It is said that national hero, The Right Excellent Bussa, also known as Busso or Bussoe, commanded some 400 freedom fighters against troops of the First West India Regiment during the rebellion of 1816. He was killed in battle but his troops continued to fight until they were overcome by superior firepower.
Bussa was born a free man in West Africa of possible Igbo descent and was captured by African merchants, sold to European slave traders, and transported to Barbados in the late 18th century as a slave. Not much is known about him and there are no earlier records of him, and virtually no biographical information about Bussa is available.
Records show a slave named “Bussa” who worked as a ranger (a head officer among the slaves) on “Bayley’s Plantation” in the parish of Saint Philip around the time of the rebellion. This position would have given Bussa more freedom of movement than the average slave and would have made it easier for him to plan and coordinate the rebellion.
Bussa’s rebellion was the largest slave revolt in Barbadian history and was the first of three mass slave rebellions in the British West Indies that shook public faith in slavery. The rebellion failed but its influence was significant to the future of Barbados and by extension the Caribbean. It was followed by the Demerara rebellion of 1823 and by the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica in 1831–1832; these are often referred to as the “late slave rebellions”.
Bussa remains a popular figure in Barbados. In 1985, 169 years after his rebellion, the Emancipation Statue, created by Karl Broodhagen, was unveiled in Haggatt Hall, in the parish of St. Michael. Many Barbadians attributed the statue to Bussa and nicknamed it “Bussa’s Statue”. In 1998, the Parliament of Barbados named Bussa as one of the eleven national heroes of Barbados.