‘Round Midnight

We refuse to be
What you wanted us to be
We are what we are
That’s the way it’s going to be
– Bob Marley

The past, the present and the future…

The clock struck midnight, and the people of the free Republic of Barbados bade farewell to any lingering legal relationship or fealty to Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and assigns. In her place stood Dame Sandra Mason, a woman grown and nurtured on Bajan soil, addressing her fellow Barbadians with eloquent dignity as the first President of the Republic of Barbados.

Representing the departing monarchy was the erstwhile Prince of Barbados, Charles of Wales and Chester. Up until midnight, he counted Bimshire among his family’s dwindling realms. He was a welcome, polite, and utterly apt embodiment of his institution. But tonight, the real Bajan royalty was Her Excellency the Right Honourable Robyn Fenty, who made a billion dollars in one decade without ever enslaving a single African, and whose loyal followers gather voluntarily by the millions on social media, not in the exploited outposts of distant colonial conquests. Rihanna has 36 million more Twitter followers than the United Kingdom has citizens. Her ‘Navy,’ as they call themselves, possess not a single frigate or caravel, yet they wield a new type of reach and influence in today’s interconnected globe.

Not so long ago, people used to say that the sun never set on the British Empire, such was its enormity. But in the pitch-black Bridgetown night, colonialism’s shadow was dim and rapidly-retreating. Prince Charles was gracious in ceeding his family’s claim to the island. The tremble in his stiff upper lip was almost imperceptibly brief as he recalled his happy youthful visits to Barbados, 50 years earlier.

That was a time when Barbados was known as “little England.”

No more.

As of tonight, she defines herself, by herself, and relative to no other entity. She is not ‘little’ anything. She is large. She contains multitudes.

The departing Prince mentioned, in passing, the atrocity of slavery that scarred Barbados for centuries. His language was as cooly detached from the peculiar institution as was his foreparents’ intimacy with its creation and perpetuation. Nonetheless, he should be credited for raising the issue, as so many others danced uncomfortably around the rotting corpse of this elephant in the room.

The history of democracy in Barbados is centuries long. Its venerable and venerated parliamentary institutions are such a historical constant that the island’s stability is often misconstrued as stasis. But this is not the stodgy, conservative former colony that it’s often made out to be. It pioneered a before-its-time social welfare and development apparatus that catapulted its citizens to the forefront of the region’s educated elite. It developed a principled, non-aligned, foreign policy at a time when its neighbors were still learning – and underestimating – the value of sovereignty. And its past leaders long ago gave voice to the national intent not to loiter too long on colonial premises.

Tonight, Barbados’ complicated contradiction of “independent realm of her Majesty” is resolved, 55 years after it became a reality. Tonight, three women, of three distinct generations, stand proudly at the forefront of this monumental change. A president, born in 1949, who came of age in the twilight of the Republic’s colonial past. A Prime Minister, born in 1965, whose only living memories would be of an independent Barbados. And a new national hero, 33 years old, who is every bit as brash and breathtaking as the decision of the Bajan government to make her elevation the first official act of the young Republic.

As the fireworks and champagne bottles pop, the magnitude of the moment will melt into the hard work that is required to move from symbol to substance. The colonial constitution that was crafted in Her Majesty’s image must now certainly be reconsidered. The popular consciousness, now so Balkanized across political party, personal preference and social media platform, must be coaxed into the unanimous recognition that nothing was lost at midnight, but limitless possibilities were gained.

And the evangelism of republicanism in the Caribbean – so often burned at the stake of stasis, so often drowned by fear, so often sacrificed on the altar of political expediency – must rise again.

As of midnight, Her Majesty the Queen of United Kingdom has 14 remaining foreign realms. Eight of them are islands of the Caribbean. She is the Queen of Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Our new regional Republic must now stand alongside her free sisters in Dominica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago to prove that there are many more chapters to be written beyond the tale of British rule. The dynamic Prime Minister of the newest free Republic owes it to the remaining realms to be the bridge over which we can confidently cross into that next chapter in our history.

Through every chapter of its own history, Barbados has distinguished itself as a leader and as an inspiration. Many countries’ own dreams of disembarking the slave ship for the republican ship of state have been dashed on the rocks of referendum. But I pray, sincerely, that Bajan pride, activism and example can lead each of us beyond lingering colonial darkness and into our own brilliantly bright midnight.

I continue to wait for that midnight hour. A little more hopefully than I did yesterday.