Up early to brave the public bus from our Airbnb in the beachside suburb of Oistins back into Bridgetown proper for our morning walking tour.
Only 4 of us on the tour and, you guessed it, all 4 were from Queensland.
Now let’s sort out which generation you belong to first. The two recent ‘heroes’ of Barbados are Sir Garfield Sobers and Rihanna. Which one of the two you know about seems to define your generation.
OK, so you can tell that I’m old and grey. I can only remember one song of Rihanna, and that is because it’s a collaboration with Coldplay. Otherwise Wikipedia tells me that Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a Barbadian singer and businesswoman with an estimated net worth of US$1.4 billion. She seems to have dropped the odd million on Barbadian charities and causes here or there, so she is highly regarded. She is also seen on every poster in the country endorsing every known product from perfume to toothpaste, so she ain’t short of a quid. She’s named her two kids RZA and Riot.
On the other hand, I actually got to watch Garfield Sobers play for the West Indies at the MCG. At the time, and until quite recently, he held the record for the highest test score of 365 not out. Gary as he was known then is widely considered to be cricket’s greatest ever all-rounder, played in the famous tied test in 1960-61, and was rated by Wisden as International Cricketer of the Year eight times in thirteen years. Which makes my memory of him at the MCG one of my most disappointing. Needing 30 runs in the last over to win, and with wickets in hand, the best cricketer in the world padded up to six balls and walked off.
Both Rihanna and Sir Garfield are memorialised with a statue in the National Heroes Square outside the Parliament Building which we visited on our walking tour, which took us to various sites in the central area of the city. Seems that having one of the few deep water ports in the area that the British controlled, Bridgetown became the hub for goods arriving from England, and being gathered from countries around the Caribbean to be sent back to London, which also involved the gathering and selling of slaves until 1833.
Interestingly, thousands of Irish prisoners were deported to Barbados, and many more thousands came voluntarily as servants in the 1600s.
Lots of the main elements of the story took place around the time that King Charles was fighting a civil war with Cromwell’s forces, and ultimately losing his head, so for a time Barbados was left to its own devices, and it seems that they didn’t take too kindly to the powers-that-be trying to regain control after the English Civil War was over. They had a parliament way back in 1639 and, whilst officially remaining a British colony until 1966, they feel that they effectively gained independence much earlier than other countries under British control, gaining elements of self rule throughout the 1950s, and full self rule in 1961. In 2021 Barbados became a republic with a president replacing the then Queen Elizabeth as head of state.
We saw the parliament, independence square, National Heroes Square, the Methodist Church where independence was agitated for, the place where the slave market was situated, the old Jewish cemetery, and a few other significant sites in the central district before heading back to our unit on the local bus.
Geologically, the island of Barbados is composed of coral roughly 90 m (300 ft) thick, and a large proportion of the island is circled by coral reefs.
Independence Arch
Bridgetown Tilt Bridge
Parliament and the Heroes Monuments
Heroes Monuments
Old Fire Station and Horse Stables