Ottawa, Ontario: Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Reprint of the author's 2010 M.A. thesis (Carleton University, 2010), 252 p., 3 microfiches + 1 CD-ROM., In 1970s Bahamas, a radio serial cum soap opera called The Fergusons of Farm Road that ran for almost 190 episodes over a five year period became a cultural phenomenon. Ironically, it was originally a part of a courtesy campaign designed to teach Bahamians the importance of being friendly to tourists. This thesis is the first significant study of the Fergusons , basing its insights on original episode scripts, interviews and recently discovered archival audio recordings. It situates the show within the historical and cultural context of the ongoing Bahamian tourism courtesy campaigns to better understand how it transcended the limitations of its pedagogical role into the realm of abiding popular culture.
The islanders express a rather clear distinction between diseases which are best handled by modern “Western” medicines, those more treatable by traditional medical practices, and cases where both approaches are applicable. Communication across the different medical spheres has been facilitated by the influence of radio and T.V. and the ‘recent proliferation of “Western” patent and prescription medications. The acculturative effects of radio and T.V. are well illustrated by La Flamme’s study of another Bahamian “out-island”. (Source: Robert A. Halberstein and John E. Davies, "Changing patterns of health and health care on a small Bahamian island," Social Science & Medicine. Part B: Medical Anthropology, April 1979 13, no. 2: 153-167)
295 p., In the Bahamas, racism disguises itself under nationalism, education,language, and immigrant status. This study describes the racial dynamics (within African- Diasporic populations) rooted in European colonialism. The Bay Street elite represented European colonialism in the Bahamas as late as the 1970s and transformed the Bahamas into a liberalized economy that relies primarily on tourism. The tourist industry began in the late 1950s, when the Bay Street elite recruited Haitian workers as Cuba denounced tourism at the beginning of the Castro regime. As the profits from the tourist industry declined during the 1970s, Bahamians accused Haitian migrants of being a threat to national security rather than a necessary source of cheap labor. Bahamian print media is the main vehicle for the practices of discrimination against Haitians. This study examines editorials, articles, letters to the editors, and cartoon images from 1959 to 2012 to understand how Bahamians marginalize Haitians and their descendants.
