Visiting Red Bays, Andros Island: the Place that Time Forgot
Red Bays on Andros Island, Bahamas is so rural that no outsiders knew of its existence for decades.
Even in a place as rural as Andros Island, which is one of the Out Islands in Bahamas, that’s a big deal. Today, the village is more connected to the outside world, but it still retains a close-knit feel.
I got to visit this fascinating place as a part of a study abroad trip through the geology department at Clemson, and learning about the island’s culture and history was well worth the effort it took to get to the village of Red Bays on the tip of North Andros Island.
Where is Red Bays, Andros Island, Bahamas?
Getting to meet with the people of this village and hear their stories isn’t easy.
First, you’ll need to get to Andros Island, which is divided into 2 large pieces: South Andros and North Andros. Both are only about 70 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, but getting there is easier said than done.
To get to Andros, you can take a plane or ferry. From Nassau, the ferry to Andros takes about 2.5 hours, while a plane would only take about 30-45 minutes.
Since I was part of a larger group, we were able to charter 2 small planes directly out of Fort Lauderdale, which allowed us to skip a connecting flight elsewhere in the Bahamas.
We flew into San Andros Airport, which is on Queen’s Highway, one of the few main roads across North Andros. Take Queen’s Highway north until it forks, and take the left side of the fork. From there, continue following that road until it dead ends: you’ll see the Red Bays sign (in this post header).
Learning about the Culture of Red Bays
Among the highlights of visiting Red Bays was hearing from an actual medicine women and when we had a Bob Marley singalong with one of the residents.
We found that the residents of Red Bays were eager to share their experiences with us, and they were open and friendly to all of our questions about living there.
This is Ms. Omelia, who is the resident medicine woman for the Red Bays village.
As you can see, she has a large goiter, which can caused by a lack of iodine or genetics. She explained to us that her goiter was treatable, but she purposefully chose not to.
Ms. Omelia didn’t want to use modern medicine to heal herself because she only uses traditional home remedies her role as medicine woman.
Next, we met Otis, the village musician. He was happy to play and sing several songs for us.
There's nothing like an outdoor sing-a-long on your travels!
We watched a wood carving demonstration done by one of the villagers. To make his sculptures, he used his hands, a saw, and an ax--nothing mechanical or electronic!
The villagers of Red Bays are particularly skilled in making straw baskets which they often interweave with Androsia fabric.
Aren't they beautiful?
I had to bring home a little bit of Red Bays, and now my basket sits proudly in my house next to my collection of sweetgrass baskets from here in Charleston.
Both the Red Bays basket and the Charleston sweetgrass baskets are made by artisans working with skills that date back pre-slave trade when these traditional weaving methods would’ve been used for farming and gathering.
The History of Red Bays
As a huge history buff, one of the best experiences of our time in Red Bays was learning that this entire village had been completely forgotten by the world for about 70 years before it was rediscovered by a professor in the 1930s.
Scrap Iron, one of the Red Bays villagers, sat down with us to tell us about the story of Red Bays.
How could something like that happen?
In this part of Andros, pretty easily.
Red Bay is located to the northwest on Andros Island and is far removed from the other small towns and settlements on the island.
Keep in mind that the entire island is sparsely populated with only 6,000 residents scattered over 2,300 square miles. Since Red Bay is located so far away from the other towns and the people were completely self-sufficient, no one realized an entire settlement was there.
No one even thought about looking up there because there's nothing there—well, nothing other than a few beaches and some pine trees. [Read about our experiences crossing the Andros Tidal Flats here!]
Even now, Red Bay is a good drive from the nearest town. If you're looking for a remote place to visit, this is where you should be headed.
The story of Red Bays starts before the Civil War in Florida. When escaped slaves intermarried with Seminole Indians, their children (known as the "Black Seminoles") needed a safe place to live. In a brave and desperate move to protect themselves, groups of these Black Seminoles launched themselves off the coast of Florida on homemade rafts and found refuge in the (then-British) island of Andros in the 1820s.
Secretly, they created a place to live in the remote northern part of Andros. They built homes and lived off of the fish and wildlife that they caught.
Legends rose up about the "Wild Indians" of Andros, and they were occasionally seen by other Androsians.
In the 1920s, a few anthropologists came to study the village, but the Red Bays people were happy to stay quietly in their corner of the world. It wasn't until a researcher of traditional music came to Andros in the 1930s that the Red Bays village became more widely known.
Today, the villagers are the descendants of those original settlers, and they are still fiercely protective of their shared African and Native American cultures.
Read more about my trip to Andros Island, Bahamas:
It's definitely a trek to get to the village, but it's worth the trouble. Learning about the culture and hearing the villagers speak about their history and lifestyle made appreciate the ends that this group has gone to in order to preserve and protect their heritage.
I am glad that they are open to sharing that with outsider visitors, and I’d highly encourage anyone visiting Andros Island to seek out the village of Red Bays to support them through their crafts.
Have you been to the Bahamas? Would you be interested in visiting an isolated village like Red Bays?
