Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, and is the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It is 34 kilometres (21 miles) in length and up to 23 km (14 mi) in width, covering an area of 432 km2 (167 sq mi).  The island rises gently to the central highland region known as Scotland District, with the high point of the nation being Mount Hillaby 340 m (1,120 ft) above sea level. 

The population in 2022 is 287,940, of which 90% are of Afro-Caribbean descent; 4% Europeans (mostly from Ireland and the UK). The remaining 6% include Indo-Guyanese; Chinese Barbadians; Syrians, Lebanese and a small Jewish community from the early 17th century.

On 27th November 2021, Barbados became an independent Republic, with Dame Sandra Mason installed as the first President of Barbados, ending 396 years of colonisation. Mia Mottley is Prime Minister (Barbados Labour Party BLP) elected for a second term of office in January 2022.

National flower

The Pride of Barbados (Dwarf Poinciana or Flower Fence) was recorded as early as 1657. The Pride of Barbados blooms most of the year, with the flower a fiery red of five petals with a yellow margin in a pyramidal inflorescence. It is a shrub and often pruned into a low hedge.

History

Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, Spanish navigators took possession of Barbados in the late 15th century, claiming it for the Crown of Castile. An English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados on 14 May 1625 and by 1627 British settlers took possession of the island in the name of King James I. 

Professor Hilary McD. Beckles explains in his book: The First Black Slave Society: Britain’s “Barbarity” Time in Barbados, 1636 -1876, that “in 1636, a political directive provided that all Africans brought to the island of Barbados were to be received as lifelong chattels. The slave laws were not intended to protect lives, but to secure the investment value in those lives.” England gained its first economic success by building the first complete large-scale Black slave society and by 1650, it was universally recognized for its economic prosperity. Investors and Imperial administrators abandoned traditional labour values and put all their focus, effort, and investment into the sugar plantations of Barbados worked through the hard labour of thousands of enslaved Africans. 

Bajan society (as the people of Barbados are called) became a plantocracy, with white planters controlling the economy and government institutions. Though enslaved people continually resisted their bondage, the effective authoritarian power of slave owning planters ensured that apart from a major slave rebellion, there was no effective threat to their control. Estimates of the number of slaves shipped to Barbados between 1627 and 1807, range between 387,000 and 600,000. It is estimated that Britain’s slave merchants made profits of about £12 million on the purchase and sale of African people between 1630 and 1807, perhaps £16 billion in today’s money.

There was resistance with three major slave rebellions in the 17th century, in 1649, 1675 and 1692, all suppressed with utmost brutality. A further slave revolt in 1816 was the largest in Bajan history and was called the Bussa rebellion led by an African born enslaved man Bussa. Three Bussa rebellions took place between the U.S. abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and general emancipation by the British in 1838. 

Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with Elizabeth II as Queen of Barbados in 1966. In October 2021, Sandra Mason became the first President of Barbados with Barbados transitioning to an independent republic in November 2021.

 Geography, Climate and Environment:

Barbados has nearly 90 kilometres (56 miles) of coral reefs just offshore and two protected marine parks have been established off the west coast.  The government has placed a huge emphasis on keeping Barbados clean with the aim of protecting and preserving these offshore coral reefs.  

Barbados is host to four species of nesting turtles (green turtles, loggerheads, hawksbill and leatherbacks) and has the second-largest hawksbill turtle-breeding population in the Caribbean.

Culture, music, dance and carnival

The music of Barbados includes distinctive national styles of folk and popular music, including elements of Western classical and religious music. The culture of Barbados is a syncretic mix of African and British elements, and the island's music reflects this mix through song types and styles, instrumentation, dances, and aesthetic principles.

Barbadian folk traditions include the Landship movement, which is a satirical, informal organization based on the Royal Navy, tea meetings, tuk bands and numerous traditional songs and dances. In modern Barbados, popular styles include calypso, spouge, contemporary folk and world music. Barbados is one of the few centres for Caribbean jazz.

Barbadian folk dances include crop over festivals, known for dancing in the costumes of sugarcane-cutters. The Landship movement features song and dance meant to imitate the passage of a Royal Navy ship through rough seas; Landship and other occasions also feature African-derived improvised and complexly-rhythmic dances, and British hornpipes, jigs, maypole dances and Marches. 

In the 20th century, many new styles were imported to Barbados, including jazz, ska, reggae, calypso and soca. Barbados also produced an indigenous style called spouge, which became an important symbol of identity.  Spouge is primarily a fusion of Jamaican ska with Trinidadian calypso, but is also influenced by a wide variety of music from the British Isles and United States, including sea shanties, hymns and spirituals. Spouge instrumentation originally consisted of cowbell, bass guitar, trap set and various other electronic and percussion instruments, later augmented by saxophone, trombone and trumpets.  Barbados has produced a few internationally popular musicians, with pop superstar Rihanna being honoured as a national hero.

The national dish for Barbados is Flying Fish and Cou-cou. Flying fish are plentiful in Barbados as small, winged fish that actually glide rather than truly fly. They launch themselves into the air by beating their tail very fast and spreading their pectoral fins to use as wings.