Reverend Buddy Larrier

Reverend Buddy Larrier

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The Society for the Resettlement of Caribbean Nationals. Migration story of the Larrier / Lashley family From: Rev. Buddy A. Larrier Thank you for allowing me to share part of my family migration story with you as part of the project. Further to the interview of Wednesday, April 17, 2019 this is a brief written account of part of our story with some photos and two documentaries as evidence of that experience. Politics of Madness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-QMLJD5vQ&feature=em-upload_owner Pride & Unity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7lsBPb-ElY&feature=em-upload_owner Migration & the Impact on my Family Unit Part of the legacy of chattel enslavement was the emergence of dysfunctional families. The early part of the 1900s saw many Barbadians emigrating, including my three uncles who went to the USA, they were among the estimated 40 to 50 thousand Barbadians, (1/3 of the population), that went to Panama and the USA during the building of the Panama Canal. Emigration of such large numbers of men, in particular, would have put pressure on the family unit. The Panama Canal was officially opened in 1914. During the latter half of the 1900s, even with dysfunctional families and high unemployment, resulting from slavery and colonialism the process of rebuilding the culture and value system of African family was taking root. Families were being rebuilt with the strong African qualities which existed prior to slavery. Before the experience of our enslavement Africa had no old peoples’ homes, relatives took care of their elders, neither were there any children orphanages, the community took care of the children and there were no cases of incest in families or same-sex relationships, neither were violence and crime part of the village community life. We were beginning to reconstruct our families on these principles. However, the process was severely disrupted by Hurricane Janet of 1955 that devastated Barbados, causing the deaths of some 38 persons including my father Darnell Larrier. By 1955 my mother Minnie who was a community midwife had given birth to four other children; she was now a widow with 11 children. Our grandmother Matilda Linton, who was 80 years old at the time of Hurricane Janet and who had experienced the effects of the 1898 great hurricane that also devastated Barbados, was a source of inspiration and helped our immediate family and also the extended family unit. Our family received much assistance, not only from the community but as a blessing from the Highest God, which came through the government’s intervention. Fortunately for the family, a new political party had been recently formed, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), that had broken away from the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in power. The political climate allowed the government, with support from the DLP to pledge support to the victims of the hurricane. Migration of Barbadians Immediately following Hurricane Janet, which also impacted significantly on other Caribbean islands, many Barbadians estimated at approximately 30,000 emigrated to the USA, Canada, and to England where the majority went. This mass exodus from Barbados between 1955 and the 1970s severely impacted on the restructuring process of dysfunctional family units as fathers and other senior male figures in particular emigrated, putting much pressure on the females, similar to what occurred during the building of the Panama Canal between 1904 -14. In addition to the practical assistance our family received from the community and the government, Pearline, who was my father eldest child from our mother (he had two other children from previous relationships) also received a special gift. She was granted a free passage to England by a businessman after making a pledge of commitment that she would work and help her siblings. Pearline at age 19 years old was given a pioneering role usually reserved for males, which she carried out confidently, securing accommodation and work opportunities for siblings and other family members who follow her to England. Over the years, all of my mother children have had the opportunity to travel and all but one have lived outside of Barbados for extended periods. Our mother lived to witnessed all 11 of her children being married, and most of the children from 10 brothers and sister were born abroad. Pearline is the only one that has had no children of her own but was blessed with being considered mother of many. Before making her transition on October 11, 1999 age 88 years old, our mother was privileged to have traveled to the USA, Canada, England, Guyana and Trinidad on vacation or to visit relatives. When Hurricane Janet hit Barbados in 1955 six of my siblings were under the age of 16 years old. The government established a social fund and programmes to provide assistance to impoverish families that had suffered great loss from Hurricane Janet, each of my siblings that were under the age of 16 years old benefit from the programme. Our family was not the only one that was given help by the government and Pearline was not the only person to be given a free passage to England. However, to the best of my knowledge, our family is the only one that returned and thanked the government and people of Barbados for the assistance we received. A Visionary is Born I made my entrance into the world on Friday, July 2, 1943 – the same day of the week and the same date of the month as my grandmother, and we both share the same date of birth with my mother. I am the seventh of the eleven children of Darnell and Minnie Larrier. I received my education at the Christ Church Boys Primary School. I left school at the age of 15 years old and took up tailoring. Through the government’s programme of assistance to the family, I was given an apprenticeship grant for training in tailoring, which was my first choice. The brother before me Doreston accepted plumbing as his choice and the brother after me Euclime chose painting. Both later became professionals in their disciplines in Canada and the USA respectively. As a self-employed tailor working from home I was very popular with my peers and with the women who would seek my help with making clothes for their children. It was, therefore, a challenge for me to immigrate to England at age 20, on November 5, 1963, to work with the London Transport Board as a Bus Conductor, a job I would not have done in Barbados. At the time us conducting was one of the best available jobs on offer to immigrants going to England. Barbados was the only country from which workers were recruited, mainly bus conductors and train guards to work for the London Transport Board. Applicants had to attend evening classes for three months with exams and an interview before being accepted. Young women were recruited for the hospitals to be train as nurses and also general workers were recruited for Lyons Company and other local business. I left Barbados by plane on November 5, 1963, just two months after my first child Andrew was born on October 26, 1963; it was heart-wrenching to leave him and his mother. My arrival in England was a shock to my system as this was the first time I had experience continuous cold weather and a very hostile environment fuelled by racial prejudice. Nevertheless, one year later in 1964, I send for the mother of my son to join me in England as my wife, leaving our son to be cared for by my mother. Like most Barbadians who immigrated to England during this period I had hopes of returning home with lots of money within five years as we were led to believe that the street of London was paved with gold. Very few, if any of us had long term plans for living in England. Because of the relationship my mother and I had I promised her that if I did not return home in five years I would send for her for a holiday, which I did in June 1968 so that we could spend our birthday together. By 1968 two other children both girls were added to the family. My mother who would have been one of the very few working-class Barbadians who went to England in the 1960s on holiday was so concerned about the social conditions she saw that she insisted on taking the two girls age 3 years and I year old back to Barbados with her. By the time I got married to my first wife, Benadine in 1968 there were six of our siblings in England, all of whom at the wedding:- I made my first visit back to Barbados for a holiday in December 1969. From 1967 I was a Bus driver but my yearning for home and the struggle against racism was still with me. Therefore, in 1972 I resigned from the London Transport Board and returned to Barbados with the intention of resettling as I was very unhappy with the high incidences of racism in England. However, my eldest sister Pauline who had lived in England from 1955 and also worked as a bus conductor before relocating to the USA was on vacation, and she persuaded me to join her in New York. Within one week of my arrival in the ‘Big Apple the city that never sleeps’, in December 1972, I was held at gunpoint. That experience convinced me that the USA was not for me. Pauline tried to console me by sharing some family history and to assure me that I have a special work to do. She informed me that my birth date being the same as our mother and grandmother is not coincidental that our grandmother was a very spiritual woman and that she had a vision in 1941 about my birth. I was encouraged by her words of comfort but in 1974 after one year in the USA, I returned to Britain via Barbados and rejoined London Transport Board as a Bus driver. Three years later, in 1977 I had an epiphany as one chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needed to be communicated from the spirit realm, with implications for the people of the world. I was lifted up with a similar experience to that which Pauline had informed me that our grandmother Matilda had in 1941. It took me some 13 years until 1990 before I had gained the confidence to penned my proposal of a better world the world leaders. On reflection, I have accepted that I was inspired with insights into the future and of the role Barbados and our family would play in that future, which is summarised: • I was shown ‘a vivid picture of a New Political and Economic Order for the 21st century based on truth, justice, and peace; • That there will be a new political awakening for Barbadian and other people of the Caribbean region, as leaders in world affairs; • I was commissioned to unite our family as a single unit and that by doing so it would lead towards African family unity; • I was informed of the acquisition of economic power by ‘black people and; • The end of Apartheid in South Africa and of the global oppression of ‘White Supremacy’ (Racism)”. My epiphany and spiritual insights occurred while recovering in hospital from a tendon graft operation on the little finger of my right hand. In 1976 while at a friend’s birthday party, I was cutting ice with a knife and accentually severed the tendon of the little finger. The cut healed but there was pain in the pam of my hand, where all the tendons meet. My doctor referred me to Lewisham hospital and I was persuaded by the consultant to allow him to perform a tendon graft to fix the problem, little did I know that the surgery was experimental in nature; it was later deemed to have been ill-advised, unnecessary and was unsuccessful. It caused me much discomfort. Two weeks after the surgery I visited my siblings in North London and while there I was in great pain and they suggested that I return to the hospital outpatient department. I was accompanied by my sister Pearline who was back in England on vacation from Canada and a brother and a friend. After being examined by the doctor, and while waiting on my brother and the friend to return from the shop where they went for a snack, Pearline and I had a quarrel, which was misunderstood by others. The Police were called, and I was arrested and taken back into the hospital, I was sedated by injection and transferred to Bexley mental hospital. I had no previous history of mental illness but was detained unjustly under section 25 of the 1959 Mental Health Act for 28 days, which could have been extended for up to one year under section 26. The 1959 Mental Health Act was used disproportionately against black people. However, within three weeks I achieved what is to this day considered most extraordinary. Realising what was planned for me by the doctors that would have damaged my brain permanently (electric treatment) I demanded to be released and was released on demand. I took the action because a family friend had visited me and a few days earlier and told me he did not like how I had look. Also within a week of my detention, my mother had arrived in England to assure me that nothing was wrong with me. My challenge to the consultant was the first time such a demand was made in the history of the United Kingdom. I have since challenged the authorities for violation of my human rights, which ended my bus driving career with London Transport. I started litigations against the Health Authority in 1978. My case is still lodged in the High Courts. The first two television documentaries on Mental Health human rights violations to have been aired in Britain: Patients or Prisoners (1979) and Skin Racism & Mental Health (1981) were made, due to my experience. The senior consultant at the mental hospital in a letter to the Divisional Medical Officer of London Transport dated July 12, 1977, included the following: “He responded to Phenothiazine medication but retained his conviction that he was being influenced by spiritual forces, and some of his plans for his family were rather grandiose. The diagnosis remains uncertain in this case but he appears to have had an effective psychotic experience”. The ‘rather grandiose’ plans for my family that the consultant referred to were my intention to unite my family. To the consultant, this was a symptom of madness. That experience not only cost me my job and P.S.V class I driving license but I also loosed the affection of my loved ones and the respect of friends and colleagues. Within one year of my consciousness awakening, I organised a family reunion of July 2, 1978, to celebrate Mum’s birthday. Some family members had not seen each other in 23 years - since Hurricane Janet of 1955. The reunion was a great experience; it also set a precedent for family reunions in Barbados. However, it was not the success that I saw in my vision and was commissioned to achieve, as two brothers were not present. Being committed to my mission I was determined that there must be a reunion at which all of my siblings would be present. Therefore, I embarked on a process of traveling and conversing with family members about another reunion. All but one brother Winfield was for it. He was seen as the one that would hinder the process. He did not attend the 1978 reunion and bets were out that he would not attend the one being planned. I had different plans and assure all that he will be present. He had not visited Barbados since he left in 1957 and Mum was on my case to ensure that he came back before she dies, I gave her my word that I will get him back home. When the date was set for the next reunion I got his passport renewed, booked his passage and presented him with the ticket, and warned him of the consequences of not attending the reunion. After eight years from 1978 and much planning the second reunion was held again on July 2, 1986, this time all living siblings were present. It took me many years to rebuild my life but my commitment remains to de-stigmatize mental illness. I was a founder member of the first Afro-Caribbean Mental Health Organisation in England. I also established or was co-founder of a number of other organisations. I was Chairman of the local mental health organisation in the London borough of Lewisham and a council member of the National Association for Mental Health (MIND). I represented MIND at the mental health world conference held in Cairo Egypt in 1987. I also established a trust to raise funds to take my case to court in an effort to prove that the 1959 Mental Health Act was had violated my human rights. Links between the mental institution and the Prison My activism against the system finally led to my imprisonment in 1994 as a combination of my challenges to the mental health act and my activism for economic liberation. In January 1990 I penned a proposal which was sent to over 170 world leaders including International Non-governmental Organisations recommending that October 12 be designated a Universal Day of Hope for truth, justice, peace, healing and reconciliation. There were a number of positive responses to the proposal and taking inspiration from some of the replies a second edition was produced. It was then made public to the people of the world in a booklet. It took me many years to rebuild my life but my commitment remains to de-stigmatize mental illness. I was a founder member of the first Afro-Caribbean Mental Health Organisation in England. I also established or was a co-founder of and a number of other organisations. I was Chairman of the local mental health organisation in the London borough of Lewisham and a council member of the National Association for Mental Health (MIND). I represented MIND at the mental health world conference held in Cairo Egypt in 1987. I also established a trust to raise funds to take my case to court in an effort to prove that the 1959 Mental Health Act was had violated my human rights. Economic Freedom The proposal put forward for truth, justice, peace, healing and reconciliation included an economic programme, which was fully support by Barbadians and other Caribbean national living in England. Following these publications and my activism, in 1991 my wife who was a staff midwife at Greenwich District Hospital was arrested on SUS (Suspected person Act) to gain entrance to my home, which was also my office. Fortunately for us, I was at home when four (4) police officers with a search warrant arrived with my wife in handcuff, nothing illegal was found and they left with my wife still handcuff. In 1992 an individual gave me a third party cheque as an investment in the programme and after six days the bank cleared the cheque. Months later I used some of the money for travel to both the USA and Barbados to promote my work and the programme. On my return to London, I was arrested on the basis that the cheque was stolen. I was charged and there were two trials, the first was a split jury and at the second the judge misdirected the jury and I was found guilty. He then ordered a psychiatric assessment on me before imposing a nine-month jail sentence, which I spent in Belmarsh Top Security Prison. In prison, my civil rights were violated on 11 counts. There was an investigation and it was proven that my claims were factual. It was after these complaints that an inmate servicing a life sentence warned me that my life was in danger and that I should leave England if I did get out of prison alive. Within one month of my release, I left the UK and relocated back to Barbados. I intend on taking my case for human rights violation to the highest court.

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5th November 1963

Story

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TEXT

6th November 1963