Statue removal a technical exercise – Comissiong

Activists calling for the removal of Lord Nelson’s statue have been advised to stick with the Government’s plan to have it moved to the Barbados Museum instead of causing further contention over the controversial monument.

In a recent interview, Barbados’ CARICOM Ambassador David Comissiong reacted to continued anger and disappointment after culture minister John King reported a delay in the removal of the statue from Heroes’ Square by August 23.

The ambassador, who has been championing its removal for decades explained that the process of removing the “fragile” statue was not as clear-cut as some may have thought and described the projected date as “overly ambitious”.

“I think the problem is that many Barbadians do not understand and sufficiently appreciate how technical a process it is to remove a 200-year statue,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“It is not something that you could just send a team from MTW to snatch up and move it to the museum. The museum will install it, but it will take time to prepare a proper exhibit space, and in the meantime, it will have to be stored somewhere and there will be technical requirements for all of this,” Comissiong explained.

The ambassador, who previously sat on two national committees appointed to analyste the issue, was involved in talks as recently as three weeks ago on the logistics of moving the statue in collaboration with the museum.

He subsequently attended a meeting that included Minister King and Director of the Barbados Museum Alissandra Cummins, who has appointed a team of experts to oversee the technical details associated with moving the monument.

“There is nobody more keen to see the statue moved than me, but I am also aware that it is not a simple operation. It calls for technical expertise, a lot of planning and all of that takes time.

“Minister King was hopeful that that could have been accomplished by the 23rd of August and was making preparations for that, but many suspected that that was a very short timeframe, because he had to go back to cabinet with the consensus decision that the statue should be moved to the Barbados Museum, he had to get the approval of cabinet, and then preparations had to be made to move a 200-year-old statue.

“So minister King was really being overly optimistic that he could accomplish all of that by the 23rd. It was well meaning, but in my opinion it was overly optimistic,” Comissiong contended.

The bronze statue of Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was erected in March 1813 paying homage to the naval captain for his battles won in the name of Britain.

Similar to other parts of the world, anti racism protests erupted here calling for the removal of the colonial monument by the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration as well as a movement led by Alex Downes. The groups have promised to continue and intensify their activism.

The CARICOM ambassador has however discouraged further unrest and argued that the Mia Mottley administration was one of the only Governments across the world that has committed to removing such monuments. As such, activists could send a powerful message to the world by working with Government on the issue.

“It is important that we do the moving of this statue well. It is important that it not be acrimonious, that it be presented to the world as an enlightened Government and citizenry moving arm-in-arm to lift this country to another level of consciousness and self respect and self acceptance.

“And I am telling you, the eyes of the world will be on Barbados when the statue is moved. Barbados will be in the international spotlight and we have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to send a very positive and progressive message that hopefully other countries will take to heart,” Commissiong declared.

“This kind of issue does not have to be reduced to bitterness, recrimination and a divided society,” he added. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb