Ins & Outs of Barbados 2020

HISTORY  33 INS required to provide a well run canal that would permit transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and vice versa. The Isthmian Canal Commission recruited some 20,000 Barbadians to assist in the building works. When one adds families, it is estimated that some 40,000 Barbadians went to Panama. From there, groups branched out to Brazil, Peru, Venezuela and other South American countries where American engineers had contracts to build railways. Barbadians were the workers of choice. Literacy and a good work ethic were their strong points and made them the favourites of the Americans. Barbadians also made their way to Cuba, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic to work in the sugar industry in those countries. It was not only as unskilled estate workers that Barbadians made their mark. In the immigration documents for Espírito Santo in Brazil, all of the Barbadians who migrated there possessed various skills. In the 1950’s, Barbadians were part of the Windrush generation headed to the United Kingdom. Britain was in a post war rebuilding mode and was keen to recruit workers, especially for the transport and hospital sectors. Recruitment offices were specifically set up in Barbados. The 1960’s saw a great increase in migration to Canada. Barbadians made it as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. It is widely rumoured that one can find a Barbadian any where on earth. This story, whether apocryphal or not, clearly illustrates this. A Barbadian newspaper publisher on holiday with his family in Cairo, saw an Egyptian man selling snow cones. They decided to try and in explaining to the man which flavours they wanted, he excitedly slipped his burnoose to a side, looked up at the publisher and said: “Wait skipper, you is a Bajan, I is one too.” Left: Barbadian men on SS Ancon arriving in Panama to build the canal. Photo courtesy Library of Congress Barbadians massed at the Careenage saying farewell to their menfolk bound for Panama. Photo courtesy Barbados Museum and Historical Society