hotel, Nassau (1740)
» British Colonial Hilton, Nassau (1900)
» New Plymouth Inn, Green Turtle Cay (1830)
» The Landing, Harbour Island (1800)
In 1953 a local firebrand named Lynden Pindling formed the Progressive Liberal Party
(PLP) to seek justice for the nation's black majority at the ballot box. In 1963 the tensions
bubbled up into a violent national strike supported by the PLP. A new constitution, proposed
by Britain, was drawn up with the aim of creating a more representative legislature and
providing for internal self-government. Voting, however, was restricted to male property
owners, a provision overwhelmingly favoring whites. The United Bahamian Party (UBP),
led by white Bahamian Roland Symonette, gained power in a national election by a slender
majority, and Symonette became premier. The close race allowed for white dominance to be
somewhat diluted, but black aspirations had barely been appeased.
Pindling and PLP followers refused to recognize the parliamentary speaker's authority. In
1967 the PLP finally boycotted parliament altogether, but not before winning an elimination
of the property- ownership qualification. A new election was held, and Pindling's PLP came
to power, a position it would maintain for the next 25 years.
