#BTColumn – Nationhood, not Independence, was our true destiny

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

By Garth Paterson

The furor over the Government’s decision to celebrate November 30 as “Barbados National Day”, and to jettison the traditional recognition of “Independence Day”, to my mind exposes a deep-rooted misunderstanding of where we are, and of the significance of what we have achieved, as a nation. Those who rail against the celebration of our coming of age, of our achievement of nationhood, of our becoming, at long last, a sovereign, constitutional republic, and lament that “Barrow must be turning in his grave”, have simply missed the point. Independence was a major steppingstone on the journey to freedom; but it was not, in and of itself, freedom. Barbados, as a self-determining, sovereign nation, achieved true freedom on November 30, 2021, when it became a republic.

To be sure, Errol Barrow is rightly revered as the “Father of Independence”. Just about every Barbadian who was alive in the year of Independence, or who was born after Independence, has heard, or read, Barrow’s famous quote about “loitering on colonial premises”. His remarks were made in July 1966, during his address to the Barbados Constitution Conference in London, while pleading the case for Barbados’ independence. In that same speech, he said that Barbadians “feel a natural affinity with, and are grateful to, those Englishmen” who, in 1639, established the Barbados Parliament and the system of representative government in Barbados, and who “laid the foundations for that free society, a small part of which we already experience and the greater portion of which we shall establish after independence.” He observed that “by some fortunate turn of history, the people of Barbados have managed to establish before their independence the solid framework of a free society.” He insisted that the “training and apprenticeship are now complete” and that after three centuries of managing their own affairs, Barbadians would not be deterred “in the path to nationhood.” He pleaded to the Secretary of State, “all they require of you is that you should speed them to their rendezvous with destiny sometime in 1966.”

Now, at the risk of contradicting our Father of Independence, our rendezvous with destiny was not, in fact, consummated in 1966, but some 55 years later. Independence was the appetizer, not the main course. It was the opening act, not the headline performance. It was a critical milestone in the journey to a free society, but not the destination. Independence was Martin Luther King’s mountaintop, not the promised land. 

On the glorious night of Independence, Barrow emotionally declared, “To be young and to be alive in Barbados tonight, I feel as if I were in paradise already.” But Independence was just a glimpse, a promise, a dream, of paradise; in strict constitutional, legal, and political terms, it was not the attainment of paradise itself.

Barrow’s vision of independence was bold in its time, but ultimately self-limiting. While strident in his demands for independence, he was at the same time compromising in the scope and breadth of its objectives. He declared that “our relations with the Crown have always been warm and it is the unanimous desire of our citizens that Her Majesty shall be Queen and Head of State of an independent Barbados.” With that fateful compromise, Barrow never quite realized his vision of Barbados becoming a truly free society. Doubtless he considered that Barbados was not yet at the stage of social and political development and maturity that would readily accommodate the immediate transition to republican status. He recognized that the path to freedom extended well beyond Independence. Consequently, while securing the nation’s liberation from colonialism, he ultimately failed to liberate Barbados from the mental shackles of imperial rule, from the reigns of British sovereignty, or from the ignominy of remaining one of Her Majesty’s dominions. 

The Barbados Independence Act, 1966, an Act of the British Parliament, interestingly does not contain a definition of “independence”. The preamble declared it to be “an Act to make provisions for and in connection with the attainment by Barbados of fully responsible status within the Commonwealth.” It ushered Barbados’ transition from colonialism to membership of the Commonwealth as an independent state. Constitutionally, however, it only meant that the United Kingdom had relinquished its right to pass laws for Barbados and had severed any financial obligations to her. The Queen enacted Barbados’ Constitution under powers conferred by that Act and was recognized by that Constitution as the Queen of Barbados. By that Constitution, Her Majesty was represented in Barbados by the Governor General, who was appointed by, and held office at the pleasure of, Her Majesty. In real terms, Independence meant that Barbados was no longer a British colony and would not be a dependent of the United Kingdom. But fully responsible status was a far cry from fully independent. That all changed when Barbados proclaimed its republican status.

On the first anniversary of Barbados becoming a republic, therefore, it is fitting for all Barbadians to reflect upon the significance of that historic event. It represented Barbados’ emancipation, its coming of age, its realization of the long-held dream of becoming a free state, a sovereign nation in its own right, with its own, home-grown, President and Head of State. Her Majesty’s Constitution was replaced by a Constitution that was enacted by the Barbados Parliament. Our President, who immediately before Barbados’ elevation to republican status was, in her previous establishment, adorned in the garbs and trappings of the monarchy, has since shed the vestiges of our colonial past, and taken a fresh, new, guard in the shaping of Barbados’ social, political, and Constitutional future. The Government has, symbolically and actually, systematically been dismantling the symbols and relics of the monarchy and replacing them with the badges and emblems of our nascent statehood. These fields and hills, these shores and seas, these cart roads and pavements (and potholes) are now truly our own, freed from the vice-grip of imperialism that had mortgaged them to the Queen since Barbados first became an English colony. 

Our Independence Constitution provided the framework for the attainment of Barrow’s vision of a free society. It reserved to the Barbados Parliament the exclusive power, at any time, to completely sever its monarchial ties. Mia Mottley, the Mother of Our Republic, had the vision, courage, and temerity to finish the job that Barrow had started. She succeeded where her predecessors, on both sides, had failed. With one fell swoop of her legislative pen, she shepherded all Barbadians across the finish line, and secured for all of us the realization of our real destiny: true nationhood. Not just independent, but free.

To all the naysayers, therefore, I say we have evolved beyond Independence. It is time to let it go; time to relegate it to the recesses of history and embrace instead, with Bajan pride, our new republican status. Barbados National Day celebrates our true Emancipation, not just our independence. The real job of nation-building is still yet to come. At this inflection point in our constitutional development and statehood, we should be no more given to celebrating independence than we would be to extolling the virtues of the appetizer, especially when the feast that it heralded was so spectacular and momentous. So, Happy Barbados National Day, when it comes.

Garth Patterson, T.B.D. (formerly Q.C.) is a Senior Partner of Lex Caribbean. He was called to the Bars of Jamaica and Barbados in 1987 and the Bars of New York and St Lucia in 1990 and 2011 respectively.