Journey North Mystery Class Spring 2004

Introducing Mystery Class #4
Nassau, Bahamas (25.083 N, 77.350 W)

Hi Kids! My name is Eric Carey and I am a biologist/environmentalist working in the Bahamas. Along with the State of Michigan in the United States, we share a very special and endangered songbird called the Kirtland's Warbler.

The Endangered Kirtland's Warbler
Credit: USFWS

The Bahamas: A Brief Introduction
The Bahamas is a nation of islands and cays with powder-white and pink- sand beaches and incredibly clear aqua-blue waters. The Islands lie in a generally northwest-southeast array, along a 750-mile stretch across 100,000 square miles of the southwest Atlantic Ocean. They begin just off the tip of Florida and extend to the edge of the Caribbean near Haiti.

Click on map to enlarge

Geography
Some of the islands are relatively large - Abaco, Andros, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama and Long Island, for example. Many are tiny enough for just two people, with a picnic lunch tucked into their small sailing vessel for an all-day rendezvous away from the world.

Click on image to enlarge

Some, such as Eleuthera and Andros, are quite large, while others are small enough for two people to reach by boat be alone on an uninhabited island in paradise. The Islands of The Bahamas are low-lying. Cat Island's Mount Alvernia, just over 200-feet above sea level, is the highest point in the nation. Sometimes the water is so shallow you can wade from one island to its neighbor. But there are also passes and cuts that range much deeper. Between Andros and the Exumas, the Tongue of the Ocean suddenly plunges down more than five miles.

Click on image to enlarge

Economy
The Economy is mostly tourism based, but there are many international banks and financial institutions.

Climate
The Islands of The Bahamas enjoy the idyllic climate most people associated with tropic seas. The temperatures seldom drop below 60 degrees (F), or rise above 90 degrees (F). Most of the rain comes in brief summer showers. The surrounding sea normally ranges from the low 80's in the summer, to about 74 degrees (F) in midwinter.

People
Though there are many islands, the population is relatively small – just over 300,000. The majority of the people live on New Providence Island, site of Nassau, the capital. The Bahamas was originally home to native Indians called Arawaks. It is believed that the Arawak Indians moved up from the Caribbean into The Bahamas about the turn of the Ninth Century. These were the native people Christopher Columbus first met when he landed here October 12, 1492, when he planted the Spanish flag in the Bahamian soil of one of the islands and named it San Salvador. Columbus sailed on.

The history of today's Bahamas begins with the arrival of the Eleutheran Adventurers who founded a colony on the island of Eleuthera. The present day population comprises people of either African or European decent. They descended from early English colonists - loyalists who fled North America during the American Revolution - and Southerners, who came during and after the American Civil War. The colonists, loyalists and transplanted southerners brought along their African slaves, who worked the early plantations. The slaves were freed with Emancipation in 1834, after which time they became diligent farmers and seamen.

The Bahamas also became a home base for pirates who found the country suitable because of its many islets, cays and complex shoals and channels, all which provided adequate hiding places from which the Buccaneers could dash out to sea, attack a Spanish treasure ship and cargo vessels and return to the hiding places with their loot.

Government
The Bahamas gained its independence from Britain in 1973 and adopted its own Constitution; The Bahamas became part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The British Monarch is our sovereign and appoints the Governor General. In the British tradition, The Bahamas has a two-house Parliament, a ministerial Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister and an independent judiciary.

Language and Culture
Our language is English, generally intertwined with a special Bahamian dialect. Some Indian words have maintained their use. For example: cassava and guava. Many aspects of daily life, including the music, suggest a strong religious background and way of life. Music carries echoes of African rhythms, Caribbean Calypso, English folk songs, and our own Goombay beat. Our national festival is Junkanoo, a kaleidoscope of sound and spectacle (a bit of Mardi Gras, Mummer's Parade and ancient African tribal ritual). Revelers, dressed in colorful costumes of crepe paper, parade through the streets to the sounds of cowbells, goatskin drums, whistles and many other homemade instruments. It is believed that this festival began during the 16th and 17th centuries. The slaves were given a special holiday at Christmas time, when they could leave the plantations to be with their family and celebrate the holidays with African dance, music and costumes. After emancipation, they continued this tradition and, today, Junkanoo has evolved from its simple origins to a formal, more organized parade with sophisticated, intricate costumes, themed music and incentive prizes.