Barbados

C

Plants and Animals

The island was named Os Barbados (“the bearded ones”) by Portuguese explorers, after the bearded fig trees they found on the beaches, some of which can still be seen. Nearly all the original vegetation on Barbados has been cleared for cultivation. But today many flowering trees grow on the island, and orchids, hibiscus, and other flowering plants abound in gardens and parks.

Wildlife is limited and includes hares, monkeys, mongooses, tree frogs, and various species of birds. The Barbados Wildlife Reserve is home to two unusual species: green monkeys and large, red-footed land tortoises. The monkeys were originally brought from West Africa several hundred years ago. The reserve also has deer, otters, agoutis, iguanas, and caimans. The tropical birds on the island include toucans, hummingbirds, and parrots. Marine life is abundant in the coastal waters.

D

Environmental Issues

The natural beauty and biodiversity of Barbados attract large numbers of tourists, but the growth in popularity has brought about several problems. Although local revenue has increased, water pollution from waste disposal by ships and damage to surrounding reefs have become major environmental concerns. A 240-hectare (590-acre) marine reserve was established in 1980 to protect the coastline and reefs of Barbados.

III

People

The population of Barbados (2007 estimate) is 280,946. Barbados is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with an average population density of 653 persons per sq km (1,692 per sq mi). This density is notable considering the rural agricultural character of the island. Nearly half the people live in Bridgetown, the capital and only seaport, with a population (2003 estimate) of 139,854.

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The population growth rate in the 1950s and 1960s approached 3 percent a year, largely because of faster declines in the death and infant mortality rates than in the birth rate. Family planning reduced the birth rate during the last decades of the 20th century, and emigration also brought down the growth rate to below 1 percent. By the beginning of the 21st century, the population of Barbados had stabilized.

About 90 percent of the Barbadian population is black and descended from Africans who worked as slaves on the island’s sugar plantations. The remaining portion is composed of whites and people of mixed racial descent. The European population on the island is mainly British in background. English is the official language. Almost 30 percent of the people are Anglicans; other important church communities include Methodists and Pentecostals.

A

Education

Education in Barbados is of a high standard, and the adult literacy rate of 99.7 percent is the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 5 and 15. In the 2000 school year 24,225 pupils were enrolled in primary schools. Entrance to secondary schools is by competitive examination. A campus of the University of the West Indies opened at Bridgetown in 1963. Barbados Community College was founded in 1968.

The Barbados Museum and Historical Society, established in 1933 in Bridgetown, has collections on the island’s natural history, marine life, history, and decorative art. Barbados is served by a public library system centered in Bridgetown.

B

Culture

The culture of Barbados combines English institutions, which evolved through more than three centuries of English rule, with a folk culture of African origin. Because of its English traditions, Barbados is sometimes called “Little England.” Cricket has traditionally been the national game, and the island has produced some of the sport’s greatest players. Water sports including surfing, swimming, snorkeling, and sailing are also popular.

The music and dances of Barbados reflect more purely the African heritage and feature African rhythms and musical instruments. The island also has shared in the emergence of West Indian art forms, particularly music, and there are a number of steel bands. Many of the older churches, sugar plantation houses, and buildings in Bridgetown are of historical and architectural interest.

The island’s main festival, Crop Over, celebrates the end of the sugar harvest. This summer festival features parades and calypso competitions and the ceremonious delivery of the last sugarcanes on a brightly colored cart pulled by mules. There is a toast to the sugar workers and the king and queen of the crop are crowned. In February, the Holetown Festival commemorates the landing of the island’s first settlers in 1627. The Oistins Fish Festival, held at Easter, is a street fair that celebrates the fishing town of Oistins and the fishing industry.

Two Barbadian writers have greatly influenced other writers in the Caribbean: novelist and essayist George Lamming and poet, historian, and essayist Kamau Brathwaite. Lamming’s novels, beginning with the semi-autobiographical In the Castle of My Skin (1953), deal with the problems of defining one’s own values within a system and ideology imposed from outside. This issue of how to deal with the legacy of colonialism has since concerned many Caribbean writers. Brathwaite, a founding member of the Caribbean Artists Movement, pursues this dilemma within the context of the region’s African heritage, seeking a definition of the Caribbean people, their faiths, language, and ancestry through works such as his trilogy The Arrivants (1973), and the collections Mother Poem (1977), Sun Poem (1982), and X/Self (1987); he has spent time in Ghana seeking to clarify his ideas. See also Caribbean Literature.

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