Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture and the National Development Commission, John King.
There is a call for all Barbadians to hold on to their culture and keep it alive. This from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture and the National Development Commission, John King, as he spoke during the closing ceremony for the 2020 Edufun Summer Camp this past weekend.
The special six-week camp saw 30 young charges being schooled in various areas such as tuk band, stilt-walking, landship, steel pan, folk music and characters, Bajan language and Bajan games under the theme’ Embracing Culture: Sustaining Our Future’. With the youngster also exposed to presentations on HIV/AIDS, Social Media and Internet Safety and local genealogy, Minister King stated that he was pleased with the level of involvement by parents and noted the importance of having figures of authority be involved in activities such as this. “Those of us who grew up in a different era would know how difficult it would have been to get your parents to understand if you had a passion for things other than formal education and it would have been a major struggle to get involved in these kinds of things. So I really do want to salute you on being able to give your children the opportunity to be involved in this,” he said.
Going on to note that it was also important to the preservation of our culture that camps like these were fostered and conducted, Minister King said that it was a no-brainer for the government to support the camp. Explaining how much of an impact local culture had on his life, King also stated that it was critical that all facets of our culture are preserved and passed on. “It is important that we celebrate and pass on those things that made us who we are. For a person like me who was actually born in England, it is different and sometimes I say to people from Barbados that I see things through a completely different eye. Because coming here as a six-year-old changed my entire life. It gave me a sense of belonging for the very first time. It gave me a sense of confidence that says that I could be and do whatever I wanted to be or whatever I wanted to do within reason, but it also taught me a number of things.”
Drawing reference to the old adage which states that it takes a village to raise a child, Minister King said that that belief was once part and parcel of Barbadian culture, but that society had moved away from it and that we needed to get back to it. Stating that the camp gave an insight of what needed to be replicated across the island, the Minister said that we needed to heed the words of our anthem and revel in what was unique to us. “As the anthem says – ‘strict guardians of our heritage’ – that is what we are supposed to be. And you must never, ever, ever be ashamed of your culture, ashamed of your heritage, ashamed of where you came from or even ashamed to see your children and your offspring involved in Barbadiana.”
Going on to touch a topic that has been a heavy talking point for many years, Minister King said that to disavow or disown our Barbadian language was to dishonour our ancestors who came before us. “Communication is language and language is communication. I agree with the position of time and place - I agree with it. But I will never, and you can quote me on this, I will never agree that it is not valuable and it does not have worth because my great-grandmother and my great-grandfather and all these people who never had a chance to go to school used that language. And these are the people whose backs and shoulders we are able to go to secondary school, university and all of these things on. And if you discredit their language, you discredit them,” he said. (MP)