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Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? The Empire Windrush story
Only five of the 1,027 passengers on board the Empire Windrush began their journey in Barbados. Bill Hern writes about them here and explodes some myths about the iconic ship and its historic journey to England in June 1948. Background:The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 where people mainly of Caribbean descent were wrongly classified as…
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Black Bajan footballers who were English Football League Club pioneers
Thanks to a select group of pioneering black Bajan footballers, no country in the world has had a greater impact on the history of English football than Barbados. That statement might come as a shock to some. After all, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have reached the World Cup Finals whereas Barbados has never come…
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Richard Goddard – 1935 to 2021
Richard Goddard tribute by William Burton I first met Richard Goddard through my parents. But it was not until the early 1980’s that I joined his Sunday morning walks which started at Union Hall where he lived at the time. Soon groups from the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme joined as part of their qualification.…
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Alan Emtage – the Bajan who invented the ftp search engine in 1989 while a post-grad student at McGill University
Bajan Alan Emtage in 1989, aged 25, invented the first internet (ftp) search engine – Archie. The name Archie is derived from Archive with the v removed. At the time Alan was a post graduate student at McGill University working as a volunteer systems administrator for the School of Computer Science where he conceived and…
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George Blackman BWIR – There were no parades for us
In 1915 Britain’s War Office, which had initially opposed recruitment of West Indian troops, agreed to accept volunteers from the West Indies. A new regiment was formed, the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR), which served in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “They called us darkies. But when the battle starts, it didn’t make a…
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Banja in Barbados and its influence on calypso throughout the West Indies
The story of Banja and its development and its influence on calypso though the West Indies told by our guest contributor Roger Gibbs – who is Toronto based. Here we re-publish Roger Gibbs’ video presentation: Early Calypso in Barbados. In addition to the video Roger has also provided us with a transcript for those that…
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King Ja Ja, L’Année Passée and Rum & Coca-Cola
This is a follow-on to the well-known Barbadian folk song Millie Gone to Brazil and is how two classics songs L’Année Passée and Rum & Coca-Cola trace their heritage back to the Bajan folk song: King Ja Ja. It is told by our guest contributor Roger Gibbs. King Ja Ja of Opobo King Ja Ja…
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Lt. Joseph Nathaniel Griffith – the Bajan that taught a band to play
This is the story of Bajan Lt. Joseph Nathaniel Griffith who was the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) musical director which debuted at the Festival of Britain at the South Bank Exhibition in London on 26th July 1951. At the time TASPO was probably the most technically advanced steelband in the world. Bajan: Lt. Griffith…
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Barbados Sugar-Works 1640 – 1924 (Summary)
Jim Webster in collaboration with Francis Ward, has put together three posts for BajanThings all on the theme of Barbados Sugar-Works (Sugar Plantations / Sugar Estates / Sugar Factories). This post brings together the three data tables in one place: In addition Jim Webster has also produced a detailed index of Maps of Barbados going…
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Barbados Almanacs: Plantations & Sugar-Works 1848 – 1871
This is the third in our series of stories based upon transcriptions of old plantation sugar-works tables and records. Previously, we published the sugar-works listings from the Barbados Handbooks 1912 – 24 and the Ronnie Hughes Plantation list 1640 – 1846. The latter was previously published on the plantations.bb website which no longer exists. The…
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BajanThings
Bajan history. Interesting Bajan people. Hiking in Barbados and Overseas. International Travel…
Category: Bajan People
Bajan’s (Barbadian’s) that have done outstanding things or have made outstanding contributions.