As Barbados remembers the horrors of the slave trade,as well we should,I think it is a pertinent time that all who have the power should do something about that ever present sore that remains in Bridgetown,in hero's square of all places.If there is one thing that history has taught us is that a racist is not a hero and for the 95% Africans in Barbados Horatio Nelson was more than a terrorist.A good place for that statue would be to the bottom of the wharf.
Today more than ever before, the ways of the Carib are to be laughed at and ridiculed; the dirty, heathen savages who are to be shunted away and have no rights but to die far away. The colonization of Barbados is one of the darkest events and evil stories of modern history. Four centuries ago Spanish and Portuguese slavers started to kidnap, kill and drive out the thousands of peaceful Indians found on the islands the Indians called Ichiroganaum. The exact location of the island was a carefully kept secret but Spanish and Portuguese sailors knew the island only as the barbarous island, “Los Barbados” where brutality and crime could be committed with immunity. The island lay just outside the Caribbean and far away from watchful eyes. Look out for this and other books by Gary and Angela Cole…
Comments
He was a hero to the Barbadians who erected the statue in 1813. Accept it.
If 200 years from now Bajans of the day say "what the hell did Errol Barrow" do for Barbados or "why do we have a statue to a sportsman (Sir Gary)?" or a fictional character (Bussa), will you be happy for them to tear down our statues?
When independence means nothing to future Bajans they will not respect Errol Barrow, when the trade union movement is dead or dying who will care about Sir Frank Walcott?
We chose the heroes of our time, while respecting our history (Sarah Ann Gill, Samuel Jackman Prescod, etc).
Let's respect the choice made by Bajans 200 years ago, in the hopes that our choices will be respected by future generations.