The shoreline is our birthright, yet once again Bahamians find themselves begging for permission to walk on their own sand. The unfolding crisis at Cabbage Beach is not an isolated planning squabble; it is the latest chapter in a decades-long surrender of public coastline to foreign capital. While foreign developers erect pilings and fences under the convenient cover of “erosion control” and “safety,” the government retreats into timid press releases and hollow reassurances. We are told these barriers are temporary. History tells us otherwise.
For generations, foreign enclaves have used a strategy that is patient, calculating, and predatory. They take an inch, erect a gate, hire private security, and dare the Bahamian people or their government to do anything about it. Lyford Cay carved out its private fiefdom decades ago. Albany walled off its luxury paradise. Now, on Paradise Island, the developers behind the Four Seasons Ocean Club Residences presume they can dictate access to two miles of public coast while our authorities capitulate.
The Ministry of Tourism began this ordeal talking tough, vowing “zero tolerance” for displacement after developers jumped the gun. Yet within days, that bluster dissolved into bureaucratic apologetics. The Ministry pivoted to backing the developer’s narrative, framing the fencing as an urgent necessity and suggesting vendors simply be moved elsewhere. This sudden backpedal exposes a government terrified of offending foreign investors, even when those investors flagrantly test the boundaries of sovereignty.
Lincoln Deal, the MP for Freetown, is right to call out these empty words. Verbal assurances are worthless when equipment is already in the ground. Vendors who have worked Cabbage Beach for 10 to 40 years—braiding hair, renting chairs, earning an honest living in their own country—are being asked to pack up and crowd onto Goodman’s Bay. Shuffling local vendors off prime shores destroys their livelihoods. It turns self-sufficient Bahamians into refugees on their own island while foreign guests enjoy an uninterrupted, sanitized view.
The cowardice must stop. A passive approach, hoping public fury simply blows over, is an insult to the nation. Why are the authorities so timid when foreign interests trespass against the public interest, yet swift to deploy police when everyday Bahamians push back?
Any foreigner or corporate entity that attempts to illegally block, fence off, or intimidate Bahamians from reaching the foreshore should be met with extreme force and severe legal repercussions. Revoke their permits. Tear down their unauthorized barricades. Fine them until it hurts their bottom line. The law of this land guarantees that the seabed and foreshore up to the high-water mark belong to the Bahamian people. That right cannot be suspended by a chain-link fence or a private security guard staring down citizens from a resort boundary.
If we stay silent on Cabbage Beach, Goodman’s Bay is next. The creeping encroachment is already visible. Private security guards from neighbouring mega-resorts like Baha Mar and Breezes patrol nearby, watchful, slowly testing the public’s tolerance for surveillance and control. Bit by bit, parcel by parcel, New Providence’s accessible coastline is being suffocated.
The waterfront is already choked with gated compounds and mansions whose owners behave as if the Atlantic Ocean is their private backyard swimming pool. We have normalized being locked out. We have accepted the humiliation of navigating narrow, hidden alleys just to touch the water our ancestors fished for centuries.
This cannot continue. The protection of our beaches is a non-negotiable issue that every single Bahamian—regardless of politics—can and must unite behind. It demands mass defiance against creeping privatization and an immediate end to official appeasement.
“Temporary” must not become a permanent land grab. The government must halt all unapproved construction immediately and issue legally binding, written guarantees that protect both unhindered public access and vendor placement. No more backpedalling. No more concessions to luxury developers. The beaches belong to the Bahamian people, and it is time we enforce that reality without apology.
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