BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Over 250 Liberians are anticipated to go to Barbados from Might 6 to 13 in recognition of the 159th Anniversary of the Migration of 346 Barbadians to the West African nation.
Beneath the theme Sankofa: The Pilgrimage to Barbados, the historic go to is coordinated by a group from Liberia, headed by Ambassador Llewelyn Witherspoon and the Division of Tradition, Prime Minister’s Workplace.
Different stakeholders concerned within the enterprise embrace Barbados Tourism Advertising Inc., The College of the West Indies, Barbados Museum and Historic Society, Export Barbados, and Barbados Tourism Funding Inc.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley expressed pleasure in regards to the upcoming go to and acknowledged: “This pilgrimage to Barbados represents a household reunion. Barbados and Liberia have lengthy held a detailed genealogical and cultural connection. This journey represents a chance for us to attach in a brand new means whereas nonetheless paying respects to the previous. I sincerely welcome Ambassador Witherspoon and former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and look ahead to the constructive developments that may little doubt come.”
The pilgrimage presents a singular alternative to broaden Barbadians’ data of Liberia and to discover the opportunity of cultural cooperation and data alternate between the 2 international locations.
It additionally gives a chance to discover funding and enterprise prospects and study extra in regards to the analysis and family tree work being undertaken by the Division of Archives and The College of the West Indies (The UWI) to chronicle the Barbados/Liberia expertise.
Through the eight-day go to, the Liberians will interact in numerous instructional and cultural heritage occasions, together with a Heritage and Island Tour hosted by the Division of Tradition and The UWI’s School of Historical past and Humanities; an Archives Family tree Market hosted by the Division of Archives and the Prime Minister’s Workplace; and a Liberia-Barbados Enterprise Roundtable and Exhibition.
The spotlight of the pilgrimage would be the commemoration of the 159th Anniversary of the Departure to Liberia, dubbed the Sankofa Second Commemorative Plaque Laying Ceremony, reverse Authorities Headquarters, Bay Road, in recognition of the sign second when the ship Brig CORA sailed from Bridgetown to Monrovia, Liberia, on April 6, 1865.
Following Emancipation, Barbadians who returned to Africa as missionaries or looking for freedom responded to the supply of citizenship and fertile land by the then-President of Liberia to the “brethren of the Antilles,” because the Caribbean was known as.
This led to the primary and solely recorded post-Emancipation organized mass emigration of African Barbadians to Liberia in 1865.
Lots of the early settlers and their descendants contributed to the event of Liberia.
Two of Liberia’s earliest Presidents, Arthur Barclay and his nephew, Edwin Barclay, had been of Barbadian descent, as had been Liberia’s longest-serving First Girl of the twentieth Century, Antoinette Padmore Tubman.
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