Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Nita Barrow collection
Inscribed 2009
What is it
The Nita Barrow collection is an extensive collection
that documents the life and times of one of the most
distinguished women of the 20th century.
Why was it inscribed
The collection demonstrates Dame Nita’s advocacy
of and involvement in a range of world affairs,
principally gender equity and empowerment,
healthcare, anti-apartheid work and adult education.
Where is it
Main Library, University of the West Indies,
Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados
Dame Ruth Nita Barrow (1916–95), a nurse by profession,
was born in St Lucy, Barbados. She attended the
universities of Toronto and Edinburgh at a time when
few black women were able to pursue tertiary education.
Of great significance is the fact that Dame Nita, as a black
female from a small island developing state, occupied
leadership positions on the world’s stage (for instance,
she was President, at various times, of three major
international bodies, the World Council of Churches, the
YWCA and the International Council for Adult Education)
and served as leader/convenor of several prestigious
international delegations.
� Dame Nita Barrow with President Nelson Mandela and General
Olusegun Obasanjo at Mandela’s inauguration as President
of South Africa in May 1994 in Pretoria, South Africa.
496 Nita Barrow collection
� ‘Nativity’, a painting by
Dame Nita Barrow, and now
in the Nita Barrow collection.
Dame Nita Barrow with six
other past presidents of the
World Council of Churches
Central Committee at a
reunion in Geneva. �
The principal thrusts of Dame Nita’s work which enabled
her to make an impact on international affairs were adult
education, anti-racism, gender relations, health care and
poverty alleviation. These diverse disciplines and interests
served as the crucible in which Dame Nita’s philosophies,
philanthropy and spiritual depth were shaped. Her sterling
efforts against racism led her to be named a member, and
the only female, of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent
Persons to South Africa whose efforts led to the cessation
of apartheid, the release of Nelson Mandela and the
introduction of democratic rule in South Africa. She
was appointed as the first woman Governor-General
of Barbados in 1990.
In 1978, she was appointed leader of the World Health
Organization delegation to the Primary Healthcare
conference held in Alma Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan.
Under the theme ‘Healthcare for All by the Year 2000’,
among the declarations of this conference was the need
to redress the unacceptable inequality in health standards
between developed and developing countries. She was a
convenor of the Nairobi Conference on Women, a pivotal
point for this movement and the largest gathering of
women in the history of the United Nations. On Dame
Nita’s advocacy for women’s rights and empowerment,
Joycelin Massiah, a former Caribbean Regional Program
Director of the United Nations Development Fund for
Women (now part of UN Women), wrote in 2001: ‘Dame
Nita was an ardent supporter of the advancement of
women, which she described as “the most political of all
issues”. She saw clearly that all of the major social, political
and economic issues facing the internationally community
could be more effectively understood and addressed if seen
through the lens of women and gender.’