Bahamas at 40

This post pays tribute to our neighbours and friends in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, a longstanding ally and a third oldest existing Commonwealth realm in the Caribbean (after Jamaica and Barbados), Bahamas celebrates their 40^th anniversary of Independence this week to commemorate that glorious day on July 10, 1973 when they were able to finally stand shoulder to shoulder with the other self-governing nations in the world as an equal. The tale of Bahamian independence is a fascinating one, culminating in that moment when the Prince of Wales arrived in Nassau to hand of The Constitution to the leaders of the new nation and declare that the Bahamas is now a sovereign state by decree of Her Majesty the Queen.

                  

Among those who were responsible for this great occasion included Sir Lynden Pindling, the first Prime Minister, Sir Milo Butler, the First Governor-General, other distinguished leaders  the likes of Sir Roland Symonette,   Sir Clement Maynard, Mr. Paul Adderly , Sir Kendal Isaacs, Mr. Norman Solomon, Sir Orville Turnquest and Sir Arthur Hanna, both of whom are former Governors-General and of course the present Governor-General Sir Arthur Foulkes also counts himself among the list of founding fathers who framed the constitution of 1973.

                 

The Independence Story of the Bahamas is very much similar with independence stories in other Caribbean territories, beginning with the formation of political parties and trade union movements in the struggle of universal suffrage and right to self government and ending in the lowering of the union Jack and the raising of a new national flag, like so many other former colonies of the British Empire the new nation choose to gain it’s independence through a peaceful evolution rather than via violence and even elected to stay in the Commonwealth and remain loyal to the Crown by having the Queen as their head of state.

            

The wheels of the Independence movement really began turning in 1964 when after the collapse of the West Indies Federation and the growing phenomenon of decolonization began spreading across the British Empire like wildfire,the Bahamian elected to have full internal self government with Sir Roland as their first premier, he was later replaced with Sir Lynden Pindling who actually completed the process to have Bahamas become fully independent thus becoming the first Prime Minister .