Context
Recently, Barbados has officially removed Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and become the World’s newest republic, around 400 years after it became a British colony.
Key-Highlights
- After removal of Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the state, Dame Sandra Prunella Mason took over as the President of Barbados.
- Mason was selected to become the first president of Barbados in October 2021.
- He was selected as President of Barbados, at a joint meeting of both the Houses of Parliament of Barbados.
- His name was announced by Speaker of the House of Assembly, Arthur Holder.
Other countries on the same track
- Barbados will not be the first former British colony in the Caribbean to become a republic. Guyana took that step in 1970, less than four years after gaining independence from Britain.
- Trinidad and Tobago followed suit in 1976 and Dominica in 1978.
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Background
- Barbados is said to have been made a ‘slave society’ by the British.
- Barbados first became an English colony in 1625. It was a part of the British Empire for over 400 years, a link in the lines of trade, commerce and oppression that English mercantilism and colonialism fostered for centuries.
- It gained its independence in 1966.
- Slaves, indentured labour, a lack of democracy — the Caribbean was home to some of the most institutionalized and invisibilised horrors in history.
About Barbados
- Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands.
- It is in the western part of the North Atlantic, east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea.
- Its neighbours include Saint Lucia, to the north, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to the west, and Trinidad and Tobago to the south.
- Barbados is outside the principal Atlantic hurricane belt.
- On November 30, 1966, Barbados gained its independence.
- Dame Sandra Prunella Mason and Mia Amor Mottley are the current President and Prime minister of Barbados.
- Barbados is part of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which was formed in 1973.
- While it is an Atlantic island, Barbados is closely associated with the Caribbean and is ranked as one of its leading tourist destinations.
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