Freemasonry in Bahamas
The Bahamas holds a distinctive position in the Masonic world of the Americas. Two fully UGLE-sanctioned Masonic bodies operate on its territory: the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England as a sovereign foreign grand lodge, and the District Grand Lodge of the Bahamas & Turks, an overseas district of UGLE that governs English Constitution lodges across the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. This dual structure reflects both the islands' African diaspora majority and their long connection to British colonial Masonic institutions.
Freemasonry arrived in the Bahamas during the British colonial era, with lodges operating for generations before the founding of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge in 1950. The earliest Masonic presence came through English Constitution lodges connected to the Royal Navy and merchant community in Nassau. The Prince Hall tradition arrived through lodges chartered by the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, which sponsored lodges in Nassau from the late nineteenth century onward.
The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas was chartered on February 27, 1950, drawing together the several Prince Hall lodges that had been operating in the islands under the New York jurisdiction. It is one of a small number of Prince Hall bodies that UGLE formally recognizes as a sovereign foreign grand lodge in its own right, equal in standing to any other recognized grand lodge in the Americas. This recognition makes the Bahamas Masonic landscape particularly notable — here, the Prince Hall grand lodge is not a parallel body sharing jurisdiction with a mainstream counterpart, but the sole recognized sovereign Masonic authority.
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