102 year old Harlem Cotton Club dancer sees herself on film for the first time

Have a little more respect the next time you see some old lady going to market. That old lady used to be a babe!

Had to post this. God bless Alice Barker and all the others who were unappreciated, used and cast aside by Hollywood and promoters for so many years.

Alice… If we’d have been born in the same time, I’d have followed you around like a little puppy dog.

Cliverton

40 years ago Barbados teenager Marcia Rollins went to England to become a nurse

Black Caribbean nurses made a huge difference in England’s National Health Service

Marcia Rollins is from Barbados. She always wanted to be a nurse but opportunities were limited on the island so when the UK needed new recruits she joined thousands of other Caribbean people and left for the ‘mother country’.

“It was always my dream to be a nurse. England was seen as the mother country and there were opportunities in England moreso than here in Barbados to do nursing.

I was terrified but full of hope for the future…

My plans were to go there and study nursing and get back to Barbados as fast as I could.”

Marcia was just 19 when she arrived in England and intended to return to Barbados soon after her training finished. She actually ended up spending 40 years in the NHS making a unique and valuable contribution as a Registered Nurse and gaining a diploma in health care. She retired in 2008 and moved back to Barbados.

“It was always my dream to be a nurse. England was seen as the mother country and there were opportunities in England moreso than here in Barbados to do nursing.

I was terrified by full of hope for the future…

My plans were to go there and study nursing and get back to Barbados as fast as I could.

You had things that weren’t very nice – Get back to the Jungle. Take your black hands off me. Things like that were said to you. To be quite honest, I didn’t let things like that bother me…”

Then I had a family… two small children and going back to Barbados was a far dream. I have no regrets. I consider England to be a University of Life.”

Read the entire story at Black Union Jack

Also from the same era, see BFP’s Bajan Ralph Straker passes in the UK – One of thousands recruited from the Caribbean by London Transport in the 1950s

 

Sheri Veronica – As school children in Barbados we were taught to hate Jamaicans

“Respect Jamaicans”

by Sheri Veronica

THE TRUTH IS, we were taught to hate JAMAICANS.  As a little girl in primary school, our teacher taught us that Barbados was the jewel of the Caribbean.  We were taught that any mad/crazy slave or any slave who could not take instructions, were shipped off to Jamaica.  This was the mandate, I supposed in my little head (or was that taught to me also), of every Caribbean island.  Send the mad and **aggressive slaves to Jamaica.  Then as time passed and you start to see clearer, meet people and question things, you soon realize that the insurgent slaves were the brave ones.  They were the men and women who could not be broken…

… continue with a good read at Sheri Veronica’s blog

Reader asks for assistance in planning a Barbados Red Legs tour

Dear Barbados Free Press

I will be coming to Barbados in February, 2015. I’ve always wanted to visit as I have an interest in the Red Leg people and the history of the Irish who were sent to Barbados by Oliver Cromwell.  I hope to take back a tour group with me in 2016 to show them the island with particular emphasis on its Irish history. I’m wondering if there are any locations that I could visit that might have some connection with this history and with the descendants of the Red Legs.

(Name withheld by editor)

AN ESTIMATED 50,000 “white slaves” were transported from Ireland to Barbados between 1652 and 1657. Having succeeded in recruiting Irish men to die in the services of France, Spain, Poland and Italy, Cromwell turned his attention to others – men and women press-ganged by soldiers, taken to Cork and shipped to Bristol where they were sold as slaves and transported to Barbados.

… see BFP’s article Irish Times: Most Barbados Red Legs have bad or no teeth.

Battle of Broken Hill: 100 years since the first jihadist terror attack in Australia

Alma Cowie, Katrina Dawson (r): murdered in Australia by Muslim jihadists 100 years apart

One hundred years ago, January 1, 2915, two Muslim immigrants to Australia launched jihad attacks on a Sunday excursion train, killing four and wounding several others before being killed by police, in what became known as the Battle of Broken Hill.

On December 15, 2014, a Muslim cleric took hostages at gunpoint in a Sydney Australia cafe and held up an ISIS terror flag in the window. Thanks to Sheikyermami.com for the photos of the two victims one hundred years apart.

The list of murders to please Allah (P.BUH) between those two dates is impressive, and surely must be pleasing to the Muslim prophet who himself loved to behead, rape and enslave infidels – and instructed that his followers do the same.

The Holy Koran instructs all good Muslims to commit acts of violence to spread the religion and political system called Islam.

So that’s exactly what followers are doing.

Any questions?

Looking ahead to Barbados 50th Independence Celebration

In plenty and in time of need…

For all our current economic problems and the failures of a corrupt political class to provide principled, unselfish leadership over the decades, Barbados on our 48th National Independence Day is still a country and a society to be envied.

Millions of people from countries around the world would get down on their knees and thank God if they were blessed enough to have had their navel string buried in Bajan soil. Stand still anywhere on this island for ten minutes and take it all in: even inner B’town’s worst is only a short walk from the salt water and beauty.

And isn’t that the truth? No matter where you are in Barbados you are only a minute or two from beauty the likes of which people from other countries spend thousands of dollars to see and experience for a few days.

The beauty of these fields and hills though, is nothing compared with the beauty of our people, our children and the ordinary folk who give Bim its character and reality.

It is true that we should be worried about the excesses of celebration for lowered achievements and about some of the youth whose activities could not be more ‘un-Bajan’ – but despite these things, can you not ask for assistance from a stranger on this island and still receive a helping hand? Of course you can!

Try that in New Jersey, or Soho. Been there, “have the t-shirt” as they say.

We naturally focus upon the decades, and our 48th anniversary is an uninspiring number compared to our 45th or our 40th. Remember our 30th? Remember the rains and no one cared? Soaked or not the party went on for three days. A bit different from these last two days, yes?

Admittedly things back then looked a bit brighter economically, but it was more than that: the mood was about us as a nation, about our wonderfully rosy future. About us as a people.

A short two years from now and we will be facing our 50th year as an independent, fully sovereign nation.

The question we should be asking ourselves now is not “How shall we celebrate our 50th?”, but “What do we want Barbados to be on our 50th, and what should we do to reach that goal?”

Wycliffe Hall Oxford University looking for a portrait of Lodge School principal Harry Beaujon Gooding

Dear Barbados Free Press,

I am Clerk of Works at Wycliffe Hall, a theological college, part of Oxford University, England.

I am undertaking a project to have all our former principals portraits hung in our main foyer. I have been unable to locate any portrait of Harry Beaujon Gooding who I believe was a former principal at the Lodge School, Barbados.

I have been unable to contact the Lodge School, and would appreciate assistance.

Kind regards

Phil

Phil Chapman
Clerk of Works
Wycliffe Hall
52-54 Banbury Road
Oxford
OX2 6PW
Tel: 01865 274219
E-mail: maintenance (AT) wycliffe.ox.ac.uk

Sam Lord’s Castle – A request for information about George Cunningham Cook, died in 1928

George Cunningham Cook. (1871-1928) Commander Royal Canadian Navy, Superintendent and representative of a the Canadian Government Merchant Marine (CGMM) in Barbados.

by Jonathan Bryan

Unfortunately, I never knew of Sam Lord’s Castle until this year, four years after it became a camp fire and opportunity to make s’more’s or charcoaled hot dogs. The pictures are amazing. The Castle must have been quite the experience in first person, and I can’t help but feel empty for what could have been. Reading the comments of many about their visit is inspiring for me though…….but you might ask yourself, why do I have any feelings for the place at all?

Well, besides being a lover of the historical, I am a genealogy researcher, live in Virginia, USA, and through my research, have been introduced to the former edifice. My wife’s had a ‘cousin’ who passed away while living in the Castle on November 21, 1928. Was he renting or owner? I’m not sure, not having access to deed information. If he owned it, what happened after he died? This cousin was George Cunningham Cook. He was a Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy, a Superintendent and representative of a the Canadian Government Merchant Marine (CGMM) in Barbados. He would often travel from Halifax, NS, Montreal, Que, and St Phillip, Barbados. Sadly, he died young due to complications of an explosion on board a steamship a few months later. He was 57, leaving a wife, Lilly, and son, George Elliott Cook (born 1901).

When George C. Cook passed away, he was buried next to Lord family tomb. That further leads me to think he may have been owner of Lord’s Castle at the time of his death. His headstone is located in St Phillips Parish Church cemetery. I don’t know where Lord’s tomb is, but would love to have a photo of George’s stone and any family buried with him.

Would anyone mind looking into Mr. Cook there in Barbados? Any photo’s and info could be posted here.

I must give credit to a fellow researcher, Patricia Lumsden, who provided much of the info I’ve shared.

(BFP Editor’s note: see book “Cook Descendants – Inlaws and Outlaws” by Patricia Lumsden)

Will Owen Arthur write his memoirs?

Who will write our Caribbean history?

By David Jessop

As far as I can determine, few if any of the current group of Caribbean Prime Ministers, or opposition leaders keeps a diary recording events and conversations of importance. Moreover, on demitting office no longer does there appear to be any desire to produce an autobiography or even encourage a biography explaining the detail of their experience in government or in politics. The same holds true for the private sector.

Unlike their counterparts in other parts of the world senior Caribbean figures either do not have the time, or they lack the desire to explain to history what drove them, or the reasons why decisions, domestic, regional, or international were taken or avoided.

It was not always so. Many internationally respected figures in the region’s past, including Michael Manley, Errol Barrow, and Edward Seaga, and some who came before, either wrote about their experience, their philosophy, or to a lesser extent their exchanges with colleagues and regional counterparts; while a small number of others, with or without permission, have published books about regional figures.

Some like the late Tom Adams and a few of the region’s diplomats carefully recorded while in office the events and conversations that changed the region; but almost without exception, these private records have yet to see the light of day.   

A Bit of Barbados History: 1855 letter to W.W. Somerville, 69th Regiment of Foot in Barbados

  (click photo for large)

by Cliverton

There was a time on this rock when governments, both colonial and post-independence, did everything they could to erase every vestige of our origins. It was almost as if some people thought we could progress only if we forgot about the past. What foolishness!

Our government left gorgeous plantation houses and noble public buildings to rot – forgetting (or maybe not forgetting) just who built these structures: slaves and the children of slaves. Not satisfied with destroying historical buildings, they also let the humidity, salt air and rot take care of books, letters and historical objects. The destruction was so long term and widespread that it simply must have been deliberate.

It is true to say that much of Barbados history has faded away irrecoverably – gone forever.

So it is that when I see a tangible bit of Bajan history I get excited, because I know that with a little bit of work on the internet I will discover so much more about this piece of soil where my navel string is buried.

Today’s discovery is offered by Scotia Philately – a letter to Medical Doctor W. W. Somerville of the 69th Regiment in Barbados, West Indies postmarked September 2, 1855 at Plymouth and stamped received in Barbados on September 21, 1855. That’s nineteen days from England to Barbados, a distance of 3504 nautical miles for an average speed of 7.5 knots postal stamp to postal stamp. Meaning that the Royal Mail sailing vessel probably averaged over 10 knots on the journey. Clippers (fast sailing vessels on the mail and opium runs) could easily make 13 or 14 knots and maintain that speed in all but the worst weather.

Who was Doctor Somerville and why was the 69th Regiment of Foot in Barbados? (or “Barbadoes” as it was then called.)

How Bridgetown built the economic foundation of the British Empire – only to be discarded when the profits were gone.

Slavery Reparations have never interested me because I know that whatever we receive will never be enough for the victims class, and that anything we do receive will be stolen by the political class. No reparations will ever touch my hand. No amount of reparations will provide a steady flow of clean water from my pipes or establish a modern sustainable economy.

Britain could pay us 10 billion pounds and not one new hospital bed or surgery will appear at that slum we call the Queen Elizabeth Hospital – or anywhere else. A trillion pounds will not erase the arrogance of government employees towards citizens, nor will it cure the ‘Island Time’ syndrome that makes foreign business investors run like mad from the Caribbean once they get over the rum, sun and sand.

Barbados is incapable of receiving and delivering reparations honestly and effectively for the general good.

Whose fault is that? I’m not sure, but I do know that at one time Barbados was the driving economic force and secure military base that built and maintained the British Empire.

Whatever Tristram Hunt has written in his new book Ten Cities that Made an Empire, he’s probably 50% correct and 50% nonsense. After all this time, who can say?

But I look forward to the read.

Cliverton

Ten Cities that Made an Empire by Tristram Hunt, review: ‘enthralling and compelling’

A fascinating account of 10 cities that were shaped by, and helped shape, British rule

Bridgetown, Barbados has always held a particular appeal for the British. The legacy of empire is all too apparent, and is, indeed, exploited for tourists. The series of historical attractions based on Plantation House present, as Tristram Hunt writes, “a sepia version of the colonial past”. Nostalgia for cricket, rum cocktails and the old plantation lifestyle trumps the blood-drenched history of slavery on the island. Bridgetown is a modern city, but the colonial memory continues to reverberate. 

Time for the Barbados Museum to stop hoarding! Must become an active worldwide promoter of Barbados History… and of Historical Tourism

Barbados Museum & Historical Society suffers from a Hoarding Mentality

Submitted by BMHS longtime member Sinsten Merriweather (BFP editor: as contrived a name as we’ve every seen!)

The Barbados Museum’s website claims they have a collection over half a million ‘artefacts‘ (yes, that’s how they spell the word to the world online) that “tells the story of the people of Barbados and preserves our history for future generations.”

“Indeed, our history is preserved for future generations because none of the current generation can access it.”

… BFP’s Cliverton

The Museum has photos of precisely 19 of those 500,000 artifacts displayed online, with no explanation, description or provenance attached.

Do you want to know what the Barbados Museum has in inventory that might interest you? Well, don’t look for a list or a working searchable database online – you’ll have to email Mrs. Marcia Griffith and in a few days she might (or might not) get back to you with further clarifications. God forbid that the museum actually put a database online where people can search for topics, historical periods, artifacts and documents that interest them!

And half the time the existing website (as limited as it is in vision and function) doesn’t work, or maybe sometimes might perhaps work… if, sort of.

Missing: A vision of Telling the History of Barbados to the world

What is the Mission Statement of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society? Your guess is as good as mine and I’ve been a member for over ten years. If I had to guess, I’d say that the mission of the BM&HS is to do whatever the current management, staff and Board desire as their whim without reference to any written mission statement.

It is true that in the last ten, and especially the last five years, the leadership have done some wonderful things with little money. In particular some of the bus tours of the island (not many recently though) awakened a thirst for Bajan history amongst some of the young people.

But…

… the Barbados Museum is falling down disastrously in making history accessible to the people. In this day, that means online – not just certain items displayed in a glass case to those who visit a physical building. The mission statement should be to make Barbados history available to anyone around the world, instantly, and in so doing to encourage people to take an interest in Barbados and to visit our country (and to spend their money while doing so!)

What the Barbados Museum should be  

Graves Of Barbados – Respect and Love For Our Families, Our Friends and Our History… Or NOT!

More discarded human bones, coffins at Barbados Cemetery

Updated June 18, 2014

Once again it’s time to report on the latest indignities to buried friends and relatives. Every six months we read of another ‘find’ in this churchyard or that: human skulls, coffin parts, bones of the dead still dressed in their burial clothing. The latest is in The Nation: Relative jolted by scene at cemetery.

We’ve destroyed all the historical buildings we can on this rock. Practically nothing remains of our slave history.

Practically nothing remains of the military forts and bases that ringed this island right up to the cold war. Now we destroy our generational history and disrespect our friends and family members. Every person for themselves! Full speed ahead with that new iPhone or Samsung big screen handset! Fancy trucks! Party Party Party!

And cast the bones of the dead on a heap of garbage.

That’s our modern Bajan culture.

Here are BFP’s prior reports on this phenomena…

Barbados Free Press

UPDATED: October 11, 2012

Six skulls, bones, body parts found in open graveyard pit

With Monday’s discovery of an open pit containing burned skulls, bones and other body parts at the Christ Church Parish Church, our thoughts immediately turned to a previous article by our own Robert.

Sad. So sad. And what does it say about us?

Somebody should lose their job over this, but you know that’s never going to happen.

Here is the current story from the Nation, and then BFP’s original story…

Shocker in Christ Church graveyard

Mourners attending a burial in the Christ Church Parish Church’s cemetery on Monday evening were mortified when they stumbled upon a hole containing burnt skeletal remains.

An upset woman told the MIDWEEK NATION that they were disgusted by the sight in the graveyard.

“I counted at least six skulls and I could see teeth, hair and bones and what appeared to be…

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Was a bribe paid to Town and Country Development Planning Office?

Were promises made?

by passin thru

We know how it is on this rock. How many examples do we have of historical buildings rezoned and torn down before anyone knows? How many examples do we have of land-use changes that are pushed through on a Friday afternoon with no notice, and often in opposition to common sense? One of those ‘unexplained’ land use changes murdered a family, or have we forgotten?

This time another historical was building torn down without notification and in the middle of controversy.

Was someone in the Town and Country Development Planning Office paid off? Was a promise made?

We know how it is on this rock, and my stomach turns every time I see another ‘mistake’ by which somebody profits.

To HELL with them all. My anger is righteous because the rule of law is nothing in this place. If I could only get a green card I would be gone.

Landmark torn down

“We were working with a number of Government agencies to secure this building,”

“The only difficulty we were aware of, in terms of its safety, was its balcony that was overhanging the road. The fact that we got to this stage – that an historic building was demolished without any notification being given to either the National Trust or anyone else – it shows a huge failing in the system,”

The fact the building was delisted by the Town and Country Development Planning Office “for no viable reason for which a building should be delisted” was worrying, but delisting was still of no merit since it was in the World Heritage Site.

“It should have come under consideration. It is a serious matter to demolish one of these buildings,”

… Peter Stevens, Vice President of the Barbados Historical Garrison Consortium Inc. quoted in The Nation

Amazing Barbados Photo: Blacks, Whites, Asians, Mixed Races Attend Party Together! Actually Enjoy Each Other!

Six years ago our friend Light-Skinned-ed Girl declared May to be Mixed Experience History Month. We hope the idea catches on because those of us who are Heinz 57 and/or in mixed-race marriages need to reflect upon our roots once in a while.

If you have to ask “What’s the big deal?”, well, perhaps you need to think about it a little more. There are many more of us than ever before but when we talk with other mixies, the experience is generally the same: neither black nor white, and not really accepted by either race. Here’s a little piece written by Marcus back in October 2006. I miss him…

Barbados Free Press

Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary Site Of Astounding Happening!

Yes, folks – we couldn’t believe it ourselves (what with all this talk of that one incident last week between a light-skinned homeowner and a dark-skinned young man – link here) – it is true that several hundred people of all races, colours and religion all met last Saturday at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, and actually enjoyed each other’s company!

The event was the official launch of the proposal to establish the Graeme Hall National Park – but it felt more like a party than a meeting to Shona and Marcus.

One Racial Incident At Party…

There was one very serious racial incident at the party though. For a few minutes around 5pm, the cash bar ran short of cold Banks beer and two men of different races argued over who would get the last cold one.

A Barbados Free…

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Political, religious, race-based agendas and fears are destroying our historical records

Successive Barbados governments have been talking for at least twenty years about the need to protect our historical places, buildings and written history with laws and actions – and then offering that heritage as part of our tourism.

Yup, they have been talking about it for years. Talk. Talk. Talk. Talk – and not much else. Matter a fact, successive governments have chosen a fast buck or neglect every time over spending money to preserve and restore.

So this week was no different when Tourism Minister Richard Sealy said all the right words in front of first conference of Caribbean National Trusts and Preservation Societies. And words are about all that will be done until the next conference.

“Where’s the plan, Minister? Where’s the budget? Where’s the money put aside in your government’s budget for historical preservation?”

Words are all the DLP and BLP governments offer.

Here is an article we first published back in 2010, where our old friend Jim Lynch explains one of the reasons that we never seem to act to preserve our heritage, only talk. Maybe Mr. Sealy might read it…

Barbados Free Press

Our old friend and retired “Twotter” pilot Jim Lynch loves to preserve Barbados history and is a treasure-trove of information and advice for those seeking to learn about their Caribbean ancestry. He has published some very special books that will occupy you for weeks if you get one in your hands. Two years ago we covered his work in our article Old Barbados Newspapers Are A Treasure Of History.

Today Jim stopped by BFP and left the following comment that we think is worth a few minutes of your time.

Thanks, Jim! (I think the photo is about 25 years old, but you haven’t aged a bit, have you?) 🙂

I have been commended – and abused – in the past for saying what others think but refuse to put into words.

In Barbados, as in other Caribbean islands (and indeed in other parts of the world), records are destroyed…

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Infanticide by Barbados slave mothers – an expression of resistance?

It is truly disturbing to think that Bajan mothers murdered their own newborns as an act of rebellion to deny human slave assets to their captors and owners.

We know that as the Atlantic slave trade and supplies of new slaves dried up due to the efforts of abolitionists, plantation owners in the Caribbean and USA placed the emphasis on breeding new stock. The record is clear that some plantation owners thought it their right to impregnate their slaves with white blood for ‘better product’.

It is difficult to think that captive human beings were treated as property to this extent, but that was the reality of the day. The master had all rights, the female slave had none.

As you read the following article, just remember this…

There are more slaves held in captivity today than at any other time in history.

The obvious response to slave infanticide is to conceptualize it as an act of desperation, a sad act, or an act of altruism, in the sense that it was intended to save enslaved children from a life of hard labor, degradation, and physical, sexual, and mental abuse.

But what if slave infanticide, in all its horror, was an expression of resistance? To conceptualize it this way places agency back in the hands of the slave women who killed their children, because it assumes that their decision was actively, discursively antagonistic and insurrectionary.

… from Infanticide as Slave Resistance: Evidence from Barbados

Barbados History: Bajan handyman turned axe-murderer – Julian Carlton massacred seven at Frank Lloyd Wright home in 1914

“Julian Carlton said he was from Barbados and he had good credentials, having worked previously for a prominent Chicago caterer. There was not much more known about him.”

Mass murderer said to be from Barbados… but was he?

September 15, 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the mass-murder of seven at ‘Taliesin’, the Wisconsin estate home of famed Welsh/American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The murderer, Julian Carlton, and his wife Gertrude had always been reported as being from Barbados, but later accounts say the couple was ‘reportedly’ or ‘said to be’ from Barbados – indicating some doubt. It might be that the doubt originates only from the hundred years since the crime, but could it be that Julian and Gertrude Carlton only said they were from Barbados?

Can any of our readers confirm or deny that the Carltons were from Barbados? Julian Carlton was said to be 30 years old at the time of the murders, making him born around 1884.

Could it be that Julian and Gertrude Carlton only said they were from Barbados?

click photo for large

‘God’s judgement’ or a mentally ill man gone berserk?

In 1914 many folks said that the murders were God’s judgement upon Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress for their open adultery. Pretty mistress Mamah Borthwick Cheney was the younger wife of one of the architect’s clients when they started a torid affair in 1903. Frank Lloyd Wright left his wife of 20 years and six children for the delights of Mrs. Cheney and scandalised Wisconsin when he built an estate for her that the newspapers of the time dubbed the “Bungalow of Love”.