Chicago Tribune True, the 21-mile-long island of Barbados—Portuguese for "bearded-ones"—is a bit more remote and trickier to get to than, say, Jamaica. But its gently rolling, terraced landscape, relative immunity to hurricanes and ultra-friendly vibe immediately lulls travelers into a beachy state of mind upon arrival. Adding to the allure, Barbadians—colloquially, Bajans—are an enveloping bunch.
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…
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