Direct airlinks with Africa still on agenda

Government is again signalling its intent to establish direct commercial airlift between Barbados and the African continent.

Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Simone Rudder reiterated this desire on Monday morning during a virtual press conference to launch the inaugural virtual church service between the Anglican Diocese of Barbados and Accra, Ghana, scheduled for Sunday, August 22. The service, which will be hosted at St George Parish Church here and the Christ Church Legon, in Accra, will be held under the theme: Transforming the Middle Passage from an Abyss of Darkness to a Ray of Hope.

Speaking to a panel that included Rector of the St George Parish Church, Senator Reverend Dr John Rogers and Rector of the Christ Church Legon, Archdeacon Ebenezer Layrea, Rudder addressed Barbados’ desire to foster stronger ties with Ghana. She said a linkage through commercial flights would be beneficial for both nations.

“We would like to eventually see a scheduled commercial service linking Bridgetown and Accra and other parts of Ghana. Right now we have charters which would come and our people can hop through different cities to get to Barbados and vice versa, but we do need to establish that dedicated air link. This will facilitate the growth of trade. . . but obviously the exchange of tourists, the flow of business persons.

“Although we have learnt with COVID to do a lot virtually, we know in some instances that in-person, physical presence is still important. Obviously, for the tourism sector which is a very strong sector in both Ghana and Barbados, it is critical,” she said.

In her address, Rudder spoke about the bilateral relationship aimed at bridging the gap between the nations. These so far include: the expected opening of a Barbados High Commission in Accra before end of year; the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of the West Indies and the University of Ghana; the establishment of a Barbados-Ghana chamber of commerce; increased imports from Ghana; as well as the presence of a team of nurses from Ghana in Barbados.

The most recent initiative is the church service which Reverend Rogers believes will be the beginning of a long and strong friendship.

The event will showcase cultural presentations from both nations and will be broadcast live simultaneously in Barbados via the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation and Adoa TV Ghana.

Members of the Rastafarian community, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan, the St Leonard’s Boys’ School Choir, and Cultural Ambassador Anthony Gabby Carter will feature in the event.

Reverend Rogers explained that staging the service during the Season of Emancipation was strategic since August 22 is the Sunday closest to the International Day of the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

The Middle Passage was a journey that many were not expected to survive and it is believed that when enslaved Africans lost hope of a return to their country and the prospect of what was to meet them in the new place, they used the Middle Passage as their graveyard. While the journey has always been a dark place, Rogers hopes that through this service some light can come out of the countries’ shared histories.

“What we have realized is that to forge true and meaningful bonds we have to confront the past and we have to deal with the harrowing experiences of the past. Perhaps we can transform this Middle Passage to something better, where we look across the Atlantic in the other direction and it becomes a ray of hope.

“We can link with our ancestral ties, our ancestral brothers and sisters, not only through our faith but through congress and through culture and we are hoping that this would be the start of something much greater, where not only our faith links us but our culture, commerce and everything, and we begin to see ourselves as one again, as we really are. All that has happened is that we have been separated by time,” he stated.