you understand where you came from. your whole bloodline is important, history is important. in recent years, there has been increased awareness of the civil rights of black people after a series of events made headlines around the world. in britain, there was the windrush scandal in 2018, when people who d legally migrated there in the 19405 found they and their descendants being threatened with deportation. some families, after a lifetime in the uk, suddenly felt unwelcome. hey, daniel! hey! thanks for the lift! welcome to barbados, man! welcome to barbados. good to see you, denise! denise and her husband paul decided to leave london three years ago, and just bought a house here in fortescue. you see all these dead end rods they re just the cul de sacs that will eventually have the housing. we are driving up to the cliff edge, it s quite bumpy, but worth it when we get there.
that s all of you. um, with the republic coming up, does that change those ambitions at all? if it does, put your hand up. if it doesn t, then leave it down. they may be excited about the change, but not enough to keep them living and working in barbados. what the guys had to say really challenged my perspective on this whole republic thing. i mean, who is it really for? who is going to benefit? is it gonna stop young people wanting to leave the country in search of opportunities, like my grandad had to do 50 odd years ago? i set out to discover what the birth of the new republic means for bajans, and ifound a genuine desire for a new start here. if the move to a republic creates confidence in the country s future, then who knows what barbados can achieve?
the question is, how they really done enough to stay in the game? is it a sense for you that england, because of its. more than 300 years in control of barbados, ended up taking it for granted? i think what really was needed was for england to accept the atlantic slave trade, accept that as something that happened. also accept that institutions and individuals in england benefit from it, and i believe in a call for reparations. for me, reparations would be, forgiveness of any debts that barbados has, also the building of some schools, we have suffered in the last two years, and we have been suffering in this region for quite a while.
and then me in the middle, of course. he was never shy of an opinion, he knew what he thought, he liked to have a talk, he likes to debate, with all of these changes in barbados, i know he would have had something to say about it. and you know, it is just, just sad that i can t talk to him now. my grandad passed away 14 years ago. i still have family here who knew him well. so we are just around the corner from my auntie marjorie and uncle noel. they were really close with my grandad, and my nan, so if anyone is going to know anything about what they would have made of this, it is them. so it is a good place to start, i think. hello! uncle! good to see you.
talking about, who would have been working here as my grandad was, to the man that i knew, who made a family in britain, and then came back to barbados and made his life. the fact that that is part of his story means that it is part of mine, and being in this building, i am finding that really. difficult to comprehend, really. after he returned from london in 1984, he opened the rum shop. it used to be busy and full of life. this picture here, i think really captures the essence. you have got nan on one side, arm around me, protective. you have grandad on the left, chest out, back straight,