Culture of Barbados

Like many countries across the globe today, Barbados is no doubt a melting pot for a number of different kinds of people. For example, there were the Saladoid-Barrancoid people who were suspected to occupy the island from approximately 350 AD to 650 AD. Even though when Pedro a Campus landed on the island nearly nine hundred years later and claimed that the island was uninhibited, there is no way of knowing whether or not some of the Saladoid-Barrancoid people may have still been there. Pedro a Campus sailed for Portugal, and was accredited to have discovered it. Next to follow were the Spanish, spending a brief amount of time on the island. The island was officially claimed under the flag of England on May 14, 1625 by Captain John Powell. The English settled the island, and started to create sugar plantations. As the plantations began to grow and succeed, they started importing more and more slaves to do the work. These are the compilation of people that make up Barbados.

Barbados was settled and run by the British. From the beginning it was established as Britain’s largest exporter of sugar. The British started migrating east, and colonizing on the island. Their sports, government, educational systems, and economic ways have all been tied to their British ancestry. However, the island today is mostly of African decent, and this is where a good portion of the culture comes from. Even from the beginning, the Africans outnumbered the British on the island almost four to one.

In the 1870’s, the British game of cricket was introduced on the island. Cricket has come to be established as one of the most popular pastimes on the island. While it started as only the British playing, soon powerful