The Barbados National Register was launched on July 28 2009 in the presence of The Right Hon Steven Blackett, Minister of Community Development and Culture. The citations for the register are below.
TWO of our citations were inscribed into the Memory of the World register on July 30. These were the Dame Nita Barrow Collection and the Federal Archives Fonds both housed at UWI Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. These join the Barbados Museum's Documentary Heritage of the Enslaved Peoples of the Caribbean (2003), bringing the total number of Barbados inscriptions on the MOW International Register to three.
CITATIONS BARBADOS MEMORY OF THE WORLD NATIONAL REGISTER
Title : Documentary Heritage of Enslaved Peoples of the Caribbean
Registered HeritageYear of inscription to the International Memory of the World Register: 2003
Year of Inscription to the National Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: Barbados Museum and Historical Society
Country: Barbados
Citation:
A unique corpus of documentary evidence relating to the lives of enslaved Caribbean people through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, that is preserved by the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. The collection provides invaluable source material for scholars studying the history of Barbados, the model for the development of the plantation economies of the Caribbean and North America. It includes antique legal documents, plantation ledgers, estate and shipping inventories, rare books and original prints addressing issues of leadership, control, ownership and status amongst Afro-Caribbean populations which are all explicitly illuminated in this context. Additionally the loss of family history, the absence of "ancestral memory", among the majority of the Caribbean, African and African American people, whose ancestors had little control over their own destiny or direction, has meant a loss of cultural identity. Access to these records could serve to help recover the lost heritage of millions of people.
The Hon. Steve Blackett, Minister of Community Development and Culture and Miss Alissandra Cummins, Director, Barbados Museum and Historical Society and Chair Barbados National Commission for UNESCO
Title : Federal Archives Fonds
Year of submission: 2008
Year of inscription to the International Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
Country: Barbados
Citation:
The West Indies Federation (1958-1962) was a political federation of ten territories in the Anglophone West Indies that signaled the beginning of a new era of decolonization in the post-World War II period. The history of the West Indies is inextricably linked with the histories of other former British colonies. Hence, these records are of international significance as they reflect the interconnectivity of these histories and document one of the decisive periods of twentieth century history when territories, under the colonial rule of the British Empire, first flexed their 'political muscles' and sought to become self-governing nation-states.
Ms. Joie Springer, Senior Programme Officer, Communications and Information Division, UNESCO Paris; and Mrs. Sharon Alexander-Gooding, Chief Archivist, Federal Archives Centre, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados
Title: The Nita Barrow Collection
Year of submission: 2008
Year of inscription to the International Memory of the World Register: 2009
Year of Inscription to the National Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
Country: Barbados
Citation:
Inscription
An extensive collection that documents the life and times of one of the most distinguished of 20th century women, the late Ruth Nita Barrow, Dame of St. Andrew (1980) and Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (1990). Her lifetime spans 1916 to 1995 - the era of the Cuban Revolution, the oppressive Apartheid system in South Africa, world and political changes in Eastern Europe such as the fall of the Berlin wall (a piece of which forms a part of the Nita Barrow Collection's memorabilia).
The Hon. Steve. Blackett, Minister of Community Development and Culture, Barbados; and Miss Sybil Barrow, sister of the late Dame Nita Barrow
Title: LAND REGISTRY DEEDS RECORD BOOKS
Year of submission: 2008
Year of Inscription to the National Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: Land Registration Department, Ministry of Housing and Lands/ Dept of Archives
Country: Barbados
Citation:
The Deeds Record Books contain penned, paper copies of original deeds executed in Barbados during the period April 1647 to December 1949. The Record Books are the only original source of information on land transactions in Barbados for most of the island's history as a British colony. The collection is therefore unique and of vital importance for an understanding of the island's legal history, social development and land law. Much of this important and irreplaceable collection is in fragile state and is at risk of being unuseable in the foreseeable future.
Title: RICHARD ALLSOPP PAPERS
Year of submission: 2008
Year of Inscription to the National Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
Country: Barbados
Citation:
Dr. Allsopp was the pioneer in the linguistic study of Caribbean Creoles. He was awarded the Crane Gold Medal for the most outstanding work in education in British Guiana in 1958. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the New Oxford English Dictionary, a founding member of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics. Professor Allsopp could be likened to Samuel Johnson (of the 1750s) who singlehandedly complied a Dictionary of the English Language. Allsopp's self-collated Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage was published in 1996 by Oxford University Press. As opposed to the various collaborative dictionary and lexicographical works, the Allsopp collection is the result of his lifetime research efforts and academic pursuits. Each text, dictionary, index card, audiocassette, and monograph all fed into his dictionary of Caribbean regional English usage, providing actual examples of the word usage and a cross-reference to like-meaning words from around the Anglo-phonic Caribbean. The fonds consists of a wide variety of paper-based documentation in a variety of formats which detail the life and times of the research works in general, and the passion and drive of Dr. Allsopp in particular.
Ms. Joie Springer, Senior Programme Officer, Communications and Information Division, UNESCO Paris; Mrs. Judith Toppin, Richard Allsopp's niece
Year of submission: 2008
Year of Inscription to the National Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados/ Government of Barbados
Country: Barbados
Citation:
The Richard B. Moore Collection is a unique library of books collected over sixty years by Richard B. Moore, a Black Barbadian writer, educator and activist who was resident in Harlem, New York from the period of the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights era. The Collection documents important aspects of the black experience during the twentieth century. It is a unique resource for anyone interested in the cultural, intellectual and political history of the black Atlantic world, but is of special importance for people of African descent throughout the world. The Collection reflects Richard B. Moore's lifelong commitment to the causes of black consciousness and liberation, Caribbean nationalism, anti-colonialism and socialism, as well as his abiding interest in African heritage, culture and identity.
Title: BIM MAGAZINE AND THE FRANK COLLYMORE COLLECTION
Year of submission: 2008
Year of Inscription to the National Memory of the World Register: 2009
Location: Ellice Collymore and Family/ Department of Archives, Barbados
Country: Barbados
Citation:
The sixteen volumes of the Bim archive along with the correspondence addressed to Frank Collymore from three internationally established authors (Derek Walcott, George Lamming and Edgar Mittelholzer) along with the correspondence from nine Caribbean authors and scholars as well as correspondence from Henry Swanzy the producer of BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices provide the strongest claim that the FAC Collection might make for nomination to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Frank Appleton Collymore (1893 - 1980) is widely known in the world beyond Barbados as the editor of the Barbados based literary magazine Bim. In 1942, when the magazine was launched, he was one of three editors. By the third issue he had taken over as sole editor. In the 32 years that followed he produced 56 issues before relinquishing the editorship in 1974. By issue 10 in 1948 Collymore had received contributions from Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and Guyana (then British Guyana). Through the 1960s and into the 1970's Bim remained the most important regional outlet for the young West Indian poet or short story writer.
The importance of the magazine is that it provides a miniature history of primary sources in West Indian literature. In the mid twentieth century the magazine fostered the idea, new in the region at that time, that the profession of writing is an honorable one. The magazine was the chief meeting place for Anglophone literary ideas thus enabling the writers to overcome their isolation. . Bim provided also an opportunity for new writers to appear in print alongside more established Caribbean writers who had published abroad. The magazine was thus a major force for regional dialogue, championing regionalism by its actions. Almost every important West Indian writer contributed first poems and short stories to Bim. It was here that they obtained their first encouragement and it was from here that links were established with the BBC programme Caribbean Voices and its producer Henry Swanzy who championed the development of Caribbean writing abroad.
Ms. Joie Springer, Senior Programme Officer, Communications and Information Division, UNESCO Paris with Mrs. Ellice Collymore, widow of Frank Collymore and their daughter Martine