Barbados replaced Queen Elizabeth II with a president of its own around midnight at the start of November 30, 2021. The new head of state was Sandra Mason, a 72-year-old judge who had been elected to the post in October. She was already the governor-general, the Queen’s representative on the island, so the person at the top stayed the same while the office changed.

The republic was born 55 years to the day after Barbados became independent.

Independence came first, in 1966

Barbados was already independent. It won independence in 1966. Like many former British colonies, it kept the monarch as head of state afterwards, with a governor-general standing in for her.

The question kept coming back. A constitutional commission in 1979 recommended that the Queen stay, citing support for the monarchy at public meetings, Jacobin reports. A parliamentary commission in 1998 recommended the opposite. A referendum planned for 2008 was postponed over its cost during the global financial crisis.

What pushed it through in 2020

Foreign Policy credits the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 with reviving the plan. In mid-2020 protesters in Barbados, where more than 90% of people are Black, attacked the island’s remaining ties to the monarchy. They also demanded the removal of a statue of a British military hero in Bridgetown.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced in September 2020 that a Barbadian would be elected head of state. The statue came down that November. A 2020 speech prepared for Mason put the case in Mottley’s words: “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind.”

The weight of 1625

The break ended a tie that began when an English ship claimed the island for King James I in 1625. Barbados then became England’s first truly profitable slave society. It received 600,000 enslaved Africans between 1627 and 1833 to work its sugar plantations, euronews reported.

The historian Sir Hilary Beckles said the change ended “the story of colonial exploitation”. At the ceremony, Prince Charles acknowledged what he called the “appalling atrocity of slavery”.

What stayed the same

Real power did not move. Foreign Policy notes that Mottley, as head of government, remains the country’s most authoritative political leader. Barbados also stayed in the Commonwealth, the group of 54 mostly former British colonies.

It was the first realm to drop the Queen in nearly 30 years, since Mauritius became a republic. Mottley used the night to name the singer Rihanna the country’s 11th national hero.