National Identity, Tourism and The Fergusons
The sermon, which takes up more than a third of the script, is essentially a tirade on charity. Simply put, Bahamians are not as charitable as they once were, prosperity has made them wicked and they must repent now before divine retribution is meted out upon them. Ezekiel Ferguson asked,
When last you do a good deed for your brother? Now in this country where we have thousands, as a matter of fact, millions of brothers coming to us, where that is our livelihood, how many of us show a little charity to those strangers within our gates.
Notice the way that Mr. Ferguson evokes ‘tourism’ without using the word. Also note how the word “service” is not used either, instead being courteous to tourists is framed as the Christian thing to do. Tourists are even styled as brothers, even though 90% of the visitors at the time were white.29 Tourists as white “brothers” were not to be confused with the white oligarchs of the UBP who were dethroned only three years prior and who were definitely not thought of as “brothers.”In this brand of rhetoric bad service to white tourists is essentially a sin against God.
The intense Christianization of The Fergusons should not come as a surprise however. Bahamians are an intensely religious people, long marinated in the Judeo-Christian story. The success of the black PLP party was closely tied to these undercurrents of religiosity.30 The moment of majority rule had already been mythologized on the lines of the biblical story of the Israelites and their deliverance from Egypt. The election in 1967, held on January 10th was styled by the PLP as the “tenth day of the first month,” the day the Bible says the Israelites departed Egypt.31 As mentioned, the PLP leader, Pindling was described as the Black Moses. Not only were Bahamians familiar with these stories, to many, they were living them.
Christianization is evident in The Fergusons even in the names of the main characters, Ezekiel and Samuel. These were also the names of ancient Israelite prophets. Perhaps with a name like Ezekiel, it gave his warnings about society, and their potential consequences more weight.