Front row, from left: First Secretary Disa Lewis (fifth from left); Ambassador Dr. Sharon Marshall (centre); and Barbados Museum Librarian Harriet Pierce (seventh from left), pictured with members of the Barbadian group touring cultural and historical sites in Cuba. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade)
Members of the Barbadian group wave the Barbadian flag while engaging with a local resident during a classic car tour of Old Havana. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade)
Members of the Barbadian group set off in a caravan of classic cars from their hotel for a tour of Old Havana. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade)
A group of 40 Barbadians is currently exploring Cuba on a study tour organized by the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, in collaboration with the Barbados Embassy in Havana. Two more travellers from Panama have brought the total number to 42. They arrived on Monday, 24 November.
During a welcome event hosted by the Embassy, Ambassador Dr. Sharon Marshall told the group that “Cuba is a country with a rich and colourful history which is reflected in the architecture you will find in Havana and other cities and towns.” She stated that when thousands of Barbadians and other British West Indians migrated to Cuba in the early twentieth century, the country was booming as a leading sugar producer. Dr. Marshall contrasted that history with the country’s current reality of the crippling effects of the US embargo imposed more than 60 years ago. However, she urged the group to look beyond the negative and search diligently for the beauty in the landscape and in the people.
Barbados Museum Librarian Harriet Pierce is leading the group. She expressed appreciation to the travellers for their response to the tour proposal dubbed “We Going Cuba Fuh Independence”, and encouraged them to make the most of the opportunity.
Following this welcome event, the group set off in a caravan of classic cars from their hotel to discover Old Havana and to sample the fare at a popular restaurant. The visitors participated in a session on The Barbadian Presence in Cuba at the University of Havana hosted by the Norman Girvan Chair for Caribbean Studies, where they heard from Barbadian descendant Alejandro Greenidge Clark and renowned poet Nancy Morejon.
The tourists have made a day trip to the Viñales Valley, the heart of Cuba’s tobacco industry, and sampled the nightlife at a cabaret show. One highlight of the trip was a visit to the town of Baraguá in the province of Ciego de Avila, where they enjoyed an encounter with Barbadian descendants of the migrants who went to work in the sugar industry. They will also get to explore the colonial cities of Trinidad and Cienfuegos. The group is due back in Havana to participate in the Independence celebrations organised by the Embassy for Saturday, 29 November.
The tour was facilitated from Barbados by Going Places Travel in conjunction with a local tour operator in Cuba. The trip runs from 24 November to 1 December.
