On Culture

in ,

Just recently I had the pleasure of teaching a young man who proclaimed that Wendy's is as Bahamian as the Bamboo Shack. The reaction I get when I tell people about him is the same every time: a look of disbelief, a laugh, a scornful comment along the lines of "He mussee ain know who he is."It's obvious to those of us who know better. Our culture is unique! It's conch, it's fish-and-grits, it's Junkanoo and rake 'n' scrape and steam pork chop on a Thursday afternoon when you hungry-hungry, and it's dialect and straw work and beating a goombay drum. It's peas-n-rice, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, fried chicken and Kool-Aid on Sunday. In the words of Ronnie Butler, it's guinea corn hominy, yes indeed, stew shad and johnny cake, guinea corn hominy and lard. You must get some of that. It's Blue Hill Water Dry, and ringplay, and Over-the-Hill, and up south, and Gussiemaes; it's flour bag and George Symonette in wompas, Dr Offff and KB and Showtime in Rawson Square.It sure isn't Wendy's. What! That boy jes ain know who he is.

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On Culture Shock

in ,

Well, the first thing I should say on this topic is that I lived out of the country for eight years.Not that my absence was planned. In 1992, I took advantage of a scholarship that was being offered in honour of the Quincentennial and went to England to pursue graduate studies; in 1995, the scholarship ran out. I moved to Canada to take up a job that would help me finish my dissertation while being fed and kept warm.Then came the millennium. Not wishing to allow a new century to see me living away from home, I applied for a job at the College of The Bahamas, got it, ended my exile, and came home.Returning to the Bahamas was something of a culture shock.Not on the surface: on the face of things, Nassau, at least, was buffed and shining and spiffy. New schools and clinics were everywhere, government buildings looked crisp and clean, Bay Street had reversed itself and was otherwise charming. People's cars were spanking new, and the extensive construction activities and the general beautification of the environment suggested that there was money in the country.And then I began to teach. And this culture -- my culture -- began to shock.

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