By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

MANY welcomed the reopening of the British Colonial Hotel on Monday, but some, including the Bahamas National Reparations Committee chair Dr Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, believe the hotel should have dropped its name.

“I think that if they were to take stock of what is happening not only regionally, if we look at the example of Barbados becoming a republic, but around the world, a lot of persons are recognising the tremendous harms that colonisation implored not just in this region but worldwide,” she told The Tribune yesterday.

“Even King Charles, you know, has made statements of regret regarding some of those colonial practices so I think that we’re at the stage where you can have nostalgia for a time gone without connecting that nostalgia to the crimes and sins of colonisation.”

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Removal of colonial names and references has happened worldwide in recent times.

Local discourse about colonial symbolism exploded last year when a man used a sledgehammer to damage the right leg of a Christopher Columbus statue outside Government House. Before that, thousands signed a petition to remove the statue. 

The government recently put a Christmas tree where the statue used to be.

Dr Campbell Dean noted the continued presence of a Woodes Rogers statue in front of the British Colonial Hotel, which reopened on Monday after a nearly two-year closure and a $50m renovation project.

“I mean more than our recognition of the names of private companies, I’m more interested in removing all symbols of colonialism from our local spaces like the statue of Woodes Rogers,” she said.

“At the end of the day, I think that it is, you know, the corporation is going to do what’s in the best interest of themselves, not necessarily the best interest of the people, but maybe they will find that having that tie is not in their best interest as the world generally moves toward the ratification of what colonialism is.”

During his speech at the Hilton’s opening on Monday, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis argued the hotel’s name has taken on new meaning.

“There is no doubt an irony in the fact that, as we celebrate 50 years of Independence, we are also celebrating the reopening of the British Colonial Hotel,” he said. “The meaning within the imperial legacy of that name has changed. It now signals the grand tradition of what tourism was automatically once assumed to be: travel to unknown places, in the hope of pursuing adventure, luxury, style, and comfort.”