Submitted by Charles Knighton
Dr. Clive Landis,  Professor Cardiovascular Research University of the West Indies ... · Chronic Disease Research Centre
Dr. Clive Landis, UWI
  · Chronic Disease Research Centre

Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley, has again stressed the importance of keeping aspects of Barbados’ heritage (traditions) and history in the forefront during the season of Emancipation, “so that both young people and adults can truly appreciate what is being celebrated.”  A society that does not either understand or value its history and traditions is a society verging on suicide, for if you don’t know your history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. And what is tradition if not the living faith of the dead?

In her article Tourism defenders (April 15 Advocate), Janelle Husbands leads with the adage that “good news travels fast and bad news even faster” before discussing the importance of the image we portray in attracting tourists to Barbados.

What image of Barbados was portrayed by the recent release of the findings of a study by Dr. Clive Landis that forty percent of Barbadian females’ first sexual experiences came about through coercion or by rape? Though males were not included in this study, with such a high percentage of females reporting such experiences, it seems safe to draw the inference that over half of all children in Barbados are victims of sexual abuse.

Ergo, far from being the isolated incidents of crime Ms. Husbands speaks of, such abominable behavior seems to be a cultural norm in Barbados. How many prospective tourists, particularly females, will be appalled enough at such a state of affairs to seek their vacations elsewhere, taking their partners or families with them?

While I have never been accused of being the brightest bulb in the box, and so am probably missing something, I absolutely can’t figure out what the BAMC has done to incur the wrath of Sir Roy Trotman and the BWU. That being said, Sir Roy’s demand for an apology from the BAMC brought to mind some very sage advice learned at the knee of my grandmother, to wit: “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people neither expect or want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”

77 responses to “First Sexual Experience: 40% of Bajan Females Point to Being Coerced or Rape”


  1. MB you forgot to mention how emotional the Bajan male is …always crying during sex.. You should see if you can get that pepper spray banned. I am not surprised about the big bamboo thing since every time I see a group of you together there is at least one of you pulling on it. But all that aside women everywhere are not chattels and it has to be taught at an early age,


  2. Wait .. But Sarge, seriously, I did not know that you knew me that well .. ha ha ha. Look man, you is a dangerous man .. HA HA. “Cock and Bull” ha ha, now that is cleaver, unless you have secret desires that unconsciously come to the fore from time to time .. ha ha ha .. You is a dangerous NCO … The military was never my thing, and maybe that was a good thing after all …”Cock and Bull ..” ha ha .. Georgie Porgie would have said Gallus and Bovine tale … HA HA HA


  3. Always find that men who boast most about their numerous sexual encounters are the ones who are most sexual deprived as their in” bed performance is boring.. intolerable and lacking in creativy and great performance.i can name a few but i won.t


  4. @lawson
    You should know that I was not gifted the BB Bamboo but just a large sweeeet sugarcane! Not to mention a superior tongue for significant occassions!lol My crime??? Too white!!! I do reserve the right to pull on it anyway!

    acj —-your comments are valid and that is why I refrain besides where fun is intended. I obey the Lady who sung “I want a man with a slow hand—easy touch” and I tell no tales! lol


  5. Yes acj it’s the quiet, sneaky ones like me who have all the creative talent………err, should I have said that? Well someone’s gotta know. Lawson, wheel me to the next gang bang will you? Nearly time to resurrect I think.

    I noticed that the incidence of oral sex in the Report was much greater than might be expected. Pity it didn’t say who did what and why and why not.


  6. MB you white??? then you know that when it comes between your pay check and oral sex…white chicks will always blow your pay check.


  7. @lawson
    NOT my pay cheque! BUT probably a bunch of fellas pay cheques. Learnt at age 13 that girls like gifts but may not be loyal. Critical lesson which I have kept in mind. Always turn tables on the females—- they love confident guys that dont pay to play.


  8. MB .you are the bomb seems like i gonna have to put YOU on my MOST WANTED list..


  9. Money…….you are in business….lol


  10. @acj and WW
    Notice I did not bite on the bait as confident gents always make dem want to converse and pursue. lol


  11. Happy Easter everyone


  12. Happy Easter Ross…….and don’t worry about your appendage it’s safe with me.

    We were just discussing these particular cretins recently.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/justice-story/serial-killer-jailhouse-artist-article-1.1762308


  13. Sorry .. the only Christian day that I observe is Christmas … All of the others are just a waste of productive time … Barbados shuts down for four days … FOUR DAYS …. Foolishness ..!


  14. BABFP

    Find another day. Christ was not born on December 25th. You capitalist you. Workers need some rest.


  15. I ain’ nah Capitalist Lemuel … Christmas for me is just a cultural thing, and yah could get nuff free drinks even from people that you’ve never met. 🙂 Four days for banks to be closed and supermarkets (well they open on Saturday) … At least the girls roun’ the Garrison could mek a li’l more money …


  16. Happy Resurrection Sunday to all.


  17. BAFBFP

    I hear you loud and clear.


  18. @Baffy
    Happy Easter and thanks for pumping up the Bdos economy at the Garrison.lol (pumping up or pimping up???)
    For a non Capitalist you seem to worry inordinately about time off for the workers.You closet Capitalist!


  19. Closet Capitalist …? MoneyB, I claustrophobic … 🙂


  20. MB or should I say “large sweet sugarcane” but enough about jailhouse nicknames…..you could teach BAFBFP about capitalism…..but what has he ever done to you


  21. @Lawson
    Baffy and I have been known to spar over ‘ISMS.(Commun/ Capital etc)

    I do respect him in general and as a highly reputed rabble rouser! Some of his views are totally unbelievable, like how he claims to like the Nth Korean criminals that permitted millions to die of hunger!

    If he went to Lodge I might forgive him for dat. (it was my second choice BUT then I knew I would not need it)

  22. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2014 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2014 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad

    this must be the same 40% percent that did not VOTE.
    the same 40% percent that had to, do what they did not want to do, for government housing , crooks , liars and scumbags


  23. Money Brain there are two types of people that I do not argue with, Christians and moneybrains … Both are guilty of twisting logic to suit there causes, and both prefer to speak with the authority of the all knowing …


  24. @BAFFY
    Cudear, I did playing nice! wuhla

  25. Georgie Porgie Avatar

    @BAFFY
    I do not argue with, Christians and moneybrains … Both are guilty of twisting logic to suit there causes, and both prefer to speak with the authority of the all knowing …

    BEHAVE
    YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED


  26. @ BAFBFP

    One person I do not converse or argue with is BAFBFP. Talks nothing but BULLSHIT


  27. COULD THIS PAST HISTORY OF RAPE AND SO BE THE CAUSE OF TODAYS THINKING ??????? I BELIEVE IT THE REASON.!
    Between the years of 1652 to 1659 it is estimated that well over 50,000 men, women, and children of Irish descent were forcibly transported to British imperial colonies in Barbados and Virginia to serve as slave labor on plantations.
    Other prisoners of war, as well as political dissenters, taken from conquered regions of England, Wales, and Scotland were also sent into permanent exile as slaves to Barbados. This essentially enabled Cromwell to purge the subject population of any perceived opposing elements, as well as to provide a lucrative source of profit through their sale to plantation owners. The extent to which White prisoners were transported to Barbados was so great, that by 1701, out of the roughly 25,000 slaves present on the island’s plantations, about 21,700 of them were of European descent. Later, as the African slave trade began to expand and flourish, the Irish slave population of Barbados began to drastically recede over time, due in part to the fact that many were worked to death early on in their arrival and also as a result of racial intermixing with Black slaves.

    In stark contrast to the small number of White indentured servants present on Barbados, who could at least theoretically look forward to eventual freedom no matter how bad their temporary bondage may have been, White slaves possessed no such hope. Indeed, they were treated the same as slaves of African descent in every manner imaginable. Irish slaves in Barbados were regarded as property to be bought, sold, treated and mistreated in any way the slave-owner saw fit. Their children were born into hereditary slavery for life as well. Punitive violence, such as whippings, was liberally employed against Irish slaves, and was often used on them immediately upon their arrival in the colonies to brutally reinforce their enchained status, and as a warning against future disobedience. The dehumanizing and degrading cattle-like physical inspections used to assess and showcase the “qualities” of each captive for prospective buyers, which reached infamy with the Black slave markets, was also practiced upon both White slaves and indentured servants in the colonies of the West Indies and North America. Irish slaves were marked off from their free White kinsmen through a branding of the owner’s initials applied to the forearm for women and on the buttocks for men by a red-hot iron. Irish women, in particular were seen as a desirable commodity by White slave owners who purchased them as sexual concubines. Others found themselves sold off to local brothels. This degrading practice of sex slavery made Irish men, women and children potential victims to perverse whims of many unsavory buyers.

    In reality, White slaves fared no better a fate as unwilling human property than did contemporary captive Africans. At times they were even treated worse then their Black counterparts due to economic considerations. This was especially true throughout most of the 17th century, as White captives were far more inexpensive on the slave market than their African counterparts, and hence were mistreated to a greater extent as they were seen as a conveniently disposable labor force. It was not until later that Black slaves became a cheaper commodity. An account dating back to 1667 grimly described the Irish of Barbados as “poor men, that are just permitted to live,… derided by the Negroes, and branded with the Epithite of white slaves.” A 1695 account written by the island’s governor frankly stated that they labored “in the parching sun without shirt, shoe, or stocking”, and were “domineered over and used like dogs.” It was common knowledge among the Irish of this era that to be deported, or “barbadosed”, to the West Indies meant a life of slavery. In many cases, it was actually common for White slaves in Barbados to be supervised by mulatto or Black overseers, who often treated captive Irish laborers with exceptional cruelty. Indeed:

    The mulatto drivers enjoyed using the whip on whites. It gave them a sense of power and was also a protest against their white sires. White women in particular were singled out for punishment in the fields. Sometimes, to satisfy a perverted craving, the mulatto drivers forced the women to strip naked before commencing the flogging and then forced them to continue working all day under the blistering sun. While the women were weeding in the fields in that condition, the drivers often satisfied their lust by taking them from the rear.

    Such instances of horrific rape and unwilling sexual union between Irish female slaves and Black slave-drivers, was actually implicitly encouraged by many of their White masters. Mulatto children, who resulted from such unions, both willing and unwilling, were seen by the plantation masters as a potentially unlimited breeding stock of future native-born slave labor, acquired free of charge and without the costs of transportation. Existing public records on Barbados reveal that some planters went as far as to systematize this process of miscegenation through the establishment of special “stud farms” for the specific purpose of breeding mixed-race slave children. White female slaves, often as young as 12, were used as “breeders” to be forcibly mated with Black men.

    The enchained Irish of Barbados played a pivotal role as the instigators and leaders of various slave revolts on the island, which was an ever-present threat faced by the planter aristocracy. Such an uprising occurred in November 1655, when a group of Irish slaves and servants escaped along with several Blacks, and proceeded to attempt to spark a general rebellion among the enchained community against their masters. This was a serious enough threat to justify the deployment of militia, which eventually overcame them in a pitched battle. Before their demise they had wreaked considerable havoc upon the ruling planter class, having hacked several to pieces in brutal retribution for their bondage. They had not succeeded in their broader strategy of completely laying waste by fire, the sugar fields in which they had been forced to labor for the enrichment of their masters. Those taken prisoner were made examples of, as a grim warning to the rest of their kindred Irish, when they were burned alive and their heads were thereafter displayed on pikes throughout the market place.

    As a result of a steep increase in Black slave labor migration to Barbados, compounded with high rates of Irish mortality and racial intermixing, White slaves, which had once constituted the majority of the population in 1629, were reduced to an increasingly dwindling minority by 1786. In the present era, there remains only a minuscule, yet significant community within the native Barbadian population comprised of the descendants of Scots-Irish slaves, who continue to bear testimony to the tragic legacy of their enchained Celtic forebears. This small minority within the predominantly Black island of Barbados is known locally as the “Red Legs” , which was originally a derogatory name, understood in similar context to the slur “redneck”, and was derived from the sun-burnt skin experienced by early White slaves who had been previously unadjusted to the tropical Caribbean climate. To this day, a community numbering approximately 400 still resides in the northeastern part of the island in the parish of St. John, and has vigorously resisted racially mixing with the larger Black population, despite living in abject poverty. Most make their living from subsistence farming and fishing, and indeed they are one of the most impoverished groups living in modern Barbados.

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