Barbadians ‘grudge’ Rihanna

(Barbados Nation) Outspoken historian Trevor Marshall has lashed out at Barbadians calling their attitude towards international pop star Rihanna “reprehensible”.

?“It is a mixture of envy, contempt and righteous indignation,” Marshall told the SUNDAY SUN regarding the negative comments which he said he had heard Barbadians make about the 25-year-old who shot to fame after she was discovered when she was 17.

Rihanna
Rihanna

“They grudge her”, said an unapologetic Marshall. “They criticize her for wearing skimpy outfits. They say she is not intelligent because she did not reach fifth form at Combermere.

They say she can’t sing and some secretly wish that her career would end in disgrace.”

He called Rihanna beautiful, talented, and a national treasure who uplifted Barbados wherever she travelled.

And he is questioning why more has not been done to honour the singer, who has received 250 awards so far during her seven-year career, including six Grammys and recently the first ever Icon Award at the American Music Awards (AMA).

Marshall said a billboard featuring Rihanna and her mother Monica at the AMA should have been placed at Grantley Adams Airport.

Marshall also expressed dismay that her alma mater, Combermere, had not honoured her in any significant way and suggested that Government should ask Rihanna to contribute to building a performance arts centre in her name at the school or rename Parris Gap, Westbury Road, St Michael, where she grew up and which has become a tourist attraction, Rihanna Road.

“She went to school at Westbury Primary so we can ask her to build on a wing at the school and donate money for the encouragement of creative arts. She went to Combermere so we can ask her to donate money to build a performance theatre at Combermere and call it the Robyn Rihanna Fenty Performance Theatre.

“I would also suggest some signage be put outside Combermere school to show that she was a student at the school. Combermere boasts that it is very much a societal school and there is a Combermere family yet Rihanna has been excluded from that family,” the cultural historian charged.

He said two months ago he visited Combermere on a teaching assignment and was shocked at the responses from students when he made a point that Rihanna should be honoured by the school.

“I heard some audible steupses. They said she was only a khaki general – that she did not get into fifth form. Clearly she was not oriented a lot towards academics.”

Marshall said he was also disappointed that suggestions which he personally made to promote Rihanna locally had not been accommodated.

For instance, he said for the past seven years students from Mona Campus, Jamaica had been coming to Barbados to tour the island as a way of getting to know Barbadian culture.

“I would be their chaperone and lecturer and I have always suggested that they pass by Combermere School and never once has that suggestion been taken up or put on the itinerary.

He said he also suggested that a photograph of Rihanna be put on the cover of the most recent tourism booklet from the Ministry of Tourism entitled Barbados: Experience the Ultimate Caribbean but instead a panoramic view of the East Coast was used.

He further recommended that she be included in the booklet Barbados Beyond Your Imagination but according to Marshall she was not even accorded a passing reference.

“It is my submission that she has done more for Barbados than any other tourism-related personality,” he contended, pointing out that Rihanna “wilfully, faithfully and religiously says ‘Barbados I love you’ in acknowledgement of the fact that Barbados has given her all of her fundamental training and support”.

Calling the treatment of Rihanna in some quarters as class snobbery because she grew up in Westbury Road, Marshall remarked that, “Barbadians generally do not like to see any ordinary Barbadians achieve any extraordinary fame unless they can profit from it materially.”

He recalled harsh jokes people made during Sir Garry Sobers’ early career about his less than perfect English.

“Black Barbadians particularly are guilty of denigrating their own. They would like Rihanna to get in a helicopter and go from St Lucy to Christ Church and throw out US$100 bills and even then some would secretly wish that her career end in disgrace,” he said.