Barbados just elected its first-ever female president, who will officially replace Queen Elizabeth as the head of state on November 30.
November 30 is the day when Sandra Mason will be sworn in, and this is coincidentally the 55th anniversary of the country's independence from Britain.
Barbados won't condemn its British past
Mason's election as the first female president of Barbados serves as a decisive step toward shedding the Caribbean island's colonial past.
However, this doesn't mean that Barbados is condemning its British past. Wazim Mowla of the Atlantic Council said that they are looking forward to continuing their relationship with the queen.
According to reports, Mason was elected president after receiving two-thirds of the votes during a joint session of the country's House of Assembly and Senate.
Queen Elizabeth still head of state in several countries
The queen served as the head of state in Barbados until 1966, when the country gained independence. Prior to this, several Barbadians have expressed their desire to remove the queen's status together with the lingering symbolic presence of imperialism over its governance, according to CNN.
Other countries in the Caribbean that became a republic include Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominica, according to the BBC.
Several other countries have also dropped the queen as the head of state in years. Barbados was the first country to do so, and Mauritius was last in 1992. As of writing, Queen Elizabeth is still the head of state in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Jamaica, and more.
Following Mason's election, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said it was a seminal moment in the country's journey.
"We look forward, therefore, to December 1, 2021. But we do so confident that we have just elected from among us a woman who is uniquely and passionately Barbadian; does not pretend to be anything else; reflects the values of who we are; [and] has been able, in spite of her achievement of many firsts, to maintain a humility that is so admired by our people," Mottley said in a statement via the Government Information Service website.
Who is Sandra Mason?
Mason is the current governor-general of Barbados. She has been serving her post since 2018. She used to work as a jurist for the Caribbean nation that has a population of approximately 258,000.
Before joining politics, Mason worked as a teacher at the Princess Margaret Secondary School between 1968 and 1969. Mason also worked as a clerk at Barclays Bank DCO, Barbados, between 1969 and 1970. In 1975, she became the Trust Administrator at the bank until 1976. In the same year, Mason assumed the same position at Barclays in Jamaica, and she became a member of Barclays Finance Corporation of Barbados a year later.
Mason has also received a slew of awards because of his contributions to the political climate of Barbados. The queen previously conferred her the honor and dignity of Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG).
After she became Governor-General, under the Order of the Dame of Saint Andrew, Mason also became the Chancellor and Principal Dame of Saint Andrew (DA), according to the Caribbean Elections. Mason has a son named Matthew, who works as an attorney in Barbados.
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