Barbados ditches Britain's Queen Elizabeth to become a republic
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[November 30, 2021]
By Guy Faulconbridge and Brian Ellsworth
BRIDGETOWN (Reuters) - Barbados ditched
Britain's Queen Elizabeth as head of state, forging a new republic on
Tuesday with its first-ever president and severing its last remaining
colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at
the Caribbean island.
At the strike of midnight, the new republic was born to cheers of
hundreds of people lining Chamberlain Bridge in the capital, Bridgetown.
A 21-gun salute fired as the national anthem of Barbados was played over
a crowded Heroes Square.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, stood somberly as Queen
Elizabeth's royal standard was lowered and the new Barbados declared, a
step which republicans hope will spur discussion of similar proposals in
other former British colonies that have the Queen as their sovereign.
"We the people must give Republic Barbados its spirit and its
substance," Sandra Mason, the island's first president, said. "We must
shape its future. We are each other’s and our nation’s keepers. We the
people are Barbados."
Barbados casts the removal of Elizabeth II, who is still queen of 15
other realms including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and
Jamaica, as a way to finally break with the demons of its colonial
history.
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"The creation of this republic offers a new beginning," said Prince
Charles. "From the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity
of slavery which forever stains our history, people of this island
forged their path with extraordinary fortitude."
In a message to the new president, the 95-year-old queen sent her
congratulations to Barbadians who she said have held a special place in
her heart.
"I send you and all Barbadians my warmest good wishes for your
happiness, peace and prosperity in the future," she said.
After a dazzling display of Barbadian dance and music, complete with
speeches celebrating the end of colonialism, Barbadian singer Rihanna
was declared a national hero by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the leader
of Barbados' republican movement.
The birth of the republic, 55 years to the day since Barbados declared
independence, unclasps almost all the colonial bonds that have kept the
tiny island tied to England since an English ship claimed it for King
James I in 1625.
It may also be a harbinger of a broader attempt by other former colonies
to cut ties to the British monarchy as it braces for the end of
Elizabeth's nearly 70-year reign and the future accession of Charles.
"Full stop this colonial page," Winston Farrell, a Barbadian poet told
the ceremony. "Some have grown up stupid under the Union Jack, lost in
the castle of their skin."
"It is about us, rising out of the cane fields, reclaiming our history,"
he said. "End all that she mean, put a Bajan there instead."
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![](../images/113021pics/news_x45.jpg)
Entertainers and performers are seen at the Presidential
Inauguration Ceremony to mark the birth of a new republic in
Barbados, Bridgetown, Barbados, November 29, 2021.
REUTERS/Toby Melville
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SLAVE HISTORY
Prince Charles' speech highlighted the continuing friendship of the
two nations though he acknowledged the horrors of the trans-Atlantic
slave trade.
While Britain casts slavery as a sin of the past, some Barbadians
are calling for compensation from Britain.
Activist David Denny celebrated the creation of the republic but
said he opposes the visit by Prince Charles, noting the royal family
for centuries benefited from the slave trade.
"Our movement would also like the royal family to pay a reparation,"
Denny said in an interview in Bridgetown.
The English initially used white British indentured servants to toil
on the plantations of tobacco, cotton, indigo and sugar, but
Barbados in just a few decades would become England's first truly
profitable slave society.
Barbados received 600,000 enslaved Africans between 1627 and 1833,
who were put to work in the sugar plantations, earning fortunes for
the English owners.
More than 10 million Africans were shackled into the Atlantic slave
trade by European nations between the 15th and 19th centuries. Those
who survived the often brutal voyage, ended up toiling on
plantations.
"I'm overjoyed," Ras Binghi, a Bridgetown cobbler, told Reuters
ahead of the ceremony. Binghi said he would be saluting the new
republic with a drink and a smoke.
Barbados will remain a republic within the Commonwealth, a grouping
of 54 countries across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
Outside the lavish official ceremony, some Barbadians said they were
uncertain what the transition to a republic even meant or why it
mattered.
"They should leave Queen Elizabeth be - leave her as the boss. I
don't understand why we need to be a republic," said Sean Williams,
45, standing in the shadow of an independence monument.
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The last time the queen was removed as head of state was in 1992
when the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius proclaimed itself a
republic.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge in Bridgetown and Brian Ellsworth in
Washington; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Daniel Flynn,
Lisa Shumaker and Lincoln Feast.)
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