Barbados announced its intention to remove the Queen from her head of state and become a republic next year.
The Caribbean island has said it wants “full sovereignty” by the time it celebrates the 55th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom in November 2021.
A letter written by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley quotes First Prime Minister Errol Barrow who had warned him not to “hang around in colonial buildings”.
Reading the letter, Governor-General of Barbados, Ms. Sandra Mason, said: “It is time to leave our colonial past entirely behind.
“Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state.
“This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.
Hence, Barbados will take the next logical step towards full sovereignty and become a republic by the time we celebrate the 55th anniversary of our independence. “
A photo of the Queen during a tour of Barbados in 1977
The country gained its independence from Britain in 1966, although the Queen remained her constitutional monarch.
In 1998, the Constitution Review Committee in Barbados recommended Republican status, and in 2015 Prime Minister Freundell Stewart said, “We must move from a monarchy to a republican form in the very near future.”
The Queen and Prince Philip wave to a crowd in Barbados in 1966
Most of the Caribbean states maintained formal ties with the monarchy after achieving independence.
Barbados will join Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Guyana if it continues with its plan to become a republic.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said it is a priority for his government, but he has not yet achieved it.
Barbados took another step towards independence from the United Kingdom in 2003 when the London-based Privy Council Judiciary Committee replaced the Caribbean Court of Justice, located in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, as its final court of appeal.
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