A new radio series aiming to correct the historical record and potentially shape national policy by highlighting the overlooked contributions of Black Barbadian women in the fight against slavery is set to air from Tuesday, as part of the 2025 Season of Emancipation.
Dubbed Unsung Heroines: Black Women in Resistance in Barbados, the seven-part series will be broadcast every two weeks at 3 p.m. on Voice of Barbados 92.9 FM. The initiative, a collaboration between the Division of Culture in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, was launched at UWI on Monday.
“This radio series is more than a broadcast. It’s a mission to restore the voices and actions of enslaved Black women whose contribution to our island’s resistance has been largely absent from our historical records,” said researcher Natasha Bynoe, whose work underpins the production.
“We envision this project informing a national policy that finally recognises these contributions. We hope to spark a national conversation about the importance of recognising the contributions of all members of our society and the need to create a more just, equitable future.”
The series will feature historians, poets and community voices, highlighting such figures as National Hero Sarah Ann Gill and Nanny Grigg, whose leadership role in the Easter 1816 rebellion is often overshadowed by General Bussa. It will also showcase lesser-known women who resisted through “quiet but powerful” acts of community-building, spiritual leadership, and rebellion, according to the UWI researcher.
The stories move beyond the “great man theory” and focus on power created through relationships and shared experience, Bynoe added. “These women created power,” she said. “Their contributions lie not only in grand historical moments, but in the daily ties they nurtured—building the conditions for resistance.”
The researcher noted the challenges of tracing women in historical records, sharing that many were only identifiable through references to husbands or children, and some repositories remained inaccessible during her research. Sharing some of her findings, most of which will be explored throughout the radio series over the next couple of weeks, Bynoe said: “One of the things that really stood out to me as a historian is that Barbadians feel they were passive.”
“They were not passive at all. And I think that’s something that needs to be heard—both for men and women, but especially women.”
Speaking during the launch, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Division of Culture Michelle Maynard said the series is part of a broader effort to elevate the voices of women whose contributions to Barbados’ history have been sidelined. “We are intentionally shifting the lens, moving beyond the familiar names and events to elevate the voices and experiences of women,” Maynard said.
She further noted that the initiative aligns with this year’s emancipation theme, Reimagining Our Past, Celebrating Our Future.
Featured speaker, Head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Dr Tonya Haynes, said the project helps to confront ongoing issues of race, gender and identity, noting that Black Barbadian women have historically exercised a high level of autonomy, heading more than half of households and redefining kinship and care outside traditional frameworks.
She shared her hopes that the series will spark “a deeper public reckoning with the unfinished business of emancipation” and contribute to a broader reparations conversation—one that centres women’s leadership and a commitment to ending gender inequality.
Officials also shared that the broader series is expected to culminate in a national broadcast and contribute to long-term cultural and educational engagement.
(SM)
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