Barbadian PM Mia Mottley urges nationals in the Diaspora to become active citizens
April 4, 2023
No matter where you are in the world, Barbados needs you as it seeks to become a world-class nation by 2030.
While encouraging nationals to excel in Canada, the island’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley said they need to be active citizens in the land of their birth.
She also emphasized that those not born in Barbados are welcomed.
“You can be Bajan by birth, descent, marriage and by choice,” Mottley said at the Barbados Canada Foundation (BCF) ‘Bring on the Spring’ fundraiser in Scarborough on March 25. “Technology has made it all the more possible for the adoption of that commitment and for you now not just to have it as an emotional commitment, but as a form of your active life.”
Nearly 40,000 Barbadian nationals reside in Canada.
“It is not only the people who are living in Barbados that have a role to play,” Mottley noted. “It is you wherever you are on this planet. Your responsibility is dual and you chose for it to be that way. You need to be good citizens of Canada and you need to rise to every position and do the best you can because you are representing. We need mentorship, skills, charity as you are doing here (at the fundraiser) and there is the opportunity for investment.”
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley greets philanthropist & University of the West Indies Toronto Benefit Awards co-patron Donette Chin-Loy Chang (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The new Charter of Barbados, passed in November 2021 on the eve of the island country becoming a parliamentary republic, promotes the concept of active citizenship.
“Our constitutions and our road to independence reminded us of all of the rights of necessity we would get and should get and must have because we come from a history where the denial of those rights was par for the course on a daily basis,” Mottley, who TIME magazine last year chose as one of the world’s most influential people, said.
“To consume yourself only with the speech about rights without recognizing the obligation to tend to, to take care of and to nurture would be to create a false equation for the sustenance of life and progress. I say so conscious that I could easily be talking to almost citizens of any country in this room because one of the negative aspects of Western civilization has been the extent to which it has allowed us to focus on our individual circumstances without consideration of the collective. The beauty of the African concept of Ubuntu, ‘I am because we are’, recognizes that it is the collective that makes the difference.”
Mottley has emerged as a leading figure advocating for a global emphasis on reparatory justice with Africa playing an active role.
Next month, she will deliver the keynote address at the Institute of the Black World 21st century global reparations conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
In making the case for Barbados to become a transhipment hub to Africa and other countries, Mottley said the time has come to leverage its geographic location to grow the economy.
As early as 1627, the British took slaves from mainly West Africa to work on sugar plantations in Barbados.
“We were the first port of call, the cargo was human and the misery was great,” said Mottley who was elected Barbados’ first female Prime Minister in May 2018. “We deployed people to the North, South, the region and we kept some. If we are so foolish now as not to leverage the geography that made others wealthy for our own purposes by making us a logistics hub of choice to be able to reach North, South and Central America, Africa and Europe, then we have only ourselves to blame.
“There can be no proper conclusion to the story of the Middle Passage until we create a bridge to Africa and Africa a bridge to us. There can be no proper settlement of the indentured servants until the people of Ireland and India can access the Caribbean by direct flight without having to go through other people’s lands. If we don’t do it, we simply have become purveyors of a colonial structure. We talk the language of liberation, but we practice the politics of colonialism. Our future must be crafted by us. But we can only be firm craftsmen of our faith if we are prepared to be active citizens.”
Outside of England, Barbados holds the largest stock of Atlantic slave records going back to as far as the 1630s.
Celebrated architect David Adjaye has developed the design for a monument that will be next to a burial ground where the bodies of 570 West African victims of the British transatlantic slavery were discovered.
“We found that number in the last 40 years and we have no doubt there are far more,” said Mottley who, with Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade Minister Kerrie Symmonds, attended the eighth African Diaspora Investment Symposium in Silicon Valley before coming to Toronto.
“On that site, we will also build a monument to ensure that slavery and forced migration does not happen again by telling that story. On that site, we will have a genealogical research centre with the records that are among the most in the world that can be researched for the people in the Americas that can tell our story. This is a clear attempt to have a heritage district that is not just about Barbados, but also about the Americas.”
Funds raised at the BCF annual spring event will be used to purchase four slit lamps for Barbados’ Queen Elizabeth Hospital ophthalmology department. A slit lamp is a microscope with a bright light used during an eye exam.
At last year’s virtual fundraiser, the $40,000 raised was used to buy a piccolo chemistry analyzer that allows healthcare practitioners to perform routine multi-chemistry panels using 0.1cc of whole blood, serum or plasma.
BCF President Charles (Phil) Broome presented the equipment last September to Dr. Sonia Browne, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health & Wellness, and hospital representatives.
“The staff in the hospital’s accident and emergency department appreciated the gift,” he said. “These are challenging times for all of us and it is in these times that charity is especially important. Please help us to equip Queen Elizabeth to save someone’s sight. It might be a relative or a friend.”
In the last four years, the BCF has donated eight Doppler ultrasound machines & stands and five electrocardiogram machines. They also contributed $6,752 to cover the cost of shipping 1.1 million COVID masks to the QEH.
Since 2013, it has raised $382,689 to help improve the quality of life for citizens in Barbados and the Greater Toronto Area.
Through a scholarship program, the organization has also awarded $286,000 to 91 recipients.
Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley shares a light moment with BCF 2021 scholarship winner Jalesa Walkes (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Federal Minister of Housing and Diversity & Inclusion Ahmed Hussen, Ontario’s Chief Justice Michael Tulloch, University of Guelph Chancellor Mary Anne Chambers and George Brown College President Dr. Gervan Fearon attended the fundraiser.
