Liberia: Pilgrimage to Barbados Gets Government Greenlight

(Front Page Africa) — Former Liberian Ambassador, L. Llewellyn Witherspoon, has expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of diplomatic relations with Barbados since settlers arrived in 1865.

Ambassador Witherspoon said it was a travesty that bilateral relations between the two countries seem to have ended following the arrival of 346 Barbadians, including his great-great-grandfather, John Prince Porte, in Liberia.

The Ambassador commented recently at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Monrovia when the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Thelma Duncan-Sawyer received him.

In officially and wholeheartedly welcoming him back “home” to the Foreign Ministry, Minister Duncan-Sawyer applauded him for the research work on his family’s ancestry in Barbados, which culminated in the publication of his widely read 2021 Research Paper, “Portes Find a New Home in Liberia, Story of the Post-Emancipation Emigration of The John Prince Porte Family from Barbados, West Indies, to Liberia, West Africa in 1865, & The Family’s Quest for Ancestral Citizenship”.

The Acting Minster of Foreign Affairs also thanked Ambassador Witherspoon for his exemplary and patriotic role in opening the avenue for talks between the two countries and getting Liberians interested in researching their Barbadian ancestry.

Ambassador Witherspoon served as Liberia’s first Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary to South Africa from 1997 to 2001, with concurrent accreditation to Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Before then, he had served from 1987 to 1991 as First Secretary & Consul of Liberia in Kinshasa, Zaire, with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Congo. In 2022, he retired from the United Nations World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, after 17 years of “outstanding” service.

“During the chat with the Acting Foreign Minister, Ambassador Witherspoon reminded the Minister that the Liberia-Barbados relationship dates back to 1864 during the regime of the late President Daniel D. Warner. Then-Secretary of State, Edward Wilmot Blyden, had persuaded President Warner to invite experienced, qualified and non-disabled “brethren” in Barbados and the broader Caribbean to Liberia.

This followed the passage in 1833 of the Slavery Abolition Act by the British Parliament that abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa and a small number in Canada. It received Royal Assent on August 28, 1833, and took effect on August 1, 1834.

Ambassador narrated that President Warner then presented his plan to the Liberian Parliament, which included granting citizenship on arrival and 25 acres of land to each family and 10 acres to each individual. With its approval in 1864, mobilization plans were put into motion.

By then, interest in going to Liberia, the only free and independent black country, was prevalent throughout the Caribbean islands, and everywhere else, there were black people enthralled by the idea of building their own country and shaping their destiny.

He furthered that in 1865, in response to the flood of requests for assistance in emigrating, the American Colonization Society (ACS) representative in Barbados, Joseph Atwell, appealed to the ACS Philadelphia Branch. A ten thousand dollar grant was obtained from philanthropists John P, and Samuel A. Crozier received a ten thousand dollar grant. The ACS also dispatched a Dr. Mclean to supervise the embarkation onto the Brig Cora, which had been engaged to carry 346 persons to Liberia. But this was only after the British Monarchy, through the Governor of Barbados, in its desire to ensure the best representation by its citizens, had undertaken a meticulous selection and vetting exercise. All those selected were Christians, most Episcopalians, and educated and skilled.

Ambassador Witherspoon reminded the Acting Minister that on March 10, 1865, the Fatherland Union Barbados Emigration Society founded by London Bourne and others years earlier was revived, with Anthony Barclay, Jr. as Chairman, to collect families, source funding and secure a suitable for settlement in Liberia. A renowned citizen of Barbados, Joseph S. Atwell, traveled to the US to collect funds to assist his compatriots in emigrating to Liberia. He collected US$ 20,000 and was instrumental in the founding of Crozierville.

The Ambassador explained that the group initially settled in Crozierville, the township twenty miles outside Monrovia, on the St. Paul River, which they named in honor of the wealthy Barbadian Crozer brothers. Most remained there, and others moved to other parts of the country.

The Ambassador’s great-great-grandfather John Prince Porte settled in Crozierville, built a home for his family on Porte Hill, and immediately erected Christ Episcopal Church on a street he named Lemongrass Street, in nostalgic reference to and in remembrance of his beloved Barbados. Porte Hill remains the homestead in Liberia for generations of Portes, and John Prince Porte is buried in the family cemetery there.

Minister Duncan-Sawyer recalled that Barbados produced two presidents of Liberia, Arthur Barclay, the 15th president who ruled Liberia from 1904-1912, and Edwin Barclay, the 18th who ruled from 1943-1944. The latter is also credited with writing the Liberian National Anthem, The Lone Star Forever, at age 19. She also averred that many Barbadian emigrants held high-level positions in the Liberian government and were active and successful participants in developing the private sector.

Regarding the 2024 Sankofa Pilgrimage to Barbados (Back2Barbados.com), the Minister congratulated Ambassador Witherspoon for planning this “Heritage Event of Historical Significance” and offered the full endorsement of the Government of Liberia. In thanking her, Ambassador Witherspoon was quick to point out that the idea for a gathering of descendants of Barbadian settlers in Barbados, 159 years after their ancestors had left for Liberia, came as a wish from Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley when he met her at Ilaro Court, the official Residence of the Prime Minister, in 2020. He said the Prime Minister desired a reciprocal pilgrimage of Barbadians to Liberia in due course.

A vital activity of the Pilgrimage will be the Sankofa Pilgrimage to Barbados Marketplace, expected to be jointly hosted by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) and INVEST Barbados, where both Liberian and Barbadian businesses can meet. Therefore, the Pilgrimage promises to boost the tourism sectors of both Barbados and Liberia and serve as a platform for agricultural, cultural, educational, technological, AI, and business development between the two countries.

“During my meeting with the Prime Minister of Barbados, she was both surprised and concerned that despite the historic ties between our two countries, no concrete ties existed, and she asked her Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade to take steps to correct this faux pas,” Ambassador Witherspoon shared with Minister Duncan-Sawyer. He then thanked her and, through her, the Government of Liberia for its agreement to establish diplomatic relations with Barbados and strengthen ties between the two countries.

“Ambassador Witherspoon informed the Minister that while in Liberian he had met with the President of the Liberia Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Oscar Tweh, and told him of the potential for business spinoffs for his membership in the areas of tourism, agriculture, and commerce, among others. “Barbados makes the best and most exclusive rums in the Caribbean,” he said, citing synergistic opportunities for developing that sector in Liberia.

In 2020, the Government of Barbados announced that the Citizenship Act would be amended to remove generational requirements enabling Liberians of Barbadian ancestry to apply for Barbadian citizenship based upon proven ancestral connections. Under the current Act, only grandchildren have access to Barbadian citizenship.

Ambassador Witherspoon intimated that he has it on good authority from the Barbados National Archives that since the publication of his Research Paper, scores of Liberians have gone and are going to Barbados to conduct their own ancestral research. Many others have engaged through online search engines.

There are reports of Liberians going to Barbados to conduct such research, but this is the only known instance of publicly sharing the findings and their impact on generating interest across the global diaspora. Indeed, Ambassador Witherspoon’s meeting with the Prime Minister is the first-ever official engagement of a descendant of the 1865 settlers at such a high level.