Just Before Entering ...
We must give it to the Hebrew people … their oral and written testimonies of God’s favor, faithfulness and redemptive power gave birth to the three major world religions, and thousands of years later, continue to influence political, theological and social realities, the world over. Even here, in The Bahamas where so many Bahamians flock to give their praise, time and money to our various churches, it is their reflection of God as the God of Moses and Abraham and the major and minor prophets in the history of the Jews, which inspires this devotion. But it must be noted, and theological emphasis must be given to this most important fact: God is also the God of Bahamians; God is the relevant and very present God of a right now Bahamas, a God whose favor, faithfulness and redemptive power has also brought us safe thus far. However, unlike the Hebrew people, we have failed miserably in our written and oral accounts of God’s glory, weakening our significance in the world, and threatening the true nature of the power of who we really are, CHOSEN.
January 10, 2007 will mark the 40th Anniversary of one of those significant, historical manifestations of our relationship to and with our God. The 10th day of the first month as it was for Moses and the people of Israel so it is for Bahamians. In 1967, this day heralded a new reality not, as it is so emphasized for Black Bahamians only, but for all Bahamians, as that much needed segment of Bahamian society, the average, the ordinary, the majority gained full rights to participation in Nation building, thus making Bahamian society in general, resemble more closely true humanity, true civility. We had on that day been liberated not from evil white men, NO! We had been liberated from the crippling effects of a twisted consciousness possessed by some and accepted by the rest, that somehow privilege (back then, money and power) vested in the few, gave inherent license to deny the less privileged fundamental freedoms and opportunities. We were to go from a reality where few owned and few ruled to a reality that guaranteed that all would own and all would rule by virtue of the fact that by citizenship, all belonged.
Perhaps because initial commentary made this milestone about the dynamics of race only, and not the dynamics of power, somewhere in this paradigm shift, we got lost. Black leaders through the very tool which brought about victory, partisan politics, got lost fighting to wield illusive political power. White leaders and not so white leaders just got lost (went underground), while holding on to economic power; and by not adequately regenerating the true essence of the cause of the movement, Bahamians as a people have found ourselves, some better off than others of course, lost, wandering aimlessly without a concrete collective consciousness and mission as to who we are, where we are, from whence we have come, and where we need urgently to go.
Well, progress is now upon us, all of us, with a fury more intense than that of the three hurricanes combined, which ravaged Grand Bahama not long ago. This Country, by its geographical positioning and make-up can no longer contain its investment potential and has become the envy and interest of the rich around the World. While they are coming in droves and buying and developing our birthright and subsequently owning more and more of our economy, we as a people are busy gearing up to massacre one another politically, and busy perpetuating the various destructive life philosophies born out of our divisive past, which focus on selfish gain over fraternal collective love. Our chance to fully own this Country, of going from care-takers to becoming real stake-holders, that opportunity of the ordinary majority becoming full participants, as was the promise is dwindling before our eyes. But all is not lost, the time of possession is now or never.
Forty years after wandering in their wilderness, a handful of Israelites and/or supporters of the movement, risked everything to catch a glimpse of their own promise that had drawn their fore-parents out of bondage. Upon returning to their leader, most concluded that the struggle to become and possess what God had promised was an impossibility. Focused on their limitations, and focused on the gigantic hurdles standing in the way of destiny, fearful because of the absence of a clear cut plan to victory and constrained by a divided people who had lost sight of the vision long ago, the then advisors tried to convince the appointed leader to settle for present reality … Needless to say with the right leadership, records reflect that in spite of their challenges, the Israelites eventually crossed over and embraced their promise, and their story convicts us today even as it did generations immediately following.
Just before entering a significant historical era of a Nation, leadership, influenced by those who would venture even where the brave dare not go, and convicted by a God who if one is obedient, always keeps His promise, remains focused. Leadership must decide even in the face of nay-sayers and the threat of peril, to at last, bring about that culminating great thrust toward the promise, (for Bahamians, a paradigm shift of heart and mind). And just before entering, real leadership points the way ahead, and inspires a people to follow. In this our 40th Anniversary of liberation and wandering, might I, the one unafraid of the future and the giants, remind our leaders along with my sisters and brothers on this journey that the way is still FORWARD, it is still UPWARD, it is still ONWARD, and the means by which we attain it is still by doing it TOGETHER! Majority however, must not just rule, it must be prepared to serve.
Faith Hall, LL.B (Hons).
Author
We must give it to the Hebrew people … their oral and written testimonies of God’s favor, faithfulness and redemptive power gave birth to the three major world religions, and thousands of years later, continue to influence political, theological and social realities, the world over. Even here, in The Bahamas where so many Bahamians flock to give their praise, time and money to our various churches, it is their reflection of God as the God of Moses and Abraham and the major and minor prophets in the history of the Jews, which inspires this devotion. But it must be noted, and theological emphasis must be given to this most important fact: God is also the God of Bahamians; God is the relevant and very present God of a right now Bahamas, a God whose favor, faithfulness and redemptive power has also brought us safe thus far. However, unlike the Hebrew people, we have failed miserably in our written and oral accounts of God’s glory, weakening our significance in the world, and threatening the true nature of the power of who we really are, CHOSEN.
January 10, 2007 will mark the 40th Anniversary of one of those significant, historical manifestations of our relationship to and with our God. The 10th day of the first month as it was for Moses and the people of Israel so it is for Bahamians. In 1967, this day heralded a new reality not, as it is so emphasized for Black Bahamians only, but for all Bahamians, as that much needed segment of Bahamian society, the average, the ordinary, the majority gained full rights to participation in Nation building, thus making Bahamian society in general, resemble more closely true humanity, true civility. We had on that day been liberated not from evil white men, NO! We had been liberated from the crippling effects of a twisted consciousness possessed by some and accepted by the rest, that somehow privilege (back then, money and power) vested in the few, gave inherent license to deny the less privileged fundamental freedoms and opportunities. We were to go from a reality where few owned and few ruled to a reality that guaranteed that all would own and all would rule by virtue of the fact that by citizenship, all belonged.
Perhaps because initial commentary made this milestone about the dynamics of race only, and not the dynamics of power, somewhere in this paradigm shift, we got lost. Black leaders through the very tool which brought about victory, partisan politics, got lost fighting to wield illusive political power. White leaders and not so white leaders just got lost (went underground), while holding on to economic power; and by not adequately regenerating the true essence of the cause of the movement, Bahamians as a people have found ourselves, some better off than others of course, lost, wandering aimlessly without a concrete collective consciousness and mission as to who we are, where we are, from whence we have come, and where we need urgently to go.
Well, progress is now upon us, all of us, with a fury more intense than that of the three hurricanes combined, which ravaged Grand Bahama not long ago. This Country, by its geographical positioning and make-up can no longer contain its investment potential and has become the envy and interest of the rich around the World. While they are coming in droves and buying and developing our birthright and subsequently owning more and more of our economy, we as a people are busy gearing up to massacre one another politically, and busy perpetuating the various destructive life philosophies born out of our divisive past, which focus on selfish gain over fraternal collective love. Our chance to fully own this Country, of going from care-takers to becoming real stake-holders, that opportunity of the ordinary majority becoming full participants, as was the promise is dwindling before our eyes. But all is not lost, the time of possession is now or never.
Forty years after wandering in their wilderness, a handful of Israelites and/or supporters of the movement, risked everything to catch a glimpse of their own promise that had drawn their fore-parents out of bondage. Upon returning to their leader, most concluded that the struggle to become and possess what God had promised was an impossibility. Focused on their limitations, and focused on the gigantic hurdles standing in the way of destiny, fearful because of the absence of a clear cut plan to victory and constrained by a divided people who had lost sight of the vision long ago, the then advisors tried to convince the appointed leader to settle for present reality … Needless to say with the right leadership, records reflect that in spite of their challenges, the Israelites eventually crossed over and embraced their promise, and their story convicts us today even as it did generations immediately following.
Just before entering a significant historical era of a Nation, leadership, influenced by those who would venture even where the brave dare not go, and convicted by a God who if one is obedient, always keeps His promise, remains focused. Leadership must decide even in the face of nay-sayers and the threat of peril, to at last, bring about that culminating great thrust toward the promise, (for Bahamians, a paradigm shift of heart and mind). And just before entering, real leadership points the way ahead, and inspires a people to follow. In this our 40th Anniversary of liberation and wandering, might I, the one unafraid of the future and the giants, remind our leaders along with my sisters and brothers on this journey that the way is still FORWARD, it is still UPWARD, it is still ONWARD, and the means by which we attain it is still by doing it TOGETHER! Majority however, must not just rule, it must be prepared to serve.
Faith Hall, LL.B (Hons).
Author
