Barbados removes statue of British naval officer <PERSON> for his role in the slave trade · Global Voices
The statue of <PERSON> after it was taken down from its plinth in Barbados’ National Heroes Square, on November 16, 2020. Screenshot taken from a Facebook livestream of the event.
Eurocentric history has, for the most part, remembered Vice-Admiral <PERSON> as a courageous and astute naval commander. Statuary honouring his accomplishments can be seen around the world, from London's Trafalgar Square to Bridgetown's National Heroes Square, where Barbados honoured him for his victory off Cape Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars, which prevented the island from becoming a French colony and protected key trade access to Britain.
On November 16, 2020, however, after years of calls for the statue to be removed because of <PERSON>'s role in the transatlantic slave trade, the Barbadian government has finally decommissioned it. With the national flag flying proudly over the parliament, Prime Minister <PERSON> presided over the ceremony, which was livestreamed on Facebook. 741
The date is observed as the United Nations’ International Day for Tolerance.
The event, which included performances of music, dancing and drumming, began with a reading by <PERSON>, whose poem “This Space” aptly conveyed a timeline of how colonialism turned the enslaved “from human to cattle, from person to chattel” — and how Barbadians are now reclaiming the space for themselves:
It is interesting how many tales the cobblestones of a place can hold
How many times a space can dawn a new face,
How many new stories unfold:
Watch this space.
Watch the way this square transforms before your very eyes […]
As the statue was lifted off its plinth to the beat of African drums, dancers enacted the horrors of slavery while a singer performed <PERSON>.” Barbadians looked on as the bronze cast of the man whom Sir <PERSON>, chairman of the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Reparations Committee, referred to as “a vile, racist, white supremacist [who] disposed of black people,” was finally brought down from his pedestal. By the end of the performance, there was a palpable sense of a weight being lifted.
Barbados’ Prime Minister <PERSON> addresses the crowd at the decommissioning ceremony of the <PERSON> statue on November 16, 2020. Screenshot taken from a Facebook livestream of the event.
In her address, Prime Minister <PERSON> said that the statue represented dominance and a display of power, and that its dismantling symbolised the reclaiming of modern-day Barbados:
It is important that we understand that this is a struggle that doesn't end today with the moving of this statue.
She said that an integral aspect of freedom is a liberated mind, and revealed that her phone's screensaver is a photo of Jamaican reggae icon <PERSON>, to remind her that “the mission of our generation is the mental emancipation of our people.” She also praised the work of the CARICOM Reparations Committee, saying that redress is vital for moving forward — for “right things to be done for the wrongs that were perpetrated.”
Noting that Barbados’ history is “not as easy as black and white,” <PERSON> addressed many of the continued microaggressions that have been handed down as a result of colonialism, including skin bleaching and the policing of black hair:
If we do not know who we are, if we are not clear what we will fight for, then we are doomed to be exploited and to be colonised again, not necessarily in the same way […] but in the way that will allow the mental spaces to be dominated by stories and songs and messages that are not our own, and that are not intended to be able to lift up our people.
While she acknowledged that the statue of <PERSON> is “an important historical relic,” <PERSON> said it had no place in Barbados’ National Heroes Square. The plan is to relocate the sculpture, which is more than 200 years old, to a temporary storage site until it returns to public display at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.
The move is a key step in the redevelopment of Historic Bridgetown, which UNESCO designated as a World Heritage Site. Given Barbados’ intention to remove <PERSON> as head of state and become a republic before the 55th anniversary of its independence on November 30, 2021, it also represents a symbolic separation from its colonial past.
The ceremony ended with calypsonian <PERSON> singing “Take Down Nelson. 678