Context: Recently, Dame Sandra Mason was sworn in as Barbados' first president, as it ditched Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, severing its last remaining colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at the Caribbean island.

• Note: The last time the queen was removed as head of state was in 1992 when the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius proclaimed itself a republic.

Historical Evidence

• Barbados, which is said to have been made a ‘slave society’ by the British, first became an English colony when a ship arrived at the Caribbean in 1625. 
• On November 30, 1966, Barbados gained its independence. Barbados, however, will continue to be one of the 54 Commonwealth nations across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
• The English initially used white British indentured servants to toil on the plantations of tobacco, cotton, indigo and sugar, but Barbados in just a few decades would become England's first truly profitable slave society.
• Barbados received 600,000 enslaved Africans between 1627 and 1833, who were put to work in the sugar plantations, earning fortunes for the English owners.
• More than 10 million Africans were shackled into the Atlantic slave trade by European nations between the 15th and 19th centuries. Those who survived the often brutal voyage, ended up toiling on plantations.

How will the transition take place?

• As reported by The Guardian, there are no plans to change the flags, coat of arms, national pledge or national anthem. 
• However, the terms “royal” and “crown” would be dropped from all official references. 
• Hence, Royal Barbados Police Force will become Barbados Police Force and crown lands would become state lands.
• The country would continue to celebrate Independence day on November 30, but not just in remembrance of removing Queen Elizabeth II as the head but also in the memory of the country’s first president Errol Walton Barrow.