By Shamar Blunt
Don’t go looking for “perfect” people to determine who should be added to the pantheon of National Heroes, a University of the West Indies historian has declared.
Professor Alan Cobley, an expert in South African and comparative history at UWI Cave Hill, advised choosing historical figures who, despite all odds, pursued the noble and just cause of uplifting Barbadian lives.
His call came at the launch of
Ann Gill – The Making of A Barbadian Hero, a new biography of the only female on the national heroes list, Tuesday at the Barbados Museum.
Professor Cobley said that stalwarts in the country’s past must be judged on what they did to improve the livelihoods of Barbadians despite challenges and sometimes violent pushback, instead of lesser-known parts of their lives which may not be acceptable today.