Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, stood somberly as Queen Elizabeth\u2019s royal standard was lowered
\n BRIDGETOWN
\nBarbados ditched Britain\u2019s Queen Elizabeth as head of state, forging a new republic on Tuesday with its first-ever president and severing its last remaining colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at the Caribbean island.
\nAt the strike of midnight, the new republic was born to the cheers of hundreds of people lining Chamberlain Bridge in the capital, Bridgetown. A 21 gun salute fired as the national anthem of Barbados was played over a crowded Heroes Square.
\nPrince Charles, heir to the British throne, stood somberly as Queen Elizabeth\u2019s royal standard was lowered and the new Barbados declared, a step which republicans hope will spur discussion of similar proposals in other former British colonies that have the Queen as their sovereign.
\n\u201cWe the people must give Republic Barbados its spirit and its substance,\u201d President Sandra Mason, the island\u2019s first president, said. \u201cWe must shape its future. We are each other\u2019s and our nation\u2019s keepers. We the people are Barbados.\u201d
\nBarbados casts the removal of Elizabeth II, who is still queen of 15 other realms including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Jamaica, as a way to finally break with the demons of its colonial history.
\n\u201cThe creation of this republic offers a new beginning,\u201d said Prince Charles, whose mother sent her warmest wishes.
\n\u201cFrom the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery which forever stains our history, people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude.\u201d
\nAfter a dazzling display of Barbadian dance and music, complete with speeches celebrating the end of colonialism, Barbadian singer Rihanna was declared a national hero by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the leader of Barbados\u2019 republican movement.
\nThe birth of the republic, 55 years to the day since Barbados declared independence, unclasps almost all the colonial bonds that have kept the tiny island tied to England since an English ship claimed it for King James I in 1625.
\nIt may also be a harbinger of a broader attempt by other former colonies to cut ties to the British monarchy as it braces for the end of Elizabeth\u2019s nearly 70-year reign and the future accession of Charles.
\n\u201cFull stop this colonial page,\u201d Winston Farrell, a Barbadian poet told the ceremony. \u201cSome have grown up stupid under the Union Jack, lost in the castle of their skin.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is about us, rising out of the cane fields, reclaiming our history,\u201d he said. \u201cEnd all that she mean, put a Bajan there instead.\u201d
\nPrince Charles\u2019 speech highlighted the continuing friendship of the two nations though he acknowledged the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
\nWhile Britain casts slavery as a sin of the past, some Barbadians are calling for compensation from Britain.
\nActivist David Denny celebrated the creation of the republic but said he opposes the visit by Prince Charles, noting the royal family for centuries benefited from the slave trade.
\n\u201cOur movement would also like the royal family to pay a reparation,\u201d Denny said in an interview in Bridgetown.
\nThe English initially used white British indentured servants to toil on the plantations of tobacco, cotton, indigo and sugar, but Barbados in just a few decades would become England\u2019s first truly profitable slave society.
\nBarbados received 600,000 enslaved Africans between 1627 and 1833, who were put to work in the sugar plantations, earning fortunes for the English owners.
\nMore than 10 million Africans were shackled into the Atlantic slave trade by European nations between the 15th and 19th centuries. Those who survived the often brutal voyage, ended up toiling on plantations.
\n\u201cI\u2019m overjoyed,\u201d Ras Binghi, a Bridgetown cobbler, told Reuters ahead of the ceremony. Binghi said he would be saluting the new republic with a drink and a smoke.
\nBarbados will remain a republic within the Commonwealth, a grouping of 54 countries across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
\nOutside the lavish official ceremony, some Barbadians said they were uncertain what the transition to a republic even meant or why it mattered.
\n\u201cThey should leave Queen Elizabeth be – leave her as the boss. I don\u2019t understand why we need to be a republic,\u201d said Sean Williams, 45, standing in the shadow of an independence monument.
\nThe last time the queen was removed as head of state was in 1992 when the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius proclaimed itself a republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, stood somberly as Queen Elizabeth\u2019s royal standard was lowered BRIDGETOWN Barbados ditched Britain\u2019s Queen Elizabeth as head of state, forging a new republic on Tuesday with its first-ever president and severing its last remaining colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at the Caribbean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1105,1106,1104],"class_list":{"0":"post-230299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-barbados","9":"tag-ditches","10":"tag-queen-elizabeth"},"yoast_head":"\n