The current underlying campaign theme of the United Bermuda Party (UBP) is that Bermuda is becoming more racially polarised and that this negativity is being generated by the Progressive Labour Party (PLP).

This is far, far from the political and social reality of Bermuda. I would argue that Bermuda has always been racially polarised but that the races are now communicating better because the PLP has worked hard and continuously to lay the groundwork that enables Bermudians to work together and to communicate effectively without concerns about race.

The latest effort of the UBP to try to turn this long term strategy of the PLP into something as shameful as “Creating Racial Divisiveness” is simply wicked.

Bermuda has always been racially divided. This is obvious to all who bother to take even a quick glance at our history. Bermuda was discovered by accident in 1505 by the Spanish. However, according to a very useful historical summary by Keith Forbes, it was not settled until 1609 in the hope of gaining profits from pearl diving.

The effort to dive for pearls, resulted in the first slaves being brought to Bermuda in 1616. Unfortunately, the pearl diving failed as did subsequent attempts to grow tobacco and sugar cane with the help of slave labour.

Unperturbed, the island engaged in privateering (or legalised piracy against the enemies of Great Britain) and became famous for building “fast ships” to be used both in piracy and international trade. The crews of these ships were mainly slaves. However, the owners and the senior officers were always white.

Contrary to popular belief, the slaves were not happy with their plight and slave owners had to put down several slave uprisings. One of these in 1661 saw Irish indentured servants join with the slaves but this effort like all the earlier attempts was foiled. This hostility between white Bermudians and their slaves continued unabated until slavery was abolished in 1834.

Following the abolition of slavery, according to Forbes, slaves were granted the same rights and privileges as whites and the former slave owners, except for the right to vote.

This right was legislated so that it was heavily related to wealth. Thus, the white elite and the white population in general had much more voting strength then mere numbers would suggest because they were many times richer than the average ex-slave. In this way, the white population, led by a powerful elite were able to continue to dominate their former slaves for more than a century and a half after slavery was abolished.

In the face of such blatant exploitation and injustice it is difficult to see how any person could claim that the Bermuda of 1609 to the 1950s was anything but severely racially polarised.

The leadership of the UBP is aware of this history, of course, that is why they continue to tell Black Bermudians to forget about the past. They believe that a full awareness of past injustices would greatly jeopardise their chances of obtaining a sufficiently large portion of the black vote in order to win the next General Election.

The UBP has obtained a majority of the votes in the past by making certain that they maintained the loyalty of the minority white population while using outdated voter legislation to reduce the potential of the vote of the Black Bermudian.

Not only did the UBP refuse to introduce the concept of one man one vote of equal value (the basis of the vote for the members of the American House of Representatives) but they insisted upon an Annual Registration.

Any student of politics knows that the more frequent and difficult the voter registration, the less likely the lower income population will register and vote. Since Bermuda’s black population, even today, earns much less than white Bermudians, their vote was reduced far more by the need to register annually than that of their white counterparts. The absolute control of whites over blacks was enforced further by the colonial government by means of a civil service that was staffed at the top by Englishman or white Bermudians who were recruited as members of the British Colonial Civil Service.

This privilege was extended only to white Bermudians since Blacks were unable to enjoy the privilege of working at any level in the Civil Service for which they paid the giant’s share of the taxes. This situation prevailed until the middle of the Twentieth Century — some 350 years after Bermuda’s settlement.

Clearly, this was a period of serious racial divisiveness. Still there are persons amongst us who will state that this was a period of racial harmony. Talk about brainwashing! How on earth could there possibly have been racial harmony in a country in which there was almost total enslavement of blacks from the early colonisation in 1609 until 1834 when England freed the slaves in its colonies.

From 1834 until about the time of the theatre boycotts in 1959 there was almost complete segregation of blacks which severely restricted their access to the Social, Political and Economic spheres of activity. It was in this harmonious Bermuda that there was a boycott of the segregated theatres in the late 1950s which was successful to the extent that the hotels admitted non-whites to their facilities for the first time.

The success of the theatre boycott also led to the formation of a group led by Dr. Pauulu Kamarakafego demanding that the land requirement to vote be removed and that the vote be restricted to Bermudians aged 21 years or older. This effort was successful and the election of 1968 was run on this basis. Of great importance to the removal of economic and social inequities were the civil disturbances that arose out of the effort of the Bermuda Industrial Union to organise the Bermuda Electric Light Company.

As a result of these disturbances, several senior members of the BIU were arrested and jailed. Among these were the President, Brother Robert Johnson; The General Secretary, Sister Dr. Barbara Ball; General Council Member, Brother Vivian Ming; And former St. George’s Cup Match star and an employee of Belco, Brother Kenneth Paul.

Recently deceased Dame Lois Browne Evans organised the defence of the union executives by obtaining the services of Mr. Dudley Thompson QC of Jamaica to lead the defense team. Mr. Thompson had previously made world headlines by successfully defending Mr. Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya who had been arrested and charged with sedition for leading the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya.

Needless to say, the court battle was won and the BIU officers were released from prison.

However, as a direct result of the Belco Civil Disturbances, the United Kingdom ordered the local Governor, Lord Martonmere, to remove racial inequalities within the Financial and Administrative Departments of the Civil Service with all deliberate speed. Within nine months, a black Bermudian, Mr. Calvin Smith, was employed in the senior position of Government Statistican.

Clearly, Bermuda’s history has been one long dark period of racial domination of Blacks by whites. Why anyone would refer to this period as one of racial harmony is beyond me. Yet this is implied when the UBP refers to increasing racial polarisation currently that is being generated by the PLP. This charge of the UBP is incorrect to the extent of deliberate dishonesty.

Bermuda’s racial polarisation has been diminishing due to the successful efforts of members of the BIU and the PLP to end all forms of racial inequity in Bermuda. This continuous protest ended ultimately in the election of the PLP to power in 1998. Immediately after its election, the PLP abolished the Annual Registration and introduced the concept of one man, one vote of equal value.

It was as a result of the massive increase in the voting power of the ordinary Bermudian that there has been a dismantling of the system that allowed polarisation of the races to exist in the first place.

Today what is perceived as polarisation is merely Bermudians exercising their new found freedom of speech, association and expression.

Far from being evidence of polarisation, we are witnessing the full emergence of political freedom for the first time in Bermuda’s long history of domination by a white elite.

calvin@northrock.bm