Bahamian Memories: Island Voices of the Twentieth Century

by Olga Culmer Jenkins

Synopsis of Bahamian Memories: Island Voices of the Twentieth Century

Allowing each person's story to stand with its own color, texture, and pattern, Olga Jenkins has created a people’s history of The Bahamas. Those interviewed were born between 1900 and 1942, and their voices are as varied as the populations of the eight islands the author visited, including black, white, mixed, and working- and middle-class individuals.
 

Library Journal

Growing up in Philadelphia, Jenkins inherited a love of stories as her parents reminisced about their childhood in the Bahamas. As an adult, this independent scholar visited the islands on behalf of the Bahamian Ministry of Education and collected oral histories, presented here, that embrace all aspects of traditional life. The harvesting of sponges, the practice of "bush" medicine, and the craft of platting with straw are described in many vivid vernacular styles. In her foreword, Gail Saunders (coauthor of Univ. of Georgia Press's two-volume Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People) places the collection in a useful historical context. Recommended for comprehensive collections in oral history or Caribbean studies. (Index not seen.)--Nancy B. Turner, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruces Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Olga Culmer Jenkins

Olga Culmer Jenkins, an independent scholar and educational consultant whose parents were born on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, lives in New York City.

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