Barbados government buys historical Banyan archives

Banyan Ltd managing director Christopher Laird is presented with a plaque by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on August 19 in Barbados as he was inducted into the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Hall of Fame. - Photo courtesy CBU -

The Barbados government has purchased TT production company Banyan Ltd's culturally rich and extensive archives spanning four decades.

Its managing director, Christopher Laird, has described the agreement as "extraordinary," especially after consistently trying to strike up deals with local companies for ten years.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley made the announcement during the opening ceremony of Carifesta in her country on August 22.

She spoke highly of Caribbean unity as she reflected on her teenage days when Carifesta was first held in Barbados in 1981.

"I understood then what it meant to me and what it excited in my imagination for what the possibilities of this Caribbean civilisation are. I understood then that we have a story to tell the world."

She said one of the things that "pleases (her) government" is that it signed an agreement to purchase "the historical records of Banyan Productions out of TT."

Founded in 1974, the TV production company created several programmes, later founding the TV channel Gayelle The Caribbean.

The company has digitised its archives, which contain at least 15,000 items, and has been trying to find a home for them. A lot of the footage is rare, and often raw and uncut, covering festivals, religion and traditions, art, music, dance, literature, and more.

In 2022, Laird had said the footage was so much that he could no longer afford the rent for storage. Previews of some of the footage are available online at alexanderstreet.com.

"And we in Barbados are committed to making those archives available to all Caribbean people," Mottley said.

"Because at the end of the day, whether it's going to watch George Lamming give the eulogy of Maurice Bishop, or whether it's the 40 tapes we have of Carifesta 1981, or whether it's elements of masquerade across the region, or interviews from the northern into the southern Caribbean...those archives will give the opportunities to our young people to build upon this and to create even more for us as a people."

In a phone interview with Newsday on August 23, Laird said the deal happened over the course of two days. He was in Barbados to be inducted into the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Hall of Fame. He is also the curator of the archives.

Mottley presented a plaque to him on August 19, and he asked for 15 minutes of her time to discuss the archives. They spoke and Mottley asked when he was leaving Barbados to return to TT.

"I said Thursday at noon. She said, 'Come to me at 10 am.' I did. And within 24 hours of her team working with our solicitors, we signed an agreement."

While he cannot disclose any details of the agreement, he said the conversation with Mottley was "extraordinary, vital, visionary and empathetic."

In 2022, the National Gas Company (NGC) had pledged that they would purchase the archives.

Asked what happened since then, Laird said, "Nothing happened."

He said they were not able to reach an agreement.

In addition to the NGC, he had also approached UWI, St Augustine, and the National Library and Information System Authority (Nalis).

"I'm still trying to recover (from finally getting a deal)," he said with a chuckle.

"It's such an extraordinary moment for me because I spent ten years trying to get it acquired locally and they all, one way or another, did not commit."

In fact, he said a former UWI principal even told him, "I have more important things to think about.

"That's a good example of the attitude (I experienced)."

He said that while it was only slightly disappointing that no local company came on board, the goal was always to keep the archives within the Caribbean. He said companies like Google, for instance, were interested.

"What is the most validating thing – apart from just the fact that it could not be placed in secure hands beyond our mortality – is that they're in the process of establishing a huge archival complex in Barbados, in which the Banyan archives will be part of."

Then, he said, the archives can make their way to national libraries and national archives.

"I know it will be taken care of and used in the way we intended. The fact that Barbados' prime minister intuitively understands that and sees the vision."

Comedian, politician, and owner of Gayelle Errol Fabien told Newsday the news was "gigantic." But he, too, lamented that "TT never valued that archive.

"God knows how much they tried and tried and appealed to NGOs and government organisations. So many of them said they would do it and didn't."

He said the Banyan archives are culturally rich, adding that the physical archives are kept safe in an air-conditioned vault in Woodbrook.

"Another non-sovereign entity paid to digitise and catalogue that.

"There are series on there like Caribbean Eye, where people went throughout the region and compared and contrasted things like the games we played, festivals...For the (US) invasion of Grenada (in 1983), a government official escaped and came to TT and went straight to Banyan and gave a four to six-hour account of what happened..."

He continued, "There are things like stickfighting, Santimanitay a mas, interviews with Caribbean artistes, great bandleaders, writers and scholars from across the region."

He said he wished late, local theatre stalwart Tony Hall was alive to see this finally happen.

"The people of Banyan made me into what I am today, and Godspeed to them."