Former Governor-General of Barbados, Dame Nita Barrow??

Two important pieces of Barbados’ documentary heritage have been inscribed in the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Memory of the World (MoW) Register for 2009, bringing the total number of Barbadian pieces on that prestigious register to three.

These are the Nita Barrow Collection, which documents the life and times of the former Governor General, from 1916 to 1995, and the Federal Archives Fonds, which chronicles the rise and fall of the West Indies Federation from 1958-1962.

This was disclosed today by UNESCO officials during a press conference at the Accra Beach Hotel.

Chairperson of the local Memory of the World Programme Committee, Dr. Elizabeth Watson, noted that the inscriptions were very significant for a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) like Barbados, as it showed that our culture was just as valuable as those countries which can trace their history through several centuries.

She noted that once the items were placed on the international register, the information could be accessed through the UNESCO website and become accessible to scholars worldwide.

Programme Specialist and Representative of UNESCO’s Director General, Ms. Joie Springer, pointed out that UNESCO was committed to the preservation of documentary heritage and had developed the MoW Programme to ensure that valuable historical documents were not lost.??

She added that the MoW record was a very prestigious one, which only inscribed works that had been thoroughly researched and deemed to be of international significance. "Barbados’ inscription on this list puts it in the same league as other well known historical documents from around the world," she opined.

Documentary evidence related to the lives of enslaved Caribbean people through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries entitled "Documentary Heritage of Enslaved Peoples of the Caribbean" was inscribed in 2003.??

kmoore@barbados.gov.bb

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