Over the past few weeks the spotlight fell on the Panama Canal, the Wonder of the World which Barbadian labour helped to build 100 years ago.
There was keen interest in the exhibition mounted by the Barbados Museum in honour of their contribution and several guests turned out for the official opening and to hear British author Matthew Parker’s lecture on the construction of the canal.
The exhibition entitled We Were Giants: The Story Of The Barbadians Who Built The Panama Canal and the lecture attracted historians, descendants of the Barbadian plantocracy, descendants of Barbadians who went to Panama, and a few Barbadians from the diaspora.
After the lecture, guests such as historians Lennox Honeychurch of Dominica, Dr Karl Watson and Sir Woodville Marshall, Senator Professor Henry Fraser, Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Maxine McClean and ancestry expert Sandra Taitt-Eaddy discussed the event over cocktails.
