Barbados has cut its last remaining colonial ties with Britain nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at the Caribbean island.
Reuters reports that the Island ditched Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as head of state, forging a new republic on Tuesday with it’s first-ever president, Sandra Mason.
At the stroke of midnight, the new republic was born to the cheers of hundreds of people lining Chamberlain Bridge in the capital, Bridgetown. A 21 gun salute fired as the national anthem of Barbados was played over a crowded Heroes Square.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, stood somberly as Queen Elizabeth’s royal standard was lowered and the new Barbados declared, a step which republicans hope will spur discussion of similar proposals in other former British colonies that have Queen Elizabeth as their sovereign head.
Barbados casts the removal of Elizabeth II, who is still queen of 15 other realms including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Jamaica, as a way to finally break with the demons of its colonial history.
After a dazzling display of Barbadian dance and music, complete with speeches celebrating the end of colonialism, Mason was sworn in as Barbados’s first president in the shadow of Barbados’s parliament.
“Full stop this colonial page,” Winston Farrell, a Barbadian poet told the ceremony. “Some have grown up stupid under the Union Jack, lost in the castle of their skin. It is about us, rising out of the cane fields, reclaiming our history,” he said. “End all that she mean, put a Bajan there instead.”
The birth of the republic, 55 years to the day since Barbados declared independence, unclasps almost all the colonial bonds that have kept the tiny island tied to England since an English ship claimed it for King James I in 1625. It may also be a harbinger of a broader attempt by other former colonies to cut ties to the British monarchy as it braces for the end of Elizabeth’s nearly 70-year reign and the future accession of Charles.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the leader of Barbados’ republican movement, helped lead the ceremony and has won global attention by denouncing the effects of climate change on small Caribbean nations.
“Tonight’s the night!” read the front-page headline of Barbados’ Daily Nation newspaper. I’m overjoyed,” Ras Binghi, a Bridgetown cobbler, said ahead of the ceremony.
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