BY PUBLIC RELATIONS | DEC 3, 2021 | TOP STORIES
Rendering of the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground Memorial, which will anchor the Barbados Heritage District, by Adjaye Associates. (GP)
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley today announced the creation of the Barbados Heritage District, including a memorial, a major global research institute, and a museum located in Newton Plantation outside of the country’s capital, dedicated to accurately recounting the historic and contemporary impact of slavery on Barbados and on the lives of individuals, cultures, and nations of the Western hemisphere.
The District’s research institute will document Barbados’ pivotal role as the harrowing portal through which millions of enslaved Africans were forced to the Americas.
In the wake of Barbados’ transition to a Parliamentary Republic, the Barbados Heritage District will also serve as a cornerstone and catalyst for the ongoing development of Barbados’ independent identity, culture, and place on the world stage.
Prime Minister Mottley also announced that David Adjaye has been commissioned to design the Barbados Heritage District. The first phase of the project will be the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground Memorial, a monument to the nation’s enslaved ancestors that will serve as a place of remembrance, honouring those individuals impacted by the effects of forced migration.
Located at the Newton Burial Ground, the memorial will provide the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual framework for the scholarly research and public programs that the future centre will generate.
Upon completion, it will be the first research institute and resource centre of global stature based in the Caribbean dedicated to exploring the history and enduring impact of slavery and forced migration on the world. The groundbreaking is slated for November 30, 2022, on the first anniversary of Barbados’ status as a Parliamentary Republic.
The development of the Barbados Heritage District will support significant job growth in new industries, technologies, and construction sectors. The District is being developed in partnership with the Prime Minister’s Office, the Barbados Archives Department, and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, who are working in collaboration with a team of Barbadian scholars, spearheaded by Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
Stated Prime Minister Mottley, “Barbados is authentically enshrining our history and preserving the past as we reimagine our world and continue to contribute to global humanity. It is a moral imperative but equally an economic necessity.”
Design of the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground Memorial
Situated adjacent to the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground, where the remains of 570 West African slaves were uncovered through a LIDAR study, the memorial will demarcate a site of tragedy and trauma and transform it into a charged place of commemoration, remembrance, and connection.
Aligning the sacred landscape with notions of renewal and rebirth, the memorial addresses a traumatic past whilst celebrating the potential for new futures through an inherently African design in which the cycle of birth to death, born from the Earth and returning, becomes manifest and mediated through architecture.
Stated David Adjaye,“Drawing upon the technique and philosophy of traditional African tombs, prayer sites and pyramids, the memorial is conceived as a space that contemporaneously honours the dead, edifies the living, and manifests a new diasporic future for Black civilization that is both of the African continent and distinct from it.”
From the roadside entry point to the site, the visitor’s journey will begin within a monolithic dome pavilion where historical information about the burial ground and slave trade will be presented. Encapsulating three Earthly elements, the dome is composed of the red laterite earth and is punctuated by an oculus that frames views of the cosmos, and an aquifer that connects to the water underneath the site.
Flanked by a field of sugarcane, the southern entry point to the memorial is defined by a gently ascending ramp that floats above the earth and guides visitors towards the memorial structure. A nod to the descendant forest region of West Africa, the memorial is composed predominantly of red mineral earth and timber.
At the highest point of the sloped site, the memorial culminates in a circular mound composed of Barbadian rammed earth which frames a square field of vertical timber poles. As a means of physicalizing and commemorating the enslaved buried below this sacred earth, the field is punctuated by 570 individual timber beams each capped with circular brass plates oriented towards the sun to catch the Barbadian light.
The juxtaposition of a square field within a primary circular form, and the orientation of each timber beam creates a tapestry of interconnected mutations. Both metaphorically and physically, there is an unlocking of connections—a triadic view of the Caribbean waters, extending out to the African continent and up towards the cosmos.
Along the perimeter of the memorial, a floating bench provides a moment for individual reflection, observation, and respite. In contrast, a void defines the centre of the timber colonnade, providing opportunity for libations, ceremonies, and secular events. The duality embedded within this ethereal landscape is heightened as the architecture balances earth and sky, water and land, the ancestors and the living, this world and the next.
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Barbados to build slavery museum after cutting ties with British monarchy
Nadine White 22 hrs ago
Mia Amor Mottley, prime minister of Barbados- AFP via Getty Images
Barbados is to build a transatlantic slavery museum with the largest collection of British slave records outside the UK, the island’s prime minister has announced days after the country cut ties with the monarchy to become a republic.
The facility, designed by British architect Sir David Adjaye, will include a research institute dedicated to telling the story of slavery and its global impact.
It is expected to be situated at Newton Slave Burial Ground in Christ Church, just outside of the capital Bridgetown, which is the largest and earliest slave burial ground discovered in Barbados. Sir David will also design a memorial commemorating these victims.
Earlier this week, Prince Charles acknowledged the “atrocity of slavery” in speech given at the inauguration of Barbados’ new present Dame Sandra Mason, who replaced the Queen as head of state.
Announcing the plans for the museum, prime minister Mia Mottley said: “This week Barbados set out on a new part of the journey. The most important gift we can give of our people and our children at this time is that sense of confidence and understanding of who we are.”
Describing it as a “labour of love”, Ms Mottley said the project is scheduled for completion by 2025 at the latest and expected to be partially funded by entities beyond the Barbados government.
The museum will include public displays of original manuscripts, legers and photographs and other materials along with a large climate-controlled open storage section, major events spaces, with anticipated research partnerships between the Caribbean’s University of the West Indies (UWI) with US academic institutions Harvard University and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
Ingrid Thompson, chief archivist at the Barbados Archives Department, said: “As we engage with these records and unearth the many stories in the current format and future state, it is believed that on the heels of republicanism a new national consciousness will emerge among our people which can only be done to the benefit of all.”
The department holds slavery records dating back to 1635 which will soon be digitised for preservation purposes.
By tapping into the heritage economy, it is hoped that this will lead to economic development, creation of expansive job opportunities for Barbadians in sectors ranging from cultural tourism to technological innovation.
Sir David said: “This project is really at the heart of why I was inspired to become an architect. That stories, structures and monuments that really define our worlds, which have been devoid of stories of people of the diaspora of Africa, need in the 21st century to emerge.”
Dr Kevin Farmer, deputy director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, said: “This allows us a space to pay homage to our ancestors, to acknowledge their sacrifice as part of an invidious system of forced migration that changed the world and their enduring legacy for future generations is of critical importance to the continued construction of national identity in this age of republic.”
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