Why Barbados became a republic and cut ties with the British monarchy

Barbados is famous for its beaches, for its obsessive love of cricket, and for being the birthplace of rum (and Rihanna!). 

Then on November 30, 2021 it became famous for something else: Removing the British monarch as head of state and becoming a republic.

But the tiny Caribbean island nation’s independent spirit did not emerge from nowhere. Barbados has long been a political pioneer. One of the world’s oldest parliaments was established in Barbados in 1639 — albeit under British colonial control.

Yet with countries like Australia still debating whether or not the time has come to become a republic, what prompted tiny Barbados with its population of less than 300,000, to take the leap?

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A brutal slave trade

Barbados was originally inhabited by indigenous Arawak and Carib people — who called the island Ichirouganaim — until first contact with Europeans in the 16th century. “Slave raids” by Spanish and Portuguese explorers — who renamed the island “Barbudos”, or bearded ones — wiped out the population. Those who were not abducted for slavery fled elsewhere in the region.

In 1625, with almost no remaining indigenous inhabitants and no longer of interest to the Spanish and Portuguese, the British arrived. They decided Barbados was indeed of use to them, and the island’s trajectory was set for the next 400 years.

In February 1627, a ship carrying 80 English men and 10 Africans captured to work as slaves arrived on Barbados and a farming community was established producing dyes, cotton, tobacco and sugar. The demands of sugar production called for more labour and led to a brutal slave trade of workers from West Africa.

Residents of Barbados were divided into three categories: free, indentured (or contract labour), and enslaved, typically decided according to skin colour.

Over the next 20 years the population exploded. By the time Britain finally abolished slavery in 1834, 88,000 black and mixed-race people lived on the island alongside 15,000 whites, who became wealthy off the back of free labour and huge profits from global demand for sugar. 

Many whites, who owned small family farms, moved to Jamaica and what is now North and South Carolina, when their farms were bought up by the plantation owners who ran huge businesses staffed with slaves.

Change was afoot

The inequality inherent in Barbadian society fed the start of an uprising. Enslaved people consistently resisted the mostly white political elite leading to a slave rebellion in 1816. But efforts to resist were quickly put down by British troops and local militia.

Even after emancipation 18 years later, poor wages and services and the political power of white merchants and plantation owners, meant attempts at political protest were futile. Many freed slaves chose to emigrate.

But unrest grew. The population increased, opportunities to emigrate shrank, the Great Depression caused economic struggle as sugar and other crops became less profitable.

Following the inspiration of Jamaica’s black nationalist movement, black political leaders in Barbados gained traction by the mid-1940s. By 1950 universal adult suffrage was introduced. Barbados became fully self-governed in 1961 and a member of the Commonwealth. It led to a period of political stability that included regular free elections.

Time to shed colonial symbols

Everything continued on, in much the same way, for the next 60 years.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Barbados six times, including as part of a 1966 tour of the Caribbean with Prince Philip. King Charles visited as recently as 2019. Other royals to tour the island include Prince Harry, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie.

But the horrific support for slavery meant that Caribbean nations, including Barbados, have had a troubled relationship with Britain and the British royal family.

A desire to sever any remaining ties to its colonial past grew as a campaign to leave the monarchy and assert Barbados’ sovereignty grew alongside global anti-colonial sentiments.

In 2021 a parliamentary vote agreed to amend the constitution to become a republic. And so the population of 285,000 officially left the Commonwealth realm, although remains a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and installed Dame Sandra Mason as president. Mason replaced Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

The move by Barbados followed Guyana, which became a republic in 1970, Trinidad and Tobago (1976) and Dominica (1978). Jamaica and Belize are considering following suit.

Barbadian man Firhaana Bulbulia said at the time of the change that many young activists believed the legacy of British colonialism and slavery continued to underpin inequality.

“The wealth gap, the ability to own land and even access to loans from banks all have a lot to do with structures built out of being ruled by Britain,” she said. “The actual chains [of slavery] were broken and we no longer wore them, but the mental chains continue to persist in our mindsets.