Barbados
- Karen Darnell
- Apr 25, 2020
- 2 min read
It wasn't until I watched “Island in the Sun,” a 1957 movie filmed in Barbados, that I realized that I had been seeing a theme in literature set in Barbados. At the time it was made, “Island in the Sun” was controversial because of the many kinds of interracial relationships it portrayed - between the plantation owners and their previous slaves, within a family with a secret black grandmother, relationships between white men and black women (those worked), and one between a black man and a white woman (that didn't work).
I had previously read The Summer Country by Lauren Willig, with a lot of well researched Barbados history (check the sources at the end of the book) and some similar discussion of interracial relationships (between a white woman plantation owner and her slave sister, between that slave sister and the neighboring plantation owner, ...). The slave uprising, cholera epidemic, and the historical figures on which the novel's characters are based tell a lot about the culture, and so do the relationships.
Then I watched “Caribbean Dream,” the Bajan version of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” by William Shakespeare. Every romantic relationship in that version is interracial – could we make the argument that the original Shakespeare supports this interracial theme as the relationship between Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons could be seen that way? I’ll let a Shakespeare scholar weigh in.
Traveling from literature to music, Rihanna is from Barbados! I enjoyed learning more about her in the documentary “Rihanna: Good Girl, Bad Girl.” Then I enjoyed watching many of her music videos at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/rihannas-30-greatest-songs-ranked-205613/.
We have literature, we have music, and because Barbados is such a popular tourist destination, it’s really easy to find quick little travel videos about it – just search for Barbados on YouTube. For a more systematic outline of a trip to Barbados, thecrazytourist.com breaks it down by beaches, resorts, villas and best things to do at https://www.thecrazytourist.com/?s=barbados.
Finally, when this pandemic is over, you might want to plan travel to Barbados using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Barbados and throughout the world.
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