BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbados will establish three postgraduate scholarships focused on Black Studies and reparatory justice as part of its continuing campaign for reparations for slavery, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced in her Emancipation Day message.
Mottley said the scholarships will be offered through the Ministry responsible for Pan African Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office in partnership with The University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill and Mona campuses and the University of Glasgow.
Under the initiative, at least three Barbadians will pursue master’s degrees at the University of Glasgow in Black Studies and related disciplines, with a strong emphasis on reparatory justice.
“These scholarships are freedom carried into knowledge. Across the same Atlantic that carried our ancestors in chains, their descendants will now travel by choice, rooted in identity and equipped to shape the work of justice,” Mottley said.
The Prime Minister said the programme forms part of Barbados’ commitment to advancing the reparations movement following recent progress at the regional and international levels.
In her Emancipation Day address, Mottley paid tribute to the enslaved Africans whose resistance laid the foundation for modern Barbados, singling out National Hero Bussa as a symbol of the struggle for freedom.
“Bussa remains one of the clearest symbols of that courage. The uprising he led declared that our people had never consented to enslavement and would never accept it as their destiny,” she said.
Mottley argued that while emancipation ended slavery, it did not repair the economic and social damage inflicted on generations of enslaved people.
“Emancipation removed the legal chains, but did not restore the land, wealth or opportunity taken from generations,” she said. “Reparatory justice is truth spoken, responsibility accepted and repair made practical. An apology without repair is eloquence without justice.”
She noted that this year the United Nations General Assembly and CARICOM had advanced the global reparations agenda and pledged that Barbados would continue to play a leading role while preparing the next generation to carry the movement forward.
The Prime Minister also said emancipation must be reflected in the way societies confront inequality, violence and exclusion.
“There can be no freedom where violence silences hope, inequality closes doors or indifference strips another person of dignity,” she said.
Calling on Barbadians to honour the sacrifices of their ancestors, Mottley urged citizens to continue the pursuit of justice.
“Emancipation is what they won. Justice is what we owe them. Let us complete the journey,” she said
