44 Fun Facts About Barbados

What is the capital and largest city of Barbados?

Bridgetown, on Carlisle Bay in the south-west, took down its statue of Lord Nelson in 2020 after more than 200 years, saying it had no place in National Heroes Square.

Within the Caribbean region, Barbados holds which geographic distinction?

It is the easternmost island of the Caribbean, about 160 km east of Saint Vincent; lying outside the main hurricane zone, Barbados is often spared the storms that hit its neighbours.

Which royal attended the midnight ceremony in November 2021 at which Barbados became a republic?

Prince Charles, then Prince of Wales, was guest of honour as the Queen's standard was lowered, and in his speech he acknowledged the 'appalling atrocity of slavery' the island had suffered.

Which singer was declared a National Hero of Barbados on the night it became a republic?

Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, was named a National Hero at the ceremony, where the prime minister told her: 'May you continue to shine like a diamond.'

Who was Barbados's first prime minister, known as the "Father of Independence"?

Errol Barrow flew dozens of bombing sorties over Europe as an RAF navigator before entering politics; he later led Barbados out of British rule, and his birthday, 21 January, is a public holiday.

Who became Barbados's first female prime minister in 2018?

Mia Mottley took office in May 2018 after her Barbados Labour Party won all 30 seats, which left the House with no opposition until one of her own MPs quit the party to lead one.

Who served as the first president of Barbados?

Sandra Mason, the island's last governor-general, was jointly nominated by the prime minister and the opposition leader and sworn in as the first president at the republic ceremony.

The trident on the flag of Barbados is missing its shaft to symbolise what?

The broken trident stands for the break from colonial rule: the colonial badge showed Britannia holding a whole trident, and the new flag kept only its snapped-off head.

What do the two ultramarine bands on the flag of Barbados represent?

The sea and the sky are what the two blue bands stand for, with gold for the sand between them; art teacher Grantley Prescod's design won an open contest that drew over a thousand entries.

Since 1975 the Barbadian dollar has been pegged at two to one against which currency?

The US dollar: the Barbadian dollar replaced the East Caribbean dollar at par in 1973 and was fixed at two to the US dollar in 1975, so visitors can convert prices by halving them.

What is the national dish of Barbados?

Cou-cou and flying fish pairs a polenta-like mash of cornmeal and okra with steamed or fried fish; the fish is a national symbol, and Barbados is nicknamed 'the land of the flying fish'.

Mount Gay, with a deed dating to 1703, claims to be the world's oldest what?

Commercial rum distillery: Mount Gay rests the claim on a 1703 deed and is named for its manager Sir John Gay Alleyne, using his middle name because a Mount Alleyne already existed on the island.

Which citrus probably arose in 18th-century Barbados as a sweet orange–pomelo cross?

Grapefruit is a natural hybrid that could arise there because both parents, the sweet orange and the pomelo, were introduced crops already growing in the West Indies by the 1690s.

Which crop, grown from the 1640s, made Barbados a major plantation economy?

Sugar cane replaced tobacco and cotton as the island's export crop, and for a time Barbados dominated the Caribbean sugar industry before Jamaica and the Leeward Islands overtook it.

Barbados's 1661 slave code became the model for the 1696 slave law of which mainland colony?

Carolina was settled partly by planters from Barbados, who carried the island's 1661 code into the colony's own slave law of 1696; Jamaica and Antigua adopted versions too.

The Emancipation Statue in Barbados is popularly named after which leader of an 1816 slave rebellion?

Bussa, an African-born enslaved man, led the 1816 rising, the first of three mass revolts in the British West Indies that shook public faith in slavery in the years before abolition.

Which future US president made his only trip outside what is now the United States to Barbados in 1751?

George Washington, then 19, sailed with his tubercular half-brother Lawrence and caught smallpox on the island, which scarred his face slightly but left him immune to later infection.

Which Barbadian cricketer scored a then-record 365 not out in 1958 and is called the greatest all-rounder ever?

Garfield Sobers had never made a Test century before he turned his first into 365 not out against Pakistan, a world record that stood until 1994; he was knighted in 1975.

Which Barbadian was the first black cricketer appointed West Indies captain for a full series?

Frank Worrell led West Indies throughout the 1960–61 tour of Australia, the first black captain for a full series; the Australia–West Indies trophy bears his name.

Which Barbadian fast bowler retired in 1991 as West Indies' leading Test wicket-taker, with 376?

Malcolm Marshall held the West Indies record until 1998; at Headingley in 1984 he broke his thumb in two places, batted one-handed and then took 7 for 53.

Barbados hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup final, in which Sri Lanka lost to which team?

Australia won a third World Cup in a row, but the rain-shortened final ended in farce when the umpires wrongly made the teams finish the last overs in near darkness.

Which Barbados ground, known locally as the 'Mecca' of cricket, staged its first Test match in 1930?

Kensington Oval began its Test history in January 1930 with a draw between West Indies and England, and was rebuilt to stage the 2007 World Cup final.

Which costumed street parade, held on the first Monday in August, closes Barbados's Crop Over festival?

Grand Kadooment is the finale of a festival that began as a plantation celebration of the end of the harvest, died out in the 1940s and was revived in 1974.

What name is given to Barbados's small wooden houses, set on blocks so their owners could move them?

Chattel houses take their name from a word for movable property: the plantation workers who owned them rarely owned the land beneath, so a house had to be able to move with its owner.

Barbadians colloquially call themselves what?

Bajans is a clipped form of 'Bar-bajans', a spelling of 'Barbadians' the way the word sounds when spoken; islanders also nickname their country 'Bim'.

Barbados is the only home of the world's smallest known species of which animal, identified in 2008?

Snake: the Barbados threadsnake, about 10 cm long and as thin as spaghetti, is thought to be close to the smallest a snake can be, since its single hatchling must still be big enough to find food.

Barbados's name most likely comes from a Portuguese or Spanish word meaning what?

'Barbados' means 'the bearded ones' in Portuguese and Spanish, possibly after the bearded fig tree's hanging aerial roots or the supposedly bearded Kalinago people.

Barbados is much flatter than its neighbours because it is geologically made of what?

A cap of coral limestone up to about 90 m thick covers most of Barbados, raised above the sea as sediment scraped off the South American plate piled up beneath it.

Which small primate, brought from West Africa on slave ships, now roams wild across Barbados?

The green monkey reached the island from West Africa aboard slave ships in the late 1600s; kidney cells from an African green monkey later gave science the Vero cell line used to make polio vaccine.

Which underground attraction in central Barbados, opened to tourists in 1981, is toured by tram?

Harrison's Cave was first recorded in 1795, then lay largely forgotten until it was rediscovered in the early 1970s; the government developed it and opened the tram tour in 1981.

Bathsheba, on the rugged Atlantic east coast, is famous for a surf break known as what?

The Soup Bowl owes its power to geography: swells roll in across thousands of miles of open Atlantic, with no land in their way, before breaking at Bathsheba.

Which Barbadian town, the island's second largest, is nicknamed "Little Bristol"?

Speightstown, about 19 km north of the capital, earned the name 'Little Bristol' because ships once sailed from it directly to London and, above all, to Bristol.

Oistins, a town on the south coast of Barbados, is best known to visitors for what weekly event?

A Friday night fish fry draws locals and tourists to Oistins to eat and 'lime'; the island's royalists are said to have signed their 1652 peace with the English Commonwealth's fleet at a tavern in the same town.

What is the old inner harbour at the heart of Barbados's capital called?

The Careenage is named for careening, hauling a ship over onto its side to clean or repair the hull; once a hub of the island's trade, it is now a haven for yachts and fishing boats.

Grantley Adams, namesake of Barbados's airport, was the only prime minister of which short-lived union?

The West Indies Federation joined ten British Caribbean territories in 1958 but collapsed in 1962, after Jamaicans voted in a 1961 referendum to pull out.

The uniformed members of the Barbados Landship parade and dance in imitation of which institution?

The British Navy is what the Landship mimics in its ranks, uniforms and drills; tradition dates the movement to 1863, and it also works as a friendly society that supports its members.

Which supersonic airliner flew London–Barbados and names a museum at the island's airport?

Concorde flew the London–Barbados route for British Airways; the Queen flew home from Barbados aboard Concorde in 1977, and the retired G-BOAE is displayed at the airport.

Which community of refugees from Dutch Brazil founded a house of worship in the capital that dates to 1654?

Sephardic Jews, driven first from Iberia and then from Brazil, built the Nidhe Israel Synagogue, among the oldest in the Americas; a hurricane destroyed it in 1831 and the congregation rebuilt it.

In a 1994 Caribbean Cup match against Grenada, what did Barbados do on purpose to force extra time?

Scored an own goal: Barbados had to win by two, and a golden goal in extra time counted double, so at 2-1 up they levelled the match themselves and went on to win 4-2.

Which sheep breed native to Barbados grows hair rather than wool?

The Barbados Blackbelly descends from hair sheep brought from West Africa; the wool sheep that Europeans also brought did poorly on the island's coarse pasture and had vanished by the mid-1700s.

Which bird stands opposite a dolphinfish as a supporter on the coat of arms of Barbados?

The pelican and the dolphinfish flank a shield bearing a fig tree, under the motto 'Pride and Industry'; Queen Elizabeth II granted the arms by royal warrant and presented them in person.

The first permanent English settlers landed in 1627 near which present-day town, then called Jamestown?

Holetown was first called Jamestown; the monument there to the first landing carries the wrong date, 1605, and each February the town marks the 1627 settlement with a festival.

The rugged upland district of north-eastern Barbados shares its name with which country?

The Scotland District covers about 15 percent of the island, and erosion is such a problem there that the government has adopted a conservation plan to protect its hillsides.

Which traditional Barbadian dish pairs pickled pork with spiced sweet potatoes?

Pudding and souse pairs pork pickled with lime, cucumber and hot pepper with steamed sweet-potato pudding; the souse once used trotters, ears and snout, though many cooks now prefer lean meat.