What started as a community project to keep young people engaged, has expanded into a wider mission to preserve a key pillar of Barbadian culture and has become an educational tool to deepen the island’s cultural ties to the African continent.
Postgraduate student in The UWI Cave Hill’s Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Sophia Lee, began teaching the Landship, a naval-inspired indigenous movement, to members of the Haynesville Youth Club which she formed in 2002 in an effort to encourage positive behaviour among its young members.
“…because we are from a working-class community, and the idea was to find an outlet to channel the hyper-intensive activity from young people within that particular community who probably would have succumbed to antisocial and deviant behaviour.
“And so, it became a passion for me to engage the youth and use the arts as a tool to do so … Landship just happened to be one of those things that became more significant because of the struggle and the experience that our forebearers had endured, and I didn’t think it was something that I should let go. So, as soon as I became a student at The UWI, I felt that it would be a project to get started [on] in terms of the research and reaching out to the community and using it as an example of how we can sustain our heritage.”
The Barbados Landship is one of the earliest cultural movements on the island, formed after the emancipation of slavery. It is widely known for its entertainment through performance and dance, and members are modelled after British Navy officers, outfitted in naval uniforms, accompanied by or moving to the rhythm of a tuk band, an indigenous musical ensemble.
In addition to its entertainment value, the Landship is also a friendly society which contributes to the social and economic development of its members.
The organisation operates on a cooperative system and is led by seven guiding principles. These include: to develop and reinforce national cultural values; to be a study for creative industries; to provide services to members; and to offer community governance. Other objectives are to celebrate identity, retain traditional practices, and promote healthy lifestyles.
As an undergraduate student, Lee produced a theatrical piece, Things Tight, that highlighted the Landship and challenges faced by artists in working-class communities.
For her master’s research paper in Creative Arts and Education, she presented a study of an intangible heritage form, with a paper entitled “Testing the Waters: Launching of a Landship Queen Eudine”.
The research investigates Landship histories and norms in the 21st century through a case study developed at The Ellerslie School in Black Rock, St Michael, where Lee teaches Landship studies in addition to her duties as Clerk Typist/Office Administrator to the Principal.
Lee’s study examines the raising of the first Landship at the school in 2017, entitled The Flagship, and introduced the Queen Eudine ELS WISE. It is named after the school’s noted alumna and former Principal of The UWI, Cave Hill, Professor the Most Honourable Eudine Barriteau. The Queen Eudine was launched at The Ellerslie School with an official ceremony last 8 May.
“I am giving focus to select Landship histories, with an emphasis on reviewing development in the 21st century. As it was launched at the school, the Queen Eudine ELS WISE will prompt several investigations. For example, it can be incorporated into schools’ curricula for the teaching of Afro-Caribbean history and spirituality.”
The artistic Director of the Haynesville Youth Club explained that her research advances knowledge of Landship studies that can be incorporated into CXC and CAPE syllabi.
“It can also be incorporated into the Landship programme developed by the National Cultural Foundation, and it reviews past theoretical and conceptual discussions made in Landship studies by the late (cultural practitioner) Gene Carson Cumberbatch-Lynch,” she said.
Keen to see more Landships being named after prominent local figures, she noted: “[Traditionally], the ships were named after colonial masters; one of the things I thought was necessary to change because we became a republic, and we talk about reparation, and we talk about emancipating ourselves from mental slavery. So, after going through that hardship experience [of slavery], I believe now is the time to have our own, that we should etch our names, people who did the hard work either in the community or in government or education, to take on the title of Landship dock as opposed to those old colonial names.”
With aspirations of becoming an Afro-Caribbean anthropologist, Lee has set a goal of teaching the Landship to students on every African country. She took the first step towards that goal in 2023 when she hosted a one-week workshop for the United African Dance Theatre in Accra, Ghana.
This past summer, she taught students at the English Pre and Primary School in Tanzania, at the invitation of her childhood friend Kevin Reece who owns the school along with his wife.
Lee’s classes were well received in both countries, and they serve as an inspiration to continue this journey, which has so far been self-funded.
“The difference between my work and others is that I am taking Landship, an indigenous Afro-Barbadian cultural performance artform, beyond the shores of Barbados, its birthplace, to the motherland,” she explained.
“I am manoeuvring the Landship to regional and extra-regional ‘ports of call’ and ‘docks’ by sharing a part of one of Barbados’s uniquely and culturally rich, intangible heritage assets with the world; while encouraging a love for one’s indigenous culture, fostering a love for community and family, and offering a positive avenue for young and old alike to immerse themselves in a socially cohesive and uplifting form of cultural performances and preservation.”
The Barbados Landship celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2023.
