Category Archives: Barbados

Barbados leader halts £3m payout to UK MP for Drax Hall plantation

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Government U-turn as PM Mia Mottley acknowledges anger from reparations movement over plan to buy Barbados land from Dorset MP Richard Drax

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has halted plans for a multi-million-pound payout to the British Conservative MP Richard Drax for the purchase of 53 acres of the Drax Hall plantation, which he owns.

As revealed in the Observer last Sunday, the payout plan had angered those involved in the Caribbean reparations movement, who said Drax, the MP for South Dorset, should hand over all or part of the 617-acre plantation to the people of Barbados.

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‘Children won’t be able to survive’: inter-American court to hear from climate victims

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Historic hearing will receive submissions from people whose human rights have been affected by climate change

Julian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia’s Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinúa.

Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are destroying the gulf’s delicate ecosystem and people’s livelihoods.

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Tory MP from slave-owning family set to gain £3m from sale of former plantation

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Caribbean historians want Richard Drax to pay reparations – but now Barbados plans to buy his land for homes

The Conservative MP under fire for his ancestors’ role in Caribbean slavery is in line for a multimillion-pound payout from the Barbados government.

Despite threats to make Richard Drax pay reparations and seize his family’s plantation – described by one historian as a “killing field” of enslaved Africans – the government is now planning to pay market value for 21 hectares (about 15 football pitches) of his land for housing.

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Barbados PM says country owed $4.9tn as she makes fresh call for reparations

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Mia Mottley tells London audience that King Charles’s comments about slavery’s impact were welcome

King Charles’s comment that the “time has come” to acknowledge the enduring impact of slavery has been welcomed by the prime minister of Barbados as she spoke in London about the need for reparations.

Mia Mottley said Barbados was owed $4.9tn (£3.9tn) by slave-owning nations, noting that conversations over how this debt should be repaid would “be difficult and will take time”, she said on Wednesday evening.

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What’s the Caribbean without its beaches? But the people are losing access to them

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Barring public access to beaches and other sites is not a model for development. Transparency and engagement are needed

Walk along a Caribbean beach, which may stretch for miles, and your stroll is guaranteed to be cut short by an angry hotel security guard. In recent years, the Caribbean has seen a worrying trend of governments readily selling off assets to foreign corporations and political financiers.

Prime real estate, protected land and valuable resources are being relinquished without consideration for long-term consequences. It raises questions about whether remnants of the colonial mindset still prevail in political ideologies and decision-making.

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British opera singer creates work to reveal humanity of enslaved ancestors

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Insurrection: A Work in Progress by Peter Brathwaite will highlight folk traditions as a form of resistance

A leading British opera singer is developing a work based on the music of his enslaved ancestors in Barbados as a way of examining complex historical events and highlighting forms of resistance.

Peter Brathwaite and the Royal Opera House (ROH) will present Insurrection: A Work in Progress to audiences in March, inviting feedback from the public that will shape the opera’s next stages.

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Barbados’ top court strikes down laws that criminalize gay sex

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Third nation in conservative Caribbean region to do so this year, in pivotal moment for those who have long fought against such laws

A top court in Barbados has struck down colonial-era laws that criminalize gay sex, becoming the third nation in the conservative Caribbean region to do so this year.

The ruling issued Monday by the Barbados high court is a pivotal moment for activists and non-profit organizations who have long fought against such laws on the eastern Caribbean island, including one that demands up to a life sentence for gay men found guilty of having sex.

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Barbados plans to make Tory MP pay reparations for family’s slave past

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Richard Drax reported to have visited Caribbean island for meeting on next steps, including plans for former sugar plantation

The government of Barbados is considering plans to make a wealthy Conservative MP the first individual to pay reparations for his ancestor’s pivotal role in slavery.

The Observer understands that Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, recently travelled to the Caribbean island for a private meeting with the country’s prime minister, Mia Mottley. A report is now before Mottley’s cabinet laying out the next steps, which include legal action in the event that no agreement is reached with Drax.

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UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

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Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

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Prime minister of Barbados says King Charles is a ‘man ahead of his time’

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Mia Mottley praised his environmental and social commitment and noted his recognition of the atrocities of slavery

The prime minister of Barbados, which became the world’s newest republic after removing the Queen as its head of state last year, has described King Charles III as a “man ahead of his time” because of his environmental views and commitment to young people, and noted his recent recognition of the atrocities of slavery.

Speaking to the BBC World Service programme The Newsroom on Saturday, Mia Mottley also paid tribute to the Queen, who congratulated the Caribbean island on a “momentous” day when it became a republic in November last year.

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King Charles’s ascension ignites debate over royals across Commonwealth

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Head of state role in doubt in realms from Jamaica to New Zealand after death of Queen Elizabeth II

King Charles’s ascension to the throne has reignited a debate over whether the royal family deserves a global role in the 21st century, no more so than in the 14 Commonwealth realms where the British monarch remains the head of state.

A legacy of empire and slavery that was entwined with British royalty for centuries has raised tough questions about the place of a foreign king, and republican movements from the Pacific to North America to the Caribbean will be assessing whether they should seize the moment.

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Growing calls in Caribbean to cut ties to monarchy as royals fly out

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William and Kate’s visit seen as attempt to persuade countries not to follow Barbados in ditching monarchy

The UK should be helping Caribbean nations sever ties with the monarchy rather than sending the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on a charm offensive, Caribbean experts and Windrush campaigners say, predicting that Barbados’s decision to remove the Queen as head of state may have a domino effect across the region.

The royals will embark on a tour of Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas on Saturday that is widely viewed as an attempt to persuade other Caribbean nations not to follow Barbados’s example, after the Queen was said to have been dismayed by the island’s move.

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Female leadership is good for the world. Just look at Barbados

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Mia Mottley is just one of a raft of strong women across the Caribbean and South America tackling society’s most pressing issues. The world could learn a lot from them

There is a common misconception that the developing world is full of archaic values and that women struggle to have their voices heard. The more countries I visit and the more female leaders I speak to, the more I am convinced the contrary is true.

In fact, those in positions of power worldwide could learn important lessons from these strong women when it comes to tackling some of society’s most pressing issues, including pandemics, the climate crisis, education and infrastructure.

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Barbados PM who broke with Queen hopes for election boost

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Pollsters predict comfortable win for Mia Mottley, but she faces criticism of running a ‘one-party state’

She wowed Cop26 by castigating dithering global leaders for inflicting a “death sentence” on island nations and then made headlines around the world when she ditched the Queen as head of state, installing the singer Rihanna as an official national hero.

On Wednesday, the Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley, hopes her soaring international profile will translate into a second term when the country goes to the polls in a snap general election.

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Barbados can be a beacon for the region – if it avoids some of its neighbours’ mistakes | Kenneth Mohammed

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The Caribbean’s newest republic must avoid the corruption that has hampered Trinidad and Tobago and use its presidency to ensure good governance

The charismatic prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, elevated her country’s status in the world with her stinging speech at Cop26 in Glasgow last month. This speech resonated throughout the West Indies, a region that has largely been devoid of a strong leader to give these vulnerable small island developing states (SIDS) a voice in the climate crisis debate. The survival of SIDS such as Barbados depends on the finance to invest in measures to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C, which was the Paris agreement’s main objective.

Mottley called on all leaders of developed countries to step up their efforts as she outlined a solution embodied in flexible development finance. First, create a loss and damage fund made up of 1% of revenues from fossil fuels (which she estimated would amount to about $70bn, or £50bn, a year), accessible only to countries that have suffered a climate disaster and loss of 5% of their economy.

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The Guardian view on Barbados and the Queen: it has moved on. Can Britain? | Editorial

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The country became the world’s newest republic this week. While Britain is still racked by arguments over empire, others have already passed judgment

The contrast could hardly be more striking. In Britain, the removal of the statue of a slave trader, name changes for institutions and apologies from some who profited from slavery have produced reams of fevered arguments and fulminations. In Barbados, this week’s removal of the Queen as head of state was as calm and straightforward as the process leading to the change.

Yes, there was a ceremony to swear in the new president, Sandra Mason (at which Rihanna provided rather more excitement than Prince Charles, as the prime minister, Mia Mottley, had savvily realised). But this symbolic moment was not one of high passion or drama.

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Praise for Prince Charles after ‘historic’ slavery condemnation

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Equality campaigners say remarks made as Barbados became a republic are ‘start of a grown-up conversation’

The Prince of Wales’s acknowledgment of the “appalling atrocity of slavery” that “forever stains our history” as Barbados became a republic was brave, historic, and the start of a “grown-up conversation led by a future king”, equality campaigners have said.

Uttering words his mother, the Queen, would be constitutionally constrained from saying, Prince Charles’s speech, at the ceremony to replace the monarch as head of state in the island nation, did not demur from reflecting on the “darkest days of our past” as he looked to a bright future for Barbadians.

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Barbados’s icon: why Rihanna’s national hero status is so apt

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Honoured by her newly independent country, Rihanna has always proudly worn her Bajan heritage – broadening her sound from her Caribbean roots, while staying true to them

Rihanna’s designation as a national hero of Barbados, to coincide with the country’s transition to an independent republic, could not be more apt. Not only has she been an official ambassador for culture and youth in the country since 2018, the singer remains the country’s most famous citizen and indeed advocate. She has never softened her Bajan accent, and her music, while tapping into pop, R&B and dance music, has remained rich with her Caribbean heritage.

In her investiture ceremony, the country’s prime minister Mia Mottley addressed the pop singer, fashion icon and hugely successful entrepreneur as “ambassador Robyn Rihanna Fenty: may you continue to shine like a diamond” – a reference to 2012’s global hit Diamonds – “and bring honour to your nation, by your words, by your actions, and to do credit wherever you shall go. God bless you, my dear.”

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Barbados leaves colonial history behind and becomes a republic – video report

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President Sandra Mason was sworn in as the new head of state in the Barbados capital Bridgetown. The celebrations were attended by Prince Charles, who acknowledged the 'appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history'. Singer and entrepreneur Rihanna was designated a National Hero of Barbados. 

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Barbados declares Rihanna a national hero during republic ceremony – video

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Barbados has declared singer Rihanna a national hero during its republican celebrations in Bridgetown. The country's prime minister, Mia Mottley, said, ‘On behalf of a grateful nation, but an even prouder people, we therefore present to you, the designee, for national hero of Barbados, ambassador Robyn Rihanna Fenty may you continue to shine like a diamond.' Rihanna accepted the honour to cheers from the crowd. The ceremony was part of celebrations as Barbados became the world’s newest republic.

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