THINGS THAT MATTER: World Heritage recognition

Henry S Fraser

(Today’s is the fifth column in the series Paradise lost? and the first column in the series Paradise regained)

Heritage: something inherited from the past (Wikipedia)

Heritage: property inherited; valued objects and qualities such as historic buildings and cultural traditions passed down from previous generations (Oxford dictionary)

Bajans have become much more sensitive to the value of our history, heroes, historic buildings and historic events in recent times. The second definition of Heritage above, from the Oxford dictionary, with my emphasis on the word value, expresses this sense of recognition of the value of heritage, because until recently much of our history was unknown, untold and therefore unrecognised and unappreciated. Much of the new awareness is due to the teaching of West Indian and Barbadian history, much to the excellent efforts of CBC-TV, especially the splendid programmes presented by Sherwood McCaskie, and much to the recognition of our ten national heroes, from Bussa to Sir Garfield Sobers, and the events associated with them. Recognition of our two greatest martyrs after Bussa – Clennell Wickham and T.T.Lewis - would bring into even sharper focus the history of pre-Independence and the fantastic strides we’ve made from a-shilling-a-day-wage to the affluence of today.

And on June the 25th, just 8 days ago, the important role of Barbados in the history of the Caribbean and the Americas, British colonisation, the European theatre of war in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the sugar industry, was recognised by the inscription of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison as a World Heritage site.

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison along with 25 other new sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The sites vary widely – from the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany to the ancient Japanese town of Hiraizumi: the temples, gardens and archaeological sites representing the Buddhist Pure Land; from Leon Cathedral in Nicaragua to the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Columbia.

The announcement last Sunday summarised the importance of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison in the following words:

“Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison is an outstanding example of British colonial architecture consisting of a well-preserved old town built in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which testifies to the spread of Great Britain’s Atlantic colonial empire.