By Elishya Perera
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CWBN)_ Two months after announcing its intention to remove Queen Elizabeth II as its heads of state, Barbados hauled down the statue of British Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson from the capital Bridgetown’s main square on Monday (Dec 7).
As the Caribbean nation intends to move on from its colonial past, Nelson’s statute has also become quite controversial, given his efforts to defend the slave trade upon which Barbados’ plantation economy was based.
Sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer in May, the Black Lives Matter movement called for a reassessment of racism and history around the world, which led to many statues across the globe, including those of slave traders in Britain to Confederate generals in the United States, being towed down.
The square in which Nelson’s statue stood was previously called Trafalgar Square, but was renamed as National Heroes Square in 1999, although Nelson is not among the Barbados’ 10 national heroes.
On 21 October 1805, Nelson was killed by a fatal gunshot wound at the Battle of Trafalgar. Two years later, Britain abolished the slave trade. However, historians believe that if Nelson had been alive, the end of slavery would have come even later.
Participating in a ceremony Monday night, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley said that while Nelson’s statue was an “important, historic relic”, however, “It is not a relic to be placed in the National Heroes Square of a nation that has had to fight for too long to shape its destiny and to forge a positive future for its citizens,” she said.
Accordingly, after centuries of overlooking the streets of Bridgetown, the statue will be housed at the Barbados Museum in the Historic Garrison Area going forward.
