Spare the Rod | The Bahamas

Sunset over Nassau

There are very few roads in the Nassau with sidewalks, and Prince Charles Drive is one of them. This road, cutting from the east side of Nassau toward the west, is one of the few places where you can safely do intervals. I found myself going there often.

One morning, as I was running, something caught my eye—a discarded newspaper on the ground. See, I have a habit. If it has words, I will read it. Books, newspapers, pamphlets, cardboard boxes—doesn’t matter. This started in childhood. Growing up in Zimbabwe, books were scarce for me. If you wanted to read something, you took what you could get. As a kid, I’d pick up Jehovah’s Witness pamphlets on the street just to have something to read. I even learned one of my first big English words—"manufacturing"—from a discarded box.

That habit stayed with me into adulthood.

Umbrellas near the Graycliff Hotel (set in a historic mansion dating from 1740)

That morning in Nassau, I picked up the newspaper, pocketing it to read later as I stretched after my run.

And the debate in this random newspaper article you might ask? Should teachers be allowed to beat students in school?

Some insisted that corporal punishment was necessary for discipline, while others argued that it was outdated and harmful. I kept reading, intrigued, as the discussion stirred up old memories. I grew up in an education system were getting beaten at school was routine. You could get beaten for almost anything—not tucking in your shirt, not shining your shoes, letting your socks droop below your calves. And, of course, if you failed an exam.

In my school, every wrong answer on an exam translated to a stroke of the cane. As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough for your classmates to know your test scores now you get to be canned in front of your classmates too. If the test was out of 50, and you lost five points, you got five lashes. The idea was simple—get the answers right, or get the cane. For me, this was a strong incentive to memorize everything. I was good at it. I could regurgitate information flawlessly—not because I understood it, but because I didn’t want to get beaten. But some of my friends weren’t as lucky. Some struggled to sit still in class, let alone memorize answers. The system didn’t care. It didn’t matter those students had different talents or ways of learning—if you failed, you got punished.

The tools of discipline varied. A wooden or metal ruler across the knuckles, a leather strap, or, worst of all—the dreaded cutout of an old tire to the bum bum. That one was brutal. It left deep bruises, and everyone feared the teachers who used it.

Vignette from the Article in the Nassau, Bahamas newspaper

One particular beating stood out in my memory. I don’t even remember what we did wrong that day—maybe we were making too much noise—but the Metalwork teacher decided that everyone in the class deserved punishment. We were lined up, bent over a table, and lashed. I could barely walk after that. I hated that system.

But in Zimbabwe, school punishments didn’t end at school. If your teacher beat you, they would call your parents to inform them why—so you got beaten again at home. Parents believed that if a teacher had to discipline you, it meant they hadn’t done their job well enough at home, so you deserved a second round of punishment.

Sort of like the American legal system—even if you serve your 20-year sentence, you’re still a felon. They make sure to ask about it on every job application just to remind you that you already paid for your crime—but not really.

The Queen's Staircase: Carved by hand out of solid limestone rock by 600 slaves between 1793 and 1794

One argument in the article claimed that corporal punishment wasn’t even an African tradition—it was introduced by the British.

Oh, the British—and their "civilized" ways. The British Empire—the greatest exporters of tea, colonialism, and “spare the rod” The idea that discipline was tied to beatings was something the British enforced in their colonies, including the Bahamas and Zimbabwe. Missionaries brought these practices—after all, "spare the rod" is biblical—just as they brought their version of education, and clothing….a piece of cloth around a man's neck (a.k.a a tie) suddenly made him "civilized."

That revelation was surprising. I had grown up thinking if there was one thing African about our culture it was mercilessly beating up kids. But what’s even more fascinating? Africans didn’t beat their children before colonization—they worshipped them gods.

The Bahamas. Zimbabwe. Kenya. Australia. India.  Different places, same colonial scars.