Lynden O. Pindling

Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling KCMG (* March 22, 1930 in Nassau ; † August 26, 2000 there ) was Prime Minister of the then British colony of the Bahamas from 1967 to 1973 and - after gaining independence - from 1973 to 1992 the first Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas .

Life

Lynden Pindling was born to a Jamaican immigrant and the son of a police officer. At Government High School in Nassau, he distinguished himself through academic performance and also as a track and field athlete; he was a Bahamian youth champion in the 100-meter run. After brief employment as an employee of the Postal Savings Bank, he studied law at King's College London . In 1953 he returned to his home country and established himself as a lawyer. In the same year he joined the recently founded Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) , which saw itself as a social democratic party .

In 1956 Lynden Pindling married Marguerite McKenzie . Four children were born to them.

In the same year, Pindling was elected to parliament ( House of Assembly ) for the first time and was immediately elected chairman of his party. He won his constituency in Nassau and on Andros in all of the following elections: 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992 and 1997. Pindling fought for the census suffrage to be abolished in favor of universal suffrage, and ultimately for women too Right to vote was granted.

In the January 10, 1967 election, the PLP drew level with the ruling United Bahamian Party (UBP) of Roland Symonette in terms of mandates . With the support of the Negro Labor Party , Pindling was able to form a government; he was the first black man to be elected Prime Minister of the Bahamas . Pindling stepped up the process initiated in 1964 by which Great Britain granted the Bahamas self-government in internal affairs. In 1969 the British Parliament approved the previous colony's status as a Commonwealth of the Bahama Islands with extended rights of self-determination. Pindling endeavored to "Bahamanierung" ("Bahamianization") of the economy: Locals should - instead of Americans and British - control the local economy or be given preferential employment. In the 1972 elections, the PLP won 29 out of 38 seats in parliament on the promise of independence for the Bahamas. After negotiations with the British government on the future constitution were concluded, the Bahamas was granted independence on July 10, 1973. Pindling was elected the new state's first prime minister. He remained Prime Minister until 1992.

The last decade of Pindling's quarter-century tenure has been increasingly overshadowed by corruption scandals. The US accused Pindling of having tolerated, if not at all, allowing his country to become a preferred route for drug trafficking and making money from money laundering. Pindling countered that such allegations were an "imperialist assault".

In 1992, Pindling and his PLP were voted out of office. In the following legislative period , Pindling took over the office of opposition leader. Soon after he was elected to parliament for the last time in 1997, he had to retire from politics due to illness. He died on August 26, 2000 in his hometown.

Honors

The international airport in Nassau was named in 2006 Lynden Pindling honor: Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA).

literature

Michael Craton: Pindling. The life and times of Lynden Oscar Pindling, first prime minister of The Bahamas, 1930–2000 . Macmillan Caribbean, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-333-99718-2 .

Footnotes

↑ Manfred Obst: Bahamas . DuMont, Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-7701-1383-7 , p. 145.
^ Gail Saunders: Marguerite Pindling. A biography . Macmillan, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-72265-1 .
^ Obituary by Tony Thorndike: Sir Lynden Pindling, Politician who broke three centuries of white elite dominance in the Bahamas. In: The Guardian. August 28, 2000.
^ Colman Barry: Upon these rocks. Catholics in the Bahamas . St. John's Abbey Press, Collegeville 1973, ISBN 0-8146-0812-4 , p. 537.
^ Colman Barry: Upon these rocks . St. John's Abbey Press, Collegeville 1973, p. 538.
↑ Michael Craton, Gail Saunders: Islanders in the stream. A History of the Bahamian People. Volume 2: From the ending of slavery to the twenty-first century . University of Georgia Press, Athens 1998, ISBN 0-8203-1926-0 , p. 376.
↑ Frauke Gewecke: The Caribbean. On the history, politics and culture of a region . 3rd, expanded edition. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86527-314-7 , p. 83.

Web links

Lynden O. Pindling in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

personal data
SURNAME	Pindling, Lynden O.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Pindling, Sir Lynden Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Bahamian politician, Prime Minister of the Bahamas (1967–1992)
DATE OF BIRTH	March 22, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nassau
DATE OF DEATH	August 26, 2000
Place of death	Nassau

[1] Manfred Obst: Bahamas . DuMont, Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-7701-1383-7 , p. 145.

[2] Gail Saunders: Marguerite Pindling. A biography . Macmillan, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-72265-1 .

[3] Obituary by Tony Thorndike: Sir Lynden Pindling, Politician who broke three centuries of white elite dominance in the Bahamas. In: The Guardian. August 28, 2000.

[4] Colman Barry: Upon these rocks. Catholics in the Bahamas . St. John's Abbey Press, Collegeville 1973, ISBN 0-8146-0812-4 , p. 537.

[5] Colman Barry: Upon these rocks . St. John's Abbey Press, Collegeville 1973, p. 538.

[6] Michael Craton, Gail Saunders: Islanders in the stream. A History of the Bahamian People. Volume 2: From the ending of slavery to the twenty-first century . University of Georgia Press, Athens 1998, ISBN 0-8203-1926-0 , p. 376.

[7] Frauke Gewecke: The Caribbean. On the history, politics and culture of a region . 3rd, expanded edition. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86527-314-7 , p. 83.