Local craftsmanship
Bahamian handicrafts include basketry, beautiful wood and coconut carvings, pareos and other colorful Creole dolls that can be found throughout the archipelago. Each island and each "capital" has its own straw market
, an essential stopover to get drunk on the jovial and authentic atmosphere of the Bahamas, and to bring back real "Made in Bahamas" products! Beware, however, of mass-produced items from a distant continent, where the mere mention of "Bahamas" might make you think they were made there; real beautiful local products are generally recognizable.More locally, Andros is home to the Androsia factory, which creates beautiful batiks, clothing, and hand-sewn linens; Freeport is home to a perfume laboratory - The Perfume Factory - where you can design your own fragrance from natural essences; Nassau, meanwhile, is home to the Bahama Handprints fabric printing factory, the Graycliff cigar factory, as well as the John Watlings distillery, where you can stock up on good local rum!
Sculpture and painting on lambi shells is also very unusual in the archipelago. The Amerindians already carved it into tools, jewellery, and used it as a musical and communication instrument. Collateral victims of the fishing and cooking of the conch, these superb shells, once emptied, are nowadays piled up around the smallest fishing port or pontoon. For a long time ignored, they are more and more used to adorn fences, decorate the house, and even converted into real works of art!International luxury products
Effective January 1, 1992, the Government of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas eliminated import duties on a number of luxury goods, including perfumes, leather goods, jewelry, watches, and photographic equipment (among others). The savings on these items are therefore substantial compared to the prices displayed in Europe! Duty-free stores are recognizable by the DFS logo; you will find them on Bay Street in Nassau, as well as in the Lucaya district of Freeport.
Paintings and graphic arts
Inspired by the omnipresent colours - those of the sea, those of the floods of flowers gushing forth profusely from the smallest garden, those of wooden houses with wooden slats painted in bright colours - local artists have developed watercolour talents. On all the islands, galleries exhibit good quality watercolours for reasonable prices. Landscapes and seascapes are the most elaborate subjects, as evidenced for example by the works of Ricardo Knowles, a Bahamian painter with impressionist influences. Contemporary painting also has a bright future ahead of it: artists' studios are flourishing in Nassau and on other islands: artists such as Antonius Roberts, John Cox, John Beadle, Max Taylor and Tessa Whitehead are among the most renowned today.
But the great painter of the Bahamas, the very emblematic figure of Bahamian painting, naive and colourful, remains without a doubt Amos Ferguson, who died in 2009. His fame has spread far beyond the coral reefs to interest the world's great museums. His works now sell for around US$50,000! If you can't afford one, some of them are on display at the National Art Gallery in Nassau.Goombay and Rhyming Spirituals
Why not prolong your journey through the senses, listening to a good Goombay album? The local music offers a delicious mix of African rhythms and melodies from old Europe and traditionally accompanies the quadrille or polka dances. In the Bahamas, Rake n'Scrape orchestras perform Goombay with tool-based instruments (such as a saw and screwdriver) that accompany the accordion, guitar, maracas and a violin. More modern instruments such as the saxophone or electric guitar were added later on.
Another very popular musical current on the archipelago is the Bahamian Rhyming Spirituals. At the end of the War of Independence, the loyalists who remained loyal to the English Crown took refuge on the islands, taking their slaves with them. This is how the Rhymings, already sung in the plantations of the South, took root in Bahamian culture. This tradition, very much imbued with religiosity although often transmitted outside the walls of the church, relies heavily on biblical imagery, community events, and the sea. Faith, optimism, passion, but also fatigue and struggle are sung. The Bahamian Rhymings Spirituals are sung without artifice and have remained very authentic, especially on the island of Andros, where they find their true expression in the personality of the legendary guitarist and singer Joseph Spence, who was referred to as "the voice of heaven". These magnificent hymns and a cappella songs, linked to the sea, life and death, take us back to the time of the sponge fishermen. They are the most touching and astonishing expression of the music and the deep soul of the Bahamian people. The creators of these songs assume a long heritage, while affirming their own originality. They are creating a new and unique link in the evolution of musical sensibilities from the untempered musical sensibilities of the original Africa to the well known African-American gospel of today.
As for the Bahamian artists who are known and recognized nationally and internationally, we should particularly mention Lenny Kravitz, originally from Eleuthera by his mother, without forgetting Ronnie Butler, author of the famous song Burma Road in 1967 and ennobled as a member of the British Empire by the Queen of England - please! Others, such as Diana Hamilton, Johnny Kemp and Nehemiah Hields, have also left their mark on the country's musical history, and today continue to make Bahamian sounds resonate even beyond the archipelago. Why not at home?
