Beautiful Barbados

From http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-10062--26-26--.html

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS): In a quest to promote cultural tourism and to honour this country’s slave heritage, the Barbados government is embarking on a “Slave Route Signage Project”.

To this end, on August 27, Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy, will officially launch the Project with a Plaque Reveal Ceremony at the site of Chefette Restaurant, Upper Broad Street, Bridgetown.

The plaque to be unveiled will interpret the site of “The Cage” and is one of five interpretative signs being erected across Barbados under phase one of the project.

It is being executed by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Barbados Tourism Authority.

According to an official of the Ministry, “the Barbados project, which was launched in 2003, is one element of the Caribbean component of the UNESCO/WTO Slave Route Project, which was originally launched in Accra, Ghana, in April, 1995.

“At that time, the primary objective of the UNESCO/WTO was to foster economic and human development and to rehabilitate, restore and promote the tangible and intangible heritage handed down by the slave trade for the purpose of cultural tourism”.

The Barbados Slave Route Signage Project involves the identification, research and interpretation of sites and places of memory across Barbados that are linked to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.

The interpretation of the sites will be effected through the erection of interpretative signage at the places identified.

Under phase one of the project, interpretative signage will be erected at the following four sites: Gun Hill, St. George; Sweet Bottom (Vale), St. George; Bourne’s Land, Christ Church; and The Cage, Bridgetown.

Meanwhile, a refurbished sign will be erected at the Newton Slave Burial Ground, Newton, Christ Church; and the sites identified will form the basis for the development of the proposed Barbados Slave Route Heritage Trail and Tour.