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)
Take a minute to read and digest being honest and true to one’s self is the greatest policy!
Hmmm, sounds like paving the way to go Republic.
Most Excellent! Excellent! Drop those shackles one by one. It’s about damn time.
Thank you PM, was waiting for that a long time ago, many deserving to be recognized. Hard work pays off. Love ❤
Joan Hoyte. Camilla Niles. Joseph Niles. Remember Olutoye’s book: Westminster’s Jewel, the Barbados story.
excellent
A proud and wonderful moment in our history.
Give Richard Stoute something, he deserves to be acknowledged
I love the most excellent but do not fathom the freedom of Barbados bit.
Throwing off the yokes of our colonizers,at last.
On the day it was announced that the Bishop of Barbados is dropping the colonial appendage of “Lord” from his title, we hear that Barbados is instituting a new award, while still holding on to the colonial inspired Knight of St Andrew. If we are instituting a Barbados “Most Excellent” award. then we have to turn our backs on any Buck house award, Knighthood,CBE or OBE, otherwise the designation “Most Excellent” will ring hollow.
This is a woman who the first thing she did after becoming PM was to bold facedly knight her own father. Give me a break.
But will the planter and merchant class of Barbados accept a Freedom of Barbados award?
Won’t make a difference when titles will still be given as political rewards.
I’m hoping this is the start of the process of moving swiftly and purposefully to relinquishing the British monarch as our head of state, and installing our own. It is the natural outcome of this independence process.
I don’t understand – does Most Excellent replace Knight or Dame of St. Andrew, and what will the recipients be known as? How does the National Heroes’ Right Excellent designation fit into this if it is indeed a new model? And will we eventually rule out the Queen’s Honors List? Just curious as to whether this is the way forward or just being said for dramatic effect.
This move doesn’t appear to be in an effort of “freeing our shackles” at all. The Most Excellent is a traditional Spanish honourific title. So are we trading one empire for another??
Most Excellent Yard Fowl!