In the heady days following its transition to republican status, the new United States of America was busy elevating to the presidency the general who led the war of independence against the British.
Now, in the heady days following our transition to republican status, much celebration was made of Barbados finally shedding the last vestiges of colonial rule and institutionalised inequality. We were leaving the colonial, outsider, dispossessed personas behind and fully embracing our authentic Barbadian identity on the world stage.
Yet, there appears to us one glaring vestige of outdated colonial attitudes – in the honorifics and titles still used by some of our leaders and officials. It is strikingly incongruous to hear our first president of the republic, Dame Sandra Mason, referred to by the double honorific “Dame the Most Honourable” or the risible “The Most Honourable Dame” – in which a relic of Barbados’ former constitutional monarchy is slapped against our new honours system, neither of which has any place in a modern republic where all citizens are equal in the eyes of the state; no aristocracy need apply.
Equally jarring is the insistence of some senior counsel to call themselves “King’s Counsel” when Barbados has rightfully renounced any king. In America, its revolutionary fathers had an enormous and beneficial influence on the way people everywhere behaved by modernising how people were addressed. The effect was to minimise the differences between the weak and the powerful. They understood that aristocratic honorifics were incompatible with the republican ideals of liberty and equality before the law.
This drove the month-long congressional debate in April 1789 over what title to use for the new United States president, as the consideration of “How much like a monarch should the head of a republic resemble” was of paramount importance. They ultimately settled on the simple “President” to eliminate any monarchical associations that could undermine democracy.
The Americans also enshrined in their Constitution a strict ban on titles of nobility being granted, seeking to avoid creating a permanent aristocratic class separate and elevated above ordinary citizens. As Alexander Hamilton – originally from Nevis – said: “For so long as they are excluded, there can never be serious danger that the government will be any other than that of the people.”
In our revolutionary spirit, the Barbadian Republic should move swiftly to abolish the colonial-era honorifics and titles that so clearly contradict the principles of equal citizenship promised by our republican ideals. When officials insist on aristocratic honorifics like “Honourable” or “Excellency”, “Dame” or “Sir”, it subconsciously elevates them into a new noblesse oblige – the very antithesis of the democratic equality that should define Barbadian society. The insistence upon titles even in informal and everyday use is a symptom of a persistent colonial mindset. If we wanted a divisive pecking order we ought to have remained as we were, not create a new layer of inequality after jettisoning that which was inherently unequal.
So the government would be wise to resist the notion of creating new honorifics from our national honours system that mimic the discarded “Dame” and “Sir” titles from the former monarchy. As the American legal scholar Jay Wexler states, holding onto titles creates “a permanent class of citizens who get titles forever and can be distinguished from everyone else” which is “inconsistent with the spirit” of ensuring true political equality. Tangentially, Professor Wexler was the first to study – wait for it – laughter during sittings of the US Supreme Court.
It is indeed no laughing matter that an important constitutional reform process has begun reviewing various areas to align with our new republican status. Let us use this opportunity to also firmly abolish the outdated colonial honorifics that clash so brazenly with the republicanism our nation has rightfully embraced. A simple “Mr/Madame President”, “President Mason,” or using no title at all is the only appropriate manner of address for our head of state and officials that accurately reflects the ideals of simplicity and equality that a modern republic like Barbados should exemplify. At best, retention of “The Honourable” for formal address only should be more than adequate in conveying respect and regard in a sensible honours system.
In 2021, we took the monumentally important step of finally becoming a free republic after centuries of being subsumed under colonial rule and a monarchial system. But that monumental achievement rings hollow if we allow the trappings of aristocracy and echoes of inequality to persist through the honorifics we use. Our work of transforming Barbados into a true republic embodying liberty, democracy and equal citizenship will only be complete when we reshape our culture, norms and language to consolidate the republican principles we have attained.
Abandoning aristocratic and colonial honorifics in favour of simplicity and equality of status, just as the republican founders the world over have done, is a powerful next step in that continuing transformation to make Barbados a shining example of genuine republicanism in the 21st century. It is but one step; the next will be to bring full reality to the republican ideals we profess through both our laws and language.
We have a republic. Now we need a constitution to help us keep it.
