All You Need to Know About Culture of Barbados

Identification. Barbadians are people born on Barbados and people born elsewhere who have at least one Barbadian parent and keep cultural ties to the nation. There are emigrant Barbadians communities in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Guyana that retain active ties with their families and friends on the island. Barbadians recognize regional identities that correspond to parish districts and distinctive regional accents.

Location and Geography. Barbados is a coral limestone outcropping of the South American continental shelf that lies in the western Atlantic Ocean, one hundred miles (160 kilometers) east of the island of Saint Lucia and two hundred miles (320 kilometers) north of Trinidad and the northern coast of South America. Barbados has low, rolling hills, and microclimate variations from rainforest to semi desert.

Demography. More than 260,000 people live on this island of 166 square miles (430 square kilometers), with a population density of 1,548 people per square mile (597.7 per square kilometer) in 1996. Large populations have characterized the nation almost since its inception. As early as 1680, the island was home to seventy thousand people.

Until 1960, high birth and death rates generated a large number of young people. Barbadians emigrated in large numbers to the United Kingdom and in smaller numbers to the United States and Canada. Death rates and birth rates fell rapidly after 1960. Aided by continuing emigration among the young and immigration among the elderly, the population aged rapidly. By the year 2050, the proportion of the population age sixty-five and over will range between 25 and 33 percent of the total population.

Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life. Coocoo (a creamy blend of cornmeal and okra) and flying fish is the national dish. Breaded and fried flying fish is a popular snack or meal. Bajan meals emphasize fish, chicken, pork, and other foods common in West Africa, such as rice, okra, and Scotch bonnet peppers. Popular fruits include papaya, mangos, guava, bananas, oranges, and pineapples. Meal components such as cornmeal, salt fish, and salt beef were supplied to the original plantation labor forces. A common meal served in rural areas called privilege blends rice, okra, hot pepper, pig tail or salt beef, garlic, salt fish, and onions. Mount Gay distillery has been producing rum since 1703. Mauby, brewed from bark, sugar, and spices, is a popular drink.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Special occasions often call for pudding and souse, the first a spicy mashed sweet potato encased in pigs’ belly, and boiled pig’s head served with a “pickle” of onions, hot and sweet peppers, cucumbers, and lime. Jug is a dish consisting of pigeon, peas, stew and salt beef, onions, Guinea corn flour, and spices, and is served with Christmas dishes such as boiled ham and roasted pork.

Basic Economy. The economy is fueled by the skills of a diverse population that is one of the world’s most educated, with a literacy rate close to 100 percent. The currency is the Barbados dollar, which is linked to the United States dollar. Excellent public and private bus and taxi services take advantage of nearly 1,205 miles (1,650 kilometers) of roads and make it possible to move relatively cheaply around the island. The year 1960 brought a structural change in the economy marked by a decline in sugar production and the growth of industrial manufacturing and tourism. Barbados served as a tourist destination as early as the 1600s. Small numbers of tourists come from South America and other islands in the Caribbean. A significant stream comes from northwestern Europe, primarily the United Kingdom. Most tourists, however, come from the United States and Canada. In an island long known in the Caribbean as “Little England,” many Barbadians now claim that its increasingly important ties to the United States have transformed the nation into “Little America.”

Land Tenure and Property. Land tenure and property concepts follow precedents set in England.

Commercial Activities. Manufactured goods include garments, furniture, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, phonograph records and tapes, processed wood, and paints.

Major Industries. Light manufacturing firms produce structural components for construction, industrial gases, paper products, electronics components, and solar energy units. Barbados also refines petroleum products.

Trade. Although production declined precipitously in the last half of the twentieth century, sugar remains the major export product. Most manufactured goods are used domestically, but a small quantity is traded to other nations in the Caribbean and Latin America. Barbados carries on a small trade with North America, principally in electronic components, garments, medical supplies, and rum.

Social Stratification

Classes and Castes. Before 1960, Barbadian society consisted of a small merchant-planter elite largely of European ancestry; a slightly larger class of accountants, lawyers, medical personnel, journalists, and teachers of diverse ancestry; and a huge lower class of field laborers and domestic servants primarily of African ancestry. The elite remains about the same size but has grown much more diverse in heritage. The lower class has all but disappeared. In its place, there is now a huge middle class that encompasses everything from skilled blue-collar workers employed in manufacturing firms and hotels to a wide range of white-collar, professional, and managerial occupational groups employed directly or indirectly in the manufacturing and tourist sectors.

The Arts and Humanities

Support for the Arts. The arts on Barbados have been supported since the mid-1950s by the Barbados National Arts Council, and tourism has provided many local artists, especially musicians, with patrons. The Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) supports the preservation of the island’s handcrafts by running numerous shops where local craftspeople sell their wares, as well as offering workshops for beginners and experts alike.

Literature. “Rogues in Paradise, the Real Story of Barbados” is a book that tells us who is a rogue and what they have done for their country. There are many books written which tells the story of unsung heroes of Barbados. They were called rogue of Barbados.

Although Barbados has a long oral storytelling tradition, written literature by Barbadians received its first real debut in the 1940s and 1950s in a Barbadian literary magazine called Bim, which was the first showcase of works by a number of Caribbean writers destined for future fame, including Derek Wolcott, the 1992 Nobel laureate in literature, who was born in Saint Lucia but has spent a large portion of his time in Trinidad.

Well-known Barbadian writers include essayist John Wickham, novelist George Lamming (best known for In the Castle of My Skin , and poet Edward Kamau Braithwaite, winner of the 1994 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and a professor of Comparative Literature at New York University).

Graphic Arts. Barbados has a flourishing community of artists producing paintings, murals, sculptures and crafts, many of which reflect strong African influences. Barbadian crafts include pottery, mahogany items, and jewelry.

Performance Arts. In addition to the popular calypso, reggae, and steel band music that reflects the influence of neighboring Trinidad and Jamaica, Barbados has its own indigenous musical tradition, the tuk band, which provides the backbeat for all major celebrations on the island. Composed of penny-whistles, snare drums, and bass drums, it is reminiscent of a British military band, but with a distinctly African flair.