The Most Excellent – Now the highest honour for citizens

In observance of Barbados’ independence, the highest honour of the land will now include the title of The Most Excellent.

The announcement was made on Saturday by Prime Minister Mia Mottley who stated that the inclusion of the title for those who did not want to be tied to the pre-independence period. As it stands, Knight or Dame of St Andrew are the highest national honours a citizen can receive.

“We must claim our destiny and we must now establish an equivalent award under the freedom of Barbados so that Barbadians who do not want to be known as Sir or Dame of St Andrew can still have the highest level award in this country,” the Prime Minister said during her feature address at the renaming ceremony of the Spring Garden Highway.

“There will still be some who want the Knight of Saint Andrew, but there are many, many of us of the independence generation who would not know how to accept that award, those persons in claiming the freedom of Barbados would hereafter be known as The Most Excellent,” she proclaimed.

 The Prime Minister said the title reaffirmed the Barbadian identity, as future generations of Barbados can embrace their “Bajaness” or “Barbadianess”.

 “Those children who may not be scientists or who may not be doctors or lawyers or who may not be politicians must forever know that they can attain the highest heights in this country and receive the greatest acclaim of the people of this land by expressing to us that which comes from within . . . . We have reaffirmed what nobody else can do for us, our sense of Bajaness our sense of Barbadianess.” (KK)