The new administration block of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill, campus Barbados has been officially opened. The Minister of Education, Honourable Ronald Jones opened the building on the 16th of April this year. The ceremony followed the sitting of the University Council chaired by the chancellor, Sir George Aleyne at the first official gathering of the University Community within the new building.

The decision to erect a new administration building was taken over a decade ago recognizing the need for a dedicated building to enhance management and operational efficiency by the University.

With the cordial relationship between the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,KNUST and tracing the origin of the people of Barbados to the then Gold Coast now Ghana , the Chancellor of KNUST, Otumfuo Dr. Osei Tutu II in October, 2008 after receiving a honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of West Indies laid the cornerstone for the new administration building and planted a baobab tree.

In 2008, Africa and its Caribbean Diaspora marked the bicentenary of the abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade. The University of the West Indies developed a programme of commemorative events. One of the decisions taken at the Cave Hill campus was to place on the landscape a memorial to this past in which Barbados occupies a unique and special relationship.

 Barbados was the first large scale market for enslaved Africans in the Caribbean. It was built as the first “slave society” in the New World, the first society and economy created entirely upon the use of enslaved Africans, the first society in the New world in which Africans became the majority.

The connection between Ghana and Barbados dates back to the 1660’s when Barbados became a majority African society. Most of the Africans had been taken from the area known then as the Gold coast, generally represented by the contemporary state of Ghana. The dominant ethnicities within the Barbados African Community were the Twi or Akan speaking peoples who were referred to as the “cormantees”.

The building, designed along the mode of the traditional Ashanti Stool, with an African architectural motif that would represent the past, seemed an appropriate way to express this history during the commemoration. The “Gye Nyame” symbol commonly used on stools was chosen for the building.  The Adinkra sign “Gye Nyame”, which is variously interpreted to mean “with the spirit of ancestors or god all things are possible”. “Gye Nyame” is a rallying call for all members to connect spirituality to the power of the mind in the decision making process.

The University Finance Officer, Mr. K. Adu and a member of the University Council, Mr. Saara Mensa, represented the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to witness the opening ceremony of the stool shaped building.