A final farewell to Hanna

The nation yesterday bade farewell to Arthur Dion Hanna, a former governor general and deputy prime minister, who was a part of two of the most consequential movements in the modern Bahamas – majority rule and independence.

Hanna, who declined a knighthood, was buried on the 21st anniversary of the death of Sir Lynden Pindling, the man he fought with and served alongside for over 40 years.

While the trappings customarily afforded those honored with a state funeral were present yesterday, pandemic era rules were ever noticeable during the service.

Shortly before the funeral, the family gathered inside the foyer of the House of Assembly for one final viewing of Hanna, whose body lay in state this week.

His daughter, Glenys Hanna-Martin, gently removed a white cloth that was on his mahogany casket, then folded and placed it on her father’s chest.

She paused briefly and rubbed him before she folded cloth frills draped outside the coffin over him. She then slowly closed his coffin.

Even masked, she took a noticeably deep breath when the casket snapped shut.

The Bahamian flag was draped over the coffin by members of the armed forces and it was slowly marched to Christ Church Cathedral on George Street.

Former prime ministers Perry Christie and Hubert Ingraham joined members of the Cabinet, the chief justice, Governor General C.A. Smith, and other mourners during the service. Masked attendees were spread out to adhere to social distancing measures.

In his tribute, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis described Hanna as a man who loved his Bahamas with unrelenting devotion, courage and passion.

Hanna, Minnis said, left politics with honor and dignity.

“He gave his life to the Bahamian people in the struggle for majority rule and independence, playing a pivotal role in the march to both,” he said.

He added, “I recall hearing the story of a young man seeing A.D. Hanna, the then-deputy prime minister and minister of finance, sitting at the old Nassau International Airport. Both were waiting for a flight.

“The young man nervously approached the minister to say hello, after which he was invited to sit to share a conversation and a bag of peanuts with the second most powerful political figure at the time.

“Such was the character, the temperament, the humility, the graciousness, the goodness of A.D. Hanna.”

The prime minister added that once the emergency phase of the pandemic ends, the country “should have another national tribute to celebrate the life and extraordinary contributions” of Hanna.

Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition Philip Brave Davis praised Hanna’s policy to empower Bahamians.

“Indeed, it should not be forgotten that even before his calls for ‘independence now’ were beginning to resonate ever more loudly in the land, A.D. Hanna, as a government minister, had already earned the trust and admiration of the majority of the Bahamian people for his courageous and far-sighted policy of Bahamianization,” Davis said.

“As far as A.D. was concerned, no foreigner should be given a work permit for any job that a Bahamian was ready and able to do. No exceptions.

“It is hard to imagine it now but back in the day you had Englishmen in Freeport serving as hotel doormen – and as waiters and bus drivers, too, and there were hundreds of English, American and Canadian secretaries and personal assistants and glorified bank clerks with work permits throughout the country.

“A.D. Hanna, as the minister of home affairs, with responsibility for immigration, brought all that to a grinding halt.

“To the dismay of some of his own colleagues, over the objections of nearly all of his political opponents, and to the horror of his numerous detractors in the media and in the tourism and financial service sectors, he instituted a level of strict immigration enforcement that has never been replicated.

“Others after him may have talked a better game, but none of them ever matched A.D. Hanna’s record of ensuring that jobs were reserved for qualified Bahamians.

“Make no mistake about it; it was the policy of Bahamianization, as conceived by the Honorable A.D. Hanna and administered on his ministerial watch, that was, with his earlier pioneering groundwork as minister of education, the twin-catalyst for the emergence of a large and authentic Black middle class in The Bahamas in the 1970s.”

Hanna, 93, died on August 3.

He was born in 1928 in Pompey Bay, Acklins, and served as a member of Parliament for 32 years, having first been elected in 1960 in the Ann’s Town constituency.

He is survived by his two daughters Glenys and Dawn Hanna and son Arthur Dion Hanna Jr., and numerous other relatives.

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