By Victor Omondi
It’s been a week since Barbados Island was declared a republic, free from its decades-long ties to the British monarchy. The long-awaited split from the monarchy seems to have come with major plans. The young republic is planning to build a trans-Atlantic slave museum in commemoration of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The museum will be the largest slave heritage outside the United Kingdom that will host a collection of British slave records.
Besides, the heritage will include an international research center, according to Ghanaian-British architect, David Adjaye, who’s been appointed to design the site. The plan also includes setting up a memorial for hundreds of slaves whose remains were discovered in a burial ground adjacent to the site’s set location.
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Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said in a statement, “Barbados is authentically enshrining our history and preserving the past as we reimagine our world and continue to contribute to global humanity. It is a moral imperative but equally an economic necessity.”
The heritage site is set to open on the Island’s first anniversary, on Nov 30, 2022, according to Art News.
The young republic has left behind other islands like Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts, and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines and the Bahamas and Tuvalu, according to Forbes, which are still under the rulership of the Queen of England.
United Kingdom’s historical archive is the largest in the region, with a record of more than 3 million African slaves who were captured and subjected under slavery from 1662 to 1807. The archive also holds a record of rebellion and revolution through the slavery era.
Barbados is under the leadership of Black women, with Mottley as its prime minister and Sandra Mason as its first president.
The Barbados museum will be built just outside Bridgetown (the capital city). This will be adjacent to the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground Memorial, which is the earliest slave burial ground, New Arts reports.
Source: Barbados to Build a Slavery Museum Following Split from British Monarchy
