Gambier 25° North and 77° West

James Alexander Fernander, third left, with a few of his grandchildren. Fernander is one of the oldest living residents of Gambier who can trace his history back to the liberated Africans who settled in this neighbourhood.

GAMBIER

25° North and 77° West

By Shavaughn Moss Photographs courtesy of L. Roscoe Dames II

New Providence, home to the cosmopolitan city of Nassau, has grown from a quiet port in 1844 with a population which numbered around 8,000 inhabitants, to a bustling city, home to most of the country’s population. The island boasts an interesting blend of old-world colonial architectural charm and modern-day sophistication, and you will find everything you want. But what should not be missed are those communities that are steeped in history.

On the north-western coast of New Providence, at Latitude 25° North and Longitude 77° West, about nine miles from the Nassau city centre, is Gambier village, one of the oldest villages in New Providence, dating back to the early 1800s.

Dino’s Gourmet Conch Salad restaurant and The Hideaway restaurant to the west, and St. Peter’s Native Baptist Church to the east, establishments of polar opposites, stand like sentinels guarding the entrance to this Bahamian community that still retains the idyllic ideal of a bygone era interspersed with modern-day trappings, at the intersection of West Bay Street and Fernander Way.

Contemporary home structures intermingle harmoniously with humble abodes. Untethered sheep roam, grazing lazily, roadside. Ducks and chickens meander across the street. Surprisingly, you may glimpse a peacock, sunning itself. Anything is possible! Dino’s Gourmet Conch Stand restaurant stands at the entrance to the historic Gambier village

Gambier is also home to the obligatory farm on which cows, pigs, goats, sheep and chicken are raised tucked away out of sight, along a dirt road, owned by one of the community’s oldest residents, James Alexander Fernander.

Finding residents sitting around their yards, whiling away the time in frivolous conversation offers an almost picture-perfect snapshot of what the leisurely island life of yesteryear looked like. The residents of Gambier village hold this existence close. It’s one of those communities where everyone knows everyone and everything.

Gambier village was established by liberated Africans after the abolition of the slave trade in all British Territories in 1807. Some of those Africans left an indelible stamp on the village’s unique and intriguing history. Most notable, Elijah Morris, who led the largest slave revolt in United States history in 1841.

St. Peter’s Native Baptist Church, the oldest church in the western side of the island, at the entrance to the historic Gambier Village

A group of 135 enslaved Africans were being transported from Virginia on a ship, The Creole, to be sold in the slave market of New Orleans. After 10 days at sea, 19 of the captives, led by Morris, overpowered their guards and took control of the ship. They had planned to sail to Liberia but, with insufficient supplies, Nassau was chosen as the final destination. All the Africans who were not directly involved in the mutiny were liberated and allowed to stay in The Bahamas as free men and women. The 19 involved in the mutiny were initially held, and when Elijah Morris was declared a free man some months later, he settled in Gambier village. His descendants still reside there among the population of less than 1,000.

Gambier village is believed to have been named after John Gambier, who was a member of the Governor’s Council in the 1770s and acted as governor three times.

Gambier village’s evolution is one where the mature residents can recall a community of their youth that had none of the necessities that people now take for granted - street lights, homes with electricity, which of course meant no refrigeration, non-existent telephone communication, and farming families took their goods to market via dray horse.

Today, Gambier village is one of self-sufficiency with practically everything its residents need, from the Gambier Primary School, at which almost all the children in the community receive their early education; a healthcare facility in the Gambier Clinic; and a church for practically every denomination—Mount Zion Baptist Church, the Church of God of Prophecy, Gambier Mission Seventh-day Adventist Church and St. Peter’s Native Baptist Church which “stands guard” at the western entrance to the historic community, and is historic in its own right, having been established in 1856 and is western New Providence’s oldest church.

Also, among the highlights not to be missed during a visit to this historic community is the community well, which, although not utilized in decades, once supplied residents with water, and is still visible on the property at the Dino’s Gourmet Conch Salad restaurant. Unlike the water well, the rock oven, which is in perfect condition at the Gambier Community Park, is still used to bake delicious bread on occasions by the community development association members;

An original outhouse (bathroom), with modern adaptations inside, is still in use today at Dino’s Gourmet Conch Stand restaurant

most especially during Emancipation Day, the first Monday in August, which celebrates the emancipation of the enslaved in the British colonies in 1834. Villages like Gambier have their own special celebrations and, on one of those occasions, the rock oven, which was a staple in the Bahamian islands when electricity wasn’t, is usually fired up.

A visit to Last Man Standing Pub is a must, but beware, these doors open street side, not curb side, literally. For those with the inclination to hang out after a purchase, with no curb and only the street, the safest option is to hustle across the street where picnic-style benches have been set up which allows for a gathering. And don’t blink because you just may miss what is possibly the world’s smallest roundabout.

Gambier is just one of several historic villages in New Providence that has managed to retain a certain charm of a bygone era which residents happily say co-mingle harmoniously with modern-day trappings.

In the 1830s, there were at least eight free black villages or settlements outside the town of Nassau – Grant’s Town and Bain Town just south of the city, Carmichael and Adelaide in the southwest, Delancey Town just west of Nassau, Gambier in the west and Creek village (New Guinea) and Fox Hill in the east.

Other villages were set up on various Family Islands—Cat Island, Exuma, Long Island, Ragged Island and Rum Cay, San Salvador, and Williamstown and Victoria (Berry Island). Last Man Standing Pub’s doors open into the street, literally

Adelaide, about 17 miles southwest of Nassau, was settled by 158 Africans off the Portuguese Slaver “Rosa”, captured in 1831 by the “Pickle”. The Africans were medically treated, given land at South West Bay, where water and land were provided for cultivation. Huts were built with thatch (palmetto) roofs, wells dug, and a primitive hospital and school built. The village was doing well in 1833. In 1834, a new group of Africans was settled at Adelaide from the ships “Felicidad” and “Hebe”. After a couple of years, however, Adelaide declined because of the lack of supervision and because most of the villagers had become involved in public and domestic service in Nassau. Today, Adelaide village still survives, but the more ambitious people have moved uptown.

Carmichael village is about 10 miles southwest of the town of Nassau and was said to have been settled in 1825. UA