Monrovia – The ties that bind Liberia and Barbados is cemented in the fact that two former Presidents of Africa’s oldest republic are of Bajan descent – Arthur Barclay and his nephew, Edwin Barclay. Some 159 years after President Daniel Bashiel Warner extended an invitation to persons of African descent from the islands of the West Indies to come and settle in Liberia, Barbados is bracing for a heritage event of historic significance, when descendants of the original families who arrived in Liberia in 1865, descend on the Island for a pilgrimage set for May 6-16.
By Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Prime Minister Mia Mottley who has given her blessing to the event will be joined by Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for the historic event which is expected to not only pave the way for enhanced political, cultural, developmental, and business between the two countries, but also open doors of opportunity for growth.
Senator John Andrew King, a Barbadian politician and one of the organizers of the event, foresees a unique opportunity that has been long in the making. “This is the beginning of a relationship that may have been written out of the history books if not for the intervention of Ambassador Lorenzo Witherspoon. We were never taught that brave Barbadians returned to the Motherland on their own to create a new life and build a totally free state on the continent. In the height of Colonialism Liberia was a shining example of what we as black Africans could achieve after being told by the West, we could not manage our own affairs. A beacon of resilience against all odds is being once again accomplished through the Sankofa Pilgrimage. Together we will build a better world for ourselves and our future generations.”
President Barclay’s paternal grandparents moved from Barbados to Liberia with their children in 1865. They were among a minority of immigrants from the Caribbean but shared with the Americo-Liberians a culture with an English base, considerable mixed-race ancestry, and a shared history.
The Presidency of Arthur Barclay who led Liberia from 1904 to 1912 is often credited with bringing an end to the conflict between mulattoes and black emigrants. It was under Barclay’s reign that the Liberian Constitution was changed giving citizenship to the people of tribal origin, and a system of ‘indirect rule’ introduced.
Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, on July 31, 1854, the tenth of twelve children of Anthony and Sarah Barclay, Arthur Barclay was the father of Anthony Barclay, who served on the Supreme Court of Liberia during the reign of his uncle Edwin Barclay, Liberia’s 18th president.
The idea for the event started in 2021 when Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, expressed to Ambassador Lorenzo Llewellyn Witherspoon, on the occasion of their meeting at Ilaro Court in Bridgetown, her dream of bringing Liberian Barbadians home to Barbados, and subsequently take African Barbadians home to Liberia and West Africa sometime in the near future.
Ambassador Witherspoon served as Liberia’s first Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary to South Africa from 1997 to 2001, with concurrent accreditation to Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Before then, he had served from 1987 to 1991 as First Secretary & Consul of Liberia in Kinshasa, Zaire, with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Congo. In 2022, he retired from the United Nations World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, after 17 years of “outstanding” service.
The Prime Minister had invited Ambassador Witherspoon to discuss the Report on his family’s emigration to Liberia in 1865 as part of a group comprising 346 Barbadians. Although many descendants of those families (Portes, Weekes, Barclays, Wiles, Padmores, Thorpes, Murrays, Goodridges, among others) had conducted some research in the past, none had made their findings public.
The Report, “Portes Find a New Home in Liberia: Story of the Post-Emancipation Emigration of The John Prince PORTE Family from Barbados, West Indies, to Liberia, West Africa & The Family’s Quest for Ancestral Citizenship”, was published and released in May 2021.
On the margins of the Founders Lecture and Gala Dinner of the Principal and Bicentennial-Chancellor of UNISA in Pretoria on November 29, 2023, Ambassador Witherspoon had the privilege of updating President Sirleaf on the planning for the Sankofa Pilgrimage to Barbados.
President Sirleaf congratulated Ambassador Witherspoon, appreciating him for his effort which would unite the two countries for the first time since the 1865 negotiated emigration. She also requested a copy of the Report, which was delivered following her return to Liberia.
For almost two years Ambassador Witherspoon and the global team he assembled had been discussing which iconic and truly eminent Liberian brand could make the event truly significant and memorable, and President Sirleaf, the 2011 Noble Laureate, emerged as an undisputable choice.
Efforts are also being made to further cement relations between the two countries with the establishment of diplomatic relations. Despite the linkage of Arthur and Edwin Barclay and other Bajans to Liberia, there is no diplomatic ties between Barbados and Liberia, a faux pas long overdue for correcting, Prime Minister of Barbados Mottley declared. In a December 2021 interview with FrontPageAfrica, PM Mottley expressed shock about the glitch. “I could not believe that the country for which we have had a president (Arthur Barclay – 1904–1912), born in Barbados, we did not have diplomatic relations between the two countries. My government has moved to change that. I had early conversations with your president (George Weah) when I saw him at the COP Summit in Glasgow, and I hope that we can literally deepen the cooperation between the two countries because this is a perfect example of being separated by the middle passage.”
PM Mottley has been a strong advocate for integration and hit home the point when she addressed the historic and inaugural CARICOM-Africa virtual Summit hosted by Kenya under the theme, “Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration.”
This is the beginning of a relationship that may have been written out of the history books if not for the intervention of Ambassador Lorenzo Witherspoon. We were never taught that brave Barbadians returned to the Motherland on their own to create a new life and build a totally free state on the continent. In the height of Colonialism Liberia was a shining example of what we as black Africans could achieve after being told by the West, we could not manage our own affairs. A beacon of resilience against all odds is being once again accomplished through the Sankofa Pilgrimage. Together we will build a better world for ourselves and our future generations.”
Senator John Andrew King, Barbadian politician
For Mottley, a burning issue has been the push for weekly direct flights between Africa and the Caribbean, a joint public-private sector mechanism, a shared mass media platform to exchange news, information and culture, and a collective approach to the United Nations Conference against racism.
This is an idea that concerned Ambassador Witherspoon, and one which, through the Business Forum planned as part of the Sankofa Pilgrimage, and other initiatives, he hopes will be redressed in collaboration with the Barbados Ministry of Investment and Economy.
The Prime Minister told FPA that it was so important to make the push. “I said and I repeat now that we need to remove the middle passage, the middleman, the middle leg, in our relationship between the Caribbean and Africa – and that is exactly what we are trying to do. So, my officials in the Ministry of Tourism are working with others in Kenya and in Ghana to see how we can open up the continent for the first time in terms of air travel. I think we all agree that there is a market on both sides who are willing to learn more, to participate more. We want to know more of our heritage and persons in Africa want to be able to see what became of their families in this part of the world and at the same time enjoy what we sent to the world which is some of the best locations to be able to enjoy and relax and to reflect and to work from. So, I look forward to that.”
The PM says her government has in recent months opened an embassy in Ghana and in Kenya and pointed to ongoing discussions in the backdrop of the CARICOM summit as a key reason why relationship between Africa and the Caribbean should be fostered. “The stories that are less known is that we came back to Africa – and we came back to Liberia, and we came to Sierra Leone and those stories are now being told. I keep saying that there was actually a Bajan person who was a Barbadian born, who was a President of a nation of the world before Dame Sandra Prunella Mason, and that was in Liberia – at the turn of the century.”
