Internet Group Urging Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity.

By Alexandrio Morley
BlackFood.org News Reporter

THE earthquake that killed thousands and destroyed Port-Au-Prince on January 12th has aroused compassions and sparked debate and action around a taboo issue in The Bahamas; solidarity/unity between Haitians and Bahamians.

Normally any discussion about Haitians and Bahamians is cloaked in an “us” against “them” paradigm. It is commonly suggested, by learned men and women and brain-washed citizens that Africans born in Haiti are in many ways “taking” rights, land, and jobs from Africans born in The Bahamas. This system intentionally fails to nourish any positive talk about solidarity/unity between these two groups.

But, there are signs or glimmers of hope that things may be changing. People are on the move.

Shortly after the earthquake the Lambi Coalition of The Bahamas was formed. The coalition is a group of activists and community organizers who aim to be a part of an African-led response to the tragedy in Haiti. On March 4th Lambi held a Haitian/Bahamian Solidarity forum at the Orion Academy on East Street. The theme of the forum was “What does Haitian /Bahamian Solidarity Mean to you?” The forum was well attended and the presentations by Erin Green, Monique Joseph, Mark Desmangles, Ean Maura, and Noelle Nicolls were well received.

Around the same time that Lambi was being formulated a group of Bahamian “webizens” embarked on a vision to build and sustain solidarity and exchange among Haitians and Bahamians.

The members of “Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity” include Bahamian activists/artists and writers/academics living and working at home and abroad.

The members, who started a group on Facebook, hope to mobilize in support of a realistic and sensible immigration policy with respect to Haitians in The Bahamas and their children.

According to the group’s literature, Haitian- Bahamian Solidarity recognizes the fact that right now the immediate focus is on emergency and immediate relief to Haiti, but the group is also concerned about Haitians who are living in The Bahamas in fear of deportations and the numbers who may be seeking refuge in The Bahamas.

As a plan of action, “Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity” is leading a letter writing campaign addressed to the government of The Bahamas asking for temporary status to Haitian migrants living in The Bahamas and a period of time for immunity for Haitian refugees seeking asylum here.

Activist/artist Erin Green told BlackFood.org that the tragedy in Haiti left her feeling a sense of frustration coupled with a sense of renewed urgency in terms of the work that she was doing in the human rights community.

Greene said she was concerned that as time passed the focus on Haiti, by the global community, would wane. However, she believes initially the focus was wrong.

“Too many persons were concerned about immediate help and not enough people are focused on the sustainable aid that relief effort requires,” she said.

Speaking about the reason behind the letter writing campaign, Green explained: “We wanted Bahamians to tell their government what to do instead of waiting for them to make the decision then criticizing it.”

Writer/ Academic Lynn Sweeting, another member of the internet solidarity group, told BlackFood.org that she was shocked and horrified to see what was going on in Haiti after the quake.

She believes the letter writing campaign has great potential and that the government should pay attention to letters coming in by the thousands asking for immigration reform.

Sweeting told us this: “I worried about the militarization of aid, I fretted over the way the mainstream American press and other organizations kept harping on security problems when as far as I could see the people were handling the disaster with grace and courage, I was ashamed to hear that there had been so much vehement opposition locally to concessions given to Haitian illegal immigrants by the Bahamian government after the quake. I wanted to see my members of parliament at the airport loading boxes onto planes. I wanted to hear the voices of the humanitarians of our country calling for compassion for Haitians who are in the Bahamas illegally at this time. I wanted to be one of those voices.”

Group member Angelique Nixon said that watching the slow relief efforts and the militarization of aid in Haiti made her furious. She felt incredibly helpless, but she also knew that she had to do something, so she decided to use her writing skills to speak out.

She stated that the idea behind the group was to create an online presence and space to share information, and “create awareness about the historical and cultural connections among Haitians and Bahamians, and challenge the public discourse about Haiti and Haitians in the Bahamas.”

Nixon then contacted friends and comrades in the struggle – fellow writers and activists – who she knew were concerned about Haiti and were concerned about deportation/ repatriation. They started the group – Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity – first on Facebook and then created a website: bahatiansolidarity.wordpress.com/.

The letter that the solidarity group has drafted for members of the wider public to forward individually to the Prime Minister and the Minister of the State for Immigration asks the government to:

• grant all Haitian migrants living in The Bahamas temporary status;
• grant a period of time of immunity for Haitian refugees seeking asylum in The Bahamas while Haiti rebuilds Port-au-Prince;
• address the Haitian-Bahamian community directly with a strong and compassionate statement of government support;
• Encourage the development of a long-term relationship of exchange with Haiti.

Nixon believes that: “We are brothers and sisters. We are deeply connected. Extend your sense of compassion and humanity to all peoples – and really see the person in front of you. More things connect us than those that separate us.”

Helen Klonaris, a Bahamian writer/academic working in San Francisco, was invited to join the group by Green and Nixon. During the aftermath of the earthquake she realized how much she didn’t know about Haiti, how much she needed to educate herself as a Caribbean person; and she realized how interconnected we are, not only by virtue of our physical proximity, but our histories as “ survivors of colonization.”

She believes we all need more information and that we need to rethink our current definition of what it means to be Bahamian, because, in her words, it is “one that does not empower us to see ourselves as connected to the rest of the Caribbean; it is one that does not empower us to think of ourselves in a way that embraces our complexities, and our differences; and it is one that does not empower us to think of ourselves as committed to liberation – if it did, we would be able to recognize the connections we have with a nation like Haiti and we would not balk at the idea of supporting their ongoing struggles for self-determination.”

Klonaris asked these questions. “Why is it that in high schools we were not taught about Haitian history? About the Haitian revolution and its effects on other Caribbean countries as well as other African communities, say in the United States? Why we were not taught about Haiti’s struggles for liberation and how The Bahamas (in 1804) reacted? When did we decide as a country (or who decided for us) that we were separate and apart from the need for liberation? The need for relationship with other Caribbean countries and Africa?”

According to her, this “blindness” does not empower us and it tricks us into thinking we are free.

The Lambi Coalition and Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity have both pledged to continue their efforts and plan future actions.

Stay tuned for the next move!♦bf