Barbados is turning 55 and the milestone anniversary is taking on an added significance. The once-prosperous sugar colony and jewel in the British empire is celebrating by formally cutting one of its last remaining colonial ties.
The island known as “Little England,” which gained independence on Nov. 30, 1966, but kept Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, will be fully sovereign as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. It is ditching the British monarch and joining Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Dominica in becoming a republic.
“What we are saying is, ‘This is it,’ ” said the Rev. Charles Morris, an Anglican priest and vocal supporter of the move, who noted that unlike in 1966 when independence was decided on Britain’s terms, this time it’s Barbados making the decision. “We want to choose our own head of state, symbolic or not.”
Among those who will be there to see England’s oldest colony remove the 95-year-old monarch and her future heirs is the Prince of Wales. Invited by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Prince Charles arrived in Bridgetown late Sunday shortly before midnight. He was greeted with a 21-gun salute on the tarmac in what is his final visit to the easternmost Caribbean island as prince of the realm, although Barbados will remain a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, of which he is the future head. Charles is scheduled to attend the changing-over ceremony to declare Barbados a republic and mark the inauguration of its new president, Sandra Mason, starting at 11 p.m. Monday at National Heroes’ Square in Bridgetown.
The royal’s presence has triggered debate and talk of planned protests, underscoring the reality shaping Barbados’ push toward self-determination nearly 400 years after English settlers first inhabited the island in 1627 and transformed it into one of their richest colonies based on sugar and slavery.
For now the changes will be largely symbolic with the prime minister retaining governing power. Royal Salute, which comprises the first and last bars of Barbados’ national anthem, and always precedes the governor general’s entrance, will be replaced with Presidential Salute after it is played for one last time at Monday’s presidential inauguration. The word “royal” along with signs and symbols associated with the British monarchy also will be removed from all government institutions, and the queen will no longer be represented, meaning Barbadians no longer have to swear allegiance to her.
Her current representative, Mason, who had served as governor general since 2018, was elected by the Barbados Parliament last month to serve as the island nation’s first president, a role like that of Queen Elizabeth II’s will be mostly symbolic.
Still, the move from a constitutional monarchy to a parliamentary republic is no small feat in the island of barely 300,000 inhabitants. Four centuries in the making, it’s happening in a political climate in which colonial and Confederate-era statues are being hauled away, Caribbean nationals are reassessing colonialism and racism amid the Black Lives Matter Movement and their leaders are asking how one can be independent and yet still bow to the queen.
“This is a momentous occasion for Barbados. It really solidifies the final severance of these indirect colonial ties to the U.K.,” said Kevon Edey, a Barbados-born political science and international relations consultant in Bridgetown. “Though it may be merely an administrative formality in terms of swapping terminology, such as governor general for president, I think there is a symbolism here that says we are ready to transition toward full sovereignty — two generations after taking steps toward political independence.”
With Barbados’ move, just eight former colonies in the English-speaking Caribbean will be left paying allegiance to the queen. Though some like St. Vincent and the Grenadines have tried to ditch her majesty in the past, their constitutional requirement that the matter be put to a public vote, has led to defeat.
Still, the language currently in vogue in Barbados — self-determination, charting one’s destiny — is finding appeal among a broad cross section of the Caribbean public as it raises the specter of nationalism in a region where the celebratory mood that once characterized independence from England has been replaced by growing disenchantment and general political malaise with the political, bureaucratic, academic and economic elites across the region.
For example, in a post on his Facebook page, former St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, saluting Barbados’ courage, asked if his eastern Caribbean nation, which still has Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state, has the same courage.
“For years we treated Barbados as the most anglophile nation in the Commonwealth Caribbean,” Anthony said. “We ridiculed Barbados whenever we had the opportunity. There is no hope for ‘Little England’ we would say. Yet, among the nations of the region, Barbados, in recent times has chosen to be the most courageous.”
Cynthia Barrow-Giles, a professor of constitutional governance and politics at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados, said she doesn’t expect Barbados’ transition to lead to any snowballing or domino effect across the English-speaking Caribbean. However, it is galvanizing some sections of the population across the region to press for the basic constitutional change.
“The transition is already having an effect on the British overseas territories (BOTs) where there is ongoing an intense debate on the relative merit of independence and the value of entering independence as a republic rather than as a parliamentary constitutional monarchy,” Barrow-Giles said.
Two territories where the debate is unfolding are in Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, where critics have accused the British government of undermining their limited control of the islands over their own affairs. “This development may well ignite new calls for independence, if not republicanism,” Barrow-Giles said.
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where a 2009 referendum on republicanism failed, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has indicated that any future constitutional developments would have to be initiated by a new generation of citizens and leaders.
“This was the clearest expression of his disappointment with the failed project,” Barrow-Giles said. “It remains to be seen, however, in the context of the deep partisan divide in the country and with the existing constitutional requirement for a referendum whether changes similar to Barbados will be on the political agenda in the near future.”
While the mood on Monday headed into Tuesday is expected to be one of celebration as Barbadians wave their gold and ultramarine-colored flag while draped in the colors, there is still confusion among some as to what the republican status means.
For one, the transition remains a two-step process with the country first casting aside the queen and then later on, adopting a new constitution, which Barrow-Giles doesn’t expect before the second phase of the constitutional reform process is completed in 2023.
“Most Barbadians are supportive of the transition to a republican status,” she said. “But it is also very clear that many are uninformed about the implications of the transition. This I believe is very much a function of their lack of basic knowledge of the political system currently in place and the precise role of the queen in that process as well as what it means to be an independent member of the international community.”
Nevertheless, Barrow-Giles, reflecting on the debates over the last 40 years in Barbados about this historic moment and the disappointment after seeing such discussions in St. Lucia and Britain’s other former colonies go nowhere, said it’s a moment of “profound pride.”
“Even while recognizing that the journey is still incomplete as we attempt to transform the polity, the society, and economy in ways that will benefit the entire society,” she said.
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